Royal Princess British Isles June 30-July 12

[Cindy]

 

 

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[Cindy]

 

 

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[Cindy]

The fishing village of Kinsale was next on our list, and again we were left to figure things out. Unfortunately, it was lunch time, and we had to spend a good portion of our time trying to find the open restaurants, check menus, etc. Five of us lucked into a great meal at the Blue Haven, but that was after 30 or so minutes of wandering aimlessly through the town. We felt like a Goldilocks group — The first place we tried had seemed to have a lot of potential on Trip Advisor, but we found it wasn’t at all what we expected. The second place would have been great, but there was a wait. The third restaurant we tried was a perfect fit! We had a great meal, but it would have been nice to be able to go straight there to maximize our time.

 

 

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[Cindy]

I had something called a Toastie, and Jim had fish tacos that he proclaimed to be the best he’s ever had.[emoji895] Great tacos in Kinsale, Ireland. Go figure! After lunch we walked towards the bus, stopped for ice cream and at a craft show, and reboarded the bus for our next stop, which was to be coastal scenery.

 

 

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[Cindy]

Not so fast my friend! Norbert said he didn’t know of any place with scenery. Thankfully I had done some research, and I knew from working on our itinerary that Old Kinsale Head was nearby. I suggested that location and Norbert amazingly remembered it existed. I’m glad I was persistent. Not only was the view spectacular, Old Kinsale Head is home to the Lusitania memorial and museum. The Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo in 1915, resulting in over 1,100 deaths. The remains lie about 13 miles off the coast of Ireland near Old Kinsale Head.

 

 

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[Cindy]

 

 

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[Cindy]

After a mostly silent and hot (the bus didn’t have A/C) ride back to Cobh we were happy to part ways with Norbert! Cobh (pronounced Cove) was formerly known as Queenstown, and is well known for being the departure point for 2.5 million Irish immigrants to the United States between the mid 1800s and 1950. It was also the final call of an ill-fated journey before the crossing to New York. 123 passengers boarded the Titanic here, and only 44 of them survived. The waterfront buildings, streets, and remnants of the tender pier used by the Titanic passengers survive, and the Old White Star line office now houses the Titanic Experience.

 

 

 

My trip came close to ending, or at least having greatly curtailed activities while we were walking down the pier to return to the ship. I’m not graceful at the best of times, and if there’s an obstacle or a trip hazard I’m sure to find it. Sure enough, my foot caught the edge of a recessed drain, and down I went with all the grace of Dumbo falling off a bar stool. Fortunately the only thing that was injured was my pride, and with my camera and all my bones intact I dusted myself off and boarded the ship. I was surprised security let me proceed…they were very concerned about the dip in the pavement after they saw me fall, and by the time we got to the gangway there was an officer blocking the spot and making people go around.

 

 

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[Cindy]

One of the first things I did when we got back to the ship was contact Butlers about the problems we had. Even though we enjoyed the day, it was far from what we expected or paid for. We enjoyed ourselves despite the tour, not because of it! The response from Butlers was fast…a huge apology and a full refund. It was explained to me that Butlers had an “internal emergency” and had to contract out for a vehicle and driver for our tour.

 

Since we got home I have had additional communication with the managing partners at Butlers, and they have assured me they have severed ties with the substitute company (Deasy’s) and will take steps to ensure a situation like ours doesn’t happen again. I’m satisfied with their response, but I would still much rather have gotten what I contracted for. It does bother me a little that I booked almost a year in advance and still ended up drawing the short stick on that day, but Butlers said they don’t consider booking date in their vehicle/guide assignments. Would I give them another chance? Probably, but I would look around to see what other good providers were available. We certainly had a tour that was not like the others!

 

It felt good to have time to relax for a while. Remember the AWOL “Name Tag Sisters” from Day 1? I contacted them to make sure all was good for the next day since they were touring with us both days in Dublin, and we hung out on the balcony for a while enjoying the gorgeous day until it was time for drinks/dinner.

 

Sailaway was while we were enjoying fancy martinis in Crooners. We ran out and took a few pictures, but it was cold and windy, so we quickly retreated to the warmth of the indoors and our vodka concoctions!

 

 

We learned that the Concerto dining room opened for Anytime Dining at 7:30, so that became our location of choice that night and for most of our dining room dinners. After a nice dinner we went our separate ways…I made a donation to the casino, Jim went to the production show “Colors of the World,” and Deedee and Chip went back to Crooners and on to do whatever night owls do while those of us with less stamina sleep!

 

We would wake up Tuesday in Dublin and had a two full days and a fun evening planned for our stay!

 

 

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[jagsfan]

Wow!

Butlers really let you down, and it’s a day you can’t get back. Judging by your photos, it was a lovely day, anyway, but the steam coming out of my ears would have interfered with my enjoyment of it.

 

 

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[D C]

Wow!

Butlers really let you down, and it’s a day you can’t get back. Judging by your photos, it was a lovely day, anyway, but the steam coming out of my ears would have interfered with my enjoyment of it.

 

Agreed!

This looks like a day that was salvaged purely by being informed and prepared. I can only imagine if it happened to a group that was unprepared that was purely along for the ride.

 

Beautiful photos, Cindy!

[elaine5]

Cindy, so sorry about your private tour. Butlers has a very good reputation and our public Butlers tour had a great driver with lots of info. Glad they issued a refund. Elaine

[Cindy]

We were shocked at our experience with Butlers...based on their reviews we were definitely the exception to the rule. I think what I missed most was the local knowledge you can’t get from a brochure or reading signs.

 

Fortunately all our other guides were great!

 

 

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[Cindy]

“Almost All” of Dublin on Foot![emoji188]

 

We woke Tuesday in Dublin, opened the curtains, and were greeted with brilliant blue skies and bright sunshine…where have you heard that before?☀️ We were already docked, and not in a big hurry because we weren’t meeting our guide until 11:00. We had a leisurely breakfast on the balcony (great weather but an industrial port view), and I spent some time organizing things since we had four very full days before our first break in the action. We were ready to go with no rushing around, and we went down to Vines at 9:30 to meet our fellow Dublin sightseers.

 

We finally met the “Name Tag Sisters” and their husbands, since they had signed up to spend the day, the evening, and Dublin Day 2 with us. They presented us with our name tags, and I remember thinking they were pretty over the top considering they had to make (and pay for) more than 80 of them. I know if I had spent that kind of time and money I would have certainly moved Heaven and Earth to make sure I was at the Meet & Greet to distribute them. Something just didn’t seem quite right, but it was just a fleeting thought that would unfortunately make a lot more sense over the next few days of the trip.

 

 

I was excited about Dublin because of the tours I had booked, but more importantly I was excited because it was Dublin. What I discovered was that while there is still a rich history and pockets of the city ooze charm, many of Dublin’s old, historic structures have been replaced by modern buildings that make Dublin look a lot like many other cities. Our tours both days, however, were fantastic and more than made up for the experience in Cobh.

 

We piled into 2 taxis for the quick trip downtown, and had time to explore the National Museum of Ireland Archaeology while we waited for our 11:00 meeting time to start our tour.

 

 

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[Cindy]

I had booked a 5 hour “Almost All of Dublin” walking tour through Dublin Tour Guide (found on Trip Advisor). Our guide, Calbac MacSiacais, was prompt, and after introductions we explored the museum for a few more minutes while he made our reservation for the Book of Kells. Thankfully, Calbac goes by the English name of Carl Jackson, because I never did get the correct pronunciation of his Gaelic name! Carl explained the Irish alphabet only has 19 letters, so some letters combine to do double duty and make sounds of letters that don’t exist in then Gaelic alphabet! One common combination is “bh” which makes the “v” sound. Hence, Cobh is pronounced Cove and Siobhan is pronounced Shivon.

 

 

We started our tour with a walk to St. Stephen’s Green, where Carl gave us an overview of Ireland’s/Dublin’s history and briefly explained the things we were going to see.

 

 

It was there that I started to understand the strained relationship between England, Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Suffice it to say, some of my assumptions about the current relationships between the countries and Brexit were way off the mark. If I was going to describe the current atmosphere as a relationship status on Facebook I would choose “it’s complicated.” Actually, it’s beyond complicated, it’s emotional and gut-wrenching and as steeped in history and inexplicable events as race relations in the U.S.

 

 

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[Cindy]

Our first stop was at Trinity College and the Book of Kells. On the way we walked down Grafton Street past all the expensive designer stores and cart vendors, winding our way through the throngs of people and street performers. A quick stop for the story of Molly Malone, and we were on the grounds of Trinity College. We went directly to see the book of Kells, followed by the jewel in my day, the Trinity College Library.

 

 

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[Cindy]

The Book of Kells is a set of beautifully illustrated Latin books of the four gospels, meticulously hand written in inks of the times. Believed to date back to 800 A.D., the heavily ornamented pages are unlike most other scripts of the time. For centuries, the work was housed at the Abbey of Kells, but has been in the possession of Trinity College since at least 1661.

 

 

Today the manuscripts reside in a climate controlled case in the Trinity College Library. The manuscripts are fascinating, but the process for viewing them leaves something to be desired as it involves lots of pushing and shoving in tight quarters. Obviously, photography is forbidden, but pictures are easy to find on the internet. These came from Wikipedia.

 

 

I did have an interesting conversation with one of the employees about the care of the book. The pages are turned every few months, and it is a lengthy, painstaking process. The display is closed to the public during the times the pages on display are changed.

 

 

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[Cindy]

Exiting the Book of Kells display, a marble staircase took us to heaven — I mean the Long Room of the Trinity College Library! Oh, how I would have loved to be there and wander through the stacks without all the tourists! As improbable as it seems given the age of the books, the lack of technology, and the number of tourists, this is a working library for the students at the college. Books cannot leave the premises, but they can be requested to be used in the reading areas of the library. I could have lost myself there for many hours!

 

 

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[Cindy]

 

 

Isn’t it spectacular? Here’s a picture from Wikipedia without all the people:

 

 

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[Cindy]

After we left the library, we walked around campus a little before we headed to lunch.

 

 

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[Cindy]

We ate in the most unlikely place — Kilkenny Department Store! I was skeptical, but upstairs there is a great café serving a variety of hot and cold sandwiches, quiches, soups, sausage rolls, and sweets. The servings were plentiful, it was fast, and there was something for everybody. In hindsight, it was a good choice because we needed to eat without spending too much time. These pictures are from the website:

 

 

After lunch we walked down to the Liffey River.

 

 

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[Cindy]

Along a stretch of the river known as the Dublin City Docklands is where you can find the Famine Memorial. The haunting figures represent the victims of a dark time in Irish history, the great potato famine when around 1 million people died of starvation and another million emigrated from Ireland in search of food.

 

 

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[Cindy]

I’m not going to go into detail here, but this was the first of several times we heard the term “genocide” used in relation to the famine and the massive loss of (mostly Catholic) lives. Suffice it to say there were a number of political, social, religious, and economic factors that contributed to the huge loss of life and helped shape Ireland as an independent country with only historical ties to England.

 

 

Docked in the river close to the memorial is the Jeanie Johnston, a tall ship that carried over 2,500 starving immigrants to North America during the famine. The statues at the memorial are placed so as to be making their way to the Jeanie Johnston. She is typical of the ships referred to as coffin ships due to the massive loss of life on board the immigrant transports, however no passengers ever died on a Jeanie Johnston crossing. That was a great feat attributable to the captain and ship’s doctor.

 

 

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[Cindy]

Our next stop was at a place not usually on tourists’ must-see lists…we visited St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral. Why St. Mary’s? Deedee’s Great-Great Grandmother was christened there, so we included it on our list of stops! I don’t think they get a lot of sight-seers, because the caretaker was very excited to have visitors, especially when he learned the reason! The first two church pictures are from Wikipedia:

 

 

 

From St. Mary’s we walked down O’Connell Street on our way towards the river and the Temple Bar area. There we saw the Spire of Dublin, a gigantic steel sculpture that doesn’t appear to depict anything. It’s in a kind of questionable neighborhood, and the locals have given it some questionable nicknames. The most common one is “The Stiffy by the Liffey,” but there are others…all referring to the shape of the sculpture! The picture of the “stiffy” is also from Wikipedia.

 

 

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[Cindy]

We crossed the river and walked slowly through the bustling, colorful Temple Bar area. I thought Temple Bar and the surrounding streets looked the most like the picture of Dublin I had in my head before the trip. The buildings were old, quirky, well-kept, and surrounded by beautiful flowers. It was an area I would have liked to spend more time exploring.

 

 

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[Cindy]

From Temple Bar we walked to Dublin Castle, and found a shaded spot in in the Dubh Linn Gardens where we chatted with Carl for a while about all things Ireland — education, sports, religion, history — you name it. Sadly, it was time for us to part company, and Carl rushed off to play in a soccer match while we squeezed in a few minutes at the Chester Beatty Library.

 

 

 

The Chester Beatty Library houses ancient manuscripts, biblical papyri, and very early copies of the New Testament as well as other important religious documents. It was another one of those places where I could have spent a lot of time, but unfortunately by the time we got in there they were preparing to close. It would definitely be on my list for a return visit.

 

We had a little time to kill before our dinner/show at the Brazen Head Pub, so we walked in that general direction and settled on Ned O’Shea’s Pub across from our dinner destination for a late aftenoon cocktail. It was while we were in Ned O’Shea’s that things started to get a little strange. I mentioned to the “Name Tag Sisters” what a shame it was they had spent so much time and money on name tags only to have them go to waste. They didn’t seem too bothered by the waste, but I suggested we set up a get together later in the cruise and they somewhat reluctantly agreed. I should also add that the “Name Tag Spouses” were even less enthusiastic about the idea than the sisters. In fact, neither of the husbands really had much to say the entire day. One of the husband’s parents immigrated from Cobh, and when I asked him about it he said he had never visited before and really never had any interest in doing so. I thought it was strange, but each to his own!

 

 

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