Saturday was our day to go to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Wendy had been before but it was my first visit. We reserved tickets the night before to try and avoid the lineups. We could go anytime from 10 to 10:30am; we still had to line up with all the others with tickets but still shorter than the non-ticket line up. We spent an hour and a half learning all about the illuminated medieval manuscripts from early in the 9th century, considered one of the greatest treasures of medieval Europe. There were explanations about the parchments used, the inks, pens, brushes, and the derivation of the icons used in the artwork surrounding the Latin texts.
Main entrance to Trinity College.
After seeing a few pages of the actual Book of Kells, we visited the Old Library, a very long vaulted gallery room, lined with 200,000 old books; many must be reached by tall narrow wooden ladders or by one of two spiral staircases.
We spent the afternoon wandering around Dublin, checking out shops and having lunch at Avoca clothing and woolen department store where they make delicious sandwiches in their food court.
We were concerned about where to have dinner as it has been less than stellar the last couple of nights and then remembered a French restaurant, Chez Max, right by Dublin Castle where we had lunch in April. Wendy phoned to make a reservation. Absolutely essential here we found. We had a delicious dinner so we're pleased we had thought of it.
Chicken supreme (with a lemon sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans (delicious) for me.
Sea bass with rice and roasted tomatoes with a herb coating, Wendy says - also delicious.
On Sunday we had arranged to meet our Camino buddy from the Irish Camino Society, Jim McNicholas at his home town of Bray, which is just 20 km south of Dublin. Jim had come over to stay with us last February for the Cdn. Camino AGM as the keynote speaker. We met him again in April when Wendy and I attended the Celtic Camino conference in Westport, Ireland that Jim was organizing.
We took the DART Train from Dublin - a local commuter train.
Jim met us and we started along the Bray promenade to the end of town then were met by Joe Maguire whom we had also met at the conference last April. The 4 of us walked up the first hill of the Bray Head hike and met up with Jim's wife Ann, Joe's wife Aline and youngest daughter Clare. All haved walked various caminos. We hiked towards the town of Greystones along the coastal cliff path which is a very popular path for hiking, especially on the weekends. It was a great hike - about 10km round trip. We walked as far as the EIRE sign on the hill, white painted rocks that were a sign to the German pilots during WW2 that S. Ireland (EIRE) was neutral and so no bombing. The rocks are still there but just recently uncovered after a brush fire in July of this year. Although the Irish Republic was neutral during the war, a small ferry going between the mainland and an island just off Bray had been torpedoed by the Germans with over 700 civilians loosing their lives.
Jim and Wendy walking along promenade. Bray Head in the distance.
The town of Bray from the trail.
After lunch we headed back to Dublin in time to get ourselves organized for our flight back to Canada tomorrow.
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