Sailing into Dublin

We joined one of the tender boats to get to the port of Dun Laoghaire, where we took a tour which visited two spots in the Irish countryside. We had visited the beautiful city of Dublin before and had a hankering to get out into the countryside. Our first stop was Ballyknocken House and Gardens, home of the cookery school, and Glendalough, the site of a 6 th century monastery.

We enjoyed our tea and scones and loved wandering the grounds of both house and gardens.

We headed out to our next stop through more beautiful countryside.

It was explained to us that there is a yearly competition for the best “ tidy town” and many villages take this competition very seriously. . The community works very hard to maintain the areas.

Our second visit was to the site of the first Irish saint, Saint Kevin, in the Wicklow mountains’ village of Glendalough. He went there for solitude and lived as a hermit in a cave in the natural beauty and wilderness and formed a monastic order there in the 6th century. . This settlement eventually became one of the great spiritual centers of Christianity in Ireland, flourishing for a thousand years after St Kevin’s death. His story is often referred to as a journey from solitude to community. The feast day of St Kevin is June 3, and he is one of the patron saints of the Archdiocese of Dublin. The monastic center includes the Round Tower, the remains of St Peter and Paul’s Cathedral, the Priests’ house and a huge graveyard, where the devoted have been laid to rest.

i

Our guide Andrea gave us much historical information along the tour, as she is here explaining the evolution of the various celtic crosses.

Glendalough is the third most visited site in Ireland, and it was quite crowded on this beautiful day.

We head back to the ship to get ready for our 5:30 reservation at the Tamarind, the ship’s Pan Asian restaurant.

a

We started with shared appetizers, then I had my delicious lamb chops with bok choy. My dessert was the lighter, tapioca type, while my sister went full out for a chocolate and strawberry concoction. Early dinner was perfect for us, because the Orange Party started at 9:30.

What is an Orange Party? The Holland America Lines celebrates its Dutch heritage by asking its passengers to wear something orange and join in the merriment of themed drinks and crazy entertainment. It started with a competition between the crew and passengers to guess the song not only by naming the title and artist, but dancing to it. The cruise director Brandon started off the fun. It just kept going from there. We had an overhead view of the craziness from the second floor.

The ship picked up passengers in Dover at the beginning of the cruise, then picked up Dutch passengers in Rotterdam. About 1/3 of the passengers were Dutch. Most spoke English but some of the older passengers did not. The Dutch absolutely loved the Orange party, and so did we. My sister even danced the Chicken Dance, party animal that she is, and I have a video to prove it!

Tomorrow’s visit to Cork is in the afternoon, so we have some time to sleep in!