Thursday July 14 2016

Buswell's breakfast, is hosted in an old world dining room with lots of charm. Offering wheatabix, cereals, fruit, muffins, cheeses and (mystery) meats, it is a lively way to start a Dublin day. 

   Today we started at Trinity College, a beautiful historic University founded in 1592 and Ireland's number 1 college. Famous students include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett. Once on campus we headed directly up the Book of Kells exhibition. The book of Kells is considered one of the finest illuminated manuscripts ever written and was produced around year 800. The exhibit provided insight into the era and techniques and tools

The castle was completed in 1230 following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the late 1100's. It served as England 's seat of command in Ireland until 1922. Not much of the original castle remains but we did see a surviving section containing the powder room or storage room for ammunition. You can guess what happened there as a blaze burned through the castle and reached that room. Although standing in the room with three foot thick walls of stone it is hard to imagine a fire reaching the gun powder without some help. 

The building is adjacent to State House rooms used for official business and State functions. We toured those as well, with a guide who spoke so fast it seemed he had an appointment to be somewhere else. The stately state rooms included a throne room for a visit by King George and were lavish. You get the sense through the history telling though that the Irish really don't care for the British government too much. 

For dinner and entertainment we headed back to our favorite pub - Gogarty's. this time however we were downstairs. The musicians were excellent instrumentalists and unlike the night before they did not yak it up or joke around. With a flute, guitar, violin, accordion and sometimes hand held drum they created a full sound and played for a few hours without a break. I have no I idea what traditional Irish music is but we are slowly learning and it is a really nice way to end the day.