French Battlefields and the Voyage of the Vikings: Wednesday, September 12

Dick is up early as usual and heads to the Square for his good cup or two of coffee. He has struck up a friendship with an Aussie and they enjoy solving the worlds problems. We are docked by the time Carolyn is up. We head to breakfast in the dinning room as usual and there is a crowd again this morning. Seems we aren’t the only ones who like to be served in a peaceful setting. Service is still fast and we are soon on our way off the ship.

The captain said last night it would be blustery and a bit damp in Dublin...he is right. It is cool and windy with a mix of dark clouds and sunshine. Hope the rain will hold off for us. Seabourn provides a free shuttle to the town center. We wait about 15 minutes for it to come. The waiting group fills the first bus with some left over. Fortunately another bus arrives as we are leaving. We are dropped off near the University and there is man selling tickets to the hop on hop off bus. They are 16 euros each, we buy two and head to the pick up point two blocks away. A bus arrives fairly fast and we climb to the top and luck out with two seats together. The bus makes 22 stops and the route takes about 90 chilly minutes. We have the plug in dial your language headphones which made for such a nice tour in London. It is hard to take pictures from this bus, but it more the layout of Dublin than the fault of the bus.

Dublin is divided by the River Liffty

and is very colorful from both the bright colorful buildings and flower baskets hanging from the windows and the lamp posts.

We pass by Trinity College which we saw along with the Book of Kells when we were here in 2000, the lively Temple Bar area and Dublin Castle.
Carolyn gets to see Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral on the drive by and Dick doesn’t have to visit, Thank you HOHO!

We spend 10 minutes driving around the several blocks that are the Guinness Storehouse, wow, that is a lot of ale.

It is really threatening rain as we pass by the Kilmainham Goal with its gruesome history of torture and death.

The nicest place we saw was the Phoenix Park. It is a huge manicured green space about 6 times the size of New York’s Central Park. There are several monuments,

various playing fields, gardens, the zoo and the Presidents home behind heavy gates. The last area before we get off is O’Connell Street and the Post Office made famous during the 1920's Irish fight for independence.

Over all it was a good way to see Dublin and the rain held off. It is now after one and we are hungry. We stop at O’Neils Pub near Pembroke Street and have a good Irish lunch of Mulligatawny soup for Dick and a Christmas Cracker sandwich for Carolyn.

While we were eating there is a down pour and now the sun is out. We then walk back to Dublin Castle which isn’t much except for a pretty garden.

It is time to head back to the ship, we have had enough. Carolyn checks out a couple of shops on the way to the shuttle stop.

Back on board, we get cleaned up and head up to Afternoon Tea to meet a couple Carolyn chatted with on Cruise Critic.

Departure is delayed while the ship personal track down three people who apparently are about 30 minutes late getting back to the ship. During the wait the Captain informs us the seas are too high, 30 to 35 feet, and high winds due to Hurricane Leslie working its way across the North Atlantic and will stay that way for several days. So it is not safe for us to head up to the Faeroes on the 14^th. We will go to Greenoch as planned tomorrow, but then will head back to Belfast the next day to stay in the relatively sheltered waters of the Irish sea. The hope is that the seas will clam enough so we can head for Iceland on the 15th. Interesting!

We stay in the lounge to watch the Dublin sail away.