Kilmainham, Trinity, Guinness and Music

Our fisrt full day in Dublin was packed full of activity! We had our days here planned out very well after learning from our first pourly planned day in London.

We hit the ground running at 7:30am! (Those of you who know me, know how thrilled I was with that...) Our first stop was the Kilmainham Jail.

Kilmainham Jail

I was very surprised to find how much I enjoyed the jail tour. The woman leading the tour was VERY knowledgeable about her country's history and she delivered that history in a very entertaining way. It was a good way for us to start our tour of Dublin. We learned a lot of backround on Ireland and particularly Dublin. That came in handy on some of our other tours.

Next we hit Trinity College and the Book of Kells. I was also very impressed with that tour. The young man leading it had a masters in history from Trinity and was going to be getting his doctorate in history starting in the fall. He was witty and very knowledgable. He explained a little more about how the books were made and it made all the difference when we went in to see them. I was blown away by "The Long Room" which sits right above the Book of Kells. It was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. (I also love the smell of all those old books!)

They had these trees on the grounds of the school that were absolutely beautiful. They were the only maple trees I'd seen since we got to Ireland. We later found out that they were from Portland, Oregon! It was nice to see a piece of home in the middle of Dublin.

HUGE maple tree from Portland, Oregon!

After Trinity, we caught a bus up to the Guinness Brewery where we took the tour and learned how to pour the "perfect" pint. We both got certificates stating that we're "officially" certified to serve Guinness.

Eric pouring his perfect pint.

Finally we ended our evening with an organized traditional Irish music pub crawl. Two musicians took us from pub to pub and taught us all about traditional Irish music. They were very entertaining and extremely talented! We got a few tips about where to go in Dublin to hear the best music.

Larry and Steve, our musical hosts for the pub crawl.

As we walked through the streets of Dublin back to our hostel, it poured on us. Our feet were hurting and our backs were sore from all the walking we'd done, but we were happy!