That morning, we boarded the bus back to Dublin. It’s worth mentioning that our B&B owner in Kilkenny turned out to be a very nice, slightly goofy man not much older than us with a 4 year old son. He rented out the upstairs bedroom of his flat, so it was a small, friendly place. I don’t know whether he was trying to make up for abandoning us earlier, but he brought bigger breakfasts every morning until the third day it was really more than we could eat.

That afternoon in Dublin, we went to Trinity College, took a tour, and saw the book of Kells (no pictures allowed in the exhibit, of course). I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. I’d been led, both by other people and by guild books, to expect a rushed, crowded viewing, but it wasn’t like that at all. There were a reasonable number of people wandering through the exhibit, and we got to crouch nose-to-nose with all the glass cases (including the book in question) for as long as we wanted. They had a lot of illuminated manuscripts in there, so even though you could only see part of the book of Kells (called “the page of Kells” by the guild book), you come away with a head-full of pretty, tiny, colorful, elegant pictures.

The book of Kells is the 4 gospels, plus some commentary and other text. It’s one of the oldest codex books in the world and certainly the most beautiful. The exhibit included information about how illuminated manuscripts were made, including the tanning process for vellum (buried in manure – lovely) and the fascinating sources for the inks, which came from all over the world. The red comes from the pregnant body of a middle eastern beetle.

This was a dean of Trinity, who announced that women would enter the college over his dead body. He proceeded to expire the year this occurred. Women now make up more than 50% of the academic body and statically get higher grades. :D

This is an Oregon Maple, two of which were planted for reasons I forget several hundred years ago. They are now supposedly the largest Oregon Maples in the world, due to the high water table and nutritious cemetery on which they sit. :)

We had a nice lunch on the college grounds and then went back to our hostel to get some sleep. Good thing, because both our flights home the next day were delayed in JFK. There was some kind of air traffic control/ weather problems (I hate that airport). Amy's flight kept getting moved back whenever takeoff time approached, and my 18 hour trip turned into a 37 hour nightmare, with a sleep over in Salt Lake City airport. Still sick, and sinuses were killing me by then. Blah. But I got home, and I really enjoyed the trip. Must go again. :)

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