Sunday, June 28, 2015

Trip to Europe Day 1 Dublin, Ireland

One year ago today, Josh and I got married.  This week we are going to vacation in the Texas Hill Country where we spent the first part of out honeymoon.  For that post you can go here.  The rest of our honeymoon was spent in Europe.  Here is the first post of a series that will be descriptions and photos of the places that we traveled a year ago.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/KellsFol032vChristEnthroned.jpg 
For the second part of our honeymoon,  Josh and I flew to Dublin, Ireland, for a couple of days. We arrived at midnight our time, six in the morning Dublin time.  Our hostel room wasn't available until 2pm.  That gave us quite a bit of time to tour the city before checking in.  Luckily, the hostel let us store our baggage in one of their closets so we didn't have to drag it everywhere.

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/KellsFol292rIncipJohn.jpg 

After finding a small cafe for breakfast we trucked the ten blocks or so to Trinity College.

The  Library at Trinity College is where the Book of Kells is kept.  I have a facsimile copy at home and was excited about seeing the original.  You only get to see four pages of the original because they keep the books intact underneath glass, but I'm glad I got to see what I did.  The library alone was worth the ticket, even though I think the library itself is free to tour.  The ticket was only to see the Kells.

For those who don't know, the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript containing the four Gospels of the Bible.  I don't know if it's intricate Celtic art can be surpassed.  I'll include some photos.

The book was found buried in Kells, Ireland and dates back to 800 AD.


http://www.100objects.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/book-of-kells.jpg.jpg


 The library was just incredible.  I can't describe it.  The photos speak for themselves. This post is the first of a thirteen day tour of Ireland and Germany.  The Kells only took up the first couple of hours of our morning.  The next post will describe our visit to the National Museum of Art and St. Patrick's Cathedral.



















I believe I could happily live in a library like this.  Maybe I should look into summer jobs there.  This summer I will be alternatively posting reviews and photos of Europe.  I hope you enjoy them.





6 comments:

Brian Joseph said...

Happy anniversary Sharon!

That library looks magnificent. It is certainly a place that I would like to visit someday.

The Book of Kells looks similarly breathtaking. I looked it up on Wikipedia. It has such a fascinating history.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Thanks, Brian. I hope you will be able to visit this magnificent library. Take care!

Ruth @ with freedom and books said...

Great pictures of the Book of Kells. We studied that during our Medieval year.

Yeah, I could live in a library, too. : )

Sharon Wilfong said...

HI Ruth. I think if the walls of your home are lined with bookshelves as mine mostly are, technically you are living in a library. Perhaps not as breathtaking as Trinity's but fully functional. Take care!
PS I love medieval history and literature. Did you all read any Jacques Geoff? He's a French medieval historian.

Ruth @ with freedom and books said...

Never read Geoff. I did read The Chronicles of the Crusades by Joinville and Villehardouin.

Sharon Wilfong said...

HI Ruth. If you think those are good sources, I'll have to look them up. I love reading about the middle ages.