Ireland Travel Log Day 10

Today dawned with the sun shining. It looks like this will be the brightest day of the vacation. Same routine as yesterday, breakfast then the bus to continue exploring Dublin.

Our first stop is St. Stephen's Green Park. It is 22 acres of park in the middle of Dublin town. There are four entrances on each side and each has a different sculpture or look to it. We wandered aimlessly through the park, enjoying the quiet and beauty of it all.

Next stop is the National Art Gallery. They offered free audio tours of the museum, and of course we took them up on it. They were doing some construction on the museum, so part of it was closed. What was open was divided into two sections: masters from Europe and master from Ireland. We walked through Ireland first, and they had a special exhibit being displayed. They had taken quotes from James Joye's The Dubliners, and matched them with appropriate paintings. After walking through, we started the audio tour of Europe. About half way through, it was lunch, so we made our way to the cafe in the museum. After a quick meal, we finished the audio tour and hit the gift shop. This was the first day of the vacation that I actually purchased something (for those of you who don't know, I am all about buying useless crap on vacations). There was a painting in the Irish exhibit that I couldn't stop looking at, so I found a print of it at the gift shop. "Opening the Sixth Seal" by Francis Danby (1793-1861). I also got a copy of the The Dubliners for three euro since I haven't read it and I thought it would make nice reading on the long flight home.

After the museum, I wanted to shop at the different family crest shops. I was looking for info on my father's side for the name Stackpole. Unfortunately, none of the shops had anything in stock for the name. But we did find one that could get the history online, and gave us his card so I could the info when I got back home. So a partial success!

The last stop of the day is the Leprechaun Museum. I was looking forward to it, but it wasn't exactly what I hoped. It was mainly for children, and the stuff for adults was only at night, when the stories took a darker turn. It was still fun though, and we learned a little bit of history and heard a couple of good stories while there.

After a great day of walking and enjoying the lovely weather, we head back to the hotel for dinner and packing. We get most of our gear ready for our flight out tomorrow and then head to bed for our final night in the Emerald Isle.