Day 5. Tuesday May 15th

We started the day with breakfast at the Queen of Tarts.  Another Irish breakfast for three of us.  Nana got smoked Salmon.  Owyn got a big bowl of yoghurt with granola and fruit.  Rhys got a big bowl of oatmeal with apple compote.  Both boys had hot chocolate and toast.  

Great food here, if you happen to be near Christchurch in Dublin.

After breakfast we walked towards downtown and found the tourist center where we joined Historic Ireland, bought tickets to the double decker tourist buses and found another fuzzy for Rhys, since he was cold.  He was wearing a tee shirt, two polar fleeces and a jacket.  He was nice and toasty at that point.  Rhys has always preferred to be hot.

Illumination from the Book of Kells

 We walked a couple of blocks over to Trinity College Dublin.  There was a bit of a line, but we only waited ten minutes.  The big attraction here was the Book of Kells.  This is one of the definitive Irish monastic works.  There was a museum which talked all about how manuscripts were made and some of the history, then we went into a room where we actually got to see the Book of Kells as well as two of the other major holdings.

After that we marched up the stairs to the library, where they had many other important holdings in display cases.  The boys were very good.  They pretended they could read and made up a story for all of the things they could see.  Rhys has been fascinated by maps on this trip and keeps pulling them out and asking where we are.

I love this sculpture for reasons that I can't begin to understand...

and are probably un-natural.

 After the library we went back outside.  Grandad was still in the gift shop so I waited for him while Nana, Mama and the boys went and found the potty.  Once dad was out I went over to take a couple of pictures of a sculpture, by which times we were all back together.  We got back out of the Trinity College compound and jumped on our tour bus.  You buy a ticket once and you can get off and on as much as you want for two days.  

We rode it around a bit, jumping out at St Stephen’s park.  We walked down the street to the Museum of ??? where we looked at stone age to iron age stuff.  There were a lot of “Treasures” (Owyn), meaning gold ornaments of various kinds.  The boys were very good.  Both of them would, excitedly, grab my hand and pull me over to look at something cool they had found.

Following the Museum we went back to the bus stop at the park, arriving at the same time as the bus.  We rode for longer this time.  We passed our hotel, looked at several churches and, sadly, drove past Guinness as we didn’t have time for the tour.  We got out at Kilmainham prison, the infamous point of incarceration and execution for two hundred years worth of Irish political prisoners.  It was here that the leaders of The Sixteen were held then executed.

Many famous Irishmen have been executed for treason in this prison.

We grabbed a snack at the tea room then split up.  The boys and the ladies got back on the bus and finished the tour.  Grandad and I took a cab to pick up our rental car.  The cabby was very friendly and gave us some good advice, which we had already planned on.  Buy groceries, don’t eat at the tourist sites.  He dropped us at Hertz and we picked up our minivan.  Happily I have lived in the UK so I am used to driving on the wrong side of the road.  We made it back to the hotel and into the park garage without a single issue.  Parking was a pain but that’s pretty normal.  

Once back at the hotel, and a suitable period of time to unwind, but not fall asleep, we headed out for dinner.  We had seen a kebab place earlier so I dragged the family down there.  We had Shwarma and kebabs and felafal.  The boys ate some and we ate too much.  We brought a bunch back with us and stuck it in the car over night.  It will be cool enough to keep.

After dinner, Tracy needed to buy some shampoo and conditioner, having forgotten hers.  Nana and Grandad took the boys up to "run in circles" in the square.  When Tracy and I got there the boys were, actually and truly, running in circles.  We all had been going all day without much of a stop.  Back to the hotel, where I grabbed the keys and Grandad and I took the food and the boys down to the car to plan the loading tomorrow.  It's going to be a tight fit but we think it can be done without too much pain.

Grandad agreed to watch the boys and the ladies and I went over to the pub.  I tried an Irish Red and a single malt scotch from Isla that I had never had before.  Tracy had a Swedish cider and Nana had an English cider and a Writer's Tears Irish whiskey.  We chatted for a bit but we were all tired.  By mutual consent we headed back to our room.  

Owyn was out but Rhys was watching the end of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command on my computer.  Tracy took Owyn off to bed in Nana and Grandad's room and I tucked Rhys in.  He fell asleep almost immediately.  Tracy was out even before him.  I'm still up, two hours later, finishing up these blog posts.  The price of keeping you call informed.