Dooblin!
Dooblin!
I spent 5 days in Dublin last week on business. Despite facebook appearances, it was almost all work, but I had a few rare moments to see parts of the city. I had meetings Sunday morning, but took Sunday afternoon off to see some of Dublin.
Among the interesting things I saw were:
- The Book of Kells – 8th century illustrated edition of the gospels. Pictures aren’t allowed unfortunately
- St. Patrick’s Cathedral – 12th century cathedral that stands on the site where St. Patrick baptized converts in the late 5th, early 6th centuries. In addition to the stone that covered St. Patrick’s well, Jonathan Swift, who authored Gulliver’s Travels, was buried there in 1745.
- Christ Church Cathedral – Protestant church. Built sometime starting in the late 11th century (I think).
- National Treasures Museum – Very very cool (and free) museum that has Irish artifacts dating back to 2000 B.C. No pictures there either
- Natural History Museum – lots of stuffed animals. The Irish taxidermists have been busy. I could have skipped this one.
- St. Stephens Green – public park that dates back to 1664. Very pretty.
- Temple Bar – pub district. Loved the Irish Music.
- Dublin Castle — only the outside. This was my last stop of a 4 hour walking tour of city centre — all the time I had.
- Guinness Storehouse — meeting event held here. 6 stories of Guinness goodness. I passed the pouring school with flying colors. Lots of practice in college paid off here. Passed on first try.
The conference I attended had a fun run early one morning. A local running group took a group of 40-50 runners (including me) for a run out to the Irish coast at dawn. Very beautiful.
Here is a short video of some of the things I saw. Dublin is a very interesting city. I hope to go back at some point and spend a little more time hitting all the other interesting places I missed.