My 4th new country this year

We flew from London to Dublin this morning - making Ireland my 4th new country for 2008 (after Egypt, Jordan and Turkey). This is a banner year!

We're staying at the Westin Dublin, which is in a prime location across from the Bank of Ireland and Trinity College. And has very nice bathrooms (see many prior posts on my hotel bathroom fixation).






The Bank of Ireland seemed quite quiet today - despite the financial implosion, there was no bank run that I could see.








I first went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College - a beautiful illustrated manuscript of the 4 gospels dating from the 8th century.











Then I wandered around Grafton Street (the pedestrian only shopping zone) for a while. I attempted to go further but learned that the National Museum of Ireland and one of the Georgian museums that I wanted to go to were both closed on Mondays. Oh well.