Dublin- day 1

 WE set out on the Hop on Hop off bus.  There is a red and green one that do the same routes but the green one seems to come more often. Both have a tour guide.

This bridge is the famous Ha' Penny Bridge (half penny to cross it in 1816)

Down the main street. Ahead is the Spire of Dublin. It stands 121.2 meters(398 feet) high
It is also called the Monument of Light.  Diameter is 9.8 feet at the base and is 5.9 inches
at the top. The monument was started in 2002 and finished in 2003
It has been controversial since it was conceived.  It was designed to celebrate the millennium,
but in grand Irish style, it was late so is not known as the Millennial Spire!
It replaces Nelson's Pillar that was blown up by IRA in 1966.
At a cost of 8 million euros, the people in Dublin are not impressed.  Unoficially it is referred as
The Spike, Pin in the Bin, Nail in the Pale, Rod to God, Prick in the Brick,
Stiffy on the Liffy, Stiletto in the Ghetto, Erection in the Intersection.
Finally, The Binge Syringe as they see it as a monmument to Dublin's heroin problem.

 

 The Bank of Ireland. This is the oldest continuous working bank in Ireland founded in 1783.  This building was initially the Parliament Building.  As it was no longer needed for government when Ireland was in the United Kingdom, title was transferred to the Bank of Ireland.
 Here is the Irish House of the Lords which is in the Bank. We had a very nice impromtu tour which was fascinating. The Parliament voted itself out of existence by the Act of Union in 1801..The gold sceptor which weighs 25 lbs gets put away every weekend. The tapestries are all needle point. ..amazing.

Here you see a 4 story Georgian house. The bottom floor was for the cooking- the first floor and 2nd floor for entertaining- the 3rd floor for sleeping and the 4thfloor for the children.  The door were made wider for the hoop skirts. 

This is Phoenix park in the middle of Dublin. It is the largest park in Europe and is more than double central park in New York, There is the american embassey here but below is a picture of the President's house.

The next group of pictures are of Trinity College. Here is where the famous Book of Kells is housed.
This is one of the oldest book in the world which dates back to 850 AD and probably produced by monks.There are 680 pages in the book but only two are on display.

 The Library which houses a mere 250,000 of the oldest books. Today it was featuring composers and their music could be heard throughout the hall.

 Trinity college grounds.

Our day finished with having dinner and traditional Irish music at the Irish House Party. I have tried to put in a video as the last picture of this young man who just turned 21 tonight.  He has won many awards for playing this insturment called the Irish Uilleann Pipes.  This set belong to his father.

The interesting thing is that there are 7 reeds that the wrist controls while you play the flute like pipe and pump the air into the bags. It is a much quieter sound than the bag pipes. Google this as I am not doing the instrument justice. It is a very complicated instrument.