Dublin, July 5

In front of Dublin's famous Ha' Penny Bridge

S: I think Ireland is awesome because I can find lots of things with my name on it!

E: I think Dublin is really busy. The Irish countryside is pretty. 

A: I liked Ireland even thought it was cold and rainy. I liked that it had a tram system.  We used the trams and the buses to get around. I liked all the artifacts we saw from Ireland’s history.

The National Gallery

E: At the National Gallery of Ireland I saw a painting from a book I read called Chasing Vermeer. The painting is by Vermeer and called A lady Writing a Letter. It was cool to see it in person.

We have work hanging in Ireland's National Gallery.

Temple Bar area

E: At the Temple Bar street there was lots and lots of people and loud music coming from the pubs. I did not like going near the loud music.

Book of Kells, Trinity College

A: The Book of Kells are copies of the gospels written in Latin by monks sometime around the 6^th to 9^th century. The text and pictures are hand done. It is written on vellum. The pictures are very, very detailed and every little thing in each picture has a meaning.

E: The Book of Kells is really cool because all the drawings so detailed. I would have gotten really impatient if I were a monk who had to do that.

S: The Book of Kells is really, really decorative. It is amazing. I could not do something like that. On one page there was a fancy letter that had in one corner two cats with rats on their back. After seeing the Book of Kells we went into a giant library at Trinity College. The books were really old. There were mini ones and really big ones stacked from the floor to a two-story high ceiling.

Guinness Storehouse

E: The Guinness Storehouse was really cool because we got to see how they make their beer. Guinness is made a special recipe of barley, water, and hops. There was a big waterfall and a big display of barley we could put our hands in. I really liked the old advertising posters. The slogans were funny: “My Goodness My Guinness” and “Thinking About a Guinness.”

A: The Guinness Storehouse is a brewery in a really old building. The middle of the inside of the building is shaped like a beer pint glass. There was an exhibit about how barrels are made. It is interesting that they light fires inside the barrels to make them watertight.

S: I liked the Guinness place a lot because at the end we got a free glass of Fanta (growups got Guinness). My lunch there was so good. It was Guinness Beef Stew and had mashed potatoes on top.

Christ Church Cathedral

E: The tour of Christ Church Cathedral tour was fun. We saw the tomb of Strongbow. His face had dents in it and was rubbed smooth because peasants who did not know how to read or write would wipe their fingers on the face when they paid their taxes or had to swear something was legal.

Strongbow's tomb

E: We learned about the church having a bunch of things stolen that you think no one would want to steal. A saint’s heart that was hundreds of years old and a mummified mouse were stolen.

Tiles (not Norman) depicting the Foxy Friars of Christ Church

A: The cathedral has some really old Norman tiles from the 1100s, and one has a seagull footprint in it. We also got to tour the bell tour. We learned how to ring the bells of the cathedral. We got to go in the catacomb. There were statutes of King Charles I and King Charles II. In the 1600s some people did not like them and threw stones at the statues and the statutes’ faces got beat up. 

S: A long time ago there was a cat chasing a mouse in the cathedral. The mouse ran into the organ pipes, and the cat followed. The cat got stuck so the mouse was stuck. They died and since the air in the cathedral is so dry they were mummified. We saw the mummified cat and mouse in the catacombs. Before they found them they thought the organ was broken.  

In the bell tower we got to ring the church bells. I got to change ring with the bells, and in chimes club we change ring with the chimes. It was an awesome experience.

The leaning wall of Christ Church Cathedral

Part of the Irish National Museum

The Michael Collins Barracks that houses the Irish National Museum's decorative arts exhibits

Malahide Castle

E: It was nice to go out in the countryside to try and see the castle but a bummer that we could not see the castle because it was closed. We got to go to the play park on the grounds of the castle.

S: I was disappointed that we could not see the castle. The cafe also was closed, and we were going to eat lunch there. It took another 3 hours for us to get back to town and get something to eat. 

Waiting and waiting for the bus

And waiting

And waiting . . .

S: But, when we got back to town we got fish and chips (which are French fries) from a place where lots of famous people go, including the actor who plays Snape in Harry Potter movies.

Dublin Castle

S: Dublin castle would have been nicer if they had kept it medival instead of turning it 17th century style. My favorite part was the surviving medeval tower.

Kilmainham Gaol

E: We learned a lot of Irish history when we went to the jail. We learned about prisoners there who had fought for Irish independence.

Outside our apartment