Today, despite the jetlag, we got up early as we had to be at the Guinness Storehouse (basically the Guinness Factory and Visitor’s Centre) that is in Dublin at 10am for our scheduled entrance time. What an amazing set of buildings this is and a beautiful visitors facility! This is also the number one tourist attraction in Ireland, with the Titanic Exhibit (and some others) claiming to be in 2nd place.
The Guinness Storehouse was an AMAZING experience – even for someone who does not drink! The funny part was that Andrew was on an accompanying person ticket and I was on a full ticket – so I got the ticket for the beer at the end and he got the ticket for the soft drink (which is appropriate for a carer ticket). Needless to say those were exchanged pretty fast! It is 7 stories high with a glass bar as the 7th floor that is above most buildings in Dublin and has a great view – would be even better if it was not raining cats and dogs! Yup, the cats and dogs in Dublin look very similar to the ones in Vancouver – I am saying that for my dad as I knew that question was coming up… They had elevators for those who needed them that at the beginning when to the next floor you needed to be on and then once past the 2nd floor (keep in mind in Europe the floors start at Zero or 0) there is both a main elevator and a secret smaller elevator for those in the know 🙂 So off we go!
From the Guinness Storehouse Andrew and I then caught a taxi to take us to Trinity University where we were going to meet Anne and Richard and go for a tour of the University and see the Book of Kells and the Library. The taxi driver was not very good and dropped us off at a large intersection and told me to go to the glass building as that is where the Book of Kells exhibit is.
Needless to say, after about an hour of walking around, including 3 two block circles, AND asking for directions at an information desk where they sent us in the opposite direction (thanks Math department) along with being unable to get up to the street as elevators were broken; I finally sat down and called (via Skype) the Book of Kells exhibit where we were supposed to be and asked them how to get there. I had already heard from Anne – the tour had started at 2pm without us and it was now 3pm. The ladies on the phone were very nice and got us turned around and on our way to the correct building. We also found out that Trinity University is pretty well a walled university – so the cab driver could not actually take us to where we needed to go – only to the nearest intersection. That would have been nice to know.
Now at the correct building, the lady was actually outside waiting for us to arrive, which was pretty nice – she then told me that due to the storm the previous evening (we were not aware of one however we could not see or hear much in the matchbox room) that a lot of the power was out for the elevators (we already found that out) including one that takes us to the majority of the exhibit – the Old Library. So they ended up refunding our tickets and letting us see the Book of Kells anyways. That was really nice! At this time I thought Anne and Richard were upstairs as I had told them we had arrived and they said they would meet us in an hour. Low and behold, we went through the Book of Kells entry and they were right there! So we saw the exhibit together and then they proceeded upstairs to visit the Old Library while Andrew and I went and hung out on the campus and people watched!
For those who do not know what the Book of Kells is – as I did not know until Anne told me about it – here is an overview – it is a Celtic manuscript, written in Latin, containing four Gospels of the New Testament. It was created in about 800 AD, in a monastery in either Ireland or Scotland, with other contributors. It is a beautiful example of calligraphy and illustration. Book takes its name from the Abbey of Kells, County Meath, which was its home for centuries. There are 340 velum leaves or folios; with each side of the leaf totaling 680 pages in a 13 inches by 9.8 inches volume, one for each Gospel. Lets take a look! No pictures were allowed of the actual book, however here are some pictures of the display prior to seeing the official copy.
We then walked to a restaurant for dinner that Anne found on a Gluten Free app. It was awesome! Anytime I can have GF fish and chips and that is the same GF fish and chips the whole restaurant eats so there is no possibility of wheat contamination, it is a good day! After a great dinner in a very unique restaurant, we walked back to the hotel (2.2 km) to work off our dinner!
Now back at the matchbox hotel room, Andrew decided to take a shower while I, after walking about 10 km today, decided to give my legs a little bonus time on the heating pad. So I plugged in the plug converter and then the power bar and POOF! the lights went out and there was a pop sound! To me, it sounded like a breaker had shut off which is weird as I had not plugged in anything requiring power. It was cool though that two small emergency lights in the ceiling turned on, however Andrew was in the dark in the shower and that he was not impressed with!
Andrew got dressed and went down to the front desk to get the clerk and they tried putting the breaker back (which was in the room) but to no avail. So then, they moved us to another accessible room which was BIGGER! Yahoo! Andrew can get to his own side of the bed without crawling over me! Also the power supply works 🙂 Time for sleep as tomorrow we are getting up early to take a taxi back to the airport with Anne and Richard to meet all the people for the Gluten Free Ireland tour!