Dublin

A few days ago we left Crosshaven. We went to a couple of anchorages over the course of two days. I was having a great time, finally coastal cruising for the first time in over one hundred days. In one place, Daddy realized that if we did not do a big hop, we could be stuck in one place for a week. That same evening, we left the anchorage in Dumore East to do one hundred mile hop. After sailing overnight and into the next day,  we arrived here in Dun Laoghaire (A Gaelic word, pronounced, Dun-Leerie) Twice, we have taken the train into Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Here are the highlights of the visits:

We had been recommended a few museums in Dublin. One was The  National Gallery of Ireland. It was full of art, from all times and eras. The four of us were given audio tour guides. They were devices that gave commentary about some of the art work. At some paintings, we could listen to the story of the painting: the artist's meaning and intention but also the narrator would sometimes point out the shading or coloring to help the viewer appreciate the piece more. 

This is a painting made out of water colors! The detail and precision is amazing.

The next stop was the Little Museum of Dublin. There were several small rooms, each with walls covered with photographs, old posters, and other things like that. We had a tour, with some other people. The tour guide was hilarious, making jokes and presenting the ideas excellently. He worked through the rooms pointing to the things on the wall and explaining the meaning and story behind them. Through the objects and photos, the history and story of Dublin was laid out, dating from 1900 to basically now. There was also a room dedicated to U2. U2 is a famous Irish band that we listen to often on Sila. It was an interesting, fun museum. 

The next day, we went to the Natural History Museum. It was not what I was expecting but instead was two full floors that were full of animals stuffed, and propped up. There were hundreds of them from a whole wall of birds, to any hoofed animal you can imagine, large animals like the rhinoceros and two giraffes, and a flying squirrel- my personal favorite. The museum was a little depressing though, because hundreds of animals were killed and stuffed. I thought on the bright side. At least it was a symbol of the era of big game hunting that had passed. It was still cool to see the animals.

This is me standing in front of a wild boar. In my favorite comic books, Asterix, the two main characters are always eating wild boar and making it look delicious.

 This is an American beaver. I took this picture because I thought he was cute

 Here you can see an Indian Elephant with the heads of many types of ungulates on the wall above.

 This is a giraffe skeleton

 And here is a stuffed one

 This is a flying squirrel. I took this picture because Porter uses the word squirrel as a curse when playing cards especially.

 I took a bunch of pictures in the museum, including this one of a wolf, to show the variety of animals on display.

 This silly looking guy is from Australia

Of course we took this picture because seeing bison bison always makes us think of Poppy, my grandfather, who used to have a bison ranch in northern Michigan

On both days, we also just walked around Dublin. I really enjoyed that time because it was good family time and I enjoy walking around a city. It is nice to get a break off the boat and explore, even if there is no set destination. - JackRabbit