Dublin City May 29

Tuesday, May 29

I decided to do the whole loop on the tour bus first then when it started around again get off and visit places. I had a notebook with me so I took some observational notes as they came into my head.

• Dublin has a lot of Georgian architecture and reminds me a lot of New York.
• The locals have funny nicknames for places or landmarks - They call the Natural History Museum the "Dead Zoo". There a massive spire in O'Connell Street that you can see from almost anywhere. They call it "the pole in the hole".
•  
• I realized I had been in Dublin for three days before I ever saw/heard an emergency vehicle.
•  
• They have a building here, 1915 Garda Station, Pearse Street, that has "keystone cops".  

"Designed for the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) and now the main Garda Station for the south city, Pearse Street Station is a large building in the Scottish Baronial style. Sited on an awkward corner with Townsend Street to the rear, the building manages to turn the corner successfully with the use of a curved bay. An unusual feature of the building is the ‘keystone cops’, corbelled heads of policemen used to support segmental arches over the doorways. Maintained in good condition, this is an interesting building often overlooked by Dubliners."

 I haven't gotten a photo if them yet, but I hope to before I leave. I have to wonder if this has any relation to "keystone cops" of the Hollywood silent movies.

• I found out that a leprechaun is a cobbler to the fairies. I never knew that!

My first stop was Trinity College to see The Book of Kells. This was the first thing I saw when I went into the courtyard.

It's a giant gold sphere with bars and things inside. Its called Sfera con Sfera by a sculptor named Arnoldo Pomodoro. I haven't had time to find out more about it than the name and artist, but I'm wondering if this isn't by the same person who made the sphere I saw in Battery Park that moved me to tears. That one had originally been at Ground Zero on 9/11 and was salvaged and moved to the park. I will have do some more research on this.

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript that is over 1,000 years old and "contains lavishly decorated copy, in Latin, of the four gospels." It was stolen in one of many raids and in 1653 was send to Dublin "for reasons of security".  It came to Trinity College in 1661.

Photography is not allowed in the room where the book is kept. I heard a gentleman telling someone that the book has been separated in the four parts. Two of the parts are in a display case and Jane tells me they turn the page to display a new one every day. If the book was split in parts the whole thing must have been a massive book. Each of the two parts I saw was about as thick as a dictionary.
 
After you leave the room that the Book of Kells is in you go upstairs and through the old library, which is beautiful!

They have the oldest surviving Irish harp - which is the national symbol of Ireland.

This is just a shop I saw that I though has a funny name - Knobs & Knockers. They sell hardware for doors and drawers

My next stop was at Dublinia, which is a museum showcasing the Viking influence on Dublin.

They have a great model of the city and they turn on and off lights to highlight the areas that are being talked about in the narration.

This is a Viking weaving loom. The warp threads are tied to stones at the bottom. I'll have to do some research to see if there was some advantage to the stones as opposed to tying them to the bottom of the frame as in Navajo weaving. They had a lot of these small dioramas in the exhibit.

If you scroll back up to the photo of the building you can see a tower behind it. I walked up all 96 steps to get to the top of that tower. There's a lovely view from up there. Below is the overhead view of Christ Church Cathedral across the street.

This is the crossover from Dublinia to Christ Church (it goes over the road).

Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin.

This is the pulpit. It has beautiful, intricate carvings all around it. Below is a very ornate baptistery (it holds the holy water where babies are baptized).

My last stop for the day was at the Guinness Brewery. They have a very nice self guided tour on how they brew their beer. Before you start the tour they give you a short orientation that includes showing the 9,000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed over 250 years ago. It's encased in a display set into the floor.

I liked this display. It represents the 1,000 bubbles in every pint of Guinness. I had a ticket to get a free pint, but as you can imagine, any of the areas where people could taste or drink were packed and I didn't feel like standing in any of the lines.

 I did go up to the very top of the building to the Gravity Bar. It has a 360 view of the city (and it was massively crowded).

Jane met me in the city after she got off work. She showed me how to find the train to go home. We came home and she picked up some fish & chips for us to eat. Fish and chips here are very good!

This ends my 3rd day.