We had two days in Dublin on our 12 Day British Isles cruise, and we were in excited! The first day we decided to tour on our own since we had been there two years ago. The second day we took an excursion out to Powerscourt Garden, rated by National Geographic as #3 in the world!
Day 1
On July 29, 2019, we woke in Dublin, Ireland at 6:45 am, ate breakfast and were out to the pier to catch the shuttle by 8:00 am. Impatient to get to Dublin, we had to wait until 8:30 am before taking off. The shuttle took us to Merrion Square where there’s three statues celebrating Oscar Wilde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde_Memorial_Sculpture
Immediately, we bought Hop-Off-Hop-On bus passes for two days which included the night tour. We hopped on the bus and enjoyed a tour of the city heading towards the Guinness Storehouse. We sat upstairs in the open air and enjoyed Dublin. We circled around Trinity College, the Irish Whiskey Museum, Christ Church and the busy Dublin streets. I enjoyed the beautiful flowers decorating many businesses on the decorated city streets.
We went to the Guinness Storehouse to buy something Lin had planned on for months—socks! When we were in Dublin two years ago, he bought socks at the Guinness Storehouse souvenir shop and wanted more. They wouldn’t let us into the souvenir shop without buying a tour ticket. One of the workers there told us we could probably find them at any of the Carroll’s Irish Gifts souvenir shop, but especially the big one on O’Connell street.
So off we went on the bus towards O’Connell street but again enjoyed the tour along the way. We went through Phoenix Park, seeing “the Wellington monument, the largest obelisk in Europe at 62mm high.”
The first Carroll’s Irish Gifts souvenir shop we visited didn’t have any socks, but the second one did. There I also bought a beautiful silver ring and a plaque of my favorite Oscar Wilde’s quote, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken!”
From there, we walked to the Temple Bar Pub, enjoying being on the street with the people. We had hoped to eat lunch there, but they were swamped, so we took pictures and walked to the Brazen Head Pub, the oldest pub in Dublin, dating back to 1198.
Notice our first stops in Dublin were either pubs or breweries!
The Brazen Head Pub was too busy, too, so we crossed the street and ate lunch at O’Shea’s Merchant restaurant where we had eaten two years ago. I had clam chowder; Lin had lamb stew—gigantic bowls and so delicious!
After lunch, we discussed our options for the afternoon and decided to ride the bus over to the EPIC The Irish Emigration museum. We had ridden by it in the morning on the shuttle from the ship, and it looked fascinating.
The afternoon had gotten away from us, so we when we got there, we only had 30 minutes until the last Hop-Off-Hop-On bus would leave the museum, so we couldn’t do the tour—how disappointing! I grabbed a book about the museum, and we put it on the list for our next Dublin trip. Good thing we went outside quicker than 30 minutes because the bus came early.
When we got back to downtown Dublin, we enjoyed a walk through a lovely neighborhood and found a delightful café, the Busy Feet & Coco Café. My stomach problems surfaced—severe stabbing pain, so this was a great time to stop. The wait staff was truly international (Polish and Brazil), friendly and talkative. Lin enjoyed hot chocolate and chocolate goodies, and I had a latte. We paced ourselves during our time in Dublin, and Lin was so understanding with my stomach problems.
Our break eased my discomfort, so we walked along the Liffey River and bought souvenirs. There are 23 bridges crossing the Liffey, and I took pictures of several!
In the morning, we had stopped at a bookstore, and I saw a paperback copy of The Dubliners, had it in my hand a couple times, but finally I put it back. After our memorable day in Dublin, we went back to the bookstore and I bought it! There was a great statute inside The Temple Bar Pub of someone reading The Dubliners!
We wrapped up the day in Dublin with the evening bus tour winding our way through the sights of Dublin at night. It sprinkled a little but only added to the atmosphere. The bus tour took us back to Merrion Square, and we took pictures of the Oscar Wilde statute. We caught the shuttle back to the ship and boarded about 9:00 pm—a full day of Dublin, Fair City!
Day 2
Our second day in Dublin would take us out of the city to a beautiful garden. We slept in and enjoyed a leisure breakfast. After eating, we went up on deck 13 to try to find familiar landmarks in Dublin with our binoculars.
Lin wasn’t feeling well, so he napped. I woke him at 1:40 pm, and he got ice cream.
Our afternoon excursion was “Leisurely Landscapes & Powerscourt Gardens.” As we waited for the shuttle on the pier, it started to rain. When we arrived at the gardens, mist hung over the garden.
The Powerscourt Garden was breathtaking in color and design. National Geographic has identified these gardens as number three in the world!
The first stop was the Powerscourt House. Looking out towards the gardens and the Triton Lake, statutes of Greek gods circled the walk. We saw the Italian Garden, Pepperpot Tower Valley, Japanese Garden, Triton Lake, Pet Cemetery, Dolphin Pond, and Walled Garden. At first, we walked with the guide through the garden and admired the flowers.
Then we took off by ourselves and wandered in the woods. We walked to the top of the Pepperpot Tower and took pictures of the area. I specifically enjoyed the Pet Cemetery and the names of the pets. Again, we didn’t have much time after the tour, so we did no souvenir shopping.
On the drive back to the ship, it poured. As the ship pulled out of the port, we sadly waved goodbye to Dublin. We ate dinner in Windows restaurant and celebrated our wonderful time in Dublin!
You can’t go to Dublin, Fair City and not celebrate Molly Malone and this song. Enjoy for a moment!
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