2nd day in Dublin

ALWAYS look left...pedestrians here get no respect.  In some cases drivers speed up. 

Breakfast at the hotel was spent sharing stories of how tired we were, how hot the rooms were, and reminiscing about experiences from last night.  I forgot to tell you about the french Au Par that spoke with Jeff last night. She was having difficulty understanding the dessert menu.  The first thing that came to Jeff's mind was comedian Ken Davis' story learning to snow ski.  

We have been walking since 9:00 am this morning and it is now 5:30 pm.  We sat down approximately four times since then.  We took off at around 9:00 am to hop off the bus at certain stops to look at more sights.  Our goal was to go to visit Trinity College to look at the Book of Kells, but it was closed until 12:00 pm.  We walked across the street and visited a bookstore.  That's when we found out nearly every museum would be closed until 12:00 or even 2:00 pm.  We got back on the bus and got off in the shopping district.  Can you believe they were closed too?  We sat down and had a nice warm cup of cappuccino.  After that Greg went to look at a hotel and the rest of us got back on the bus and headed out for the Viking & Medieval Museum in downtown Dublin. Greg would meet us there when he was done looking at the hotel.  The Viking & Medieval museum was a wax type museum showcasing of course the Irish Viking and medieval eras.  It was three floors tall.  However, according to our favorite bus driver Joe "those that are in good health could climb to the bell tower to get an excellent view of Dublin."  JD and I climbed the 75 stairs up to look out.  (What a climb!)  We got to the top and realized we didn't have the 1 Euro to use the view finders.  Bummer, because I'm not walking down and up and down again.

After locating Jeff's hat in the museum we headed out walking in search of a bite to eat.  We ended up in another pub.  The food was sandwiches and soup, but it was good and nice to sit down. Have I mentioned how cold it is here? (But we're not complaining.) Poor Jeff and JD had to sit on the top deck of a bus all the way in the back this morning because the heated lower level where Lyndell sat and I stood was full.  After we ate we headed back to Trinity College and saw the wonderful works of four scribes and three artists; the Book of Kells was written in 9th century and was the four gospels.

This is where Lyndell and Greg parted ways with the NC Hyder's.  They walked on back toward the hotel and we headed out for a picture with a person dressed up like a leprechaun I saw earlier on our bus trip.  He was still there and we got a wonderful picture.  Next we headed on another brisk walk to the National Museum of Ireland.  It's what the kids here affectionately call the dead museum.  It was full of stuffed animals of the world and animals of Ireland.

We gathered for dinner in one of the three restaurants in our hotel.  Tonight we all ate Chinese food.  It was filling.  But wait about an hour to see if I post again saying I'm hungry.  So that's all we're doing tonight.  Thank goodness because we're all tired!