Kate & Silas

Dublin! Book of Kells at Trinity College, then the Guinness factory? museum? distribution center? whatever. This is a photo of Old Library at Trinity that I took before Ben told me I wasn’t allowed to take photos. They have a copy of every book ever published in Ireland.

Last photo - monastery ruins.

The Cross of the Scriptures was carved around 900 and is decorated with biblical scenes. This photo doesn’t provide a sense of perspective, but it’s really tall. Definitely taller than I am.

As you can imagine, there were plenty of crosses.

We drove to Dublin today, stopping at Clonmacnoise, a monastery founded in the 500s. Ben says he’s monasteried out, but this was my first in Ireland and I loved it. Lots of interesting history on the early Christian church in Ireland (plus Vikings! Such assholes to those poor monks, though the English and even local Christians weren’t much better. Haters gon hate.). I took lots of photos so I’ll post a few.

The view from my room at Ballynahinch Castle.

We drove up the west coast of Ireland today and are staying in Galway tonight. On our way, we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. AMAZING. My sad iPhone photos do not do them justice. 700 foot drop, 5 miles long. It’s where the Cliffs of Insanity scenes were filmed for The Princess Bride.

Lion at entrance to Ballyseede Castle, our hotel for the past two nights. (Taken with instagram)

Later on in the Ring when we were up in the mountains. It looks like the American West up there, plus a few thousand sheep.

Toured the Ring of Kerry today, a 120 mile scenic loop. This is early on in the Ring.