Wednesday – August 23, 2017
I slept well last night. Perhaps after 19 days on a ship I’m finally getting used to the sounds and constant movement? Yesterday, we crossed the English Channel and cruised from the Netherlands, around the southern tip of Great Britain and arrived in Dublin, Ireland early this morning. The passenger ships sail right up the Liffey River and dock in the commercial port of Dublin.
I was surprised to look out this morning and see container ships being off loaded by gigantic cranes. We had another sunny day to explore a new-to-us city. Perhaps it would have been raining in all the ports we visited on this cruise if I had not brought rain gear and sweaters. :-)
Barbara, the location guide, recommended taking a shuttle bus into the center of the city. She said it was a thirty minute ride. It turned out to be a forty minute ride but only because of the extremely slow traffic. The distance to the port was not that far. We could have walked it in thirty minutes. As a matter of fact, I could see the modern Samuel Beckett Bridge from our stateroom but we would have had to walk through the busy commercial area of trucks, trains, and construction. So, it was worth the $20 each fare.
Riding into the city of Dublin on top of a double decker bus gave us a chance to look around. Dublin is a very big city with much traffic and a lot of construction. People were walking to work and there were many tourists all over. Cars drive on the left and they don’t stop for pedestrians. The city is a hodge podge of architectural styles, not many high rise buildings, but a lot of pubs.
The shuttle bus left us off near Merrion Square which was a lovely park. We passed the rock with a stone statue of Oscar Wilde in a lounging position. He had lived in the house on the corner for about twenty years of his life.
Jeff wanted to see the Trinity College Library because he read it had an historic collection in a photogenic space, so we walked a short distance to the college. We were surprised to see a very long line of people waiting to buy tickets to see The Book of Kells. We weren’t interested in seeing the book, just the library, but everyone had to purchase tickets to enter the library and see the famous book. We decided that it wasn’t worth the wait so we continued toward Dublin Castle.
We didn’t particularly want to visit the castle although it was interesting to see it from the outside. We wanted to visit the Chester Beaty Library which is next to the castle. Beaty was an American mining engineer who had amassed a huge collection of books, prints, and manuscripts which he donated to the city of Dublin. The current exhibition was “The Art of the Book” which displayed ancient hand-made books from around the world. There was also a special exhibit of the Japanese Art of Friendship: Surimono prints. These were short poems with illustrations which people exchanged as expressions of friendship. They were incredibly beautiful.
Afterwards we walked to the Temple Bar district. This was a small district of narrow streets and alleyways filled with pubs and restaurants and thousands of tourists! The buildings were colorfully decorated and the pubs looked very inviting. It must be a lively neighborhood after dark. It was one o’clock and we were ready for lunch so we stopped in a pub called the Auld Dubliner. We chose that one from among the others because the music sounded appealing. A man played a guitar and was singing Irish songs. Unfortunately, after a short while he switched to American folk songs and country music. Maybe he was trying to appeal to the patrons?
I had a pear cider (Swedish brand – my favorite) and Jeff had a half-pint of Guinness. Jeff said he didn’t like Guinness beer but had to try it because Barbara said it tasted different in Dublin because it didn’t travel. I’m not sure of that. Lunch was much better than expected: beef & Porter pie with real mashed potatoes and Dublin Coddle which was a thick soup of sausage, bacon, and potatoes.
On our way back to Merrion Square we stopped to check on the length of the line at Trinity College Library. It was much shorter than before and moving quickly so we cued up. Inside there were large panels explaining every detail of the Book of Kells and a relatively small showcase with four manuscripts on display. Then we climbed up the stairs to the historic library. It was filled with ancient books of every size from the floor up to the tall ceiling.
We took photos and walked through with hundreds of other tourists. It’s amusing to me that people can be enticed to spend money to glance at something, in this case a book, just because it’s famous without any real understanding of its significance.
We rode the shuttle bus back to the Rotterdam to relax and do a little laundry. I simply don’t have the stamina I used to have. It’s hard work to be a tourist! :-)
It was a beautiful clear evening. The ship left for Liverpool late at night. I thought the green pilot boat was appropriate for the Irish city of Dublin.
