Dublin

​We only had a short time in Dublin and our priority was seeing Trinity College Library at the University of Dublin.  This is the largest library in Ireland and houses the famous Book of Kells.  We bought tickets to tour the Old Library and I rented the audio guide.  The story of the ancient texts is fascinating and the intense work that the scribes performed is amazing to think about.  After finishing the tour of the Old Library, we climbed the stairs to reach The Long Room.  What an impressive sight it is!  The library was built between 1712 and 1732 and has a lower and upper gallery.  It holds 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. 
 
A cool piece of trivia is that it was believed that The Long Room was used as the basis for the Jedi archives in the movie Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.  
 
After the library, we went to Kehoe’s Pub.  It was such a beautiful, sunny day that while the street outside the pub was packed, inside we found seats and ordered Guinness, of course.  This pub is very popular and we can see why.  It has a great atmosphere and lots of “snugs”, alcoves and partitions so you are sure to find a cozy spot to sit and enjoy your pint of the “black stuff”.
 
Dinner was at the Cliff Restaurant which we walked to from Kehoe’s Pub.  The restaurant is in an elegant townhouse which it turns out is also a hotel.  The restaurant is a long rectangular room, with white walls, white table cloths and mirrors hanging on the walls giving it a very glamourous atmosphere.  Continuing our quest for seafood, we ordered the seafood platter.  This was an impressive display and included Oyster Rockefeller, brown shrimp, Dublin Bay prawns, crab claws, smoked salmon, scallops, lobster and mussels.  What a feast!