Woke up refreshed and ready to explore Dublin. I know you’ll be surprised to hear we didn’t leave the Gleich’s until 11:00. We headed to the light rail and rode into the center of Dublin. It was a beautiful and relatively warm day – in the mid-to-high fifties.
In the center of the city, is the beautiful St. Stephen’s Green, which reminded me of a miniature version of Central Park. We toured around and learned a bit about the history of Dublin.
The next stop was the National Museum of Ireland Archaeology. There, we had our very first lunch! The most fascinating part, the most gruesome for the kids, was the Iron Age bog bodies. We saw four such partial bodies preserved in the bog with skin and hair still visible. At first, they believed that these were just accidental deaths but now they believe them to be human sacrifices associated with sovereignty and kingship rituals.
The Book of Kells was our final official tour in Dublin at Trinity College. It is said that four Celtic monks transcribed in Latin the four Gospels of the New Testament adding ornate drawings and a sort of calligraphy to the vellum pages in approximately 800 AD. These were most likely used as alter books in churches at the time Christians were converting the Irish to Catholicism.
The tour also consisted the Long Room, which is the historic “old library” of Trinity.
*Picture courtesy of Book of Kells Twitter Feed
As we continued to walk around the city, we saw Dublin Castle, shops, pubs, and importantly ice cream shops. We ducked in one to enjoy a treat before jumping on the train to head back to the Gleich B&B.