English

Today was a day full of cultural and educational activities. We started off with a wonderful breakfast with eggs and bacon. When everybody had their bellies full, we started the short walk toward Trinity college to visit the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is one of Europe’s greatest treasures from the middle ages. The book has been made around 800 AD by monks and is a masterpiece of western calligraphy and decorations that are very rich and colourful.

When we arrived we could immediately go inside, because we were right on time. The first part of the museum was about how the Book of Kells has been made and about the history of the book. The second room was completely dedicated to the Book of Kells itself, as it was dark with the only lighting in the middle of the room focused on the book.

After seeing the Book of Kells we went to the library on the first floor. The library was built between 1712 and 1732 and is one of the most impressive libraries in the world. It’s a room of almost 65 meters which contains more than 200,000 books. This is still a working library where students and professors still can borrow and read books for their research.
We spend almost an hour in this room watching and listening to the guard that has been working here for decades and heard the most interesting facts and stories about the library and books, including the future plans for making the library more fire safe.

When we finally came out into the sunshine it was already time for lunch. We went back to the hostel to have some bread with delicious homemade eggsalad.

After everybody was refuelled again it was time to visit Howth by train or bus to have a spectacular walk along the cliffs of Ireland. We started walking at the lighthouse on the other side of Howth and soon saw on google maps there was a hidden beach nearby. Of course, there were a few explorers that climbed down the steep stairs to have a look at the beach. The long climb down was way worth it and it was a spectacular view at the bottom of the cliffs. The beach had its own tiny waterfall that came down from the cliffs into the sea. When we were done at the beach we had to climb all the way back up, which showed who still had some conditions left after COVID. Even after the hard climb we still decided to walk all the way back to Howth along the cliffs and go back to the city for a quick snack. On our last night in Dublin, we enjoyed a few more Guinness got to see the real Temple Bar with some live music and looked back on a fulfilling last full day in this beautiful city.