Wednesday: around Dublin Town

Today was spent in and around Trinity College. It was a nice day with a morning ahower. In other words, nothing too exciting. However, we cannot say that for our friend, and Chris's colleague, Rico.

He flew out of Toronto yesterday and everything went well until he arrived in Dublin this morning to discover that his luggage was "lost" (and note that I did not say "late" because as of 9 pm this evening it still hadn't shown up -- and the airline had not been able to locate it. We will fill you in tomorrow to let you know if and when it does show up).

Chris, feeling sorry for Rico, took him out for a nice cappuccino. Meanwhile, I went wandering around town stopping to see some other parts of town that I hadn't yet visited. In one of the shops I came across "Spuddy" dolls. (Keep in mind the Irish love of potatoes):

After my walkabout town, I stopped by Trinity College to visit Chris. We then wrestled our way into the campus giftshop to pick up a couple of TCD teeshirts. (We will model them for you later.)

Chris then returned to her office and I went to the National Museum of Ireland -- Natural History.

The locals call it the "dead zoo" because of all the stuffed animals. The lower level houses animals indigenous to (in and around) the island:

It was interesting but felt very late-19th and early-20th century.

Later this evening we met up with Rico (whose luggage still hadn't arrived) and went to Lorraine's office where she took the three of us back to her home on the outskirts of Dublin for a wonderful home cooked meal. And after a month of traveling and eating out constantly, it was really great to have a delicious home cooked meal, great company, and a stmulating conversation!!!

On the ride back to our hotels, the cab driver (Donley) had his radio on while we all listened to the final minutes of the Euro 2016 soccer game between Ireland and Italy. The Irish won with a goal during the last minute of play. You could hear people cheering all over the city and car drivers laying on their horns -- including our driver. Donley was in such a good mood that he turned off his meter and gave us a price break. It is now more than two hours later and people are still driving around town blowing their horns and cheering. Whew-hoo!!

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