{"id":12225,"date":"2017-08-23T17:20:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T21:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12225"},"modified":"2017-11-27T18:55:39","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:55:39","slug":"dublin-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12225","title":{"rendered":"Dublin, Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday – August 23, 2017<\/p>\n

I slept well last night. \u00a0Perhaps after 19 days on a ship I\u2019m finally getting used to the sounds and constant movement? \u00a0Yesterday, 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. \u00a0The passenger ships sail right up the Liffey River and dock in the commercial port of Dublin.<\/p>\n

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I was surprised to look out this morning and see container ships being off loaded by gigantic cranes. \u00a0We had another sunny day to explore a new-to-us city. \u00a0Perhaps it would have been raining in all the ports we visited on this cruise if I had not brought rain gear and sweaters. \u00a0:-)<\/p>\n

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Barbara, the location guide, recommended taking a shuttle bus into the center of the city. \u00a0She said it was a thirty minute ride. \u00a0It turned out to be a forty minute ride but only because of the extremely slow traffic. \u00a0The distance to the port was not that far. \u00a0We could have walked it in thirty minutes. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0So, it was worth the $20 each fare.<\/p>\n

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Riding into the city of Dublin on top of a double decker bus gave us a chance to look around. \u00a0Dublin is a very big city with much traffic and a lot of construction. \u00a0People were walking to work and there were many tourists all over. \u00a0Cars drive on the left and they don\u2019t stop for pedestrians. \u00a0The city is a hodge podge of architectural styles, not many high rise buildings, but a lot of pubs.<\/p>\n

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The shuttle bus left us off near Merrion Square which was a lovely park. \u00a0We passed the rock with a stone statue of Oscar Wilde in a lounging position. \u00a0He had lived in the house on the corner for about twenty years of his life.<\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0We were surprised to see a very long line of people waiting to buy tickets to see The Book of Kells. \u00a0We weren\u2019t interested in seeing the book, just the library, but everyone had to purchase tickets to enter the library and see the famous book. \u00a0We decided that it wasn\u2019t worth the wait so we continued toward Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n

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We didn\u2019t particularly want to visit the castle although it was interesting to see it from the outside. \u00a0We wanted to visit the Chester Beaty Library which is next to the castle. \u00a0Beaty was an American mining engineer who had amassed a huge collection of books, prints, and manuscripts which he donated to the city of Dublin. \u00a0The current exhibition was “The Art of the Book\u201d which displayed ancient hand-made books from around the world. \u00a0There was also a special exhibit of the Japanese Art of Friendship: Surimono prints. \u00a0These were short poems with illustrations which people exchanged as expressions of friendship. \u00a0They were incredibly beautiful.<\/p>\n

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Afterwards we walked to the Temple Bar district. \u00a0This was a small district of narrow streets and alleyways filled with pubs and restaurants and thousands of tourists! \u00a0The buildings were colorfully decorated and the pubs looked very inviting. \u00a0It must be a lively neighborhood after dark. \u00a0It was one o\u2019clock and we were ready for lunch so we stopped in a pub called the Auld Dubliner. \u00a0We chose that one from among the others because the music sounded appealing. \u00a0A man played a guitar and was singing Irish songs. \u00a0Unfortunately, after a short while he switched to American folk songs and country music. \u00a0Maybe he was trying to appeal to the patrons?<\/p>\n

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I had a pear cider (Swedish brand – my favorite) and Jeff had a half-pint of Guinness. \u00a0Jeff said he didn\u2019t like Guinness beer but had to try it because Barbara said it tasted different in Dublin because it didn\u2019t travel. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure of that. \u00a0Lunch was much better than expected: beef & Porter pie with real mashed potatoes and Dublin Coddle \u00a0which was a thick soup of sausage, bacon, and potatoes.<\/p>\n

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On our way back to Merrion Square we stopped to check on the length of the line at Trinity College Library. \u00a0It was much shorter than before and moving quickly so we cued up. \u00a0Inside there were large panels explaining every detail of the Book of Kells and a relatively small showcase with four manuscripts on display. \u00a0Then we climbed up the stairs to the historic library. \u00a0It was filled with ancient books of every size from the floor up to the tall ceiling.<\/p>\n

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We took photos and walked through with hundreds of other tourists. \u00a0It\u2019s amusing to me that people can be enticed to spend money to glance at something, in this case a book, just because it\u2019s famous without any real understanding of its significance.<\/p>\n

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We rode the shuttle bus back to the Rotterdam to relax and do a little laundry. \u00a0I simply don\u2019t have the stamina I used to have. \u00a0It\u2019s hard work to be a tourist! \u00a0:-)<\/p>\n

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It was a beautiful clear evening. \u00a0The ship left for Liverpool late at night. \u00a0I thought the green pilot boat was appropriate for the Irish city of Dublin.<\/p>\n

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Wednesday – August 23, 2017 I slept well last night. \u00a0Perhaps after 19 days on a ship I\u2019m finally getting used to the sounds and constant movement? \u00a0Yesterday, 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. \u00a0The passenger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13375,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12225\/revisions\/13375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}