Long Room Library, Trinity College Dublin

Following last year's fab trip to Madrid, the Dangerous Book Group set off this morning on its 2019 field trip, destination Dublin.

The weather today has been beautiful. This afforded great views from the plane during our flight (see the three Forth bridges in the extra), and wonderful lighting in the Long Room Library, to which we paid a visit this afternoon (as blipped).

Given that we only left Edinburgh this morning, we have already packed in a lot of fun: scrummy fish for lunch in the city centre; a private guided tour of the Book of Kells exhibition and the Long Room Library (thanks to former work connections with the Librarian); a visit to a display of Trinity College treasures laid out specially for our group (thanks again to the Librarian and two of her archivist colleagues); a warm welcome from the Director of Trinity Long Room Hub (who I happened to hear on In our time last night as I was packing for this trip); drinks in the Trinity staff club; and a delicious dinner at Brother Hubbard's.

It would be impossible for me to exaggerate how much I enjoyed my time in the company of the library staff at Trinity this afternoon. The absolute highlight for me was the time that we spent with the archivists. I would never have imagined as an undergraduate studying French theatre that one day I would come so close to one of Samuel Beckett's exercise books in which he composed text in both English and French. I feel like I have stumbled into the best academic conference ever (even though I am really just on holiday).

A couple of other blippers are also on this trip: see also today's entries from Winsford and Ridgeback13.

Exercise today: walking (23,624 steps).