Imagine a set of the Gospels, hand written in the 700’s a.d. and treasured and trashed in the subsequent years to finally arrive at Trinity College, Dublin for me to see!  The artistic and dedicated monks beautifully illustrated each gospel: Matthew as a writer, Mark as the lion, Luke as the calf, and John as the eagle. In the meticulous transcription sometimes a mistake would be made on the vellum at which time the chagrined monk drew a picture on top of it.  The colors are vivid and the painting is intense and meaningful. Just like viewing the Declaration of Independence, you know what you’ll see but it’s worth standing in line to be able to say you saw the real thing!  (sorry, no photos were allowed, but do google it!)

There’s always that tour group member who is rather obnoxious, loud, attention grabbing, and needs more than their share of the  spotlight. You can try  to ignore them but it’s better to try to befriend them ( you don’t want to get on their bad side!) I found if I made up a name for them that suited them, it would help me take them with a grain of salt. This trip we got to know “Cheezy” (because she was so ‘grating’) I asked our tour director, Sheila, how she handled this type, alluding to the person in  question.  She said she usually said the ‘Serenity Prayer” and with this person…4 or 5 times!

You can’t guarantee the the weather in Ireland. On what was to be the most picturesque day on the tour of the whole trip… around the Kerry peninsula, we were fogged in but for a few minutes when I took this photo. Just before, we had driven through a rainbow but my camera wasn’t at the ready. Didn’t catch that leprechaun either.

The Cliffs of Moher are on the west coast of Ireland and are the result of retreating glaciers shearing off the rock as the ice age receeded. They are pretty dramatic and every tour bus in the world was visiting the cliffs when we were. It was incredibly windy; we saw several people blown to their knees. We actually needed each other for balast. Gratefully, the new and improved visitor center has put in railings, stairs and other protective measures so tourists won’t do something stupid.

watch out Michael Flatley

Grand Circle Tours does a good job of getting you to interact with the locals. Today we had lunch in a private home in groups of 8 and a few nights ago we had a lively Irish evening with singing, clapping, jokes and fun-filled banter. Some talented dancers did some folk dancing and got a volunteer from the audience. His feet never touched the ground…because he was never on the right foot!