Day 2
This morning dawned warm and clear again.....thank you Celtic spirits. I thought I was getting up at 6:30 but I had set my watch wrong and it's really 5:30 AM. I think it started getting light about 4:30 AM.
We had a very nice breakfast with Dorothy and Bill. It was nice to just sit and talk two on two. They are also from California so we have some common interests. Irish breakfasts are HUGE. We have our choice of eggs, pancakes, sausages, rashers (kind of a cross between ham and bacon), potatoes, cereals, fruits and yogurt. We also discovered Irish brown bread which we loved instantly and would continue to ask for at every meal. Does everyone eat like this all the time???? I'm used to eating oatmeal and maybe a banana.
Tommy, our local guide
My wife Robin is already on the ball, writing out post cards to send to our family and friends. She plans on doing this from all of our B&Bs.
At 9 AM we meet up with Tommy, our local guide for the morning. Tommy is a graduate of Trinity College here in Dublin and is a wealth of knowledge on Ireland's trials and tribulations. Early on, he tells us a joke to loosen us up, "I has proof that Jesus was Irish. He lived with his mom until he was 30, his mom thought he was God and he thought she was a virgin."
Page from the Book of Kells
After a walk through St. Stephen's Green, Tommy takes us to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament, transcribed by Celtic monks circa 800. Here we see one of the advantages to a Rick Steves Tour. There are quite a few people waiting to get in but we are quickly ushered in a few at a time. There is a very nice exhibit which accompanies the actual book and explains the history of the Book of Kells and includes several videos detailing how it was made. Unfortunately no photography is allowed. After seeing the Book of Kells, we go upstairs to see the library's "Long Room". This incredible room is something like 200 feet long and contains 200,000 of the library's oldest books. It was used in at least one of the Harry Potter movies.
Trinity College - "Long Room"
Following our tour with Tommy, we had the rest of the afternoon on our own. Susan, Kerry and I decided to head over to the Guinness Storehouse and take the factory tour. However when we told the cab driver where to take us, he told us that Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) "was 150 times better" so we had him drop us there instead. Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison which is now a museum. It is best known as the site where many of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 were imprisoned and subsequently executed. Taking the tour of the jail and listening to our guide really helped me begin to understand about the struggles the Irish people have endured throughout their history.
Kilmainham Gaol
From the jail tour we walked to the Guinness Storehouse. We didn't have time to take the tour but we made sure we picked up the required souvenirs. When we got back, we met up with Robin and had a late lunch at O'Neills Pub.
We walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral to listen to Evensong but discovered that we had the time wrong. Instead we visited Christchurch Cathedral and then popped into a nearby cafe for coffee and dessert (you can NEVER have too much dessert!).
Trish & Mark - Musical Pub Crawl
At 6:45 PM we met up with Pat O. and most of the group for a Musical Pub Crawl. This has been going on daily in Dublin for years and is VERY popular. It always starts at Oliver St. John Gogarty's Pub and includes stops at two additional pubs which change frequently. Two musicians play traditional (trad) Irish music and in between songs, they explain the different types of Irish music.
Tonight we have Mark Wale on guitar and bodhrán with Trish Hutton on fiddle (never call it a violin!). One of the things they explained was how to tell a reel from a jig. A reel is in 6/8 time and a fun way to remember that is to say "rashers and sausages" which has six syllables (six beats).....it really works. A jig is in 4/4 time and "Black and Decker" (four syllables) works for it.
A full moon on a dark night
and a smooth road all the way to your door.
At the third pub they asked if anyone in the audience would like to sing. Several people volunteered including our own Dave, who sang "Home Grown Tomatoes" in his best John Denver voice. I was so amazed I forgot to shoot a video.
However I did take video of Mark playing the bodhrán and lilting. Lilting is similar to what we know as "scat singing" and is sometimes called "mouth music". Instead of me trying to explain it, just watch the video.
Mark Wale playing the bodhrán and "lilting"
The stories that Mark and Trish told began to lay a foundation of how intertwined Irish culture, Irish daily life and their music are. The music isn't played just as a hobby or even as a profession. Irish music is a way to express daily events that have taken place: happy events, tragic events, historical events even life changing events. Songs have been passed down from generation to generation and become a family tradition. Many of the songs don't even have titles. They are just known by the tune or by the lyrics. In early Irish life, only priests knew how to read and write and Irish music evolved as a way to keep history alive and teach succeeding generations the stories that came before. This foundation of Irish music would be built on during future stops on our tour.
People on Rick Steves tours talk about WOW moments. Spending time with Mark and Trish and learning about Irish music and it's significance in Irish culture was definitely a WOW moment for me. I suspect there will be quite a few more of these moments as the tour progresses.
