Traveling - Reflections

I've found that museums are generally happy to let you photograph objects...but that doesn't mean you'll get good images. Today's blog title is, of course, a little pun. Having reviewed the various substations of the National Museum of Ireland online, I determined that the Archaeology Museum was the only one likely to have things I was interested in. They had a lovely large wing of Viking-era materials, although pretty much all the textile finds were kept in rooms that were dark enough you could barely read the information cards, much less see any details. Ah well, that's what publications are for. A great deal of Celtic and prehistoric material as well. I'm fairly familiar with the Celtic era finds, though there's something to be said for standing in the same room as the Tara brooch, the Ardagh chalice, and any number of other similarly exquisite pieces. And the sheer massive volume of gold objects is impressive. I was focusing my picture-taking on the Viking-era material for *ahem* future research purposes. I stuck to just the one museum in part because my right knee has been getting very grumpy, though it settles down a bit with use. I've probably timed the end of my trip just right because I could use about a week of not much walking and few stairs. Bodies. What can you do?

Liz was in town again for her gym workout, so we met up for dinner and then a long chat about books and life and whatnot in a coffee shop afterward. I've been extremely happy with the outcome of my "visiting people" tourist plan. And now I have another day to kill but not much inclination to do a lot of walking. I can stash my suitcase at a kept-luggage office here at Trinity College until I head out to the airport hotel when I figure it's time to do that. Since this is my Thursday blog, the Friday blog will cover a very very long day of travel. I may fall back on my theoretical schedule of doing a review and tell you about the play we went to Tuesday evening. I can write that up while sitting around in airports. See you on the other side of the ocean!