Saturday: National Gallery, Hanover Quay and Temple Bar

First, let me apologise for not uploading any pictures yet and being a little slow on the posts. I'm uploading pictures today. Unfortunately, the pace of life recently has been such that it has been all I can do just to post.

Saturday started with us heading to the National Gallery. Our hotel was quite close to O'Connell Street, so there's a couple of pictures of the various monuments of O'Connell Street, including the Spire, which was added since the last time I was there. The Spire, replacing the old Nelson's column (Admiral Nelson was actually Irish) is some 120 metres tall - although I'm not sure what it actually is supposed to represent or mean. More on O'Connell Street in a later post. We also passed by the statue of Molly Malone (yes, that Molly Malone) on the way. The National Gallery is really quite compact, and if you're moderately selective, you can go through it in a very short while. My main goals were to see The Peasant Wedding by Peter Brueghel, and The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio. The Gallery also has a decent selection of Dutch works, including a couple of Rembrandts and a Vermeer. The kids weren't particularly excited at the prospect of trooping through the gallery, but I tried to point out the realisticness of the Dutch still-lifes to keep them moderately interested. Still, I've decided that although I enjoy art, I'm not the sort to sit and stare at any particular painting for hours on end.

Afterwards, we popped around to Merrion Square, which is surrounded by Dublin's famous Georgian doors, and stopped off at the playground, where Maggie befriended an Irish (or as Dalton would say, "Dublish") girl named Clare in her brief play time. The kids played for a few minutes, and then we went up to the River Liffey and hung a right to head to Hanover Quay. Hanover is where U2 currently record all their albums. Much to our chagrin, there didn't appear to be anyone there, and so Mich and the kids took the opportunity to deface the doors of the U2 recording studio. The kids were really quite funny about it, especially Dalton. I think it was just neat to them that they were writing on something outside the norm.

We hung out for a bit, and then went back towards the Liffey. On the way back, there was a spot of freezing rain. It was fairly short though, and other than being cold, we were fine. We then went and poked through Temple Bar for a bit. Temple Bar is arguably the city's centre, with a myriad of bars, restaurants, shops and galleries. We spent our time in popping in and out of a handful of music shops, before coming across the Bad Ass Cafe. The Bad Ass Cafe is best known as the place where Sinead O'Connor waitressed before becoming famous. It is also where Michelle and I had our first Guinness of the trip, and I personally think it just tastes different (read: better) in Dublin. I can also say that it was definitely one of the better meals on the trip, and at a reasonable price. The cafe also has a neat little device which hangs from the ceiling where the waiters and waitresses can place their orders in little cups, and then pull a cord, and the order goes shooting to the register. The guy at the register takes the order, and then pulls a cord to shoot the empty cup back. It's hard to describe, really, but Dalton was quite fascinated by it. And that was our day.

Next: Easter Rising (ooh, so mysterious!)