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Round Britain Cruise - Dublin Page |
Two days in Dublin
Friday August 16th 2013
The Samuel Beckett Swing Bridge |
The Wicklow Mountains |
Up early, at 0615, a pattern for this cruise, as we mustered at 0810. A bus took us into Dublin centre & we toured around North of the Liffey. We stopped at Trinity College, a Protestant foundation by QE 1. After a look round, we went in to see the Book of Kells, which was well prepared by a exhibition. Unfortunately, they do not sell facsimiles of it, a real omission, one would have thought. The Library was quite spectacular, a bit like the old one in the British Museum. |
Trinity College |
More Trinity College |
Modern part of Trinity College |
The coach took us round the sites on the South side & then, to St. Patrick's Cathedral (also protestant), which had some interesting features, the Lady Chapel having been used by the Huguenots who came here in 1685 after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. |
St. Patrick's Cathedral |
Cathedral Nave |
The Lady Chapel used by the Huguenots |
More Trinity College |
The Huguenot Bell |
The Huguenots also founded the first Public Library in Dublin (which means Blackpool in Erse). Back for lunch, after which we went in by the shuttle bus to go round the National Gallery. Not much stuff on show, because of re-building, but very good. The Irish gallery had interesting paintings by Jack B. Yeats but we were not allowed to photo these, although others could be. They were labelled accordingly. The European gallery had stuff from the Renaissance to modern. We bought cards of paintings we were not allowed to photograph.
The National Library |
The National Gallery |
Inside the National Gallery |
Avis was tired & went back by the 1515 shuttle while I took more photos & returned half an hour later. They still have a "Lord" Mayor in this republican country.
Posh Grafton Street |
Molly Malone |
The Lord Mayor's Mansion House |
Avis crashed while I had tea with an undertaker on the Palms quarter-deck. There had been a sharp shower as we went in but this did not last more than a few minutes. Dinner, haddock, which seemed inadequate & then, the MIT Band. Maria sang "River Deep, Mountain High" for me. Jamie has taken over as Cruise Director, as Ricky has had to fly home for a personal problem. I spoke to Jamie without actually asking a question & from his reply, ascertained it was not a child-crisis. Parent, perhaps. The funny man in the Neptune Lounge, was very good. Tea after. Avis had lost a hearing aid but I found it in the Coral Club.
Saturday August 17th 2013
Up early again. As the coach got us early into the city, we had a bus ride much the same as yesterday's before a boat trip starting at 0900 in a boat with a very low ceiling, as it has to slip under the Liffey bridges. It took us up-river as far as the tram line after the Guinness Brewery & back. This took an hour, which left a lot of time.
The squashed-looking Tour Boat |
Up the Liffey |
The Four Courts |
Ena, the motor-mouth local guide, told us more about the town than yesterday's quite adequate guide & we covered more town, going up to Phoenix Park, where we had to queue for ages for coffee (€5.80) in the inadequate Visitor's Centre. We saw the President's House & the candle burning in the window. The weather was dull for most of the morning but brightened up about midday. Some people were dropped in the City centre.
The President's House |
The Taoseach's (Prime Minister's) House |
The Dail (Parliament) |
After lunch, we went back on the shuttle & walked to Merion Square for Oscar Wilde's birthplace & statue, then down to St Stephen's Green (with a shower on the way) to look round there.
Oscar Wilde's Birthplace |
Oscar Wilde's Memorial |
War Memorial |
First, a monument to Wolfe Tone & various other heroes of the struggle for independence. The public loos on the West side are closed, so you have to go in a shopping centre & pay 20 cents for a pee, outrageous. A pee is a civil right.
Wolfe Tone memorial (1798 rebellion) |
Famine Victims Memorial (1848) |
German Childrens' memorial |
St. Stephen's Green rock garden |
St. Stephen's Shopping Centre |
We ate in the Palms, as the timing was not otherwise good for the rock 'n roll evening, where I wore one of Jane's (my first wife, died 1980) kaftans. The MIT Band played first & I lent a USB stick to Maria with my new Symphony. Then, the show team gave a splendid rock 'n roll show, one of the best we have seen. |