Dublin Day Two - Museums

We had a nice breakfast at our hotel that included lots of meats and Irish pudding. It was something different. We will still wearing the same clothes from the trip because our bags had not arrived yet but they told us they were now in London. 

We took the LUAS light rail train from The Point station outside our hotel to the Abbey Street station using our Leap Card which apparently we did not use properly.  First we walked around the O'Connell Street area which was kind of seedy and a little underwhelming. It was an area undergoing renovation and transformation. One of the things we realized was that as Great Britain has been leaving the European Union many international companies have been moving their European headquarters to Dublin including a lot of tech companies. You could see all the construction going on and the young people from around the world living in these areas under development.

We eventually walked across the O'Connell bridge and into the Temple Bar neighborhood where we explored around there for a while. We walked further into the neighborhood and then through the campus of Trinity College to the museum area. We went into the National Gallery of Art where we saw some important pieces of art that Becky was excited about.

After the art museum we went to the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of Archaeology. Both of those museums had fascinating collections of old and dusty objects and displays of curiosities. There were many ancient objects of Ireland including Paleolithic relics along with Bronze Age and many gold works and art from the Viking era. There were many interesting objects that had been buried in bogs for centuries. There were very well put together and displayed collections in both of those museums.

We also briefly stepped into the National Library of Ireland to check it out. There was a lot to see in that building but we were very tired at that point. We walked back up to the LUAS rail line and tool the train back to our hotel area. There was a pizza place down the street from the hotel where we stopped for some late lunch. Ruby's Pizza & Grill Point Square. It was OK, not great but we were tired and hungry and it was right next to the hotel. 

We went back to the hotel and still no bags. I called the airlines and while I was on the phone talking with a rep the bags were delivered to our room. Such a relief.

Our friend Eileen contacted us and said she just arrived in Dublin and was staying at an airbnb down in the Temple Bar area. She wanted to meet us. We knew she was planning to be in Ireland at some time near when we would be there so the message wasn't a complete surprise but still exciting.

The hotel wanted to clean our room so we went down to the lobby and had some coffee and tea. Then back upstairs to a clean room. We slept for a while, showered and then we were able to change into some clean clothes. Nice.