Day 7 Enis-Dublin

Day 7 Ennis-Dublin

We left Ennis for a long long drive to Dublin. We made 1 stop at a rest stop with a Subway and a few other places to eat. Nothing special. We couldn't see much of the countryside with the roadways. We saw a horse racing track but didn't stop. Lunch was a scone with tea.
We arrived at Dublin early in the afternoon. The tour director pointed out the main attractions we took some photos from the bus and came around towards Trinity College. We were told they had the book of kells. Well, that sealed it. We did not do much sightseeing other than the Book of Kells. We found where it was stored, paid our 10 Euro to get in and took our time to read all the stuff on the wall and watch the videos available. We saw Several pages of several different books. All very small. I was surprised at how tiny the writing and art really was. The books were 10X12 page and it was opened under the glass display. The writing was super tiny and you would need a magnifying glass to really see the art on the pages. There is so much beauty crammed onto a smaller page. GORGEOUS!!!!! I bought a ton more postcards eventually filled them out later in the evening and put them in the post at the hotel. Again, I will beat them home I am sure. We only had 1 1/2 hours left to shop and we took advantage of every minute. Mom was looking for a nice scarf and I was looking for something fun for Grace. We went thru a bunch of shops and Mom thought she found something she kind of liked and we kept going on and on hoping to find just the right thing. Eventually we only had 1/2 an hour before the bus came to pick us up for the hotel. So we scrambled back to the store she found a scarf she kind of liked and we got it, It was the same shop I found some mittens for Grace. We raced across the street just in time to wait for the bus. We got everything looked at so we were both very happy. I can't believe I was actually able to see the book of Kells. I had no idea!!!!
We got back to the hotel with time to get ready for our night out. We both dresses up a bit for the Irish Cabaret. The dinner was very nice and I had my free drink which was Guiness. I find even in the place they brew it, I still don't like beer. Oh I know it is a Stout but I don't like the taste. I did drink half of it before passing it down the table to the only male of our tour group to go with all us girls. He could at least enjoy it. The food was vegetable cream soup (yum!) Salmon with potatoes, broccoli and carrots. They included a Mexican fruit that was bright orange with funky leaves, the shape was like a cherry tomato but when you bit into it, the flavor was a sweet fruit taste with the skin being like a tomato. It was different and orange, pretty cool. For dessert we had Irish Apple Pie served with Irish coffee. Very nice! The show was entertaining, there were two main singers a male tenor and a female. They both did a great job. The dancers were very nice too. They had 3 dark haired males-vary dashing- and 4 females all blond go figure. They wore skimpy outfits and danced quite well too. The men mostly had on a shirt and pants. For accompaniment there was a piano player, a squeeze box, Irish tin whistle and elbow pumped air instrument. The comedian was ok some of his stuff was funny some not so much. He made a joke about Michael Jackson, this morning we found out the Michael had passed away. Hopefully he will take that out of his show. We got back to the hotel at 10pm, we were thank full we had opened a window since every hotel we had stayed at did not have air conditioning. It was pretty warm then 1/2 way thru the night you had your covers on. The hotel we stayed at in Dublin had a lumpy bed and gave Mom bad dreams.
I found myself looking for redheads and not finding near as many as I thought there would be. There were many more dark Irish from the Spanish I believe. The Romanians were over in full force so I did not get to talk to many Irish citizens. Even in the shops, the help was foreign. The Ferry so far, has been the best place to hear Gaelic and Irish accents. I spent the rest of my Euros on the ferry plus a few. I got Grace a cute sheep sweatshirt, it may be a little big but that is ok. I tried the prawn cocktail chips and got the Irish Daily Mail to read about Michael and Farrah. Unfortunately it is a rag and not a real news paper. I had no idea I just liked the cover. Oh well, everyone got a chance to read it on our 3 1/2 hour trip over.
For breakfast at the hotel I got black and white sausages along with the normal sausage, egg, bacon and tomato. I tried the porridge and croissants. Pretty good along with tea. We had to get up very early to make it to the ferry in enough time. Hopefully we will have a few stops before we come to the edge of England. I think we go thru 2 more Welsh places. I will have to type more later, my battery is not charging as much as I would like. Thankfully DH has a battery back up I am using since there is no plug in on the ferry. I hope I will still have plants when I get home. DH is in charge of the watering, fingers crossed.