Dublin, Ireland

It's always fun waking up in a new place and today was no different. However, the fog was thick and the shore was a good distance away, this being a tender port. It wasn't long before our Cruise Director made the announcement that the Coast Guard was not allowing us to tender, as it was deemed unsafe. After perhaps 1.5-2 hours, the fog had lifted enough that we were given the go-ahead. This kind of delay, although completely understandable, always throws off the ship's schedule for All Aboard, Departure and travel times.

Anyway, our excursion today was great. The weather held out (no rain) and it was mild enough for a jacket at times. Even though we weren't to meet on shore until 2ish, we decided to tender over and walk around the city and have a bite of lunch before meeting up with our group. 

 

pronounced Dun-Leery

soooo many sailboats!

Larger ships are now required to port in Dun Laoghaire instead of Dublin. We walked around for a bit and located - you guessed it (Mexican food). Unfortunately, it was only "pretend" Mexican food and it was just barely "ok". 

 

Victoria Drinking Fountain (1900) for horses

Court House

St. Michaels

After walking around the city and having a bite of lunch, we met up with the others on the dock. Our excursion began with a 40 minute bus ride to the Powerscourt Estate Gardens, rated #3 in the World's Top 10 Gardens by National Geographic. The Powerscourt House itself is one of the Top Ten houses and Mansions worldwide. I suppose seeing the house would have been a different tour.

our (very Irish) guide

Powerscourt Mansion

 

 

view from front of house

 

Here's more info regarding the house and gardens. https://powerscourt.com/ We did a ton of walking and I was in my element taking pictures of all kinds of flowers. There was not time or energy (on my part) to see all 47 acres of the gardens, but after a brief introduction by our guide, we took off on our own, starting in the central area of the gardens called Triton Lake. From there we headed to the Japanese Gardens, then the Dolphin Pond, the Pet Cemetery and lastly the Walled Garden. Ronnie still had energy so he walked to the opposite side of the grounds to see the Tower Garden and snap a few pictures for me. 

On the same property was a hotel resort spa, golf course and club, distillery, visitors center and the Avoca Terrace Cafe which overlooks the gardens with a view of Sugarloaf Mountain. Oh, and several nice gift shops. We were only there to tour the gardens and naturally I took tons of photos so I will post a few from each area of the garden.  

Triton Lake: The fountain in this lake is based on the fountain in Piazza Barberini in Rome. A pair of life sized Winged Horses watch over the lake. Made in Berlin in1869, they form part of the family coat of arms. 

 

entrance to Triton Lake

Japanese Garden:  This garden was created by the 8th Viscount and Viscountess Powerscourt in 1908. It contains a grotto, wooden bridges and many azaleas, Japanese Maples and Chinese Fortune Palms. It was pretty but there wasn't as much color as I was expecting because the azaleas had already bloomed. 

 

The Dolphin Pond: The 7th Viscount bought the Dolphin Pond in Paris in the late 19th century. It is surrounded by beautiful trees, including a line of Japanese red cedars, planted in 1864! 

 

Dolphin Pond

Pet Cemetery: This is a private pet cemetery for many of the family pets. There were headstones for mostly dogs, a horse, a cow and a pony and his wife. 

 

Sting - 1912

2 cows

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tommy (shetland pony) and his "wife" Magic

Walled Garden: This is one of the oldest parts of the gardens and is home to many different blooming plants. It has beautiful rose gardens along with many other colorful plants. It also has a pond and a 240 year old Bamberg Gate from the Cathedral at Bamberg in Germany. (I went crazy with my camera here, but don't ask me to identify all of these.)

 

English gate represents England, Scotland and Ireland

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tower Valley: Ronnie held out longer than I did so he snapped these photos of the Pepperpot Tower. It was modeled after a favorite pepperpot from Lord Powercourt's dining table. The Tower is also one of the best places to view the hundreds of varieties of trees which have been planted over the past 200 years.

 

Pepperpot Tower

 

The grounds are mowed with robot lawn mowers, greatly reducing the number of gardeners needed to maintain the grounds. We also noticed some shallow stone "trenches" around the upper portion of the grounds but didn't know what they were for. We later learned that they served as a path for the servants to take so that the family did not have to see them walking on the grounds. :(

There was an amazing number of trees of all shapes and sizes. Some were so large that I asked Ronnie to stand beside them in an attempt to show the scale. And of course they are very, very old! Each tree is identified by number and name. I couldn't come close to getting the entire tree in the photos! 

We were so blessed to enjoy perfect weather to explore the gardens. If I had all the energy, stamina and time in the world, I could have spent many more hours there just photographing the flowers alone. I took many more, but I'm just posting a few of my favorites. 

 

 

 

I almost forgot! On the bus ride back to the ship, driving through town we saw these people on the sidewalk dressed in similar fashion. We asked our guide what was going on and he said they were celebrating a holiday called Bloomsday. Here's what I found. 

Bloomsday is a cultural celebration held annually in Dublin on June 16. While it is not an official public holiday, it is one of the city's most beloved and eccentric traditions. 

The event commemorates June 16, 1904, the exact date featured in James Joyce's modernist masterpiece, Ulysses. It traces the fictional, all-day meanderings of the novel's protagonist, Leopold Bloom, across the city. 

The day has grown into a week-long festival featuring a variety of events and activities: 

• Edwardian Dress: Locals and visitors don period costumes (think bustles, boaters, and bowler hats). 
• Joycean Breakfasts: Fans traditionally enjoy a hearty breakfast featuring pork kidneys and a pint of Guinness, just as Bloom does in the book. 
• Walking Tours & Reenactments: The city hosts walking tours retracing Bloom’s exact route, alongside dramatic readings, live music, and pub crawls. 

  

Falmouth (Cornwall), UK

I probably sound like a broken record when it comes to sharing what I see as I pull back the curtains each morning. But today was especially beautiful. I took these (and many more) from our deck balcony. Between this site and the ship internet, I'm unable to upload a short video, but I scanned an almost 180 of the scene and the view was a lot to take in! The photos below capture only small portions of it.

 

 

Our excursion today took us on a scenic drive from Falmouth through a number of quaint villages to Penzance. The drive took us first through Falmouth, then through the historic heart of Cornwall and on through several other small villages. As we rode, our guide shared with us about the area's mining history of tin and copper during the 18th and 19th centuries. He pointed out the remains of old mine chimneys and engine houses that powered the huge steam pumps that were used to drain the deep mineral mines. 

 

 

climate and location allows everything to grow here

The drive was very pretty but unfortunately, almost every photo was taken through a fairly fast moving bus window so the majority of them were throwaways. We had only one photo stop and that was to see St. Michael's Mount ("Cornwall's Fairytale Castle") but only from a distance. It sits on a tidal island connected to the mainland by a stone causeway. At low tide you can walk across it but at high tide you must take a boat. The island was once a monastery.

 

St. Michael's Mount (background) with man parasailing (foreground)

The roads were narrow and it sometimes felt as if we could touch the trees lining the road. Like many of the English countrysides, centuries old stone hedges divide the landscape. Unlike the Cotswold villages, the homes are a mix of old and new. The remains of old mine chimneys dot the hillsides but unfortunately I wasn't able to photograph one.

 

When we reached The Queen's Hotel in Penzance, we were treated to what the British call a "cream tea". That doesn't describe the tea itself; it just means tea, a scone (often with raisins or currants), clotted cream and strawberry or raspberry jam. There is a centuries-old rivalry between Cornwall and Devon as to whether the clotted cream or the jam goes on first. The Cornish say the jam goes on first but the folks from Devon say the clotted cream goes first. Our guide took a vote and most of us felt that the jam should go first. Ronnie (being a scientist at heart) cut his in half with jam first on one side and clotted cream first on the other. He said they tasted the same - surprising for someone who puts mayonnaise on the cheese side of his sandwich and mustard on the ham side. He swears he can taste the difference. HA!!

 

 

jam comes first!

the real deal from Devon

Speaking of Ronnie, for some time he has had a desire to walk the Salt Path and he was excited to see part of it today when we stopped to photograph St. Michael's Mount. We also learned today that St. Michael's Way is a small section of the Camino de Santiago that runs through Penzance.  

I have to share this last one for a laugh. I'm guessing this couple must have had a long flight yesterday because they didn't seem to be getting very much out of the bus ride.

 

LOL

 

Southampton, England

I have no idea how I did it, but I managed to delete all the photos I took in Southampton yesterday. They were on my phone which was hooked up to my laptop and somehow they all went POOF!!! No, they did not go into my recycle bin or I would go there and retrieve them. They are just gone. I have no idea. Oh well, it's ok, they weren't anything special anyway.

We have another cruise coming up in September (a short one) that leaves out of Southampton, so we thought it would be a good idea while there to go check out the Airbnb we have rented and also some nearby places for the 2 or 3 meals we'll be eating here. The Airbnb is only 1.5 miles from the cruise port as the crow flies, but it would have been probably 2.5 miles after all the winding around to exit the port and walk to the location.

So instead we called an uber and had it drop us off at the address of the Airbnb, with a plan to walk the 15 minutes or so to a small neighborhood eatery that AI recommended. Just the walk alone helped us decide to scratch that idea. It was 11:55 when we arrived, so we had our choice to order off the breakfast or lunch menu. We chose the traditional English breakfast which consisted of eggs, English bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast, some kind of mushroom and beans - thankfully no blood pudding! I had a burrito which was basically the same ingredients rolled up in a tortilla. 

 

classic English breakfast

English desserts are interesting, as are their names - banoffee pie, sticky toffee pudding, spotted dick, treacle sponge, mincemeat pie, etc. We shared the apple/blackberry crumble with custard sauce and practically licked the bowl. lol

We needed to walk after that but decided to uber to the Westquay area which was way too far on foot. Our plan was to figure out what we can do to keep ourselves awake after a long flight, knowing also that our Airbnb won't be available until mid-afternoon. 

The driver dropped us off on the street and it didn't look like much but upon entering we discovered a 3 story shopping mall with lots of shops and eateries. It attaches to more outside restaurants, a movie theater and more. There's also a grocery store about a block down, so we were satisfied that we can easily spend 4 or 5 hours there and have lunch before checking into our Airbnb. Of course we'll first need to store our luggage at the cruise terminal. Now we have a plan that should make our arrival at Southampton in September a bit easier, so it was a good use of our time. 

 

Southampton Civic Center (photo credit: Ronnie)

Yesterday was a super busy day on the ship. Around the World passengers who opted out of going around Africa returned yesterday. Also lots of new passengers got on, while other passengers were ending this segment and got off. We've had 120 travel agents on board since the last port so they left yesterday as well. Crew changes also took place so now we have 2 sweet girls taking care of our suite vs the 2 guys we've gotten used to. So there are lots of new faces on the ship and we are now on the home stretch. We ended our day in Red Ginger with another Aggie and his wife from Georgia.