May 31, 2007

We definitely had a very different holiday day today. We drove to the bike shop at University College, Dublin in Stillorgan and rented two bicycles. As part of the deal, you receive a map and a course. And so we headed off down the cycle path beside the N11 to the Ramada Hotel and turned left down to the coast. There we cycled the coastal path through a park and then along the breakwater by the railway to Sandy Cove and Blackrock village. There we passed the Royal Irish Yacht Club, the Royal St. George Yacht Club and the Irish National Yacht Club and on to the sea port. There was a very large ferry for Holyhead departing as we arrived in the port of Dun Laoghaire. We cycled to the end of the pier and back and had some fun with a sundial. You can see this on our photos. We then continued along the coast road towards Dalkey. It was about this point where I observed that the Irish Sea must be sloped as we seemed to travel most of the journey uphill and still end up at sea level after each incline. We cycled around the James Joyce Tower and into the centre of Dalkey, where we stopped and had lunch at the Queen’s Pub. Following this we continued along the Vico Road which took us around the ritzy part of town – it seemed everyone had a Mercedes. It was a very, very long steep hill. We were overtaken by a Ferrari on the way up. Apparently this is the “Beverly Hills” of Ireland and we passed houses owned by The Edge and Bono of U2, Enya and Eddie Irvine of racing car fame. We then travelled back via a slightly different route to Dalkey and Blackrock and then up the hill and back to UCD. The whole journey took from 10:30 until 3pm. Following this we travelled back into Dublin and went to Trinity College, Dublin to the old library where we saw the Book of Kells, copies of the four gospels written in illuminated script in about AD800 as well as the books of Armagh and of Mulling. Then we went for a bit of a wander around the shopping areas, before heading back to the hotel for a relaxing meal at O’Connell’s and an easy night. We are very much looking forward to meeting Aidan's cousins tomorrow evening.