Dublin--Sightseeing on Good Friday

After breakfast at the hotel, Patrick and I got on a bus tour of Dublin. Because it is Good Friday, many places are closed. When we were making plans for this trip, I didn't realize that Easter was this week. After remembering this, I tried to get reservations for Dublin when we first got here, but there was nothing available because of St. Patrick's Day weekend. It is interesting because everything closes down on Good Friday and on Christmas Day by law. At least that it what a cab driver told me. He also told me that there is a ferry that goes across the Irish Sea to Wales and it takes about four hours. It has become a tradition for "drinkers" to go on this ferry because they can drink as soon as the boat leaves the shore They have bands on the boat now and have made it a big party. It seems to me it would be easier to buy it in advance then spend eight hours on a boat!!

The bus tour was very interesting even though we didn't get to go into a lot of places. Trinity College was open and so we were able to see the Book of Kells. It is the gospel that was written by monks on calfskin. It is absolutely amazing to see what it took to write this. The time and energy is something really hard to comprehend. My friend, Nikki, told me to be sure to go to the Long Room. It is the library of Trinity College and it has over 200,000 books in it. I think that is just about what we have in our house!!!! Kerri would love all of this and would probably appreciate it more than any of us. I hope we will be able to all come back one day soon.

We saw St. Stephen's Green, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Phoenix Park, the Guinness Brewery, Jameson Whiskey building, and many other amazing buildings on this tour. You can get off the bus at any stop and then get back on when you are finished. They run every 10 minutes or so.

Patrick wanted to do some shopping and I did also, but we didn't want to go to the same places. We went our separate ways and agreed to meet back at the hotel. I was able to get some souvenirs to bring back that I hadn't found earlier in the trip. When I came out of one store, it was raining really hard. I took a cab back to the hotel and that is when I found out about the history behind Good Friday and all of the closings. The cab drivers are very nice and have lots of information.

We are staying one more night in this hotel and then we move to the Hilton at the airport. The grandparents of two of our kids from our school live here in Dublin. I had told Leo, the father, that we were coming here over break. His wife, Susan, called Kerri just after we left and gave her their phone number here for us to call as they wanted to get together with us. I have met them several times over the years. We spoke to them last night and they have invited us over to their house for dinner tomorrow night. We are hoping we can make it work!

It is almost 5:00 and hopefully we will be able to eat here at the hotel. I must say that even though the food is similar to that in the U.S., the taste is different. Bacon really tastes like ham--I think it must be. The pepper has an unusual taste to it. I have eaten mostly fish and chips and they have been good.

So one more day and then it is back to Arizona. I am looking forward to being warm again!!!!