Our day’s excursion while visiting Ireland’s capital city, Dublin, finished with a drive back through the port town of Dún Laoghaire, somewhere we’d not paid any attention to prior to our arrival but which, as we headed back in the early evening, we realised had a few things that might have been of interest to us were we to explore on foot at some future date. Certainly, after seeing those signs and doing a little bit of map-checking after the fact we’d certainly consider exploring Dún Laoghaire should we return to this port on another cruise. Much would depend on the time of the year and there would be other factors to consider too, but we wouldn’t instantly dismiss it in favour of the capital city despite seeing very little of it on our somewhat disappointing morning in Dublin.
There was a fair old queue to get back onto the tender boats to the cruise ship because the cruise lines do like to arrange for as many tours as possible to finish at the same time for some perverted reason. But, when we did finally reach the front of the queue it was to find one boat had just left and another just arrived so that gave us the chance to sit up on top if we wanted. I wanted. My wife did not because it was cold so she stayed below.
I’d initially thought that the modern concrete building in the photo below and the tower were all one thing, and assumed it was all a fancy, brutalist church from the 60s. In fact, the sloping structure in the foreground belongs to the library and cultural centre, built in the early 2000s and opened to the public in late 2014, while the tower is that of a former church and now maritime museum. Just the sort of thing we’d visit on a return trip.
It was a fairly slow ride back to Regal Princess on the tender boat so that the breeze and choppy waves didn’t cause too much trouble for those aboard. As expected, it was cold on the top of the boat but the views were fabulous. One of our fellow passengers was up there in just his t-shirt and was definitely braving it out.
There’s not a lot to report for the evening on the ship as there wasn’t much to see in terms of sailaway views from our anchored position off the coast. Because we’d eaten so much at lunch in Dublin, however, we decided to skip the main dining room meal and take advantage of one of the free “casual dining” options that are included when you purchase the Princess Plus drinks package (and we always do). And so it was that we enjoyed a meal at Alfredo’s with a glass of wine (or two).
In the next post in this British Isles cruise series we’ll be hitting Belfast, and unlike the first occasion three years earlier when we took an excursion, this time we’d be exploring on our own and would start with a walk to and visit of the fabulous Crumlin Road Gaol.