Jaunted

St Patrick's Day Travel / Ireland Travel / Dublin Travel / → All Tags

Can't Make It to Dublin? Good News: The Book of Kells is Officially Online

If you can't make it to Ireland, here's some good news: one of the country's most famous attractions is now available for free anywhere in the world.

Trinity College Dublin announced the big news on their blog:

As part of the general celebration of St Patrick's Day at Trinity, we would like to announce that the Book of Kells in its entirety is now viewable in the Library’s new Digital Collections online repository, provided by the Library's Digital Resources and Imaging Services.

The Book of Kells transparencies, originally captured by Faksimile Verlag, Lucerne, Switzerland in 1990, have recently been rescanned using state of the art imaging technology. These new digital images offer the most accurate high resolution images to date, providing an experience second only to viewing the book in person.

Trinity College also announced that, per tradition, they are waiving admission to the Book of Kells for the St. Patrick's Day holiday. So if you are in town, take a break from the green beer and head over.

[Photo: rolled_trousers]

Airport Bars / Airports / Airport News / PBI / DTW / PDX / SEA / MCI / Drinking Travel / St Patrick's Day Travel / Booze Travel / → All Tags

Where to Celebrate St. Patricks If You're Stuck at an Airport

In case you haven’t had your eyes on the calendar this month, we’d like to remind you that St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. The time to celebrate all things green is drawing near, but don’t worry if you’re holiday plans include transiting through an airport. Thankfully airports are down with the season—especially when it comes to pre-flight beverages.

All across the country there’s plenty of pubs and bars from which to choose, and airports aren’t lacking when it comes to those with an Irish theme. Down in Florida you can swing by Rooney’s Public House on the main level of Terminal 2 at Palm Beach International Airport, so that you can enjoy a pint in the comfort of some air conditioning.

more ›

Fast Food Travel / St Patrick's Day Travel / Ireland Travel / McDonalds / → All Tags

How Irish are McDonald's Shamrock Shakes, Anyway?

Ah, the Shamrock Shake. This limited-time-only cup of swirly mint goodness is McDonald's small way of paying ode to St. Patrick's Day, but is it Irish at all?

The ingredients, pulled straight from the McDonald's official site, are listed as: vanilla reduced fat ice cream, Shamrock Shake syrup, whipped cream, maraschino cherry. Those last two are purely part of McD's serving suggestion, which we skip to save, like, 200 unnecessary calories.

Although no one official inventor of ice cream can be named, most articles on the history of ice cream agree that its origins can be traced to BC times, when it likely headed from China to Europe and found first popularity in France and Italy as "milk ice." The name only became "iced cream" when the first ice cream parlour opened in America, in New York City, in 1776. From here on, modern ice cream as we know it becomes a wholly American development, since the processes (commercial production, refrigeration, advanced recipes) were Yankee inventions.

As for mint syrup, its most popular use outside of coffee and medicine would be as an ingredient of a mint julep (in place of fresh mint). Mint juleps originated in the American south in the 1700s, right around the time ice cream was coming into its own, so their eventual cooperation in the Shamrock Shake was seemingly meant to be.

more ›

St Patrick's Day Travel / Delta / Events / SLC / → All Tags

Even the Airlines Love to Join in the Party for St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Although the daytime parades are pretty much over, the evening drinking shenanigans are just getting started around the country as people exchange their office clothes for green beads and wool sweaters.

Meanwhile over at Delta's area at Salt Lake City Airport, the gate agents are mixing it up by donning their green wigs all day and getting some Irish eyes smiling with their spirit. The picture above, posted on Twitter and retweeted by @DeltaAirLines themselves, proves that even though last weekend was a serious downer for Delta and almost every other airline flying to the Northeast during the storms, a little bit of celebration and the promise of spring does wonders to lift moods.

Related Stories:
· @heididarling [Twitter]
· @DeltaAirLines [Twitter]
· St. Patrick's Day Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: TwitPic]

St Patrick's Day Travel / Parades / Chicago Travel / Savannah Travel / Pennsylvania Travel / Events / Lists / → All Tags

The Top Three Cities for St. Patrick's Day Parades (That Aren't NYC or Boston)

Savannah's St. Patrick's Day Parade

The United State's biggest and oldest St. Patrick's Day celebration takes place on the streets of New York, but there are tons of other cities that throw similarly huge parades, complete with floats, bagpipes and tons of revelers decked out in green. It just goes to show that you don't always have to jump the Atlantic Ocean to celebrate St. Patrick's Day properly in Ireland; in fact, some US cities make a bigger deal out of the holiday than the homeland does, and we've found the Top 3.

Crack open a Guinness and see the Top 3 Cities for St. Patrick's Day (that aren't New York or Boston), after the jump!

more ›

St Patrick's Day Travel / Boston Travel / Holiday Travel / Events / Travelzoo / → All Tags

Where to Look for Travel Deals for St. Patrick's Day in Boston

It's not simply a coincidence that Boston is this week's featured destination on Travelzoo. With St. Patrick's Day on March 17 and therefore only a week left to make frantic last-minute plans for the holiday, many are getting antsy for the excuse to drink green beer and wear giant, ridiculous hats out in public.

Last week, we detailed a great package for a tour around Ireland over the holiday. But if you prefer to keep it domestic, or you just can't take enough days off of work to do Dublin, then Boston would be the the spot.

After the jump, where to find the right deal for St. Pat's in Boston

more ›

St Patrick's Day Travel / Ireland Travel / Holiday Travel / Events / → All Tags

Its Not Too Late To Tour Ireland For St. Patty's Day

Think its too late to get a cheap package deal to Ireland? Think again. Shamrocker Adventures has a special eight day St. Patrick's Day tour that begins in Dublin on Saturday, March 13. You have to find your own way there (flights not included) but once you're there, they handle everything.

The Celtic Combo Tour includes everything you could want in a St. Patty's Day tour of Ireland: there's a stop at the Blarney Stone, a tour of the Guinness Storehouse and, most importantly, plenty of time to party! The first three nights are spent in Dublin and then the tour heads west for four nights, where participants will get a taste of the Irish countryside.

more ›