[Hyacinth Bucket]

Following the 'at sea' day after Dover, our first stop was in Dublin. Took a cab—with a witty and informative cabbie—into the city to Bewley's, a world-renowned coffee shop and breakfast place. Having just eaten on the ship, I passed on ordering anything and left Susan and Bob awaiting their goodies while I wandered around taking pictures. From here we went to Trinity College ('the Harvard of Ireland') where we went to see the various items that make up the Book of Kells that go back to the seventh century—original writings of the Gospels with marvelous illustrations that reminded me of Grandma Moses paintings in their two-dimensionality. We explored the buildings of—and around—Trinity College, then browsed our way through the streets of Dublin, often passing the brass plaques set in the sidewalk depicting the points of stopping during the annual enactment of Bloomsday, out of James Joyce's 'Ulysses.' Shades of my college days! Had fish & chips lunch at a place with history but somewhat marginal food (though my plaice was pretty good). Finally back to the ship to plan for our stop the following day in Belfast.

We decided that it would be neat not to simply explore yet another city, in this case the capital of Northern Ireland; Bob arranged a car rental with Alamo/Enterprise which we walked to after the free shuttle from the ship had taken us into the heart of downtown and the huge Ferris wheel similar to but not quite as big as the London Eye. Our destination was 'Giant's Causeway,' a unique natural rock formation of thousands of basalt six-sided pillars along the coast. Geology says it resulted from the cooling of lava flow; myth suggests that it was the stepping stones of Finn McCool, a giant, on his way to visit his girlfriend in Scotland (across the Irish Sea). Definitely unique but crowded with countless tour buses there, including quite a few from our ship. Stopped at the Old Bushmills distillery—the oldest in the world—and what gorgeous scenery in the area!

And from here we went to a tiny place with the unique name of Ballybogy where Bob managed to mail postcards to all his participants in the cruise he organized for November on our very ship, and we had lunch at a local eatery. Bob had his passion—fish & chips (much better, he said, than in Dublin)—while I stuck with just a salad while Susan had a salad plus something called a pastie bap, the latter word being a kind of roll and the former describing the contents as some kind of mystery meat (likely mutton, considering how many sheep farms were around us) plus onions and other veggies. I should add that many place names in Northern Ireland begin with 'Bally,' so on our way back we stopped in Ballymena, a small city, where we found a Barclays Bank (where our ATM card works without bank fees) and our favorite Lidl Supermarket where we get local souvenirs.

By this point time was running late, and we still had the project of finding the car rental office. To be sure, no GPS! We got to the right general area, but lacking an exit from the highway that we thought had been there, we followed a local map and used major streets as landmarks. Doing this, we suddenly found ourselves in the very neighborhood—what looked like just ordinary residential streets with businesses—that had been the center of the sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics that had rocked Belfast for thirty years until the relatively recent peace. It was somewhat of an eerie feeling to see how ordinary the area looked—and yet how frightening it had looked in the news over the years. Now there is, say, a block of Irish flags, followed by the next block of British flags, in the midst of which were huge street paintings on the sides of buildings of the events of those days; the one I remember was of Bobby Snds who had martyred himself for the Irish cause by starving himself to death in prison.

We learned later from our cab driver that over 3,000 people had died during that time, pointing out that it was about the same number who died in the Trade Center, Pentagon, and the plane crash in Shanksville PA in the one day of 9/11. He was a history buff who showed us pictures of him in such varied places as 2 World Trade Center, the Iwo Jima Monument in Arlington National Cemetery, Normandy Beach, and so forth. As he explained, he doesn't smoke, drink, or gamble, so he uses his money to travel with his family who were also in the pictures. On the way to the ship he pointed out to us, in an area under construction, the actual tender that had taken passengers to the 'Titanic,' now owned by the British government and being made into an historic site. What a fascinating wealth of knowledge!

We got back to the cruise ship tired and happy with the knowledge that the three of us had done our outing for a total cost that was less than what the cruise ship excursion desk was charging for one—and we did it more comfortably and with more flexibility in our own car than in a huge tour bus. Disappointment followed with the announcement on the ship that bad storms around Iceland will prevent us from stopping there, so are now heading directly to Greenland—with three sea days before we get there. Frustrating but just part of travel—and all I can think of is 'nap time' (after 'lunch time,' of course . . .)!

HB and Sid