Dublin and Trip to Galway

I wanted to see a little bit of Dublin before I headed off to Galway so today I decided to do a Sandeman's tour. This is the same free tour company that I used when I was in Brussels and I've found that the quality of their tours is very good. The guides always say that they have to be good because all of their income comes from tips and based on the quality of guides I have had I have no complaints.
The first stop of the day was at Dublin Castle where we learned a bit about Irish history and took a look at the castle. It's a pretty impressive landmark and you can walk through the courtyards of the castle. The castle itself is made up of different eras. Part of it is medieval and part of it is Georgian English. Ireland used to be a part of Great Britain so the British definitely left their stamp on the country.

The gardens at Dublin Castle are beautiful as well. On a side note, in Irish Gaelic the name for Dublin is Dubh Linn which means black pool. Irish Gaelic is still very alive and well in Ireland where about a third of the people speak it and we learned some about it while looking at the gardens. The design in the gardens is Celtic and is two serpents devouring one another.

Renowned author Jonathan Swift was Irish and he is actually buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral. He is most well known for the book, Gulliver's Travels. On one of the buildings they have carvings of scenes from the book. Here are some of the pictures of the carvings.

Speaking of St. Patrick's cathedral, that was the next stop on our walking tour. One of two cathedrals in Dublin, this church is actually Protestant now. Having two cathedrals in a city is uncommon. A cathedral differs from a church because of its size and importance. A cathedral is the seat of a Bishop whereas a church just has a priest. Once a city has a cathedral it is actually considered a city instead of a town.

After visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the next stop on our tour was the second cathedral. Christ Church Cathedral is only about 2/3 the size of St. Patrick’s but if you include the crypt underneath the church it has roughly the same size. St. Patrick’s can’t have a crypt because of underground water.

We took our break at Temple Bar. Temple Bar is the big nightlife area and has several pubs, which were packed at midday partially because of the rugby tournament that is going on right now. There is actually a pub called The Temple Bar because it is named after Sir William Temple but the entire street is Temple Bar.

Next, we checked out some street paintings. In an area over by Temple Bar, there is a section that has several street paintings covering a variety of subjects. My favorite that we saw was the section about the famous writers of Ireland.

As I said earlier, the British left their mark on Ireland. When they conquered Ireland they brought over their system of government and installed it here in Ireland as well. The old Parliament building is now a bank but you can actually go inside and see the old chambers.

Our final stop on the tour was at Trinity College. This university is quite famous and is the home of the Book of Kells. The university is extremely beautiful and I can imagine it would be nice to study here.

After the tour was over I decided to go see the Book of Kells. It is an illustrated manuscript of the four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. You aren’t allowed to take pictures of the Book of Kells (for the book’s protection) but there was another area upstairs where they had lots of literature and many different sections of myths.

In Trinity College they have the harp that is the symbol of Ireland. The Brian Boru harp can even be seen on the label of Guinness. Ireland is the only country with a musical instrument as its coat of arms. Due to the lighting, I wasn’t able to get a very good photo of the harp but I definitely tried.

After I was done here I had lunch and then hopped on the bus to Galway and that is basically it for today. Tomorrow, I will be heading out on a tour to the Cliffs of Mohur.