Europe and Cruising 2016: Dublin

17 October – 20 October 2016

Leaving London, we caught the train from Euston Station up through the centre of England to Chester, then along the north coast of Wales to Holyhead on Anglesey. Lovely views of the Welsh coast and Conwy Castle, which we had explored on our last visit. The ferry crossing on Ulysses was so smooth Gary slept most of the way!

In Dublin, we took the Hop On Hop Off bus tour around the city. Dublin traffic is TERRIBLE! There is a maze of narrow one way streets that seem to be constantly gridlocked. It is made worse by the construction work for the new Luas tram line running through the city centre. After lunch in O’Connell Street we visited Dublin Castle (not much left), the Chester Beatty Library (amazing collection of old texts from a variety of cultures, loved it!) and St Patrick’s Cathedral (lovely and interesting). We also caught the choir rehearsing for Evensong.

Next day we were very excited to catch up with Kate. We met at Trinity College for an entertaining tour of the university by one of the students. Apparently the interesting gold sphere sculpture is not a representation of Earth surrounded by Christianity as my Lonely Planet guide book says, or the Golden Snitch as Harry Potter fans believe, but the Star Wars death star in mid-explosion! Kate, Gary and I all agreed with our guide. The Old Library was amazing but the Book of Kells, while old, wasn’t as interesting as the exhibitions at the Chester Beatty Library. After lunch, where Kate and I talked school and Gary listened politely for a while before putting his headphones on, we walked along Grafton Street to St Stephen’s Green and the Natural History Museum. The museum was rather old fashioned, dusty and a little weird, and full of stuffed animals. We recovered with a rest in the lovely Merrion Park. I love how we meet Kate (and other Prices) all around the world – Paris, Franz Josef Glacier and now Dublin!

Our final day in Dublin started with a walk through Temple Bar, the oldest part of Dublin, and across Ha’penny Bridge, then a Luas light rail ride to Kilmainham Gaol. Built on the philosophy of silence, supervision and separation for the prisoners, it imprisoned rebel leaders from the many Irish uprisings, poor people during the Famine and was where the leaders of the 1916 revolt were executed. A rather chilling building. We spent the afternoon at the very interesting Archaeology Museum until our feet could bear no more. Fortunately we didn’t have far to walk back to our hotel.