Day Twenty-Eight – Saturday, 9 June 2012

Dublin - Rosslare

Accommodation – Marilanne B&B

Temperature – mid teens to 19degrees late afternoon

Weather – overcast to sunshine late afternoon

Our last full day in Ireland and halleluiah…..it was not raining so we headed into the city to see the gardens:  St Stephen’s Square and Merrion Square.  St Stephens’s garden is quite formal with a lake and several central fountains.  Merrion Square features more large trees and bushes however there is a central formal area with gardens and the newly turned dirt looked ready for some spring planting.  Oscar Wilde’s statue (1854 – 1900) sits on a rock in one corner and a bust of Michael Collins is near one of the entrance gates.  In the gardens is the National Memorial to members of the Defence Forces who died in the service of the state.  It is a glass pyramid enclosing four defence personnel, guns lowered, facing the eternal flame.

Pretty amazing!  The Natural History Museum is a reflection of the times.

The Natural History Museum (opened in 1875) is only a little way up the road from Merrion Gardens so we took the opportunity to visit what is known colloquially as The Dead Museum.  It is like visiting the set of the film Night at the Museum.  In the nineteenth and early twentieth century animals were collected and stuffed from all over the world.  It is probably one of the quirkiest museums I have visited and wandering among stuffed giraffes, hippopotamuses, zebras, wolves, sloths, gorillas and so on I couldn’t help but take a lot of photos.  There were also numerous skeletons including the very large extinct Irish deer and an elephant!  Over all the walls were trophies of stuffed deer, goats, zebra, and boars.  A large glass case shows kangaroos, the extinct Tasmanian tiger, platypus and a  ‘koala bear’!  The original labels describe all the animals.

After that interesting interlude in our day we walked around the corner to the National Art Gallery where a major exhibition of its important works was being held.  The exhibition was well organised with works from 1400 religious icons to early twentieth century works.  Works by Titian, Velazques, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Goya, Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso (two paintings) among many other artists were featured. 

As the weather remained dry we crossed the road and entered Trinity College to see what it looked like on a clear day.  Interestingly, the crowds were fewer than yesterday.

Stuffed birds!

Trinity College on a clearer day!

So after a day of parks, a museum and a gallery we had to pack up and leave Dublin for Rosslare for the night ready to catch the ferry in the morning.

As we drove out of Dublin the sun suddenly appeared……oh, Dublin – perhaps I will see you in sunshine one day!

It was a two and a half hour drive to Rosslare and we had sunshine all the way.  Our B&B was adequate but cold and I needed a hot water bottle (claiming the only one!).

We enjoyed a pub meal across the road and as Irish luck would have it there was a band playing - bagpipes and stringed instruments.  As well there were three dancers who entertained the crowd.  It was a great way to end our tour of Ireland.

PS:  photos to come....internet on the ferry was a tad slow!