Breakfast in the hotel is a bit more formal than other places we have been, with guests expected to wait to be seated and checked off the room list. There were plenty of choices including cooked-to-order eggs along with the buffet.

We walked through St. Stephen's Green to Trinity College first for the tour of the Old Library and viewing of the Book of Kells and the Book of Armagh. We entered the college grounds from the south side gate and saw a huge line of people waiting to enter the library. Rather than going straight to the end of the line, we first walked by the door to see if it was even open for business yet. As we got close, we saw that the line for Fast Pass tickets had no one in it. I had purchased tickets in advance online, and this time it made a huge difference in the length of the wait. When I walked up, one of the employees immediately took my print out of the tickets, scanned them, then ushered us inside. We were able to start the self-guided tour right away. Booking online incurred a pretty hefty fee since it was through Ticketmaster, but definitely worth it for the time savings. We paid 26 euros online rather than 20 at the door.

The building was very crowded, and we almost missed seeing the books as we saw no sign pointing them out--just a mass of people trying to get up to a table. We decided that there must be something worth seeing there so we also scrunched our way up to see both books. They are fine specimens, but seeing them was anticlimactic. It was hard to see and lots of pushing around to get into position. The tour then moved up the stairs to the Long Room which is just beautiful, but, again, had lots of people and it was hard to appreciate the ambiance with that crowd.

Leaving the college, we found the stop of the hop-on, hop-off bus and traded the voucher we bought for it for the actual tickets. They will be good for two days. It wasn't too long of a wait before one of the buses came by. We rode it to the Dublin Castle stop to see the castle and the Chester Beatty Library.

The Chester Beatty Library should be the number one attraction in Dublin, but, secretly, I am glad it is not. We had it almost all to ourselves. The Chester Beatty Library is absolutely one of the best museums I have ever seen. The exhibits are beautifully presented, and the collection is outstanding. It makes me wonder why the Book of Kells is so popular. This collection includes a Papyri collection of manuscripts and documents that dates back to 1800 B.C., thousands of Christian manuscripts dating from as early as the second century, an Islamic collection of manuscripts that is almost as big as the Christian collection, and a smaller, but just as wonderful, collection of East Asian manuscripts and artifacts. We spent a long time in this library, and it will be the first place I visit when we are able to return to Dublin. And entrance to the Chester Beatty Library was free. They accepted donations, but charged nothing.

Walking back through Dublin Castle, we returned to the stop for the bus and took it to to the Guinness Storehouse. I purchased the Dublin Pass online a few months ago and we used it for the first time at Guinness. The Fast Pass line had no one in it so we did not have to wait. However, the other lines only had a few people in each one, so it did not make a huge time difference this time. We went up for lunch first and ate at Gilroy's on the fifth floor. We both ordered a "board" lunch with several items each on it. The waiter told us that they were starters, but it seemed like enough food. We added on onion rings, too, since they have been wonderful each time we have had them. One of the items on Philip's board was cockles and mussels. That was the first time I remember having cockles.

The tour of the Storehouse was interesting. I especially liked the display of advertising including the line-up of televisions from different decades playing the commercials of each era. When Guinness was first advertised, it was promoted as a healthy drink including saying "Guinness for Strength." We saw a harp like the one used in the Guinness logo. The one at the Storehouse is about 200 years old, but it is not the original one. The original one is in the Trinity College Old Library, and we saw it there, but at the time I didn't realize it was the Guinness harp. The one on display in the storehouse has an electronic sensor panel in front of its glass container. It you move your fingers across the harp and above the sensors, it sounds like you are playing the harp.

Philip was eager to see the Guinness 9,000-year lease, too. It is mounted in the floor near the entrance. We didn't see it on the first pass and found it right before leaving. While we were there we also saw all the procedures for making Guinness, but we have been to other breweries and that process is about the same everywhere with variations in time in this or that cask and how long the ingredients are heated. They all include barley, yeast, hops and water.

We took the bus back to the closest stop to the hotel, which was on the opposite side of St. Stephen's Green from our hotel. That gave us the opportunity to walk through the park again.

For dinner and evening entertainment today, I booked tickets yesterday to the Merry Ploughboy's traditional music and dinner show. We also used their transportation which was a good idea. The pub is a twenty minute drive from the hotel, and we were picked up by a taxi that had already picked up two other groups of two. The driver was friendly and chatted and asked questions for the entire trip. He dropped us off and told us where to meet him after the show.

The show was a group of four musicians (some of them are the owners of the pub) and a group of five dancers. Both groups were great to watch. The food was not so good, but we were there mainly for the entertainment, so we were not too disappointed. It was definitely worth the time. We were joined in the taxi and at the dinner table by an American father and son celebrating his high school graduation (I forgot where they are from) and two women from British Columbia, one of whom is a travel agent. Also at the table was a couple from Bulgaria who seemed delighted to know that we have visited Bulgaria before. The show lasted until 10:30 and we were back at the hotel by 11:00.