World Tour Part VII

Tuesday 10th June 2008 - Dublin, Ireland

Today we arrived into Dublin a place I was keen to see as a good friend of mine in Australia, Jenny Travis, comes from here and as she still has family here we were trying to arrange to meet up but unfortunately, for us, they are on holidays and we will miss them. Nevertheless, we will make the most of it anyway so that I can at least go home and compare our stories.

The view from our deck as we dock is amazing. Where we have thousands of skyscrapers in Sydney there are mainly beautiful old, old buildings here. I still think, and I know many will agree, that Sydney has the most beautiful harbour in the world but it is always interesting to see other harbours and places and I keep thinking how fortunate I am to be able to appreciate the many varied and beautiful sights we are becoming so used to on this trip.

From what we have been told here Dublin has experienced a rennaisance in the past decade. Today, this gracious and cosmopolitan city, on the banks of the Liffey River, is one of Europe's premier destinations.

We meet our friends Jan and Barrie and go ashore to explore. It is a beautiful day, sunny with a light wind and not too cold. It can get quite bitter though but as we do a lot of walking it soon warms us up.

What a great little city this is. Easy to get around, and very flat, so walking is a breeze. We go past the Kilmanham Jail and to the Guinness Brewery, Trinity College and City Hall for the history of Dublin.

Dubliners have a wicked sense of humour and it is easy to see where most Australians get their sense of humor from.

After about 2 hours of sightseeing we find 'Temple Bar' a busy area with many cafes and bars. We are recommended to try the Guinness in the actual Temple Bar inside a pub in the area. Here, I taste my first Guinness and it is so lovely and cremy though i don't think I will adopt it as my usual drink. We are a bit disappointed that this pub does not sell food so we finish our drinks and head down the road past some quaint shop fronts until we find another pub.

Here, we enjoy more Guinness and "traditional Irish Stew" which is also a favourite with the locals. It is delicious and very welcoming as the temperature outside begins to drop.

We enjoy a slow walk back to where we are being picked up to take us back to the ship but on the way we pass many many shops and Barrie and Nick are clearly bored with our 'window shopping'. We suggest they go back to the ship early to leave us to enjoy this enjoyable past time on our own.

Before long we are making our way back to our 'organised pick-up' when Jan calls out to me "I just almost walked into (the Scottish Comedian) Billy Connolly. Whatever would he be doing here!!! I could only see him from behind so wasn't sure it it was him but he definitely had his characteristic walk and long greying hair, so who knows!!!!

That evening we enjoyed the best 'sail away' yet with 100's of the locals dockside farewelling us to the sounds of a fantastic Irish Band. Dublin lived up to all expectations and as we so often keep saying 'another one which will be on the list to return to one day'!

Wednesday 11th June 2008 - Liverpool, England.

Liverpool, England today so Jan and I decide to do this area on our own. Nick and Barrie were keen to play some sport (ie table tennis) and Nick was keen to have a swim in the heated pool that is one of the many on board. As Jan and I mentioned that we would like to go to Chester and the "S" & "C" words they were keen to do their own thing. Shopping and Coffee really didn't interest them so that left Jan and I to go on our own.

We had both seen Chester on Getaway and it looked like a shoppers paradise and we definitely were not disappointed.

We left the ship around 9am and and found a taxi where again, we negotiated a fair price (20 pounds an hour) to take us for 5 hours. This way we get to do and see what we want to rather than organised tours where you are at the mercy of the tour company. Our driver 'Jimmy' or 'Sharpie' (is his nickname) was a real character and I think he liked the idea of being OUR taxi driver and guide for the day.

After climbing into his lovely old English Cab we sat in the back as if we were royalty.

Chester is about 30 miles from Liverpool so we enjoyed the scenery of cottages and small villages along the way.

Our first stop was at a lovely gated village called 'Port Sunlight Village' with many beautiful, expensive homes. Jimmy was keen to take our photo ourside the Bridge Inn Pub here - a quaint little thatched roofed hotel in the area.

Next stop Chester. This is a beautiful town and full of character with many streets blocked off from traffic. Jimmy dropped us off at one end and we arranged to meet him at the other end in 1 hour. 'Big Mistake'!!!

The shops here are so quaint and lived up to all expectations. They are so quaint and different and interesting only you girls out there will know what I mean!!

1 hour went by in a heartbeat so we met Jimmy at the designated place and time but arranged for him to leave us at another spot, this time for 2 hours. This really was far more realistic as we were able to, not only add to the British economy but had lunch at a lovely little coffee shop as well.

Jimmy was amused at the sight as we returned to meet him armed with many shopping bags - he could now understand why our husbands stayed behind in Liverpool.

With 2 hours to go we arrived back into Liverpool in time to be shows some of the landmarks and sights of this great little city.

We retraced the steps of the "Beatles" in that we visited the childhood homes of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. Jimmy told us George Harrison's home was not really worth visiting so we were happy to enjoy the others and go along with his advice.

We then had photos taken at Abbey Road, Strawberry Fields (which was the local orphanage). the Post office and Barber shop in Penney Lane made famous by so many of their songs.

A couple of years ago I read the John Lennon Story by Cynthia Lennon (John's first wife). Whilst I was never a fan of John Lennon this book was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone as It would be of interest to anyone who spent their early days during that era.

After 6 hours, many shopping bags, lots of photos and us humming the words to 'she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah! we arrived back to the ship absolutely exhausted. We had a fantastic day and taken with us some great memories of this lovely area.

Thursday 12th June 2008 - Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Today is to be another busy day as we wake thismorning full of anticipation. We are to meet friends of Jan and Barrie who live about 12 miles out of Belfast. Actually these people are the sister and brother-in-law of Brendan and Di, very close friends of Jan and Barrie so, in actual fact, it will be the first meeting for them as well.

Once we arrive into the city of Belfast it is not long before we are met by Moira and Sean a delightful couple in the late 60's. They suggest that the best way to see the city is 'you guessed it' the open topped, two level hop on hop off bus which we have become so used to.

Our first stop is the Harland and Wolff Shipbuilding Yard and this was the shipyard which built the ill-fated titanic back in Nineteen Hundred and Twelve. There is much development going on here as they get ready for their hundred year anniversary in 4 years time.

Our next stop is beautiful Stormont Castle which houses the current Parliament. Built in the early 17th Century this is now a popular venue for many national and internation rock concerts.

The weather is turning bitter and an open topped bus is probably not quite the way to see Belfast but it certainly adds to the atmosphere. Poor Nick is feeling it the most as he has nothing to cover his head and the tiny amount of hair he does have certainly doesn't keep out the cold. He puts on a brave face nevertheless.

It is hard to believe that before 1994, when the ceasefire treaty came into effect, that this city was in the grips of a bloody religious war between the Catholics and Protestants. We witnessed many reminders of the battles that took place and to this day, many of the older folk, who remember and lost loved ones, still find it difficult to forgive and forget what has gone in the past. We would never have been able to visit here 2 - 3 years ago as it was so unsafe. With tolerance and educating the young people, we can only hope this city can go forward to enjoy the peace it so deserves.

After 2 hours we were glad to be getting off as the temperature had reached 10 degrees. Moira and Sean suggested for us to go to a great little pub they knew of which was a welcoming sight.

We spent the next 2 hours enjoying their company, hearing about their beloved Northern Ireland all this while we were enjoying Guinness and Bangers and Mash. Very welcoming in this bitter weather.

Moira and Sean were delightful people and now friends as we exchanged addresses and took photos and we ended the day again by saying 'Today was definitely ANOTHER hightlight'!!!!

Friday13th June 2008 - Glasgow, Scotland (Greenoch)

I kept hearing stories that Glasgow (our next stop) was just an industrial city and not very interesting so we made the decision to stay on board ship.

However, curiosity got the better of me, as it so often does, I convinced Nick that we should just go into the city, have a quick look, then come back.

We walked for about 1/2 hour through the little port town of Greenoch. After getting directions we made our way to the train station and was in time to catch the train to Glasgow. It took about 30 minutes and was lovely to see the little villages, rivers and town along the way. As I have said so many times before trains are a lovely way to travel as you get to see the real countryside.

Glasgow, what a pleasant surprise we got. We were told there were now a lot of young business people moving here so slowly the bleak 'Industrial' reputation is making way for lovely shopfronts,
gorgeous cafes and restaurants so the streets are buzzing.

Once there we walked around town a bit until we came to the 'hop on hop off open topped bus'. Today the weather was lovely and sunny so it was pleasant sitting in the open air to enjoy the sights.

After 2 hours we were finding a pub for some lunch which we did with full view of St George's Square and we were entertained by some local fellows playing a game of soccer (without a ball).

Back to the trains station and we passed a lovely book store. Nick and I are avid readers so this was a must and it was not too long before we came out with a couple of books each as we took advantage of the 2 for 1 special offer for the day.

On the train we sat with a couple of local girls who were nurses at the local hospital. They were delightful and it was interesting to compare their career path with what we know of in Australia. They had heard Australian Hospital were looking for nurses from Scotland but it seemed they weren't keen to leave their families as they have the idea (and rightly so) that Australia is so so far away!!! We convinced them it would be wonderful for them to travel there for a holiday nevertherless.

Well! Glasgow was certainly not what we expected and we are so glad we made the effort and took the time to explore this lovely city.