Part One

Day three of trip and I was up and ready for breakfast at Toddy’s at the hotel. What a fine array of food. This morning was scrambled eggs, sausage (which I might add I was not too fond of) toast and potatoes. Orange juice to get my daily dose of meds down. Gotta keep the blood pressure in check even if I’m on vacation. I topped breakfast off with a spot of coffee, which I will switch to Irish tea tomorrow. There was a big pot of porridge so I had to go get a small bowl just to say I tasted it. Not bad at all, almost like our oatmeal, only creamier.

We met our new friends at the bus and boarded for our tour of Dublin along with our Collette guide, Colette and our city guide, Sally. My mind went into overload after the three hour tour. So glad I picked up lots of brochures and books to refer back to as I’ll never remember everything Sally told us about.

We roamed St. Patrick’s Cathedral and heard all the interesting stories about him and how he led all the snakes out of Ireland. Our bus driver dropped us off on Nassau Street by Trinity University so we could tour the library and see the Book of Kells. I was in awe at all the books. The picture is an old library called The Long Room and it contains over 200,000 books, which are still used to this day.

The Book of Kells is a manuscript written in Latin and contains the four gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). It was created by Early Christian monks. The pages are made from vellum (calf-skin prepared for writing).

Whew, you’d think we’d be really tired by this time but now it was time to shop and, of course, grab a quick bite to eat. We ducked into the Porterhouse Tavern for a French dip and a pint. We shared the sandwich which was more like pulled beef without the au jus. I only drank half the pint, way too much heavy beer for me. On our way back to the hotel we surveyed the woolen store and I bought a cashmere scarf. Really pretty and oh, so warm around my neck. Not sure if I could get used to the damp, cold, wind blowing and whipping about my head and shoulders. Yes, it might have helped if I’d brought a warm jacket but I didn’t, it was my light flannel jacket I’d bought at the Pendleton factory on my recent trip there. But I was wearing a t-shirt with a sweater too. Note to self–when going to Ireland bring heavy jacket preferably with fur inside!

We stopped at the post office to mail post cards home. Hope the family receive them before we get back. One more woolen store on way to hotel and I splurged with buying a full-length green Aran sweater. I shall wear on rest of trip.

to be continued–it was a long day.

Until then my friend……………..