I had prebooked our tickets for the Book of Kells at Liberty College at 9:30. I had it my mind 9:15 so we were a bit early. We thought we would find somewhere for breakfast during the walk over especially since we were around a college but no such luck.

Trinity college was not what I was expecting. It is the oldest university in Ireland but it had a pretty modern feel. I will say it was hard to get in. They keep it locked up at night and don’t open the gates early in the morning. We had to walk around from the street to find a way in. Once in we walked around a while before we thought it was time to line up. They ended up letting us go in with the 9 group so we got started a little early.

I had brought my headphones so I was able to play the guided tour as u walked through. It was a nice addition to the experience. You could have read all the information on the walls but hearing it allowed you to go quicker and not worry about people in your way.

The Book of Kells is an illustrated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament with some Celtic texts added in. It was written around 800 AD. The book was written either partly on the Isle of Iona and finished in Kells County Ireland or all at one of these places. Some think it might have been done to mark the 200 year of the passing of St Cuthbert who was one of the topics of my last tour and founder of the monastery at Lindisfarne. Others think it was a preservation of the Latin language after the fall of the Roman Empire. Regardless it is a beautifully illustrated manuscript.

Trinity College has been the owner of the book since 1654. Soldiers under Cromwell took the book from the church in Kells and gave it to the mayor of Dublin who in turn gave it to the university for safe keeping. The college has been displaying it in their old library since the 1800. Currently they show two pages and change them up every 6-12 weeks. We saw pages 308 and 309. There were no major illustrations but there was a small peacock in the middle of the text.

Prior to seeing the actual book the library displays some of the art from the manuscript. I thought it was funny that the monks depicted the gospels (except for Mathew who got to be in human form) as animals. Mark was a lion Luke the sacrificial cow and John the eagle.

From the Book room you head into the Long Library. Sadly or maybe not sadly they are currently cleaning, restoring, cataloguing all the books in the library so most of the stacks were empty. The room was still very impressive.

The globe in the middle of the room is a contemporary art piece but it does add to the grander and scale of the room. The room also had some other artifacts like the oldest surviving Irish harp that gave both Dublin and Guinness their insignia.

And a copy of the Book of Kells opened to a more dramatic page.

From the library we head off to finish the tour in the new container building added in the middle of one of the college’s green spaces. It was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought we would see more copies of the book opened to different pages so we could see some of the bigger illustrations but no it was kind of like Book of Kells does Disney. They had books but then the pages swirled away up the walls and ceilings then you watched a video on the changing times of the library that mainly had people in different clothes just walking across the screen. It didn’t really add anything to the experience and I would skip it if I ever go back.

From the University we headed back out to town which was hard since some of the gates out were still closed but we eventually found an exit. Not having found breakfast on our way we were now starving and looking for somewhere to kill a few hours before our Guinness tour. We stumbled on an old bank turned restaurant and went in for breakfast. It wasn’t bad. Not the best breakfast I have ever had but it certainly worked in a pinch and the building was beautiful. I was so hungry I forgot to take any pictures.

From here we took the scenic route to the Guinness Storeroom. Until after the crazy long walk did I realize Google Maps has an unbusy street setting – I have since turned it off. Anyway the walk was long and through most back streets and residential areas. Sadly we saw no shopping on our way. We did hear some really bad country music from the Ceol Country Fest that we passed about midway there.

We arrived right on time for our tour and just beat the rain inside as well. I am not and will probably never be a Guinness fan but the tour was a lot of fun. Did you know Guinness has only 4 ingredients. I didn’t but I learned it on the tour. They also had old videos of how they used to do everything by hand which were quite impressive. The tour basically takes place in a large pint glass and you work your way up to your free tasting and then your free pint. I will say the Guinness is better there than anywhere else I have tried. Although to be honest I haven’t tried Guinness all that much so probably not the best judge. Usually I don’t like it at all so I will say it was better here.

On the way up they had a display on their old advertising campaigns and that was probably the highlight of the tour. I love the toucan and hunted all over Dublin for a gaudy toucan sweatshirt.

At the top we got our free drink. Val had a Coke and I had the Guinness lager, which I did enjoy. The bar sits at the top and you have views out across the city.

After the Guinness tour we wound our way back across town towards our hotel and did a bit of shopping. We stumbled across a vintage jewelry and gift shop which is never a good place for val and I to find. Let’s just say we made their weekend and maybe their week with our purchases. It was fun trying on all the rings and just perusing through everything else.

We went back to the hotel and only enough energy to make it back to Murray’s for dinner. This time I had the cheeseburger and it was really good. So not sad about my last meal in Dublin.

I will definitely be back to Ireland. There were a lot more pubs in Dublin to hit and I need to get out and see the countryside.