Amazingly, some of us weren’t interested in a 20 km walk yesterday, so we split up for the day. While we were walking in the park, J & D explored the Viking/Medieval area of Dublin. I mentioned earlier that we were staying in Temple Bar, but I discovered this isn’t quite right.  We are actually just outside of Temple Bar, in the Viking/Medieval area. This area has buildings like this Norman church with it’s distinctive steeple.  It’s something we instantly recognize from the time we lived in England, though the boys were too young to remember it.

There was even a small section of the original Dublin city wall – a very small section, as it turns out.

As you walk around Dublin you often see brass plaques in the sidewalk related to some aspect of Dublin history. It appears these are designed to help you with self guided walks.  Not surprisingly, in this area they mainly relate to the Vikings. This one shows the wattle and daub construction technique of that era.

Here is one that commemorates the Viking age, and shows a typical dwelling of the time.

And to go along with the plaque, the floor plan was laid out in the paving stones. This was something we had learned about when we toured the archeology museum.

This is the sort of thing that we enjoy doing when we travel – just wandering around getting a feel for the character of the city.