DUBLIN--DAY TWO

Irish hotels, guesthouses and many B&B's provided hot pots, instant coffee (decaf and real) and tea (decaf and real) in their rooms.  A few also included surprisingly tasty cookie-like "Breakfast Biscuits."  The best surprise in all that run-up was that much of the instant coffee was very good as well as very welcome first thing in the morning.


At the opposite end of that spectrum, the real breakfast, served an hour or so later introduced us to French press coffee (I warned you we weren't worldly) which definitely provided more ambiance with breakfast than our low-end Keurig at home.  Philosophically speaking, Keurig is a perfect fit with our American helter-skelter, hurry-up, got-an-appointment lifestyle. French press, by contrast, invites lingering and conversation.   I've always known I was an expert lingerer, and so it appeared to me that Ireland would be just perfect.

In preparation for this trip, I'd purchased a set of cards from Chronicle Books entitled:  Ireland--Village Walks.  This day, a Wednesday, we were informally scheduled to walk as much of Dublin (south of the River Liffey) as we could manage.  I pulled the cards for St. Stephens Green, Merrion Square, Kildare Street, Trinity College and Grafton Street.  We should easily cover that by lunch.
  

We began our self-guided tour at nearby St. Stephens Green, surprised to read that The Royal College of Surgeons building we had passed a few times yesterday wasn't simply deteriorating...it was pock-marked with bullets from the 1916 Easter Uprising.  We admired the elegant Shelbourne Hotel and dropped into Dawson Lounge, advertised as the smallest pub in Ireland.  I'm not sure if it is the smallest, but I would wager the stairway descending to it was the most treacherous, although perfect for those crawling out of the pub after a long evening with friends.

From the east side of St. Stephens Green, we walked into Kildare Street to visit the National Museum of Ireland--Archeology Branch.  This visit--serendipitous for us--should be required for everyone at the beginning of a visit to Ireland.  Following a well-organized design, we began about 7000 BCE in the Middle Stone Age, and worked our way forward to the Reformation in the mid-16th century CE.  We became familiar with eras, names, locations, objects, treasures, lifestyles, and etc...that we would review each day of our travels.  That simple unexpected rain shower  created a golden opportunity to visit the National Museum which, in turn, guaranteed that our entire trip would take us over familiar and easily understandable ground.  Priceless!

After a few hours in the National Museum, we strolled on to Merrion Square, described on our tour card as "oozing refined sophistication" and, as we all know, I'm all about oozing sophistication.  Merrion Square has reputedly been one of Dublin's most fashionable addresses for 250 years, and the home of Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats among other notables.  We made the obligatory stop at Oscar Wilde's well-visited statue, in which  he looks appropriately dissolute and sassy, as well as someone it might have been fun to know.

 

He's surrounded by short columns on which are engraved many of his more famous quotes..

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As we continued strolling through the Square, searching for a "bog"--slang for toilet--we happened on this scene.  Frankly, I looked for movie cameras thinking this could not be real.  But it was...remember we're oozing sophistication (and cuteness) here.

These little girls ran like little ladies, but with intent, kicked the ball, occasionally flopped on the grass but those adorable  hats never moved from dead center.  I can't imagine they were stapled to their heads (although I also questioned that while watching Will and Kate's wedding).  Perhaps, it's simply a few years of head-control-practice and strong, but unobtrusive, chin straps.

With the increased drip-dropping of  yet another rain shower, we pulled out our umbrella, figured our bearings and exited Merrion Square for Trinity College and The Book of Kells.  We abandoned our "Village Walk" there and joined a tour led by students that was blessedly irreverent while full of fascinating historical facts.  The tour ended at the entry to the Old Library and  its exhibition "Darkness into Light" which, unfortunately, was packed shoulder to shoulder with international tourists jostling for better views of beautiful posters describing the history of illuminated bibles.  The flow funneled from there into an impossibly small dark room which displayed the actual Book of Kells and three other similar manuscripts.  One needn't be rude but, trust me, one will be run over and see nothing if one is not a bit assertive at this point.  "Excuse me", accompanied by a quick elbow seemed to work. 

Conveniently, Trinity College is only steps away from Grafton Street and, although we didn't cover all of our planned itinerary (a daily happening on this visit) it was way past lunch and very close to dinner...definitely time for a stop at O'Neills.

Whoa!!  It appears that one CAN look a bit too eager for a glass of wine.