ATW Day 101 - Bloomsday!

I am sorry to say that Linda and I have gone our separate ways - well at least for a few hours today.  Today we were anchored off of Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.  Do you know how to pronounce that?  I'll tell you later.  They were late getting the tender operations going due to heavy fog.  In fact, the ship's foghorn was going off since about 3 in the morning.   When they did get the tenders going, it went pretty quickly and we were able to get on one a little after 11 am.  Linda got down to the tender platform, saw how the tender was rocking, and decided to stay on board.  I continued into Dun Laoghaire and started walking.

Eventually, I made it to People's Park.

At that point, I decided that I was ready for lunch so I headed back up to the main street and a pub that I had seen online.  When I got there, I was told that they were not serving food at that time.  But she recommended another pub, The Eagle, 10 minutes further down the street and I'm so glad that she did.  Did I mention that it was Bloomsday?  How lucky we were to be in Dun Laoghaire on Bloomsday.  Bloomsday is a celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses which took place on June 16, 1904 and it begins in the tower in Dun Laoghaire.  Well, when I got  to The Eagle, I found that there was a Bloomsday Festival taking place on the street.  Unfortunately, I was not dressed appropriately for the festival but no one seemed to mind.  It was crowded at the bars and there were groups singing in the street.  And the fish and chips and beer at The Eagle were terrific.

I have to admit that I have not read Ulysses but I downloaded a copy and started reading it while I was waiting for my food and drink!

After lunch, I walked out to the James Joyce Tower, as it is now called.  I decided not to climb the narrow winding staircase to the top.

The tower is by the Sandycove Beach and Forty Foot, both places where people were swimming.  With the temperature in the 60's, I was glad that I hadn't brought my bathing suit!

After that, I walked back along the waterfront to the tender pier.

The tender ride back to the ship was much tougher than the ride in, so Linda made the correct decision to go our separate ways.  Though it was sad for me to be without her as it brought back memories of when I did a lot of walking alone when she couldn't do much due to her hip.  On the other hand, it makes me glad that we can now do so much together.

Have you figured out how to pronounce Dun Laoghaire?  Here it is:

Tomorrow we'll be going to Cork, Ireland.  For now, enjoy your Bloomsday.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

ATW Day 100! - Falmouth

Yep, it was day 100 of the ATW.  We were in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK.  Plan A was to take an excursion to some castle somewhere but, after looking at what was available in Falmouth, we went with Plan B which was to just walk up to the castle there, the Pendennis Castle.  We also knew that we just had to indulge in 2 local foods - scones and Cornish pasties.  This was another of those not so nice ports.  From our side, the port side, this was the view.

The view from the starboard side was much nicer.

From the ship, we could see the castle up on the hill.

It was about a 15 minute walk through a residential area to get to our target scone shop.  We made sure to prepare the scones the proper way in Cornwall - jam on first, then clotted cream.  And they were good.

Then it was time to hike up the hill to Pendennis Castle.

The castle was initially built by Henry VIII in the 1500's and had other military uses through the years.

We went to the watch tower and climbed to the top.

After the tower, we walked around the grounds before heading back down the hill to Falmouth.

We walked along the waterfront at low tide and it was quite low.  They get quite a tide variation there.  The high tide that will come this evening is 14 feet higher!

Falmouth has, of course, many historic buildings and the main street was quite busy for a Monday afternoon.

The main street was the location of our target pasty shop.  We were able to get vegan pasties - 1 garden vegetable and 1 spicy cauliflower.  They were good and somehow, despite being vegan, they had a nice buttery tasting crust.

From there, we just walked back to the ship.  It was a nice day in Falmouth.  The weather was a bit cool and overcast when we started out but the sun did peek out and it warmed up.  I think that we will have many cool/cold days ahead of us.  

As we sailed out of Falmouth, we passed yet another castle - St. Mawes.  And a lighthouse.

Our port on Tuesday will be Dublin, sort of.  We'll actually be anchored off of Dun Laoghaire which is a bit of a distance from Dublin, which we have been to several times.  We will probably just take a late tender in and walk some in Dun Laoghaire.  My tired old body needs an easy day after all of the walking we have done in the last 3 days.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry