Day 1: Dublin

The first day of a trip overseas is always a blur for me. I did get some sleep on the plane thanks to having an entire row of seats to myself. But I still got off the plane at about 1 a.m. on my body's time. Fortunately, our hotel room was ready when we got there that morning, and we got in a short nap before meeting up with our group.


Our tour started with a bus tour of Dublin that afternoon. We had a separate tour guide for it, so Dermot, our tour guide/bus driver, could focus on driving around Dublin. I had been to Dublin before, and it looked familiar for the most part, but it was great to have someone tell me about the city and its history. Of course with the jet lag, I slept through the last third of it. But here are some photos from the tour:

Our first stop was at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is a very ornate and decorative manuscript of the Gospels. I couldn't take any pictures of the actual Book but here are some of Trinity College:

Next, we stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral to take pictures from the outside:

The River Liffe runs through the center of Dublin, so it is split into the North and South by the river. One of the bridges was built to look like a harp, which is the symbol for Ireland. The shamrock is the religious symbol for Ireland, in case you were wondering.

And since they have a river, of course they have a duck tour. When I saw this, I wondered which came first, the Chattanooga Ducks or the Dublin Ducks.

Next up: Lots of green and crystal!