We had breakfast in the hotel again then back to the room to plan our day. Originally, I had planned a day out to Malahide to walk around the town and see the castle, but with my back still bothering, I decided that we should stay closer to home.  Workmen were painting the elevator lobby and working on one of the elevators this morning.  When we returned to use it in the late afternoon, there was tape on the inside of the elevator wall.  I get nervous about elevators in general, and really didn’t like seeing this one patched with masking tape.  I hope it is just to hold something decorative in place temporarily while its adhesive dries.

We went to lunch at the famous and highly touristy pub, the Hairy Lemon, named after a guy years ago who was lemon shaped and had a rugged, bristled beard.  All the diners looked like tourists, and we heard French on one side of us and an Eastern European language on the other while sitting at the table.  A young teen girl at the next table was wearing a sweatshirt with a great slogan on the back — “Collect moments, not stuff.”  That’s pretty insightful for such a young person.

After lunch, we walked on to Chester Beatty.  It used to be called the Chester Beatty Library, but the name has been shortened now.  It is a museum of manuscripts, books, and artifacts, many of religious significance, from Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East that were collected by Beatty and donated, in trust, to Ireland.  Beatty was an American industrialist and philanthropist who became enamored with Ireland late in life.   I wonder if the word “library” had become off-putting to some potential visitors who would not go to a library while on vacation.  When I have told people that it’s one of my favorite museums in the world, I have received various responses with some saying they wouldn’t go there because it’s "just a library" without knowing the scope and mission of the institution.  It is so impressive.  There were more visitors today than last time we were there, but still not a lot.  Admission is free, but they suggest a €5 donation.

I made a reservation for dinner for us at Fitzsimon's bar on OpenTable.  It is right across the River Liffey from our hotel and on the edge of the Temple Bar district.  It was very busy, and the music was so, so loud.  When we arrived, there was no one around to ask about our reservation.  It looks like most people just drop in and grab whatever table is available.  Once we had a waiter’s attention, he was helpful and pointed out a couple options.  We chose the most out-of-the-way table available and ordered pizza with Guinness for Philip and Coke for me.  And Surprise!  Philip’s pepperoni pizza had slices of jalapeño on it. 

We are just getting too old, too mature, too discriminating, too something, for non-stop, loud anything.  Although we liked the pub, the food, and the service, we ate quickly and left before we lost any more hearing.  Live music started at 6:30.  It was even louder than the recorded music that was going when we arrived a few minutes earlier.  We were sitting directly under a speaker, but that didn’t seem to make much difference.  It was loud everywhere.  A duo played traditional music, and we heard and swayed along to six or seven songs that were just the type of music we wanted to hear.  As we were walking out, they started singing a song we know!  It was fun to hear “No, Nay, Never." The audience clapped and sang along.  The music’s volume was just right as we listened to the end of the song on the sidewalk across the street from the pub.