Wednesday,
August 10, 2016
HAPPY
25TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!!
Today the ship docked in Dublin, and we really wanted to see the Irish countryside. Since today was our 25th anniversary, we splurged on a private car and driver with Day Tours Unplugged. Damien picked us up right at the dock at 8 am. It was interesting to have him as our guide today. He was NOT a happy-go-lucky Irish storyteller. He was what Anton called an "opinionated straight shooter". Perhaps being ex Irish military had something to do with it.... Often he would turn his company jacket over so that what he told us was "off the books" and the real side of things here in Ireland. Suffice it to say, things are still rather fragile here.
Today the ship docked in Dublin, and we really wanted to see the Irish countryside. Since today was our 25th anniversary, we splurged on a private car and driver with Day Tours Unplugged. Damien picked us up right at the dock at 8 am. It was interesting to have him as our guide today. He was NOT a happy-go-lucky Irish storyteller. He was what Anton called an "opinionated straight shooter". Perhaps being ex Irish military had something to do with it.... Often he would turn his company jacket over so that what he told us was "off the books" and the real side of things here in Ireland. Suffice it to say, things are still rather fragile here.
He took us to Glendalough, which is an old monastery settled in the 6th
century by St Kevin. St Kevin studied under holy men as a boy, then
lived in the hollow of a tree. He spent his life sleeping on stones
and wearing animal skins etc until he died in 618. No one knows
exactly where he was buried because they were afraid people would
raid his grave for body parts as “holy relics”.
Despite several Viking attacks over the years, the monastery thrived for 600 years before being destroyed by the Normans in 1214 AD. The ruins include several early stone churches, St Kevin's Cross, and the Round Tower.
St.
Kevin’s Cross is a celtic cross carved from a single granite stone.
Imagecredit:http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/07/07/be/99/glendalough-st-kevin.jpg
The
Round Tower is built of slate and granite and is about 30 metres
high. The entrance is 3.5 metres up from the base. Round towers were
used as bell towers and storehouses.
Damien sent us off for a walk through some lovely Irish countryside, to some lakes, one of which was used for the movie Excalibur.
The Glendalough Valley is located in Wicklow County. Wicklow is known as the ‘Garden of Ireland’ for its beautiful landscape, parks, and gardens. This is where Braveheart and PS I Love You were filmed. The TV show Vikings is still being filmed here and we passed a lot filled with movie trailers.
The Glendalough Valley is located in Wicklow County. Wicklow is known as the ‘Garden of Ireland’ for its beautiful landscape, parks, and gardens. This is where Braveheart and PS I Love You were filmed. The TV show Vikings is still being filmed here and we passed a lot filled with movie trailers.
We
drove through the Wicklow Mountains and travelled the famous Sally
Gap, a mountainous pass with beautiful mountain scenery and vast bog
lands. Damien took us to a high outlook but we didn't stay long because we thought the gale force wind was going to blow us right off.
Imagecredit:http://www.chickendrop.com/Other/Ireland-II/i-WVkSQT7/1/L/DSC0136-L.jpg
Our
tour was only for the morning, so Damien dropped us off in Dublin
so we could explore on our own for the afternoon.
We
started by having lunch at the Brazen Head Pub, which is Ireland's
oldest pub, established 1198. The waiter was much funner to be around than Damien. He brought us a city map and sat at the table with us and helped us plan our afternoon.
As
for the city of Dublin itself, they are most famous for the Guinness
Storehouse, and since we are definitely NOT beer drinkers, we were
not interested. To us, the most interesting fact about Guinness is
that the factory was bought in 1759 and has a 9,000 year lease.
We started by going to the nearby Christchurch Cathedral, but when we saw that they charged 6 euros just to get in, we thought we would try our luck at St Patrick Cathedral instead.
St Patrick's Cathedral is Ireland's largest church, built between 1191 and 1270. St Patrick himself did baptisms on this site. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell insulted the church by turning it into a stable for his army's horses. Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) was a dean of the church (like a bishop) and was buried here in 1745. St Patrick's is part of the Church of Ireland, making it an Anglican church in a highly Catholic nation.
We started by going to the nearby Christchurch Cathedral, but when we saw that they charged 6 euros just to get in, we thought we would try our luck at St Patrick Cathedral instead.
St Patrick's Cathedral is Ireland's largest church, built between 1191 and 1270. St Patrick himself did baptisms on this site. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell insulted the church by turning it into a stable for his army's horses. Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) was a dean of the church (like a bishop) and was buried here in 1745. St Patrick's is part of the Church of Ireland, making it an Anglican church in a highly Catholic nation.
Unfortunately, we didn't have any better luck here. They also had a 6 euro fee to go in, AND Frankie got yelled at for taking a picture. For $10 to get in, you better let us take pictures! So we moved on.
Dublin is also famous for Trinity College, where we had much better luck. Trinity College was the first university in Europe to grant degrees to women, and was founded by a woman: Queen Elizabeth I. The College houses the Book of Kells, a Latin version of the Bible written in 800 AD. The book is very ornamental with elaborate Celtic illustrations, done on calf skin. Here is an initial letter E (for Epp):
Dublin is also famous for Trinity College, where we had much better luck. Trinity College was the first university in Europe to grant degrees to women, and was founded by a woman: Queen Elizabeth I. The College houses the Book of Kells, a Latin version of the Bible written in 800 AD. The book is very ornamental with elaborate Celtic illustrations, done on calf skin. Here is an initial letter E (for Epp):
Right after the book itself, the next room was called The Long Room, which was very cool. It had 2 stories of floor to ceiling ancient books.
We had to find our own way back to the ship, so we took a nice walk along the river and stopped at the memorial to the potato famine, on the docks of Dublin:
We had to find our own way back to the ship, so we took a nice walk along the river and stopped at the memorial to the potato famine, on the docks of Dublin:
Right near there is a brand new attraction called Epic Ireland, which we quite enjoyed. It is the first all digital museum in the world, and is very interactive. It is based on the diaspora of the people of Ireland. Each room had a theme (hunger, music, sports, etc), and they gave us a "passport" that we had to stamp in each room. It only worked well because there weren't too many people in the museum.
The walk back through the docks took MUCH longer than we expected, what a huge dock! We didn't see anyone else walking back to the ship, everyone else was arriving by bus or taxi.
Since it was our anniversary, we treated ourselves to a specialty restaurant for dinner. This is a real scam because they charge you $50 each to eat there, when all the rest of the food on the ship is free. However, we really enjoyed it tremendously because we had such great service and attention from Viktor, our waiter from Croatia.
Anton surprised Frankie with a beautiful sapphire necklace for our anniversary.
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