As part of a 33 day cruise, my husband and I explored Ireland. Our stops in Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK)) were very interesting.
Picking up where our trip to England left off…
Our Time in Ireland
Ireland was scheduled as part of the first cruise of our back-to-back (two cruises in a row on the same ship). The first cruise was an around the UK cruise, the second cruise was a transatlantic cruise home. These posts are broken up due to all the photographs.
The embarkation on this Princess cruise was super smooth. We stood in line, got our medallions and were on the ship in no time (the disembarkation in Galveston was even smoother).
Our stops were Cohb/Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool , Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Kirkwall, Scotland as well as La Harve, France.
We ended up missing Dublin as it was a tender port and “the waves were too high making for unsafe conditions.” That sucked as it was a place I really wanted to see.
When you take a cruise, weather plays a big part in whether or not the boat can make the port. If the ship can safely navigate to the port, it will. After that, getting to land depends on if the ship is tied up at the dock where passengers can walk-off the ship, or if it is a tender port.
A tender port involves loading people onto a smaller craft from the large ship (which will hold 50-300 people, depending upon the craft). Those smaller craft are either the ship’s or they may be the port’s crafts.
Once loaded, it is a short distance to the port’s dock. We have had the distance be as close as 10 minutes, as far away as 30 minutes. Apparently, it depends on where the water is deep enough to safely anchor and navigate to and from (or at least that is my understanding of the process).
We actually went to Cohb twice. The first time it was a scheduled stop on the first cruise of our back-to-back and it was a tender port. They do not have a lot of docks, and another ship was already at the berth.
The second time we went there was unscheduled (we missed two ports in Northern Spain) because we were hiding from Hurricane Kirk on the second cruise on our back-to-back. No other ship was in port, so we docked and walked off the ship.
In Cohb we did not do a tour and just walked around. I think that was a mistake as there was little to see or do. Outside of a Titanic museum and the beautiful St Colman’s Cathedral, which is up a switchback road, highlights were minimal.
The second time we went to Cohb we considered going to Cork. However, the time in port was very tight, and getting there, getting back, and the time to do anything in Cork (while making sure we were going to to be back to the sip for sailing) was minimal. While I was grateful for a safe harbor against the hurricane, I do not understand why the time in port wasn’t much longer allowing people the opportunity to travel the area. For us (and 750 other back-to-back passengers) who had been there two weeks prior, a chance to explore further would have been very welcome.
Belfast was fantastic. It was not what I expected at all. Very charming, lots of shops, historical buildings and monuments, as well as many restaurants.
We took a taxi into the city, walked around a bit and found a Tim Horton’s!! I immediately texted Sonny-boy with a photo and he groaned with an “oh no, you did not!” I can’t get Timmie’s where we live in Florida, but I can get it in Europe. heh
We then met our tour guide for a food tour. He walked us all over the place describing the buildings, history, and area. For me, the highlight was an old pub called Whites (established in 1630) where I swear the original fire marking were still on the wall.
When we finished the tour we still had time to visit the local market. Hubby parked me with a coffee and went and investigated the stalls. I would have been happy if we had done a market tour that day, but I still did not regret the food tour. He picked up some roasted coffee beans that were excellent. Now, to figure out how to order them shipped.
On our way back to the ship there was a traffic back-up and the first taxi would not take us to the port. Apparently, due to traffic, it was not worth the fare to him. We quickly learned our lesson, got into a second taxi, buckled in and then told the driver destination! We did tip him very well as we could see he was going to lose at least one fare not being in the city.
Yes, I know Liverpool is in England, but I can’t make these write-ups more disjointed. Hence, it is part of the Ireland write-up.
In Liverpool we took another food tour. I am not a Beatles fan (at all) and the Beatles are big business in Liverpool.
We went to a beer joint (The Pump House) to sample some local beer, then we went to The Bridewell which was formerly a jail in Victorian times. It stopped being a gaol in the early 1930s. Charles Dickens was sworn in as a special constable for one night 1860 while he was researching his novel “The Uncommercial Traveller.” Truly a cool concept (we sat in a booth in what was a former cell.
Our final stop on this tour was a very modern restaurant – Nova Scotia – that served up local cuisine. We had “traditional scouse” which is a beef stew.
The wharf area is very nice. It was lovely experiencing it on our cold and windy day. I would guess it is mobbed on a warm day.
After that, our next ports were in Scotland.
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