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Dublin...again: Finally we were back in Dublin after our month-long road journey around Ireland. With a day to spare we headed by bus into the city to wander around and see some of the bits we missed on the first trip through. Mostly we wanted to see the Dublin Museum with its archaeological treasures which could put together for us much of what we had seen. The building is beautiful, an ornate Victorian era pile with a high decorated dome over the entrance hall and lovely ironwork columns and rafters holding up a glass roof in the main hall. The displays were all we had hoped for: Irish history told in chronological order from Paleolithic times through the New Stone Age to the Iron and Bronze Ages. Separate halls held treasures from the Viking and Medieval Ages. In particular we wanted to see the carved macehead that was found in the large passage tomb at Knowth. A small object about 10 cm long, it is finely and smoothly carved from a piece of what looks like chert or banded agate (I'll have to look that up!). Given that it is about 6000 years old and there were no metal tools, its craftsmanship is superb. It is one of the finest objects in the world from this era. Another astonishing find now housed in the museum is a boat that was found preserved in a bog. It is made from a single, straight oak tree trunk, hollowed out with primitive stone-age tools of flint. It is 43 feet long, about 13.5 metres! Another part of the exhibition is devoted to the museum's Irish gold collection. Apparently it is the largest assemblage of gold artefacts from the Bronze and Iron Ages anywhere. Mostly jewellery, much of which would not be out of place being worn today, there are also gold bowls and boxes and the like. The best to my mind is a little gold boat about 15 cm long, complete with oars and a mast. And being my birthday (and Russ's three days ago) we hunted around for somewhere to have a good meal. We found a little French restaurant in a side street which had a menu that sounded good. Through a narrow corridor and down some steps to a basement and we were in a very cosy little space. We enjoyed a lovely meal which included our favourite mussels, this time in a white wine and leek sauce. So farewell to Dublin and to Ireland. We have covered 2600 miles (4160 km) in our campervan here, mostly on regional roads and small back roads around the coast with two forays across the inland. We have moved from the archetypal Irish lush green fields to the wild rocky west coast to the endless peat bogs to soaring mountains and cliffs. All the way we have encountered friendly locals always ready for a chat - and always they seem to have a relative in Oz or have visited, and loved, Australia ... or both. We encountered rain, wind and low temperatures almost everywhere despite this being summer - we had about 4 or 5 sunny days in total without rain! But it didn't dampen our enjoyment of the country. But as the locals remind us, you don't come to Ireland for the weather.
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Janice Gursanscky Thx Sue, your vivid description of the treasures within the Dublin Museum refreshed my memory of our visit there - totally a must.