I am so impressed with the customer service I have received here at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin. I casually mentioned last night to the concierge that I had a missing bag. He insisted that I give him the tracking number from the airline and he and his colleagues then called the airline every hour last night until my bag was found and delivered to my room. Disaster averted!
This is why Four Seasons Hotels are preferred partners of Virtuoso and why I can always guarantee every client of mine will be treated in exactly the same way every time they visit a Four Seasons Hotel around the world.
Day 2 - Highlights:
We visited Trinity College today and viewed the Book of Kells.
The Book of Kells is celebrated for its lavish decoration. The manuscript contains the four Gospels in Latin based on a Vulgate text, written on vellum (prepared calfskin), in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular majuscule".
The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location.
It has been on display in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin from the mid 19th century, and attracts over 500,000 visitors a year. Since 1953 it has been bound in four volumes. Two volumes are on public view, one opened to display a major decorated page, and one to show two pages of script. The volumes are changed at regular intervals.
We then visited St Patrick's Cathedral.
Built in honor of Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral stands adjacent to the famous well where tradition has it Saint Patrick baptized converts on his visit to Dublin.
A church was built on this site in 1191 and in 1991 we celebrated 800 years of worship. The present building dates from 1220. The Cathedral is today the National Cathedral for the Church of Ireland (Anglican).
Jonathan Swift of "Gulliver" fame was dean of and is buried in the cathedral.
Jonathan Swift of "Gulliver" fame was dean of and is buried in the cathedral.
We then had lunch outside of Dublin at Howth in a very interesting pub called the Bloody Stream. Apparently a battle with the Normans was fought here in the 1100's, and well you can imagine how the place got its name.
History of The Bloody Stream
On the 10th of August 1177, during the 2nd Norman Invasion of Ireland, Sir John de Courcy’s expedition arrived off Howth. Unable to leave his ship, the command was taken over by Sir Almeric Tristram, said to be a descendant of Sir Tristram, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. A great battle ensued against the Danes, who were then in occupation on Evora Bridge, over a stream; afterwards known as the Bloody Stream. During the construction of this public house, we found that the Bloody Stream runs directly under these premises. Having fought a constant battle with the stream flooding the bar, we decided to make peace with it, hence the name, The Bloody Stream.
Tonight we are going to have Indian food at a restaurant called Jaipur. We love Indian food and any time we travel to a city with a large Indian community we always find a great authentic meal. This is something to remember when you are traveling in Europe. So many European powers had colonial outposts during the 19th and 20th centuries you will inevitability find great ethnic cuisine representing those countries, like Indian in England and Vietnamese in France.
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