Last Day in Dublin

Sunday, May 13, 2012—Dublin, Ireland

We’ve been lucky again today.  This is our third day to have sunshine.  They had rain for a month before we arrived.  We had a couple of short showers on Friday when we ducked inside for a few minutes.  Otherwise, it has been mostly sunny with occasional clouds.  Today, however, was quite windy.

Our hotel is in the embassy district.  We explored the neighborhood this morning when we went out, including the small village of Ballsbridge.  We needed to get to the other side of town, so we took a route via the National Concert Hall, through a park, by St. Audoen's Church, and via the Guinness Brewery.

Our goal was the Museum of Modern Art.  It had an exhibit of some very interesting photographs that are part of the Bank of America Collection.  The main building was under renovation, so what we could see was limited.

From there, we crossed the Liffey River to the Barracks Museum of Decorative Arts, a part of the National Museum.  It is a huge building with about half of it having exhibits of Irish decorative arts—silver, porcelain, furniture, clothing, and lots of odds and ends.  The other half had interesting exhibits about the Irish military.  I found it interesting that one section discussed Irish immigrants fighting in the US and never mentioned the Alamo.  

On the way back to the hotel, we went by the Customs House, the Convention Center with its angled glass container front, and a new theater on the waterfront where musicals are performed.

We spent the night planning for tomorrow—how we will get to the airport to pick up our rental car and where will visit on the way to Cork.  Fortunately, there is a bus stop near our hotel for an airport bus.