A rugged and hauntingly beautiful place, at the westerly edge of Europe, shrouded in clichés and sometimes in mist, the wild, windswept and wonderful landscape that is Connemara.
Tag Archives: Travel
♥ Atypical Tourist
I happened upon the Happiness Project blog recently (click here), complete with its weekly suggestions for the Happiness Challenge 2011. I haven’t fully digested all that’s on it but one thing that caught my eye was the idea of becoming a tourist in your home area. Thus, I found myself in the centre of Dublin yesterday, an atypical tourist in my native city. My mission was to see the Book of Kells.
I headed to Trinity College, a university founded by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1592. Once through the main gate, I was in a world far removed from the surrounding urban cacophony; a forty acre plus site filled with cobbled quads, ancient imperious grey-stoned building, grassy squares, centuries old trees and verdant playing fields. I was not alone as there was a long snaking but fortunately swift moving queue, waiting to get access to the library building where the Book of Kells is kept (I was there just after the 12 noon Sunday opening time, it’s apparently much quieter later in the afternoon).
In case you don’t know, the 9th Century Book of Kells is an exquisitely decorated copy of the four gospels in Latin, four pages of which are on display in a dimly lit room in the library building. There is an exhibition area, with displays explaining the background to the book and related manuscripts. The €9 admission charge to see the Book of Kells includes access to the extraordinary sixty-five metre Long Room which is the main chamber of the old library. The room is high ceilinged, with to-the-rafters oak shelves holding a mass of leather-bound first editions. White marble busts of famous philosophers, writers and others who have a connection with Trinity stand sentinel along the length of the room. In the center there are display cases in which some of the Long Room’s 200,000 books lay open (the display changes every few month).
I spoke to the very helpful Ken, one of the library’s staff. In a curious circular twist of fate Ken started his working life as a bookbinder and now many years later he again has a book-centric job (in between he has had various other non-book related employments). He loves his work in the library, especially the opportunity to meet and talk to people from all over the world. He has met the great and the good; Bruce Springsteen and Al Pacino visited separately on the same day, Ken says his fifteen-second claim to fame was asking Al Pacino to leave (nothing Al did, just that the fire alarm went off when he was there). A particular highlight for Ken was watching the Queen visit the Long Room on her recent trip to Ireland.
When I left Trinity’s grounds I headed to have a tourist-y Sunday brunch of a full Irish Breakfast before visiting the National Gallery (more about that in another post).
♥ More about Bath
As a teenager I was much addicted to reading the romantic novels of Georgette Heyer and in early adulthood I fell in love with Jane Austen’s works, so when I was in Bath last week it made perfect sense to make a beeline for the Assembly Rooms in the Upper Town. The rooms were at the heart of fashionable Bath society in bygone centuries; Georgette Heyer’s heroines, Jane Austen (when she lived in Bath) and characters in her Bath novels (Northanger Abbey and Persuasion) visited the rooms to dance, listen to music, play cards or drink tea.
The elegant rooms are on view to the public but as they are empty except for a few pieces of furniture and the splendid chandeliers, it was difficult to imagine what they were like back in the day when, candles flickered after dark, young women were chaperoned in public places and Beau Nash ruled society in Bath.
Bath’s Fashion Museum is housed in the lower ground floor of the Assembly Rooms and when I visited there were two special exhibitions on, the first Dressing the Stars (until 29th August) which showcases the work of British costume designers who have won Academy awards and the second The Enduring Romance of the Wedding Dress (until the end of the year) in celebration of this year’s Royal Wedding. While the exhibitions at the Fashion Museum in Bath may lack the lustre of the set pieces put on by major museums, I nonetheless spent a good two hours happily viewing them and the museum’s permanent collection. The permanent collection has clothes and accessories dating from the 17th century to the present day. (The pictures above show costumes from The Duchess and the dresses worn by the actresses who played the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in The King’s Speech)
The outfit I would most liked to have walked away in, came from the contemporary section of the permanent collection, it was a very wearable high-low mix of a vintage Chanel jacket worn with chinos and a white blouse from The Gap, accessorized with a Mulberry bag.
After my visit to the Assembly Rooms I strolled to the magnificent perfectly proportioned Royal Crescent where I stopped to have tea and homemade biscuits in the sunlit garden of the Royal Crescent hotel.
I am sad as I write this, as the television is on in the background and I am listening to news and discussion about the violence, rioting and looting in parts of England over the last three days. It’s very difficult to take in, in total contrast to the serene England I saw a week ago and a shocking reminder of the lurking darkness that can cast gloomy shadows around the heart of any civilized society.
.
♥ Postcard from Bath
A slideshow – Roman history, honey coloured stone Georgian buildings, adjacent hills, a mix of museums, the ghostly presence of Jane Austen, all part of the magnificent mélange that is the beautiful stately city of Bath.
♥ Coffee in Dublin//Two: The Merrion Hotel
Walk for a couple of hundred yards in central Dublin and you will inevitability pass a couple of cafés. The quality and the price of the cup of coffee on offer will be variable. In almost all cases you will have to linger as you wait patiently for your turn for service and hope that there will be a table free by the time your reach the head of the queue.
Just Add Attitude
Just Add Attitude 