This morning is a late morning – or at least from our viewpoint – the tour doesn’t leave until 9AM – so for us, we have all morning! We use the time to full potential and actually make it to St. Stephen’s Green this time! It is a beautiful park steeped in history. During the 1916 Rebellion, it is here that the Irish Citizen Army established a headquarters type position. About 250 rebels were stationed here, before eventually moving over to the Royal College of Surgeons building at the end of the park. One of the more interesting aspects of the Rebellion position here is that a cease-fire was called everyday to allow the groundskeeper to feed the ducks. Oh, so very civilized!

Returning back to the hotel, we shower up and meet our group in the lobby for a quick jaunt across the street to the Christ Church Cathedral. This beautiful building is the oldest continually used building in the city, dating back 1,000 years. The building originally existed as a church, but when King Henry the VIII decided to marry Anne Boleyn and the Pope would not let him, he created an entirely new religion – the Anglican religion – adding the word Cathedral to Christ Church and voila! Christ Church Cathedral was born. Totally interesting. And gorgeous. The building has been built and rebuilt over the years, including in the 1500s when the south wall roof completely collapsed. It was restored to what we see today in the 1800s by the owner of Rose Whiskey. It also has 20 bells, which is the most bells in any Cathedral in the world.

The tomb of Strongbow is here – he was the leader of the Anglo-Normans who captured Dublin and had some part in building this cathedral. His tomb was destroyed when the roof collapsed in the 1500s, but because the tomb had become a central part of Dublin business dealings – people would come here to agree to contracts and to pay rents (which has something to do with the dent in the tomb’s head, but what exactly escapes me at the moment) the restoration folks found a new tomb which actually is a knight in full armor. Another interesting feature of the church are the tiles which depict the “Foxy Friars” – two foxes dressed up as pilgrims with hats, walking sticks and backpacks. They are found all over the Cathedral, even on the chairs for parishioners. The original tiles are behind one of the altars, but even with only 29 people on the tour? It is virtually impossible to get a photo of them – first day – we’re just waiting it out to see how this all goes….sigh. We’ll deal – for now, at least, we settle for the more modern tiles on the floor leading down to the crypt.

Down in the crypt we wander around fabulous carvings and tombs, as well as the Irish Magna Carta – called the Liber Niger (Black Book). It is really sort of neat and gorgeous down here – all rough stone and steeped in history.

And of course there is the Cat and the Rat. How could that not top the list of the most interesting thing to see in the crypt? Though seriously, it is fascinating. The mummified remains of the Cat and the Rat were found inside the organ when it was dismantled and moved for the 1800 renovations. They apparently became stuck when the rat ran into the organ to escape the cat, which followed it up the organ tube and became stuck. I mean, really, you can see the cat’s whiskers – that’s how well preserved these two corpses are!

Back outside, we pass the Bee hive that is on the property – part of the Bee8 Network that is preserving Irish Honeybees. Sounds like Asheville!!!

Then it is onto the bus for a quick drive around the city, passing St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Old Irish Houses of Parliament that have now been converted into the Central Bank building.

Our final stop is a visit to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. We were sort of looking forward to this – until we got there that is. It is WAY too Peopley here. And inside – oh – even worse. There is what looks like a lovely museum with exhibits and the Book – but we can’t get near anything, and to be honest? We just want out of that press of non-mask-wearing human flesh. Ack!

We did manage to make it to the library – which is really a sight to behold. 200,000 of the oldest books in the collection are stored here. Amazing. And we could dance through the raindrops, er, people, to actually look at things – including a copy of the Book of Kells – and take pictures.

Then finally, we were back out in the fresh air and sunshine, and on our own for the rest of the afternoon. We’re off to find lunch.