tirsdag, oktober 27, 2009

Guided tours galore

We all arrived in Dublin yesterday, safe and with lots of sound. Equiped with a ukulele, our musical needs were met, and in the light drizzle our rented bus took us to our hotel in downtown Dublin, a stone's throw from river Liffey, which runs through the city and divides the residential North from the touristic South (guess which side we spend our days.)

Today we will attempt quite a feat: Three guided tours in the course of one day! At the time of writing we have completed two, with one to go. It started this morning with a bus ride through the city out to the prison of Kilmanhaim gaol (old spelling of "jail"), a prison that closed down in the 1920s, but nevertheless played a large part in the history of Ireland. During the gruesome famine in 1847-48, people preferred the jail because at least there they would get a meal. At that time, the prison built to house 200 people held 7000 prisoners! Shocking. " We also witnessed the spot in the courtyard where 14 leaders of the Easter rising in 1916 were executed. A terrible beauty is born!" (From the poem EASTER 1916 by Yeats that we studied in class.)

Our second guided tour did perhaps not conjure up quite such evocative images, but we wandered around Dublin and learned about history - from Trinity college to City Hall and Dublin castle.

The third (and voluntary) tour today will be a musical tour where two musicians guide us through the Irish musical heritage and show us traditional instruments. Maybe we'll surprise them with a little ukulele.

Tomorrow we are going to Belfast in Northern Ireland to continue our attempt of making the world record in guided tours...

Everyone is on their best behavior and things are running smoothly!

Feel free to comment and send greetings and questions here on the blog!




Is Mikkel paying attention or is he practising for the "cartoon face of the year"-award?


In the main hall of the prison, which we also recognize from the movie IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER.

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