Ireland Day 5

Monday, December 17, 2007

Today we DARTed into Dublin to start our 3 day hop on/hop off city bus tour, where, as you might expect, we have 3 days to tour the city and get off at various spots to further investigate and then hop back on a later tour bus to the next destination. Our first stop was Trinity College: Dublin. The library has a large and fantastic collection of old and rare manuscripts, the most famous being the Book of Kells, an 800 A.D. illuminated manuscript of the 4 gospels. After wandering the college grounds, we ate lunch at a Bewley's, a pub that James Joyce had written about in his book The Dubliners. We also passed some statues of Oscar Wilde and James Joyce on the bus tour, but decided not to get out and have a closer look. Stop two was Christ Church, which was pretty typical of the cathedrals I've seen in France and Denmark. Pointed archways, stain-glass windows, ornate carvings into architecture, fancy designs carved into the tile floors, and a crypt holding the treasures of the era. Stop three connected was a medieval and viking's history of Ireland museum connected to Christ Church. The vikings were actually the first group of people to establish a permanent settlement in present day Dublin. The museum was a little hokey but fun at the same time. They had an exhibit that made a huge deal about how the average viking helmet did not actually have horns on it, then sold plastic viking helmets with horns in the giftshop! I got a chuckle out of that. Stop four was the one I was most looking forward to for today, the Guinness storehouse! I've never really liked Guinness, but I thought it would be cool to see how it was made. Well that train of thought turned out to be slightly disappointing since they only had video demonstrations and panels explaining the process rather than a live demonstration, which is what I was looking forward to. Still, the complex was 7 stories high, so there were plenty of things to do. One floor had a section devoted entirely to the history of Guinness's advertising, which I was naturally drawn to. I spent most of my time perusing that section, until I later discovered that they had an entire floor devoted to the actual artist (John Gildory) who made the famous zoo animals and zoo keeper advertisements. I watched about a dozen TV advertisements depicting these characters and was impressed by how simple yet effective they must have been. I don't think they could be shown nowadays though, as cartoon characters seeing adult products are generally frowned upon. The history of the different slogans they've had throughout the year were also fascinating. Doctor's used to perscribe Guinness to patients because the mere sight of it made them happy and seemed to help cure whatever was ailing them. This led to "Guinness, it's good for you" which was repeated over and over again in the adverts. I can't imagine a doctor prescribing beer to cure depression in this day and age! Also saw the creation of the popular "My Goodness, My Guinness" ads. Still, seeing this history of advertising made the tour worth it in my opinion. The trip ended in a bar where you get a free Guinness, but I was satisfied with the smaller free sample earlier in the tour, reaffirming my dislike for the beverage. That concluded day 1 of 3. We set out to find a pub and get some dinner. We arrived at O'Neill's, one of the best pubs in the city according to the guidebooks. Mom embarrassed us all by talking to some Germans in her "British" accent, which she has a nasty habit of whenever she talks to foreign people. It really isn't a British accent at all, it's a hodgepodge of her British attempt and whatever country's language. It's very embarrassing and she does it wherever we go: Ireland, France, Denmark, and I'm sure others. Can't take her anywhere! But we sure do love her, she makes life interesting!! Speaking of parents, Dad claims all the birds in Ireland must be Polish...the ravens perch and nibble on the electric train cables and the seagulls try to crack clams and shells in the sand rather than on sharp rocks! That's it for today, details of day 2's city tour tour tomorrow.