We didn’t really do much today at all. We got up at 7.30am and went out onto the balcony to watch the progress of Queen Anne towards her anchorage in the Dublin Bay. I don’t know why the ship just didn’t dock in Dublin itself, as we have done on previous cruises. Maybe she is just too big.
We got washed and dressed and made our way up to the Artisans’ Foodhall on Deck 9. I was pleased to see that my updo from last night was still very much intact, so I didn’t have to waste time faffing around with my hair this morning. 🙂
We spotted Billy and Carole having breakfast in the buffet and went over to join their table, asking what their plans for the day were. Should we try to see if a taxi would take the four of us into Dublin? Trevor and I had been into Ireland’s capital several times before, but it was the first visit for B & C. We were just happy enough to explore the immediate vicinity as we’d never been to the pretty little seaside town of Dún Laoghaire.
First of all though, it meant the inevitable queue for the liberty boat once again. We didn’t want to waste the morning sitting in the theatre waiting for our boat number to be called, so we decided we’d wait until after lunch, when the queues would have dispersed. We were here today until 5.30pm, so there was no real hurry.
We therefore just spent the morning pottering around. I had finished my book, so I decided to start re-reading the Lewis trilogy by Peter May, starting with The Blackhouse, which I’d first read in 2012.
Eventually, we decided to go ashore, and returned to 4066 to change into trainers and get ready. We knocked on B & C’s door and asked if they wanted to come with us; Billy said he would, but Carole was just happy to remain on the ship.
The three of us went down to the theatre to collect our tender tickets. As it was now around 12.30pm, there weren’t many people waiting at all, and we could proceed down to the tender embarkation pontoon almost immediately. Then we waited while the liberty boat gradually filled up, before it roared off across the bay. Alighting at the other side, we walked along the bustling harbour and took in our surroundings.
There were lots of trendy sea-front restaurants, shops and bars. We found ourselves in a main shopping street, where we spotted an indoor mall, imaginatively called the “Dún Laoghaire Shopping Centre”, and decided to go inside. We realised we hadn’t had any lunch, so Trevor and I bought a packet of crisps each and I went to buy some tinted moisturiser, as I had run out.
As we were in Ireland, we decided to go and have a Guinness. We remembered passing a huge Wetherspoon’s quite near the harbour, called “The Forty Foot”, so we decided to go in there. I sat down at a table while Trevor and Billy went to the bar to order three pints of Guinness.
A few minutes later, they came back to say that they didn’t sell Guinness! WHAT?! We’re in Ireland… and they don’t sell Guinness! That was very strange, considering every other Wetherspoon’s pub we’ve been in definitely does sell Guinness. In disbelief, we left the pub and decided to try our luck elsewhere.
We soon came across an attractive place with a sea view called Hartley’s. It looked like more of a restaurant than a bar, so we went inside and asked if it was all right if we just wanted drinks. The man behind the bar said it was fine, as along as we sat at one of the tables outside, so we ordered our Guinness and sat on high chairs at a table under a parasol.
From here, we could see right across the bay to the Queen Anne at anchor. From our vantage point, it depended on how far round she had revolved as to whether you’d get a good photo or not, so I waited until we could see her full length before I took a picture, using the excellent zoom facility on my Galaxy 25 phone.
After our Guinnesses we saw that it was after 2.30pm, so we decided to take a slow stroll back to the harbour to catch the next liberty boat. In any case, the weather was thinking about raining, and we had intermittent sunshine, clouds and showers.
We boarded the tender and waited once again until it was filled, before we set off for the very choppy ride back to the Queen Anne. We were bouncing around like a pea on a drum, and one lady who was sitting opposite was a little scared, and wasn’t happy at all. When we reached the pontoon and the boat was made fast, they started to disembark the tender passengers, and this poor lady apologised profusely for jumping the queue but she said she just had to get off. No-one minded at all.
We enjoyed a half-hour power nap before starting to get washed and changed ready for dinner time coming around once again. It just seemed to me that we’d spent an inordinate amount of time eating and drinking on this cruise! 🙂
By now, the Queen Anne had weighed anchor and was underway once again, and we could actually feel some of the ship’s motion which was (surprisingly) the first time since the start of this cruise that we had actually felt as if we were at sea. 🙂
We enjoyed a delicious meal as usual before making our way to the Queen’s Room for a performance by Irish singer and musician Tara Howley. She played the violin, penny whistle and uilleann pipes, which are classic Irish (rather than Scottish) bagpipes. She was a good musician and she was accompanied by the superb ship’s orchestra, but when she started to sing she just had a very weak voice and you couldn’t really hear her. We saw several people walking out of the Queen’s Room, and it wasn’t long before we did so too. Billy and Carole said they’d see us up in the Commodore Club, but meanwhile Trevor and I went along to the Royal Court Theatre where the show company were putting on their rendition of Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) at nine o’clock.
Neither Trevor nor I had ever read Pride and Prejudice or seen the film, so we didn’t really know what to expect. All we knew was that this version was supposed to be a comedy, based on Jane Austen’s characters. It featured only a cast of about half a dozen females, each of whom played several parts. It was hard keeping up with who was supposed to be who. We tried hard to like it, but it really wasn’t our thing at all, and we found ourselves slinking out of the theatre when there was still half an hour of the performance to go. That was the second performance we had walked out on today! 🙁
Up in the Commodore, we joined Billy and Carole; Carole persuaded me to have one of those delicious Tanqueray classic martinis again. I will really have to learn to make them, so I can try one at home. 🙂
Then we just sat and chatted and enjoyed another drink before B & C said their goodnights. Trevor and I decided to go down to the Golden Lion and enjoy the music of Aileen and Sticks while partaking of a nightcap.
It was about 11.45pm before we left the pub and made our way back to 4066. We settled down for the night in pleasant anticipation of our next (and final) port of call this cruise, that of the lovely little town of Cobh. Once again, we slept very well.