Although we'd docked at about 4am, there was no exterior noise or change in the minimal movement, so we rolled out of bed at 8am, to what started off as a bright day. After a breakfast to see us through most of the day, we walked off after purchasing shuttle tickets at $16AUD return, to Dublin city. As there were taxis available, maybe we could have investigated the costs for four people, as it may well have been cheaper.
The double decker took us into town to Kildare Street, which was fairly central. We'd seen red and also green Ho-Ho buses and the enterprising green company 'Dublin Bus', had parked a spare bus just behind the shuttle stop and the guy there was processing payments and just issuing tickets, as the bus stop itself (#4) was just around the corner on Nassau St, near Trinity College. I think it was €17 each.
This was a live commentary tour and our driver (Damien) was just brilliant. Informative and humorous with a very clear, pleasant voice.
Typical was his warning when approaching a short stretch of cobbles near the Guinness stop.
"For anyone with false teeth, a bad back or piles, this next stretch might be a bit of a problem, but others might well enjoy it!"
His stories about the Guinness family and the factory site was interesting. When the original lease was signed (a 999 year lease) to Arthur Guinness, it was such a relief to the incumbent, almost bankrupt brewery owners, that they overlooked any sort of lease/rent review, so to this day, they still only pay £45 a year, so to date they have only paid about £120,000 in ground rent!
Kilmainham Gaol was obviously a very popular stop (just after the Guinness Storehouse catering for 1.25 million visitors a year) and we were advised to get off to visit it as early in the day as possible, as later, the queues went half way round the block.
This was the Purple route and went out as far as the massive Phoenix Park, the home of the popular Dublin Zoo and also the US Ambassador.
We hopped off in the centre of town at O'Connell Street (stop #1) where we dived into Carroll's gift shop for a few souvenirs. We were ready for a coffee and headed up Henry St to a small shopping centre that had – Costas coffee! I managed to spend the 670 points on my loyalty card (about €11).
We then strolled back to O'Connell St to board the pink route Ho-Ho bus, which would take us to the west and dockland side of the city.
However, we'd only travelled about 100 yards when Paula didn't feel the best, so fortunately, the driver let us off again when we were still in O'Connell St and we eventually sought refuge in a pub!
Feeling much better but a bit delicate, we opted to get back on the purple route and on then to the shuttle stop and back to the ship.
On the ship – zero internet access. A notice on the Internet café desk apologised for the lack of coverage, putting it down to satellite interference. There is no truth in the rumour that the Irish volunteered to fix it, but ran out of scaffolding.
That lack of access meant that we couldn't even send a birthday greeting to Ros. Sorry Ros.
We headed to the Princess Theatre (OK, so it is Theater on the ship, but I can't really get used to using American spelling…) for a great folk loric show, by Gaels Afloat. Four musicians – keyboard, a variety of pipes, mandolin and guitar, plus two female Irish dancers and one male dancer. Excellent and well worth watching. The theatre was full with standing room only at the rear.
As it was open dining, we caught up with the other 4 and put in our request for a table change to one of the head waiters.
Another Irish port tomorrow, the small harbour town of Cobh, then a five day Atlantic run across to the USA. We loved Dublin and especially Damien's contribution and look forward to a return visit.
Another quote from him.
Returning to the city centre, he mentioned a new 'adult shop' that had opened. He explained that as part of his duties as a city guide, he had to be well informed as to what was available, so had visited said shop three times - on our behalf of course, and arranged a discount for us if we mentioned his name. "However" he said, "they know me as Sandra…"
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