Thursday in Dublin

Sunset out of Cork Moley McGee Memorial to immigrants leaving Ireland

Yesterday in Cork we took umbrellas and jackets, today we took neither as the forecast was suppose to be partly cloudy and fairly warm. Wrong. There was light rain early on our ride into the city and then cool and windy the rest of the day.
We had a great bus driver going into the city to pick up our Hop on Hop off bus. He said that he was not a tour guide, so don’t report him. Well our tour guide should have been a bus driver and our bus driver should have been a tour guide.
He pointed out many sites and had good commentary to go along with them. We drove along the river Liffey where the sailing ships left from to bring the Irish to the USA. There was a replica of one of the ships on the river and I am amazed at the conditions they must have lived under to cross the Atlantic. The river is a tidal river, so it fills and drains with the tides. If and when the sun shines and the tide is out the river has and odor. The Irish love rhymes and they call this Sniffey Liffey.
We drove past the monuments to the poor people who fled Ireland during the famine. It is a very moving and sad monument. The sad thing is they did not have to starve. The blight left a dark spot on the potatoes and they could have cut that part off and eaten the rest. However being uneducated and superstitious they thought the whole potato was poisoned and they threw them away.
We also drove pass the statue of Molly McGee. She sold fish during the day and supplemented her income with the sale of other “goods” at night. Again the Irish have a rhyme. They call her the Dish with the Fish, or the Tart with the Cart.
We took the Hop on Hop off for the tour of the city. Basically it is a big city and that is about all I have to say about Dublin. We ate at an Irish pub called O’Neil’s. If you are ever in Dublin we highly recommend it. The food was good, too much. Judi’s Fish and Chips was delicious, but it was the size of a small whale. I had Irish stew and there was enough to feed a family. The portions that our friends had of other dishes were the same. Of course we had to have some Irish beer to wash it down. Even Judi had a beer. The Pub was typical old Irish pub, lots of dark wood and dim lighting and very friendly people. Along with that, let me say that the people we have me in Ireland are very friendly and helpful.
Back on ship we had dinner and watched as the tugs pulled and the ship shook as we tried to leave Dublin docks. To make a long story short, we didn’t. The wind was 35 knots and 90 degrees to the boat. Too much pressure on this big ship to move away from the docks. Then we missed the tide, so we will be here until at least 2:45 tomorrow morning.