Ritas Ireland Dream: Rita's Last Day in Ireland

We started out our last day with a cup of tea and biscotti in hand. Our first thoughts were to get off at every stop, but realizing that it would take us at least 24 hours to get in each stop we opted for our top 4 choices and that took all day.

First stop was Rita’s #1 choice at Trinity College. She has talked about wanting to see the Book Of Kells since we started planning this trip. The tour was supposed to take 30 minutes, but 2 hours later she finally exited the Long Room (library) that contains the Book of Kells. Again, don’t believe anything you are told about time. The Book of Kells is the first four gospels transcribed by Monks in Latin onto calf skin parchment. All the drawings are in natural lead colors of red, yellow, green, black and white with those being mixed into other colors with the writings in black. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any pictures so we had to buy cards to remember it by. Rita said it gave her chills to just look at the writings knowing that they were the Word of God. You only get to see one open page of the books as they open one page each day. The rest of what you see are paintings of the pages. The library is not open to the public unless you pay for the tour, but the students are allowed to use the library at any time and can view the Book of Kells as they want.

Rita just as you enter Trinity College. You could hardly move because of the students moving from class to class.

This is the Long Room (library). Notice the shelves that go up 80 ft. or more full of old books arranged by height.

We hopped back on the bus and decided our next stop was the National Gallery of Ireland. It was just the opposite in architecture, but very impressive. We walked through each exhibit and you are taken by the different styles and subject of artists. Again, another two hours of walking through exhibit to exhibit. I had a bit of a hard time of controlling Finnegan as he kept going off viewing paintings and sculptures that were not appropriate for his age.

Finnegan admiring fine art.

This one is of a grandfather and his granddaughter. I had to laugh because it reminds me my granddaughters putting the "touch" on grandpa. She's probably saying "Grandpa, it's only $20 and that's a deal for that shirt"

Both of us were excited about getting to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral of Dublin. Again, we took a tour and you cannot believe the ornate designs and windows in these cathedrals. The existing church was rebuilt in the early 13^th century. St. Patrick is said to have baptized converts to Christianity at a well that once existed in the park alongside the church. Our tour guide was more interested in telling us about Jonathan Swift who was the dean at the school from 1713-45. She told us about his life and showed where he was buried and I finally had to ask where the monument to St. Patrick is. She pointed to a stain glass picture of him so high I could barely see it.

The stain glass in the center is of St. Patrick, but it was way at the top next to the ceiling.

Some of the beautiful architecture

Finnegan trying to get directions out of the cathedral.

We were starting to wind down but wanted to go to a well-known Irish restaurant and Pub to hear and see Irish dancers. We were told that it would be in the afternoon and found out it would not be till about 9:00 pm tonight. There was no way. In fact, as I’m writing this it is 8:45 pm and Rita is sound asleep on the bed.

We don’t even want to think about going home tomorrow. Rita has had such a wonderful time. We both agreed that if she had waited any longer for this trip it probably would not have happened. As crazy as some of our experiences have been it was well worth the trip to see this beautiful country.