Greetings from Sunny Dublin!

I'm told the weather today is an anomaly. The locals say you can tell the weather by looking over at the Wicklow mountains. If you can see them, it is going to rain. If you can't, it is already raining. But today is lovely and sunny with cool temps and scattered clouds. Perfect!

There is a rugby match on today between Ireland and France and it is consuming the city. The bus into town was full of Ireland supporters in Green and White and their French counterparts in blue berets. France is favored, but they are an uneven team and Ireland has been playing strong. It may be over now, but I haven't heard the final score. It was 11-9 Ireland last I heard. I hope that held. Go Ireland!

Did my first sweep of Dublin today. Did the hop on hop off city bus tour with live continuous commentary. Learned that Dublin was named by the Vikings ("Duvlina" or "deep pool" for where the rivers met.) and that Jonathan Swift, who wrote "Gulliver's Travel's" raised and bequeathed money to found St. Patrick's Psychiatric Hospital. He wrote a poem about it "I'm glad to give what I had/ For Fools and those that are Mad". It goes on but his heart was in the right place, because he insisted that the people they helped be treated as patients and not criminals, as was the standard of the day. Went through the Guinness brewery yard and you could smell the hops in the air. All in all a lovely tour.

The absolute highlight though was Trinity College and the book of Kells. I'm here on the off season so it wasn't packed like I'm told it is usually. They had a wonderful display taking about the Book of Kells and other books from the period that are not as big and richly decorated such as the book of Mulling. The had four open books, two of them containing folios from the book of Kells. It was gorgeous! So intricate, it must have been done with the tiniest quills and brushes made of a single hair. Such colors! And celtic knots! Wonderful!

Trinity college itself is a little breath of fresh air and quiet in the midst of the big city. Completely closed in by high walls and buildings it has several of it's own squares of grass and flowers and a mix of modern and old buildings. Lovely.

Well my hour is up here at the internet cafe and I don't want to pay for another one so I'll sign off. Take Care! Pray this good weather holds!