Ann has been writing about recent adventures with Athena but I’ll pick up from where I left off, visiting Dublin. One of the most popular attractions in Dublin is the Book of Kells, a 1200-year old illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels. I’m a bit of a history geek but I had heard that going to see the book was a bit disappointing for some people – standing in line for a long time and paying 9 euro to see two pages of one book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
On Sunday I met up with my friend Tilek and we decided to head over to Trinity College and take a look around. It turned out that you can do the campus tour and see the book for just one euro more. The tour, given by a recent grad, was very entertaining. Let me pose the same question he gave us – what word would you use to describe the color of the clock in the photo below?
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Our tour guide had posed the question to tourists from all over the world, and no matter what language they spoke, the answer was basically equivalent to “sky blue.” Except in Dublin, where residents are more likely to see the clocks than the blue sky, and therefor it is known as “Trinity blue.”
The Book of Kells really is an amazing piece of artwork, but so is the Long Room of the Old Library at Trinity College. With it’s carved woodwork and high barrel-vaulted ceiling it’s like a cathedral of the written word.
Afterward we decided to head up north on the DART to Howth, a hilly peninsula on the end of Dublin Bay, and do a bit of hiking along the cliffs. The weather went from cold and gray to sun and bitter cold, but the view of the sea and the coast made it all worth it.
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I neglected to bring my polarizer which would have helped with the glare coming off the sea from the evening sun. You can see some photos that did come out in the gallery below.
I got some much better photos the next night, walking along the Grand Canal back to my hotel. The canal was once a major freight and passenger route, but now it’s mostly used as a linear park wrapping around the older parts of the city. The locks are maintained and canal boats still ply the waterway for dinner cruises.
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With well-lit streets on either side and calm, flat water it’s a great place to take photos as the light fades into dusk.
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I had a lot of fun taking long exposures of the canal boats, headlights streaking by, and even joggers crossing in front of me. I didn’t get back until quite late.
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The canal itself isn’t very large – the common joke is that it’s not particularly grand – and it actually reminded me a bit of the Ohio and Erie Canal near Cleveland, since both are maintained now as urban (or suburban) parks.
The rest of the photos can be found here: