Our flight to Iceland was at five this evening so we had the morning to do a wee bit more exploring in Dublin.

We checked out the Dublin City Museum in the basement of City Hall.

Then we walked through the grounds of Dublin Castle and stopped in at the Revenue Museum.

Finally we visited the Chester Beatty Library. It is a jaw dropping collection of manuscripts and rare books. As an example We saw the earliest known versions of the Apostles letters from the second century.

Our flight to Iceland was about two hours. We will only be here twenty hours or so. We rented a car and drove two hours east. Along the way we picked up some snacks at a grocery store and are spending the night in the little town of Fluor.

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum is where we spent our morning. It is interactive and very very well done There are no typical museum displays but you work your way through twenty interactive rooms full of media of all types. We learned about Irish emigration and the people who have emigrated. It was good to be inside because outside it was blowing a gale!

On our way back to the hotel we braved the gale to walk through Trinity College.

For dinner we found another great pub and had Beef and Guinness Casserole and Bangers and Mash.

This morning we left Belfast and Northern Ireland and drove to Dublin where we turned in our rental car and walked to our hotel.

At 5:30 we went to the sung evensong service at St Patrick’s Cathedral. They have an excellent boys and men’s choir.

We ate dinner in a pub and listened to live music while we ate.

We spent the day today relaxing and exploring Belfast. Tonight is our last night in Northern Ireland. Tomorrow we head to Dublin.

I’ve found Northern Ireland fascinating especially because of the British connection and the somewhat conflicting Irish connection. I suspect my Protestant Irish ancestors would have identified as British Irish. I never understood the significance of Union Jacks and William of Orange before this visit gave me a bit of insight.

For the first time in a while breakfast was not included in the rate at our hotel. So along the way today we stopped for coffee and a pastries.

We also checked out an excellent exhibit at Belfast City Hall.

I had fun checking out a couple of bookstores.

And for a change for dinner we had bruschetta, pizza and wine.

Our first stop this morning was the Bushmills Distillery where we learned all about the making of Irish Whiskey and had a wee taste!

Next we went just down the road to the Giant’s Causeway. It is a stone formation that reminds me of Devil’s Postpile in California.

Tonight we are in Belfast.