August 19, 2013. Dublin, Ireland

August 19, 2013. Dublin, Ireland

Last night at dinner we got the same treatment but with a different waiter. They we having the chef's table in our dining area and that made things a little tight. But we still got good service and food and no waiting for a table.

After dinner we sat in the Explorer Lounge and listen to the ship's singer and dancers perform 50's and 60's rock and roll.

Slept good last night and the alarm woke us a 7am. We had breakfast in the buffet and I don't like the way they made my eggs. I like them over easy and they pawned off some over cooked sunny side up on me. We will see what happens tomorrow.

Today we have purchased tickets for the Dublin Green Hop-on Hop-off bus. The ship is docked to far from central Dublin to walk so we took the ship's shuttle to down. It dropped us off near Trinity College where we caught the first hop bus. Very crowded but we did have seats. The weather is a little damp so we stayed downstairs under cover. I moved up stairs later because the view was better. It is a good way to get your bearing on a city. One of the highlights was the Guinness Storehouse. We got off a O'connell Street, a very wide street with lots of monuments commemorating many Irish Heroes.

It was lunch time so we had fish and chips at Beshoff. It is a chain that has been in business since 1913, when the founder come over from Russia. The fish was very well done and the chips were ok, but not as good as McDonalds.

After lunch we walked the shopping area and we picked up a few gifts and souvenirs.

We walked back to catch the shuttle, but before we left Dublin I want a pint of beer. We stopped in a Pub and in honor on my cousin Don had a pint of Smithwicks, which is a dark beer, but not as dark a Guinness.

Dublin is the Capitol of Ireland. Ireland is an island just west of England. Until 1921 it was part of Great Britain. At that time the six counties of Ulster became Northern Island and remained part of Great Britain, while the rest of Ireland was granted independence. Ireland is a little larger then West Virginia, with a population of just over 4 million. English is spoken widely, while Irish (Gaelic) is spoken mainly along the western seaboard. It part of the euro zone.

Tomorrow we are in Liverpool


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Hal