Final Day in Ireland (Monday, July 29th, 2019)

Our final destination in Ireland was the Gibson Hotel in a very new section of town called The Point.  



It was formerly a warehouse district for the river ports, but now is being completely transformed.  Everywhere you look, there is construction and cranes.

It was nice to be in a different part of town than our last visit, giving us easy new territory to explore.  We walked along the river enjoying the sights and the cool breeze.  Once again, we carried our rain coats because there was a forecast of rain.

Up the river from or hotel is the Epic Emigration Museum which we all thought would be interesting to see.  Outside the Epic is the Famine Ship another museum about the famine period in Ireland's history.  The Famine Ship is pictured below.

The Epic Museum was interesting, although much more than you could really explore.  All of the exhibits were high tech and interactive, which was nice, but it also meant you had to wait at each exhibit to get to the interactive displays.

The opening exhibit was really beautiful!

A little further down the street, on Custom House Quay, in the Dublin Docklands, were the Famine Statues.  These haunting figures capture the most devastating disaster in Irish history (1845-1849).  Ireland lost more than a million people to the famine, and an additional million to emigration.  These statues were presented to the city of Dublin in 1997.  As you walk among them, you literally feel the pain of the famine victims.

Steve's brother and his wife really wanted to make it to the Temple Bar part of town, so we crossed over the Ha'penny Pedestrian Bridge.

We stopped into the Quays for a quick drink, just for the experience.

Once again, we carried our rain coats for no apparent reason.  We have been in Ireland for a total of 8 days, and have not experienced any rain.  How can this be?  

We returned to the hotel with Steve's parents so they could rest up before dinner.  We did a whopping 5 miles of walking today, although we had not planned on taking them that far.  

A few pictures of The Gibson Hotel

I thought this sign was hilarious, so I had to take a picture of it!