12,972 steps

The morning started out with a walk around the outside of Trinity College looking for a coffee, and ended at The Little Museum of Dublin opposite St Stephen’s Green (It has since moved).

Just inside I was greeted by a guide and another person who had just arrived and was about to start the guided tour. The guide took us through the history of the area going way back to when some kind of settlement was first established in the 9th century by some Scandinavians (they really did tend to get around) before fast forwarding a few centuries to when the English came over a ruined everything. It was a really summary of the history of the area, but also the story of Ireland. All the items in the museum were donated from Dubliners.

Here my memory fails me, and I am little annoyed about it – the guide explained how everyone in Dublin had <these things I couldn’t remember what it was, bottles or plates or something>. They weren’t very unique, almost every family in Dublin would have had some, but they all genuinely cherished them and they all wanted to donate them to the museum as a thing that represented the area’s history – but the museum had too many as it was and had to decline those donations. I want to say milk bottles??

The tour ended with us being serenaded by the guide with a traditional Irish folk song. There is something slightly awkward being in a room with just two other people and one of them starts singing at the other two. She had a good voice and could hold a tune, still just slightly awkward.

I still have plenty of time before my scheduled visit to the Book of Kells so I wandered off towards Dublin Castle.

After doing the rounds of the rooms with old things in them I started walking back towards Trinity College to line up for the Book of Kells.

The first section of ‘The Book of Kells Experience’ – because if you package it as a thing you get to charge more but also maybe employ some artists to create a thing – is a labyrinth of displays explaining the Book itself, how and when it was made and it’s history. There was quite a good audio guide for this section that was just based on a webpage you used on your phone with your own earphones 🎧 – it was great to walk slowly through the crowds with noise cancelling earphones on. No photos here, of course.

You then ascend a small set of stairs (that did have an accessible wheelchair lift) and weave around some walls to an exceptionally dark room with the actual Book of Kells open an on display in a sealed cabinet. It was good to see, open to a page with detailed illuminations, but you can’t flick through it, so you quietly exit.

From here the tour takes you to the Library and the Long Room, photos are allowed here.

The audio guide lets you now about the restoration efforts to persevere the collections of books in the library, and if you get to the end of the Long Room and turn around you’ll see quite a few empty shelves, with books taken away from conservation.

Along with the bookshelves there were several busts of important academics and thinkers.

After completing the tour it was back to the hotel and time to look for some lunch on the way, however I was distracted by a train station inside building above a road. I spent far too long standing here waiting for a train to come, occasionally looking at my phone to try and workout the schedule.

In the afternoon I set out again to walk to the Immigration Museum, which by all accounts was quite good. Managed to find some birds on the way.

When I got to the museum it was nearly closing time, and very expensive to go in, so I didn’t. I just went for a walk along the river and back around near where I walked this morning.