Sorry about the typos in this morning's blog from Limerick--but I was drinking Irish Coffee and it was dark in the pub.

Friday and Saturday 9-10 August 2013

Dublin, Ireland

I couldn’t ask for a more perfect day to arrive in Dublin.  The port is very close to the center of the city; you can see the ship from the O’Connell Street Bridge downtown.  The ship offers a free double-decker shuttle that runs every half hour, and it is only a short walk to the last stop on the new tram line that stretches across the north side of the city from east to west.  Taxis are also available.  I will make use of all these methods of transportation over the two days the Prinsendam spends here.

Friday

It’s 10am and the shuttle coach fills just as the line almost gets to me.  Rather than wait a half hour, I hop a taxi into the city, driven by a young native Dubliner, whose language is clear and understandable.  He says it is the result of watching too much American television, the bane of those who would like to preserve the local dialects.  The Michelin Guide outlines several good walking tours that allow me to see the major sights in doable sections.  I’ve been to Dublin twice before (1969 and 1994), but the city has been spruced up quite a bit and local transportation is quite good.  My route today starts at the Bank of Ireland Building (used as parliament in the early days of the Republic) and the campus of Trinity College in the heart of the city (although the line to see The Book of Kells, the famous medieval manuscript, is much too long to waste my time on; I have seen it before and you can check it out on the web).

 

 

 

I pay a short visit to the Kilkenny Shops, a collection of Irish-made goods from around the country, ranging from cheap postcards to thousand-dollar Waterford crystal decanters. It’s a good place to shop if you are not going anywhere but Dublin.  I continue on to Merrion Square, the heart of Georgian Dublin (famous in all those “Doorways of Dublin” posters).  The National Gallery, nearby, offers a small but excellent selection of European painting, perfect for those who wish to see major works by the masters, but don’t want to spend a lot of time or walking-energy doing it.  The Millennium Wing, opened recently squeezes a light-filled atrium into the center of the building.  The outside is not particularly attractive, but the interior is quite successful.  Of course, there is a first-rate gift shop as well.  From the Gallery it’s a short walk to Stephen’s Green Shopping Mall at the top of Grafton Street, the main pedestrian shopping area of the city.  (To the south lies St. Stephen’s Green, a fine park with memorial statues of Yeats and Joyce, but that’s too far to walk today—especially since I am looking for an American Express office to charge some Euros on my credit card and a camera shop to deal with a problem with my Canon camera.  I don’t find either; I learn later that American Express has closed all its store-front operations in Ireland and the loose part on my camera is inconvenient but fortunately does not interfere with taking pictures).

 

 

 

 

Stephen’s Green Shopping Mall is a convenient place for a quick lunch and coffee and afterwards I head north on Grafton Street (mostly shops familiar from American malls) to the River Liffey, Ha’penny Bridge, and Temple Bar, a section of town designed for tourists, eating, and drinking—no matter what the time of day.  Dublin Castle stands right by Temple Bar, but I’ve been there on my previous visits, so I head for St Patrick’s Cathedral, but I refuse to pay the €2.00 admission fee.  Interesting:  all the museums in Ireland are free, but you have to pay to go to church.  I cross over the river and take the aforementioned tram eastward to the last stop, a short walk from the Port and the Prinsendam.

Tonight’s dinner is highlighted by Frogs Legs Provencale and Coleman’s Roast Beef (sliced thin and very tender) with Yorkshire pudding.  Dessert is sherry trifle.  It’s remarkable that Holland America does a much better job with typical British food than Cunard does.  After dinner a local band plays Irish music in the Showroom at Sea, but they are so bad I can stand the clatter for only a few minutes.  It’s hard to get used to sleeping without moving, but we are spending the night in Dublin, so I must try.

Saturday

Before leaving the ship this morning, I use the web to arrange a ticket for this afternoon’s 2pm matinee of Shaw’s Major Barbara at the world-famous Abbey Theatre.  There is definitely an advantage to tonight’s 11pm departure time.  After breakfast I catch the 10:30am shuttle to Kildare Street, close to everything.  Since the Abbey Theatre is on the north side of the Liffey, I spend time exploring this part of town (another Michelin walking tour route).  O’Connell Street, with its wide promenade and major statuary, used to be the center of fashionable life in Dublin.  Now that has all moved to Grafton Street (see above) on the south side of the river.  O’Connell Street is somewhat rundown, but very busy with Saturday shoppers and folks on their way to the football match, wearing red or green, the colors of the team they will be rooting for.  It’s all very festive, with none of the menace that used to be attached to Irish and English rivalries. 

This side of the river is also home to the General Post Office Building (site of the Battle of the Rising), Parnall Square, the Garden of Remembrance, the Dublin Writers’ Museum, and the Hugh Lane Art Gallery.  The Gallery has a lovely small café with an excellent choice of sandwiches and salads for lunch.  The Gate, another of Dublin’s major theatres, is nearby, and the Abbey is only a few blocks away.  I have time for an excellent latte in the theatre bar before the performance begins.  As with much of Shaw, the first act is talky and slow-moving, but the production picks up steam in the second and third acts, providing the appropriate ironic touch to the ending.  The theatre is newly-built (1960s), the original having been destroyed by fire.  The theatre company itself was founded by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory to cultivate traditional Irish language and culture.  The founders did not foresee that their cultured Irish audience would literally riot—throwing everything, including the chairs, at the stage—during the first performance of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars in 1917.  When the chairs were later nailed to the floor, the protesting patrons ripped them up to throw at the stage.  What was the protest about?  The good citizens of Dublin simply refused to believe that there were any prostitutes in Ireland or to accept the realistic view of Dublin life that O’Casey puts on the stage.  They all wanted to see the idealized Ireland that never existed and were unwilling to accept the truth of life put before them.  Well, in spite of its raucous beginnings and lack of local support, modern and post-modern Irish drama is some of the best in the world.

 

 

I catch the last shuttle back to the ship and settle in for a good dinner and quiet night before our 11pm sailing.  Tomorrow is a welcome restful day at sea.  The Captain tells us that we will be taking the route northward around the top of Ireland and then down the west coast to Galway.  Between 7 and 10am we will pass through the narrow North Passage between Northern Ireland and the east coast of Scotland; both coasts should be visible from the ship, so I ask for an early wake-up call to watch the views from my veranda.  But things don’t always go as planned at sea . . . wait for the next blog entry for the sequel.