Hard to believe this was our last day! We'll try not to get all emotional ;)
I should also note that as I start to type this, it is 12:01am the day we fly home, and our cab to the airport arrives in seven hours, twenty nine minutes~
The morning started with intermittent rain, but our plan all along was to hop from gallery to gallery and have a rather artsy day. You will note a lack of the usual photographs because there is no photo taking allowed in 90% of our stops today, although I managed to sneak one or two. Our first two stops were just around the corner from the hotel at the National Photography Archive followed by the Dublin Gallery of Photography. Between the two we saw a broad spectrum of photographs from early era scenes and portraits to modern collections. The elder photos in the archives were wonderfully artistic from an era that is typically associated with stern faces and posed portraits. The photos in the Gallery of Photography were more modern and the theme in the main display halls was portraiture of the elderly, especially centenarians who's detailed portraits were some of the most emotional works I've ever seen.
Sarah also found herself a new toy; a small cheapo camera that uses old school 35mm b&w film to take half sized (ie two narrow shots per frame) photos that is really neat! Never seen anything like it at home. This is the reason why a lot of the actual photos above are rather goofy today, as I had full control of the digital.
Our next stop was the National Gallery of fine art that is split in to three main sections; the first showcasing famous(?) Irish artists who were not Jack Yeats, the second was a wing dedicated to Jack Yeats, and the final wing housed works from dutch, french and spanish masters and works by Brueghel t.y., Rubens, J.L.David, Vermeer and Rembrandt were of special note. Caravaggio's "The taking of Christ" c.1602 was the star attraction and very imposing at four by six feet+ in size.
The final shop was the museum of archaeology. The museum itself is a wonderful old building, and some pieces we saw have been on display in the museum for over a hundred years! The 'walk' is laid out in such a way that you pass through the entire history of Ireland from paleolithic tools dating back to ~400 000 BC through the bronze and iron ages and early kingdoms, the age of Viking invasion and settlement and through the middle ages. The amount of preserved tools, cloths/shoes, jewellery and even bodies on display dating back some four to six thousand years was jaw dropping. Most artifacts were found either during the excavation of building sites within Dublin city (mainly the viking pieces) or simply happened upon at random from harvesting the peat bogs. Can't imagine cutting peat bricks and pulling up a 5000.yo corpse with gold jewellery and other trappings.
I will spare the details of what we ate and when, but I will note that in the evening we made one last stop for a few at The Temple Bar, namesake of the entire district. We arrived early enough to manage two stools near the stage where two very talented locals duelled guitar against banjo to an increasingly loud crowd. The interior of the bar is just as impressive as its street presence, and by the time we walked by again late at night for some photos you could barely squeeze in the door. I don't believe there are fire codes in Ireland.
We stayed about as long as we could, and as I said we walked the streets after dark a bit before returning to our room to retire for the night, and put the final words to this adventure. I don't expect to post a blog tomorrow so this is the wrap-up I suppose.
Thank you all for reading! We've gotten a lot of feedback and its great to hear from so many friends and family back home. We never really felt homesick because we felt very connected to everyone via the blog and our intermittent ability to check facebook etc. Oh what an age we live in. We would both like to take this opportunity to truly thank you for all your love and support, help and good wishes while we were enjoying this amazing honeymoon!!
See you all very soon~
With love from Sarah & Alex
Go Raibh Maith Agaibh!
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