Sorry I'm so slow about this!  I have not yet hit any "lazy days of summer" so this could take a while.  Loading this page could also take a while - there are a lot of pictures - but I think it will be worth it once they load.   

The next day was Sunday and we took the train into Dublin.  We worshiped with an inner city mission church of the Church of Ireland.  At one point, the pastor asked Tom and Dean to come forward and explain a bit about Geneva, what we were doing there, and the state of the church in the U.S. 

We really enjoyed worshiping with this diverse, international church.

We had lunch at the Epicurean Food Hall which offered a fascinating variety of ethnic foods. 

Then our walking tour began.  In the rain. 

The highlight of this day - for me, anyway - was going to Trinity College and seeing the Book of Kells.  Amazing.  Absolutely amazing. 

This is the only part of Dublin Castle which survives from the Middle Ages - this tower was built under King John's auspices.  The "Castle" now is really an elegant Georgian palace, still used for important state occasions.  More rain.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.  This is where Jonathan Swift was dean for many years and he and Stella are buried there.  Still more rain. 

Interior of St. Patrick's.  It was a bit crowded - everyone was trying to get out of the rain, I think. 

The next day, we went to Newgrange, a pre-historic temple mound.  Well, we went to the visitors' center.  We didn't have time to go out to the mound itself.  We did have time to check out a trail, though, which led across a bridge spanning the Boyne River.  You may know the Battle of the Boyne, the last big battle between William of Orange and James the Loser (that's his name, right?). 

The river looked peaceful enough this day; downright bucolic, in fact.

We stopped in Armagh to see St. Patrick's Cathedral (C of I).  The church stands where St. Patrick had his first church, where he preached. 

It is also the final resting place of Brian Boru, the first man to unite Ireland under one king.

From there, we drove up past Belfast and to Carrickfergus.

A few of us got friendly with the guards.

I made him blush.  Or maybe it was just the reflection from my coat. 

We had a little rain and a little shine for our tour of the castle.  Steven was an excellent tour guide.  He let us try on armor and hold a broadsword and cool stuff like that.  He drew the line at jousting, sadly.  I was hoping to take on my brother. 

From there, we hot-footed it back toward Belfast to meet our host families from the Trinity RPC and had a quiet evening.