First Time Driving In Ireland

Took the bus to the Hertz rent a car on South Circular road. passed some pretty doors along the way. I was worried that we would not find the right stop but eagle eye Maureen got us there safe and sound. Only about 14 blocks away from the college.

We got there around 430 so had time to get directions out of the city. They gave us this little map which made it look easy.  Just left out of the lot. left at the corner, across the bridge, turn left, follow the Grand canal past five bridges , then turn right onto the N11 which at some point turns into the M11 and your out of town. OK, sounds easy. We are packed . We are ready.  Three lefts, five bridges and a right, how tough can this be?

We exit into the street, South Circular Road and realize that everything is backwards to what we are used to.  

We are on the wrong side of the road. 

We are each on the wrong side of the car.

Maureen is driving with her left hand doing the stick shift. The traffic, which all seems to be hell bent for leather, is all driving two inches away from our vehicle on all sides. 

Maureen says" tell me how close we are to anything on your side of the car". I tell her we are too close to everything on my side of the car.  She says " I am used to having the car end at my left side and so can't quite get  where the car ends on your side" which is of course the passenger side of the car over there.

 I'm thinking "Oh great, I am going to die!" 

At one point there was a bus that pulled up beside us that was literally two inches away from my side mirror. I held my breath as he pulled away. 

We did manage to go around the correct  corner in the left lane. We did cross the bridge  and we did manage to turn left in the left lane so that we could follow the Grand Canal. 

What turned out to be a little confusing on top of everything else we were dealing with at the time was that there seemed to be too many bridges as compared to the little map that the Hertz guy gave us  and no sign for the N11. 

We saw swans. We saw people walking with carriages and people fishing and more swans. We passed six bridges and then our road kind of vanished in an odd corner turn which we took because we didn't see the sign but it seemed to be well travelled and everyone else was going that way.  That would have been Upper Leeson Street which I looked up on a map later but which we did not know at the time. We did not see any signs until we were about 15 blocks past the odd  corner. Both of us  had had at least ten heart attacks and we had, of necessity,  worked out a code by that time.

Maureen decided that my yelling TURN or MOVE OVER was not the best advice, not so useful really, she thought that maybe my just saying left or right would be best. Sometimes tis the simple things that really do work well. 

Finally a sign, but it was a bad sign as it was half covered by trees so we were in the same boat not really sure we were going the right way. Then, suddenly, there were too many signs and we were trying to drive slow enough to  find our sign and where it was pointing without stopping all traffic.  Needless to say we did find the N11  and so the M11 and bravely headed off into the Irish countryside, seekers of adventure us.

The Long Room Library

After leaving the Book of Kells we went up a grand staircase and onto an impressive landing with giant wooden doors. The doors were open   and beyond them was the Long Library.

It is the most impressive library I have ever seen. It is the only library in the world where the books are sorted by size!    All dark wood with a high vaulted ceiling.  At one end on the second floor, not accessible to the public, is the book repair area and behind that, the study area for scholars using the material from the library and another area on the opposite end is for study of the manuscripts that are kept in the basement area of the building. 

In all there are over 200,000 books and 1/2 million manuscripts.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Again no pictures are allowed to be taken so I will look for public domain pictures to give an idea of is beauty.

The construction of the original Building, designed by Thomas Burgh, began in 1712 and was finished in 1732.   After its completion the acquisition of the books which formed the foundation of the library was undertaken and it is now one of the finest collections in the world.  Of course if you had been collecting books for going on three hundred years I would expect you to have a nice collection too. the original ceiling was flat but in the 1800s it was changed to the barrel vault that is there now.

There were glass cases running down the center of the main aisle filled with books. The theme was Mysteries. There were first edtion Miss Marples, Inspector Poirots,  Sherlock Holmes, Ebenezer Scrooge and many many others. There was also murder mystery type paraphernalia.  It was all dreadfully fun and extremely interesting. 

I love libraries anyway but this one is most certainly my favorite. I really wanted to go past the ropes and pick up a volume of anything just to leaf through the pages, but I controlled myself.  I did ask about their location system . Each books dimensions are measured when it comes in to the library and it is then assigned a location based on that.  The largest at the bottom and smallest at the top. Very fun. So the only way you can get a book out is to go to the catalogues with the help of the staff and look up its location on the shelf. of course us everyday folk cannot just go and get a book out. scholars and researchers allowed only.

When we were through there we departed through the gift shop picking up t- shirts and postcards and family histories too.  A most wonderful gift shop with lots to entice.  It was raining outside so we went to the arts building and had a quick bite to eat before heading off to  Hertz to get our car. Thank goodness for umbrellas.