Ireland - Tuesday Nov 21

Today we used our ticket for the Dublin City bus tour. It was an hour and a half and we froze near to death as we wanted to sit on the top of the bus for a better view. And a great view we did have! The tour bus driver was super. Cute jokes, lots and lots of history of the city and structures and building and he even sang Molly Malone for us. Great!! We really enjoyed that.

Then we got off at Trinity College. Up until the 1960s you could not attend this university if you were Catholic. We thought that was kind of crazy. Anyway, we went to see the book of Kells. It was quite amazing that this book has survived through raids, wars, and several fires. It was stolen, stripped of gold, found and restored. And then sent to Trinity in the 1600s for safe keeping. It was amazing to see how they made the books and what kind of super detail and creative art went into them.

Then upstairs we saw the library. If only I could have gotten a picture and looked at some books. It was surreal to see. many many shelves of books all very ancient and manuscripts from the 1400s, etc. It was a beautiful room with amazing ceilings and statues all along the hall. Gorgeous wood and the books!!! I would have loved to have gotten my hands onto some. They had some special ones on display to look at, but of course you couldn't touch!

Then we went to the Natural Histroy Museum, the Dead Zoo. Really it was a giant taxidermy shop! It was gruesome in a way, but also neat to see all the animals esp the Giant Irish Deer which was a deer the size of a moose and with antlers as big. Really amazing. Makayla loved it here.

I was getting really queasy on the tops floors. There were five. But the first floor was open right to the top of the building, so it was just a hallway around the perimeter on all of the other floors and you could see down to the bottom. Well, the hallways were built for miniature people and the railings were quite shorts as well. I would NEVER take a toddler or preschooler up there. I was hugging the wall and dizzy with fear and Makayla laughed at me. She wouldn't miss anything either! So, I toughed 'er out and was glad to be on the ground again. That never would have bothered me in the least 5 years ago. What happened to me?!!?!

That evening we went on a Ghost Bus tour. It was quite fun as well. The guide was a super storyteller and very credible. There are lots of legends and stories, but he only went with the ones that had a lot of published accounts and a lot of reference that you could look up yourself. So, lots more history, and some really great stories! Spooky enough, but not scare you to death!

Makayla really liked this one as well. We visited a graveyard where lots of untoward things have happened. It was built over as it was prime real estate and only a part of it remains. It was a monastery, St. Kevin's. Now what is left of it is a park and all the gravestones are moved to the walls all aroudn the edge. They are just stacked there. So, wehn you are picnicing you are sitting on someone's grave!

Some great stories about St. Pat's cathedral as well and the Shelburne Hotel. Well worth the money, and even more worth it since they let Makayla on for free!