Day 13 (Monday) Dublin, Ireland

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Hello from Dublin. We were not scheduled to arrive until about 10:00 this morning, so we got to sleep in and then have a nice sit-down breakfast in the dinning room. We arrived as scheduled and we got to watch “the docking” this time. The port of Dublin is a major commercial facility with the piers surrounded by large areas of containers stacked 3 or 4 high. It is far different from Cobh (not picturesque at all) where we were within easy walking distance of the shops in town.

Today was definitely a long sleeve day. Yesterday’s sky was called over cast but today was definitely cloudy (more than just overcast) and there was a strong breeze blowing all day. The temperature only got to the mid 50s, so jackets were also needed for the shore excursion. Early on it looked like it might rain too, but happily that didn’t happen at all. Anyway, it appears we certainly have lost our swimming pool weather.

Today we had a small conflict with Queen Elizabeth. Tomorrow is supposed to be the first visit by a British Monarch in about 100 years, and the local Garda (police) have been implementing many security steps in preparation. As a result, one of the places we were supposed to visit (Trinity College and the museum which contains the Book of Kells) was closed to us. And some of the roads were closed which apparently caused problems for the bus driver to get us where we were supposed to go. But it all worked out well eventually. Also Barack Obama is coming in a few more days (glad we will miss the commotion he causes), so the security will only get stricter.

We did not have to meet our group until 1:30 so we had time for a light lunch before leaving. We even filched a couple of cookies in case we got hungry during the tour. We got loaded on our bus which drove us around the dock area before taking us into town to the Liffey River. On the way, the guide explained that Captain Bligh (of the Bounty Fame) had surveyed Dublin Bay and recommended building a causeway to be installed somewhere. As a result, the sands shifted resulting in a deeper channel for the sailing ships and starting the process to reclaim a large tract of land from the sea (much of the port facilities today are on that land).

Our first major event was boarding a sightseeing boat for a cruise up the river. This gave us a view of some of the city without being in the traffic. We saw the original Ha'penny Pedestrian Bridge (built more than 100 years ago to replace a ferry and charging pedestrians ½ penny to cross the river), the rebuilt Georgian Custom House (very fancy place that was built for England to collect customs duty on shipping, but was burned down in the 1922 revolution and subsequently rebuilt as a museum), an Irish Navy ship (one of five in their navy – supposed to be the smallest navy of any country in Europe), and a bridge which swings sideways to allow traffic to pass rather than being raised and lowered like more conventional bridges. Anyway, it was fun and we learned a lot about Dublin from that tour.

Then we were back on the bus for the land portion of our tour. We saw some of the same things but much more. We did drive past Trinity College but could not stop. Instead we had an hour tour of St Patrick’s Cathedral, which previously had been planned as a drive-by. St Patrick’s was founded in 1190 and the cathedral stands on the spot where St. Patrick supposedly made his first Irish converts to Christianity in the 5th century. At some point in the past it has changed from a Catholic church to the Church of England. That is also where Jonathon Swift is buried. This might have been a more interesting tour than wandering through a museum anyway. Afterwards we continued our drive through the city center. We saw O'Connell Street (their main drag) but could not go up because of the royal visit. We went past the Custom House by land and saw the elegant 18th century Georgian architecture. We drove through the shopping district, saw the statue of Molly Malone several times, past numerous landmarks, and our bus arrived back at the ship just in time for dinner.

Only one other couple showed up at our table for dinner, but it was nice to have a simple discussion for the day. Janet had tilapia and David had chateaubriand. For the evening show we decline to go to the Elton John impersonator and saw a movie called The Company Men instead. It was kind of depressing. We were able to retrieve our passports after the movie but the cash machine was out of British Pounds, so we will have to deal with that somewhere in Scotland. Since tomorrow is an early day we retired a little early.

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Photos

Guiness Draft
Two huge beer taps

St Patrick's Cathedral
Dublin Ireland

Ha'penny Bridge
First pedestrian bridge across river - original toll of 1/2 penny

Molly Malone Statue
Dublin Ireland