Dublin (Dun Laoghaire), Ireland

We dropped anchor off of Dun Laoghaire, a suburb of Dublin, known as the UNESCO City of Literature, birthplace to James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett.

We took an early tender in, climbed into the Viking shuttle and wig-wagged our way to the drop off/pick up spot in the heart of Dublin. We then hopped on the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus for a one and a half hour city tour.

We saw St. Patrick's Cathederal and the huge Guiness Beer plant. We had lunch at the quintessential Irish pub, Murray's, where i had my first Guinness Stout - delicious! We intended to do actual tours in each, but we were called back to the ship because the weather and sea had made the tendering too dangerous. So, together with about 230 other cruisers that had made it into Dublin, we met together at the port terminal. Then, we were ushered to the nearby Royal Marine Hotel, where we were suitably taken care of for about four hours.

We did manage to tender back to the Neptune at about 6:30pm. It was a bouncy 25-minute ride back, but we all survived!Read more