Day two in Ireland and we have had another day of sunshine. Think it may change tomorrow though. But for our excursions today the weather has been perfect! We started the day with a quick look at the city of Dublin. Unfortunately for Eugene our bus driver, the going was really slow. New tram lines are being laid in the city and dealing with the traffic was terrible. It would have been quicker to walk!

Patrick pointed out the Georgian style architecture and the famous Georgian coloured doors. We stopped for a photo of the most famous, No 46 on Fitzwilliam Street. The next stop was for a photo of the St Patrick's Cathedral, which has been built on the highest part of the city in the 'Old Town'. The architecture of the Cathedral is Gothic style. Typical Gothic is the narrow, pointed windows and square towers. From there it was down to drive alongside the river Liffey, which divides the town into two - north and south. Dublin is going through a mini boom after the economical crash of 2008, which coincided with a series of banking scandals.

Eugene eventually got us to Trinity College in time for our tour of the grounds by Jeff, who is a very educated young man with many degrees to his name. He said with a lovely grin "That his mother is very proud and he is very employable"! He has also studied at Cambridge. He even wore the Trinity robe for the tour. Obviously it was his choice to do so today, as it is not a necessity. Maybe because he is just waiting for the final result of his examination corrections.

One of the things Jeff told us about the College Chapel was that if students have passed whatever they have studied at the College, they can get married in the Ecumenical Chapel. But it must be within five years of them leaving. It has been an Ecumenical Chapel since 1970. Trinity is a sister college to Cambridge and Oxford and was established in 1592. The College grounds cover 47 acres in the middle of the city. The library has 6.2 million books and they add a kilometre of new shelving to the library every year.
 
The main purpose of the visit to Trinity College was to see the 'Book of Kells'. The 'Book of Kells' is famous because of the time it was written, the animal skin it has been written on and it's lavish decoration. Abstract decoration and images of plant, animal and human ornament, punctuate the text with the aim of glorifying Jesus’ life and message, and keeping his attributes and symbols constantly in the eye of the reader. It is written in Latin.

The scribes that wrote the 'Book of Kells' were four in number. It is said the first was conservative and sober. The second enjoyed using coloured inks and the third and fourth copied the bulk of gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke. Guess the first must have scribed John's gospel. I didn't see anything about the book of John when I typed the above info from a display panel.

The 'Book of Kells' is written on vellum (calfskin). Vellum represented a valuable resource and it has been calculated that the 'Book of Kells' in its original state used the skins of 185 calves. Quill pens were made from the tail feathers of swan or goose. Some could have been made from reeds. The original binding of the book has not survived. Most of the text pages have been written in brownish gall-tannic ink known as iron gall ink, which is made from oak apples mixed with iron sulphate and wine or vinegar. The scribes applied their pigments with great creativity. In 1953 the book was rebound by Trinity College, in four volumes, one for each gospel. Only two of the gospels are on display at one time and two pages of each are visible to the public. The two books are locked in a bullet proof glass cabinet. There are no photos and there is high security in the room. The pages of the books are turned every two days. The 'Book of Kells' was scribed by monks in Scotland and although the exact day cannot be ascertained, it is thought around the year 800. It was brought to Trinity College around 1656.

One could take photos in the 'Long Room' of the Library. In 1802 around 20,000 books were purchased by the College. The Long Room is nearly 65 metres long and it now houses 200,000 of the Colleges oldest books. The books are stored by size. The biggest at the bottom and the smallest at the top. Wooden ladders are used to access the books.

We grabbed a sandwich for an early lunch and left at 12 to go to Glendalough, which was about an hours drive from Dublin. 'Glendalough' means 'valley of two lakes' and it is in a glacial valley. The remains of a 6th century monastic medieval settlement is in this protected valley, and it was founded by Saint Kevin. Over 1 million visitors visit the site each year. There is a comprehensive display area in the Visitor Centre, which we were taken to first, then we were shown a film, followed by a guided tour of the entrance, round tower, cathedral, St Kevin's Cross, St Kevin's Church and the Priests House. Once the guide left us we walked the 10 minute track down to the lower lake. The weather was very good, the trees just starting to turn to autumn shades, and on such a day there were stunning views.

We arrived back at the Hotel at 4.30pm and had just enough time to shower and get ready to go to the Irish dinner and evening of entertainment. It was at Taylor's Three Rock Restaurant in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, about a half hour drive from the Doubletree. It was a very large thatched building, said to be the largest thatched building in Europe. It was big, and there were a lot of tour buses there. So that meant lots of tourists. The dinner was served quickly though, and we did have four choices for two of the courses. The entertainment was excellent. The musicians so talented. One of the guys could play any musical instrument. The Irish River Dancing was fabulous and the old Irish comedian, who has been in the business for 50 years, had us in fits of laughter.

A great way to finish our actual first day of the tour.