Dublin – Dublin Highlights
Hubby seemed to be feeling better in the morning. He climbed out of bed about 6 and got dressed. We needed to gather in the Stardust Theater by 7:50, so I got up shortly after he did. We went to the buffet once again, and then he wanted to go out on the deck to get some pictures. And probably do some walking. He tries to walk 10,000 steps a day. I went back to our cabin to get our tickets for the day’s excursion.
7:40, I went out into the hall to catch sight of him as soon as possible, keeping an eye on both the corridor and the nearest bank of elevators. About 7:45, I finally saw him walking towards me down the corridor, so I started walking that way, because it was the opposite end of the ship that we needed to get to! We barely made it there on time, and then had to go down to the very front of the theater to find any seats to sit on. But we had just gotten situated when they called the first tour of the day. It was us! So we had to climb back up the stairs halfway, to the deck 6 exit, where we were given stickers to tell us which bus to get on. Then we had to walk down 2 decks, halfway to the rear of the ship, cross to the port side, and finally climb out to board the tender.
It was a 20- or 25-minute ride to get to the pontoon pier. Then a rather long walk to where the buses were waiting. But once we got aboard, it wasn’t long before we were on our way. This was to be a 4-hour tour, with most of it being on the bus. It sounded delightful. No struggling to keep up with a speedy tour guide, no stopping to taste or shop; just sitting on a bus and looking out the windows. Mostly.
Our tour guide was full of information; history, architecture, current events, more history, even a quick lesson in speaking Gaelic.
Our one stop was at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. After the bus parked in the back of the cathedral, we walked about 2 blocks to get to the front, where we were organized to go in as a group. We were given 45 minutes to look around at the many, many displays, and if we had any questions, we could find the tour guide and ask her. I should have asked her about the circular staircase that seemed to go up through the ceiling. Its outside was decorated with ornately carved columns, but the stairs seemed scarcely wide enough for a child to use, and the entire staircase’s diameter seemed to be about a yard.
I didn’t want to hurry back to the bus, so I left the cathedral after 35 minutes. It took me 6 minutes to saunter back to the bus. Before I left, I had warned Hubby that it was nearly time to go, and to not forget to leave time to walk to the bus. He wasn’t the last to get to the bus, but he was among the last 5 to arrive there. Happily, they weren’t late.
We zig-zagged through down-town Dublin for some time, looking at bridges, statues, Georgian squares and other examples of architecture. Eventually, we left Dublin to head to the pier a few kilometers away. We boarded a tender and rode back to the ship, where we went to the buffet for a quick lunch.
As we left the buffet, Hubby started to complain that he had a stomachache again. When we got to our cabin, he sat down to watch some tv. I plugged in my computer, and then his camera battery, which had run out of juice in the middle of Dublin. Then I laid down and listened to the tv for the better part of an hour.
When I did get up to take my computer to the internet café, I asked what he was thinking of doing, and he said possibly go walking. I wondered if he might have developed an ulcer, and he asked, “Starting yesterday?” Well, those things have to start some time. He came back with the suggestion that maybe he’s been without coffee for too long. He hasn’t been drinking it because the coffee served in the buffet is amazingly bitter. Now, I’ve ‘broken’ my caffeine addiction 2 or 3 times, and I don’t remember a stomachache as one of my symptoms. I hoped he felt better by evening; we had a reservation at the Japanese restaurant.
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