BRILLIANCE (British Isles) June 19-July 2,2018 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

Thx for the kind words everyone... very much appreciated. :D

 

Continuing on from the Book of Kells display at the Library, Garvan led us to an entry at the next building labelled as the Long Room. At first I thought to myself... ok, so big deal? Just another part of the Library? However, I had visited New York's public library and a couple of others around the world that were very cool to have visited. reaching the upper level, we turned the corner and here's what I saw at the entry to the Long Room itself.

 

 

Hogwart's!!! Well, not quite, but could certainly pass for it in any Harry Potter movie.

The Long Room also holds one of the last remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

 

 

 

Wow! How cool is this place? This main chamber of the old Library is 213 ft long and was built in the early 1700's.

Of interesting note, in the Star Wars movie "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones", the Jedi Archives look a whole lot like this long room.... so much so that Trinity College was going to sue Lucasfilm as they did not have permission to use "the building's likeness". After some controversy, Trinity College did not take any action. I wonder if they realized Lucasfilm's net worth and decided not to throw money into a multi-million dollar legal battle against deeper pockets.

 

 

[Hoopster95]

The Long room holds some of the oldest books in Ireland.

 

 

Considered one of the oldest harps in the world, the Brian Boru Harp (also known as the "Trinity College Harp") is housed here in the Long room. This harp was used as a model for the coat of arms of Ireland.

 

 

 

This harp is regarded as a national symbol used in currency and stamps... even registered as a Guinness trademark at one time

 

 

Finish with touring the Long room and the College, we headed downstairs where the exit first leads you through a .... you guessed it... a tourist trap gift shop! And of course my eye caught a glimpse a tie rack with a bunch of cool looking ties in the patterns/colours of the Book of Kells drawings. Yep, couldn't resist.

 

[Hoopster95]

Only about 2 blocks away from the exit of the College, we stopped for an uneventful sit down lunch, and then continued our walk through the streets of Dublin. You'll find signage every second street or so, and in all major locations. I found it relatively easy to understand and figure you where you were at any given time.

 

 

We walked by the Government building (under construction/scaffolding) and through various streets & marketplaces, with Garvan explaining architecture, history and a couple of cool places to revisit if we choose as we went along.

 

 

We arrived at Dublin Castle, which was not at all as beautiful or prominent as the other castles we've visited so far. However, obviously the history here is of ultimate importance. This was the seat of the the British Government's administration until rule was handed over to Ireland in 1922.

 

 

 

There was no time for a tour inside... another downfall of the 11am late port time as well as just one day for a cruise stop.

There's a ton of great info on line and google images to look inside if you ever have the chance to visit this castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Castle

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Garvan ended our tour at the Christ Church Cathedral, whereby he would either help us figure out the easiest way back to the ship, or we could continue on our own. I elected continue on and check out the Cathedral before me.... I'd better hurry up as it was closing soon to the public (note 5pm weekdays).

 

 

Christ Church (More formerly known as "The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity") is Dublin's oldest building at around 1000 years young. Over the years, Christ Church was the home of many significant events including the crownings of kings. The buildings here have been added on to and restored many times at various stages of it's life

 

 

 

You'll find Strongbow's tomb here... Strongbow was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who led an invasion of Dublin in the 1100's. However, he was also a leader in the "rebuilding" of the cathedral from wood to stone shortly thereafter. He was very high up in royalty, and looked like may have been a king had he not been put out of favor for various circumstances. If you're am English historian and perhaps into Royal history (King Henry II), here's the wikipedia link for you

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_de_Clare%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Pembroke

 

 

Like any European old church, this one is just as beautiful with it's own unique and incredible history to share. With more time and knowledge, it would be great to follow the footsteps of some of the Royalty here.

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Renowned for it's beauty, architecture, and amazing floor tiles (see pic above), it is home to the world famous 12th century Crypt, the oldest and largest in the UK, housing various extremely old and known tombs.

 

 

 

Besides the tombs, this crypt contains the oldest secular scultpures/carvings, the stocks (made in 1670 for the punishment of offenders), historical books & altar goods, and very prominently a gold plate and set of candlesticks used when under Roman Rule when then Catholic King James II fled England in 1690.

 

 

 

 

The most interesting thing I saw was this....

 

 

Talk about out of place! I had to look this one up when I got back to the ship... they were discovered mummified in an organ pipe in 1850. Eternally trapped in chase, they're affectionately known as Tom & Jerry.

[Hoopster95]

I walked out of the Cathedral, grabbed my bearings with google maps, and headed over to the Whitefriar Grill (about a 4 block walk) to meet up with Sherri & Mike for dinner out... how nice, right?! In fact, there were several others who had asked Sherri to reserve seats for dinner but did not show up... we ended up dining on our own. Sherri booked this venue for three main reasons... (1) great reviews (2) they offer gluten free options (3) close to our next adventure of the day.... after dinner we reserved tickets out to see Riverdance at Dublin's famous Gaeity Theatre in the heart of Dublin. Only a short 5 min walk from Whitefriars we arrived with 15-20 minutes to spare before show time

 

 

I had tried to find and read reviews for seating inside this theatre, and especially photos with sitelines to the stage, with little success. I did read, however, that the 1st 2-3 rows of the "Dress Circle"... the 1st balcony level... was the very best and this was repeated over and over again. First, I had to walk into the lower "Orchestra" level as a couple of other CC'ers winged it by showing up tonight at the ticket office.... this was their approximate view

 

 

Yep... you can't wing things like this and the last moment, not the greatest seats. They told me later it was just ok. Now it was time to go find my seat and compare...

Heading up the stairs to the Dress Circle

 

 

There's Sherri & Mike in row 1... One of my choices of booking a ticket was 5th row back in the centre where I snapped this photo below

 

 

Heading warnings from the reviews I had read, and the few photos I looked at, I didn't book those seats and I'm glad I didn't with a few too many heads and the barrier/wall in the way. The reviews were right.... 1st two or three rows only are the best. My only choice when I booked seemingly seemed like a poor ticket as it was one of the last seats left in the bottom 6 or 7 rows... it was the first seat off to the side, row A seat 1.

 

Was it a bad seat you ask? Here's where I sat with a full view of the theatre looking back at Sherri & Mike there on the aisle

 

 

And here's my view of the stage..... SCORE!!

 

[Hoopster95]

The show started off with a bang. To say this A-Team troupe was excellent is an understatement, and the few photos and video I quietly took do not do these artists justice.

 

 

 

Listen to the intensity and precision... unreal. You can feel this in your bones.

 

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The show itself was fantastic from start to finish, and although about two hours (with 15min intermittent) felt like it was only a half hour. I wanted them to keep going. Soon it was time for them to take their final bows, and the musicians deserved one as much as the dancers.

 

 

Here's one of the end routines.... these two gents did a kind of "Grease Lightning" comedic routine versus the main troupe of good guys vs. bad guys, dancing against each other "to get the girl!". So very well done. This gives you a great idea during their finale

 

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Alas.... standing O. A lasting memory of Dublin for me!... Folks, don't stay on board when you're on an overnight in port. Get out there and live a little.

 

[Hoopster95]

One of my goals on this trip was to head over to the Temple Bar area in the evening, and specifically the famous Temple Bar itself, in order to have my first real Guinness in Ireland. I convinced Mike & Sherri to join me. It was a relatively easy walk down from the theatre to right in front of Trinity College, and then over a few more blocks to the Temple Bar area

 

 

There's plenty of various pubs with music, and the hustle/bustle of the streets make this place very lively. The street performers are out gathering crowds as well.

 

 

Here we are finally making it through the crowds to the Temple Bar itself... note this is a very slow mid-week Wednesday night. Friday and Saturday nights around here are a total zoo

 

 

 

In we go, and we were super lucky that a table was vacating as we were walking by, so we grabbed it right away before it was being cleared. The bar is made up many different rooms.... it's HUUUGE. And actually has about 4 or 5 bars within it serving customers in the different areas. Every room has it's own theme, and they even have an "outdoor" removable roof area that surprised me

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Ah yes.... there they are! Mike & I were both going to do a Guinness

 

 

Of course I had to photodocument the occasion of my first Guinness... oh, super good! I wasn't expecting it to be so smooth and light. I've been told the canned/bottled Guinness, especially here in North America, is no where close to the real thing delivered and served in the pubs in Ireland. Wow, this was excellent.

 

 

Cheers everybody!

 

 

We hung out for a little bit enjoying the atmosphere. There was live music in the other room next to us, and a large crowd gathering... truthfully, all three of us were a little beat, and with another long (and early) day coming in the morning we did not want to burn time here drinking, so we head off to get back to the ship. Out side, night time had finally fallen.... the Temple Bar is beautiful all lit up

 

 

We very very fortunate to find a taxi within a minute as they stopped to drop other party goers off in the Temple Square, so we hopped right in. If I remember right the cab ride was very reasonable, about 16 euro IIRC? I remember handing the cabby 20 and not worrying about change. From Temp[le Bar district back to the ship was tops 15min in traffic

 

 

 

YAAAAAWWWNNN!! Long day... off the ship at 11, and now back at 11. However what fun, and great memories.

Tomorrow there'd be more. Climbing the gangway on familiar deck 4, I immediately walked right by Guest Services and headed for my cabin for a well deserved snooze before that early wake-up call in the morning.

 

[Hoopster95]

Day 8 - Dublin

 

The Compass for today

 

 

 

 

 

I awoke today to yet another incredibly beautiful warm and sunny summer day, this time with another ship in port beside us (Oceania Nautica)

 

 

However that wouldn't affect our schedule today as I was heading out of town with my group. I set up a private tour with Elegant Irish Tours, an affiliate of Paddywagon Tours, for 12 of us in a small van to the town of Kilkenny, the Glendalough area and Wicklow Gap.

https://www.elegantirishtours.com/

 

There was a concern by some that this tour itinerary was roughly the same (price & itinerary) as the group tour offered in the large bus by Paddywagon, however as a summary to the photos to come, we left port at 9am and didn't get back until just after 7pm, a much more extensive experience. A 12 person mini-van compared to a cattle herder 47 seater coach, with ability to make changes and small stops along the way, and alter schedules as we go is much much better in my books, especially since all aboard would not be until 9:30pm on this night.

 

Again our group met in the Centrum for 8:45am. With everyone gathered, we headed out and found our driver right away with van waiting while there were large lines gathering around various RCL excursion buses. We got out of there quick before any traffic developed, soon heading out of town and away from port.

 

[Hoopster95]

If you open up a map of Dublin through to Kilkenney, you would see we have quite a bit of travel time on this day. Our first stop would be a good 1/2 hour on the freeway and another 15 minutes through small wall-lined roads & gorgeous inland scenery

 

 

We arrived at Powerscourt Gardens, voted #3 garden in the world by National Geographic.

https://powerscourt.com/

 

 

Now, I don't want to go against the opinion of a world renowned organization like NG, however I can only assume that Butchart Gardens close to me would be #2 (much better than this) and Tivoli outside of Rome (hands down a thousand times better than Powerscourt) would be #1.... so Powerscourt at #3? Hmmmm.... Having said that, it was definitely beautiful nonetheless.

 

The house itself was originally a 13th century castle, and has been added onto to and renovated. The estate has been owned by the Slazenger family (of tennis fame) since 1961.

 

 

There's various areas to the 47 acres estate gardens including the rose gardens, pet cemetery, Japanese Gardens, Dolphin pond, Walled gardens and this... the children's play castle, this entire area built specifically for the kids! The gate was locked on this day but it is open at times for viewing

 

 

Here's a beautiful view of the grounds leading down to the Triton Lake with a great view of Sugar Loaf Mountain in the distance (Wicklow Mountains)

 

 

The new gardens, terraces, walkways and general design of the gardens commenced in 1843 and took until about 1880 to complete.

 

[Hoopster95]

 

The winged Horse Statues at Triton Lake

 

 

Having passed the Japanese gardens, looking back from where I had come.

 

 

Had I continued much further past the well traveled areas of this property and into the bush from here, you could walk/hike another 6kms or so to the largest waterfall in Ireland, the Powerscourt Waterfall at 398ft tall. We obviously had no time for this hike, let alone stop there with the vehicle. There are some amazing on-line google images... would make for a beautiful picnic visit if more time were available

https://www.google.ca/search?q=powerscourt+waterfall&rlz=1C1RNVH_enCA559CA585&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjMzpjV87bcAhXQIjQIHU2uBscQ_AUICygC&biw=1600&bih=794

 

Continuing on around the lake you reach the pet cemetery... I noted the oldest tomb stone at 1854! All the original family's pets who have passed are here

 

 

Besides the various "neighborhoods" around the property, there are a huge variety of plants, trees, you name it, including a huge area of real red woods and other large trees to create a mini-forest of sorts that then opens up to a gate and into the walled gardens

 

 

All in all, a really nice visit to this impressive estate and cool way to start the day. I would've enjoyed taking a couple of hours to walk to the falls and back, or drive close to it to hang out for lunch for example, however time wouldn't allow for that. Maybe next time.

 

[Hoopster95]

We left Powerscourt and headed up into the Wicklow Mountains with the beautiful green scenery we all associate with inland Ireland

 

 

Around the bend and away from Powerscourt we enter an area called the Sally Gap as we proceed up the hill on small roads and we come to Lough Tay viewing point. Also known as Guinness Lake, Lough Tay borders onto a property owned by the Guinness Family. The lake is edge by very white sand at the top, and contrasted with the brownish/peaty water color it tends to look like a pint of Guinness with the froth (whiter sand) when viewed from a certain angle! I believe Kancocoa will share a few good tidbits told to her by her guide on this area when she gets to it.

 

We got to hang out 10-15 minutes here to soak in the scenery.... totally beautiful

 

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Time to go, our group was called back down into the van waiting in the parking area... I took note of the van here for those of you taking notes about tours and companies

 

 

 

And again we were off, taking a right at the fork in the road towards Glendalough

 

[Hoopster95]

On to Glendalough... meaning "valley of two lakes". It's renowned for an early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin. It's here we toured the monastery founded by the first settlers here.

 

 

It's also a huge cemetery with hundreds (probably a few thousand) headstones, many so aged and eroded you can't read the writing on them as they lean over almost to the ground.

 

 

The Round Tower.... here's a superb link to follow a few of the areas I point out below with short, really well written and easily readable description of the Tower as well well other ruins in the monastery

http://www.megalithicireland.com/High%20Cross%20Glendalough.html

 

 

 

 

Cathedral of St Peter & St Paul... some of the oldest readable tombstones read into the 1500's here

 

 

[Hoopster95]

 

This is St Kevin's Cross. Legend says that anyone who can wrap their arms around the body of the cross and touch finger tips will have their wish granted. Will I get my wish?

 

 

Well, there's another local "legend" that says by touching finger tips, you are also destined to be married!... NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 

 

St Kevin's Kitchen. There's another local "legend" here... if you can spread your arms at the front portal and touch both sides, you're destined to have children. I immediately turned and walked away from the laughter behind me.

 

 

What a gorgeous visit to a site and area I had absolutely zero clue about. Love discovering and learning through experiences like this. We all headed back out through the medieval double main double gateway

 

[Hoopster95]

Our guide had earlier made a call to a close by "friend", a sheepherder, who does demonstrations with his border collies on his farm. There was no answer at the time of the call, however leaving the monastery our guide got the reply, so we were good to go to check it out. I thought we had to drive there.... instead, the farm was only a 1/2 block down the road and a short walk from the monastery. The owner met us at the front gate to let us in

 

 

The dogs were gorgeous... and so smart! He called them over to start his presentation. As it turned out, many other folks hanging around saw that the gates were being opened and followed us up into the site to enjoy the show.

 

 

One of the dogs was extra friendly and really enjoyed the attention from several of us... until of course her owner called her with his special whistle ands she totally bolted away in a millisecond at his beck and call

 

 

I've never seen a sheep herder at work... was really interesting to see him control two dogs with two separate sets of whistles, being able to move the sheep to any spot he wished. Each dog would move from left to right depending on the whistle calls. The little puppy likes to try and pretend he's important there... he's in training.

 

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Of course, his little puppy in the video above stole the show (and hearts) of the many onlookers. He too enjoyed a few pets.

 

 

This was a nice little detour off the beaten path... and this owner is certainly not hurting by doing this.... he collected 5 euro from everyone watching the demonstration (about 20 people)... that's quite a nice racket if I don't say so myself!

 

[accio_7]

Oh man, your two days in Ireland are bringing back such great memories of my vacation a number of years ago! I stayed three nights in Dublin, visited Kilkenny Castle en route to Cork where I stayed there for three nights. From Cork I visited Blarney Castle, toured the city, and did bus tours to the Ring of Kerry and Cliffs of Moher. I definitely want to return one of these days, the scenery, history, people, food, Guinness is simply amazing :D

 

(And, speaking of sheep, I think I must have seen every single breed possible on our bus tour LOL. Agree that the sheepherding demo was really cool to watch!)

[Hoopster95]

Time was flying by and it was about time we head for a late lunch. Still in Glendalough, we stopped at an extremely popular eatery and pub, the Wicklow Heather. When we got there most of the outside seating was full, so we headed inside to an area reserved for us.

 

 

The claim to fame here in Glendalough is, what else, lamb. And several of the dishes offered here use lamb as their primary ingredient. my lunch was excellent! MMM MMM MMM .... Irish lamb stew with a pint of Guinness

 

 

Also on the menu, Irish Shepperd's Pie and lamb shank. This place has excellent food for those of you planning a visit here.

 

 

 

Our guide urged us on as the addition of the sheep herding demonstration added about 45min to our itinerary and lunch took a bit longer than expected with the afternoon flying by. Off we went

 

 

Here we had a choice... being mid afternoon already. Kilkenney was a good 50min away and we'd only get a short 30-40 min visit at the castle due to the late time, or we hang around Glendalough and site see something else. It was decided with our group that the drive and Kilkenney were one of the main things we wanted to do, so we continued forward.

 

What would the Ireland Highlands be without be stopped be sheep crossing the road?

 

[Hoopster95]

stayed three nights in Dublin, visited Kilkenny Castle en route to Cork where I stayed there for three nights. From Cork I visited Blarney Castle, toured the city, and did bus tours to the Ring of Kerry and Cliffs of Moher.

 

Yep, You very well described my yearning to do a week on land in Ireland, especially the west coast where you didn't mention Gallway and Limmerick. This cruise did not do Ireland any justice at all, but was a decent little taste of what could be.:)

[Hoopster95]

On our way through the inner roads, we happen across the town of Hollywood... yes! Hollywood is in Ireland, not California. Wow, looks similar to the LA version as well, doesn't it...lol! Well, regardless of what it looks like, there's just no way it could be Hollywood if it didn't have the Hollywood sign up on the hillside.... could it?

 

 

Could it???

 

 

After enjoying the travels and scenery of the estimated hour's drive, and getting close to 4:15pm, we arrived into the town of Kilkenney, with a view of the castle and castle walls as we approached.

 

 

The Castle itself closes at 5pm so we had to make a bee-line directly through the gates after parking the bus. By the time we got collected, entered the main gates and headed through the courtyard to the entrance, we only had a 1/2 hour to explore this castle

 

 

The staff had to arrange a somewhat hasty tour for us to get us through the building to the various rooms. There was no way a half hour was going to be enough here, however I feel they did the best they can to whisk us through the most important rooms regarding the history

 

 

[IrishLassie]

LOVING your pictures of my favorite place in the world, Ireland! Glad you had good weather!

[Hoopster95]

As per the above photo, we passed through the main dining room. There's plenty of painted portraits everywhere in the castle of the family lineage.... do you remember "Strongbow" (Duke of Penbroke) mentioned as buried in the walls within the Christ Church Cathedral? He had a hand in building this castle as well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilkenny_Castle

 

The library was interesting... note the date of the "Stats of British Empire" encyclopedia on the right. And what's an olde English library without some time pieces of Shakespeare .... note the spelling "Shakspere"

 

 

Here's a piece of furniture in the main living room used for courtship... a possible young couple within the royal family would sit back to back (the wider seats on the right sand left). They would not be allowed to speak to each other. Instead, the mothers of the two would sit on the smaller seats on either end, and they would pass messages back and forth. Insane!

 

 

Some of the original flush toilets were invented in the UK, and this castle had an example. Many people incorrectly state that Thomas Crapper (yes... "Crapper"... I'm not making this up!!) invented the ....er..... crapper.... in the 19th century in Seattle but that's not true. It happened much earlier

 

 

The main hall is the show stopper of this castle, with a feature marble fireplace, a masterful wood roof (with various attributes) and some incredible art on the walls (especially the hanging tapestries, some taking years to produce). Note the two large tapestries hanging on the left wall, and compare their size to the standing tourists below

 

Here's a great link to "tour" through the various rooms of Kilkenney simply by clicking on each room for those of you taking notes.

http://kilkennycastle.ie/tour-of-the-castle/a-touring-of-the-castle/

 

 

5pm came upon us, and we were urged out of the castle as it was closing time. Way way way too short a time to be sure... and in hindsite, although the sheep herding demo was pretty cool, that 45min could've been well served with a short walk around the town of Kilkenney instead.... it's gorgeous here and would really be well served with a morning or afternoon visit for a couple of hours roaming through the small cobblestone streets & shops, etc

 

[Hoopster95]

I stayed the best B&B of my life in Galway. It was by far one of my favorite places in Ireland...well next to Cliffs of Moher

 

Ah yes.... a quick google image search by any CCV'ers reading through this review of Galway & Cliffs of Moher will show anyone why you feel this why and why I'd love to drive and stay there for a few days.

 

LOVING your pictures of my favorite place in the world, Ireland! Glad you had good weather!

 

Thx IrishLassie! Yes, weather was outrageously wonderful to us.... far beyond expectations :cool:

[Hoopster95]

We had a good hour and 15 minutes driver back to Dublin now, making this tour a bit longer than the 5-5:30pm drop off time initially discussed. As mentioned earlier, we were able to spend more time in various places that ended up extending our time on this custom private tour. We gathered onto the bus and headed for the motorway for a faster return back to Baile Atha Cliath (yes, I learned how to say "Dublin" in Gaelic.

 

Note when the Viking initially settled here, they called Dublin Dyflin meaning "Black Pool". In Irish, black pool is Dubh Linn.... aha! This is how "Dublin" came about.

 

 

Getting closer to town, our driver veered off the highway as there was word of major evening traffic. On the overpass after leaving the highway, we witnessed a major bumper to bumper back-up we would've been stuck in... our driver was right

 

 

Heading through the outskirts of Dublin, we finally reached the inner city as we passed the Guinness Brewery main gate

 

 

We also passed by one of the few remaining original walls of Dublin, unceremoniously left over on an inconspicuous street corner seemingly away from public view.

 

 

And finally we were right downtown and heading for port, crossing the O'Connell Bridge with the O'Connell Monument and the Spire of Dublin in full view, our final real memory of the sites we saw over the past two days as we turned the corner to head closer to the port area.

 

 

[Hoopster95]

There was much construction/blockage on the roads, so much so that our driver veered away from seemingly major traffic and we did quite a long detour all the way around the city to enter the port on the other side. A 5 minute drive (the cab the night before) suddenly became another 1/2 hour, and we arrived at Brilliance closer to 7:15pm. Tired, we thanked our guide and we all trugged up the gangway onto Brilliance for the evening.

 

With the late and hearty lunch I had, I wasn't hungry yet, so I headed down to the theatre to enjoy the Love & Marriage game show scheduled for this evening.... like last night, there was no Production Show nor Headliner booked this evening because we were in port late into the evening... this was the show. Great show as usual and Abe was funny

 

 

After this, I headed up to the Windjammer for dinner. I can't remember what the theme was on this night, and I took no photos. All I do remember is that I wasn't overly thrilled by the theme choices, but had a nice dinner nonetheless with a big fresh salad with all the fixings, sliced roast beef and some other goodies.... with a view of harbour and Dublin's downtown area beyond the port area.

 

 

Sailaway was due to be very late at 10pm this evening, and right on que the ropes were loosened to allow Brilliance to push away from the pier

 

 

 

As usual, when other ships are in port I usually take a few pictures... no different here as the P&O Aurora had tied up across the harbour.

 

 

That was it as Brilliance sailed off into the sunset. Until we meet again Dublin & Ireland!