![]() A Unique Bed & Breakfast In the Heart of San Antonio's Historic District
to Dublin, Ireland Today is going to be a day of travel. We're going to leave Liverpool on the train, ending up in Holyhead, England, where we will catch a ferry to take us across the Irish Sea to Dublin, Ireland. Once there, we'll travel to our hotel. In the time remaining in the afternoon, we'll see what we can in Dublin and then have dinner.
The Indigo Hotel in Liverpool We were at the Indigo Hotel only one night; as hotels go, it was quite similar to hundreds of others that I have stayed in. As far as our room was concerned, it was much like any other hotel room in any big-city, downtown hotel. A bit small, but certainly adequately appointed.
We'd checked in at night, but the next morning we could see how colorful the hotel lobby was as well. Below are clickable thumbnails for some of our pictures as we gathered in the lobby (after Ron and I had already been to return our van):
Our Train Trip to Holyhead About eight o'clock, we were all ready to head out to the train station to catch our train to Chester, England. We walked out of the hotel and jogged southwest to the next street down. At the foot of Chapel Street, we could see the River Mersey.
There are four groups of figures around the pedestal, representing agriculture, commerce, industry and education. A 15-foot statue of Queen Victoria is at the center, centered in four groups of columns which support an open dome. Atop the column groups are four allegorical figures representing justice, wisdom, charity, and peace; atop the dome itself is a large figure representing Fame.
In 2002, as part of the Liverpool Biennial festival, Japanese artist Tatsurou Bashi built a hotel room around the statue of the Queen entitled Villa Victoria, in which paying guests could spend a night.
I took a couple of additional pictures, one looking down our platform and one looking across the tracks at the opposite platform. It was Fred who took the really interesting pictures here. In addition to a couple of pictures of us on the platform, he photographed the wall decorations, which were mosaics and combinations of flat molded pieces that were combined into fanciful shapes and compositions. You should definitely use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at those pictures:
The James Street Station and Its Wall Decorations Presently, the train arrived and we headed off to Chester (paying close attention to the line diagram in the car and the announcements on the PA system to ensure no repeat of the Carlisle incident a week ago.
Of course we took a few pictures on the train as well, and you can have a look at some of them by clicking on their titles below:
The trip to Chester took about an hour; there, we had to change trains for the next leg to Holyhead. If you are curious, you can see a small map of our train trip this morning at right. At Chester, I was gratified to see that everyone had gotten off as scheduled; no repeat of Carlisle today. And it was easy to find our platform for Holyhead; it was the other side of the platform where we had gotten off.
Let's begin our hour wait at Chester with the movie I made here; you can use the player at left to watch it. And below are clickable thumbnails for some of the pictures Fred, Nancy and I took while we were waiting in Chester:
If you were observant, and looked at the second of Fred's pictures above (second thumbnail from the left, top row), you'll see me taking a picture of Guy; you can see that picture here. And if you will look at the last of Fred's pictures above (rightmost thumbnail in the first row) you will see a group of young women in the background at right. They turned out to be American exchange students, and they were taking pictures of each other by the red phone booth, and I offered to take a picture of all of them with various of their cameras. Then I snapped a picture for myself; you can see it here. The train to Holyhead arrived pretty much on time, and we were off. Fred and I enjoyed looking out the windows of the car and taking some pictures, but we couldn't keep that up for three hours, so we read or did other things for much of the time. There was a lady on the train with a dog who showed it to us, we read or just napped. Below are clickable thumbnails for some of the pictures that Fred and I took on the way to Holyhead:
The Ferry from Holyhead to Dublin When we arrived at the Holyhead station- the end of the line for the train we were on- we found that the ferry terminal was actually connected to the train station, so we were able to just go to the window for our cruise line and pick up the tickets that Karl had arranged for. Then we sat down to wait. When our departure was called, it was much like an airline, where we checked our large bag (for free, though) and took only our small bags on with us. We boarded a shuttle that took us a half mile away where the ship was waiting.
Like a cruise ship, there were at least a couple of bars/pubs on our deck, at least two restaurants, a movie theatre, lounges for watching TV, a video arcade and gift shops. So it was really just like a cruise ship in miniature. (Well, not quite miniature- more like half-size.)
Unlike the cruise ships we've been on, we had no cabin today, of course, the trip being only a few hours. So for most of the trip, Fred and I just either sat in the area I'd found for us, or wandered around the public areas of the ship. We saw most of the features that I mentioned above.
We all had something to eat in the cafeteria restaurant, and on our way around the ship, Fred and I went through the gift shop, which turned out to be in a two-story atrium-like area midships; the area had a staircase and a glass ceiling, and you can see those features
here.
You can use the clickable thumbnails below to see some of the candid pictures that Fred and I took of our group during the crossing:
Candid Shots from Our Time on the 'Ulysses' One interesting thing that we did was to go up two decks to the open deck at the top of the ship. This is always an enjoyable thing to do; on cruise ships, much of the shipboard activity takes place on the top decks. Of course, Ron Ruckman liked being up here because it was the only place he could smoke his cigars.
Fred and I just enjoyed the open air and the views. The accessible deck looked down two decks at the stern to the deck where the vehicles were. I am not sure if vehicles drive on and off via this deck; we never got a chance to see that operation in progress. But I did find out that all the little circular things on the deck floor are tie-down hooks. We took some other good pictures up here on the open deck, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:
On the Top Deck of the 'Ulysses' Back with the group, I took a couple more pictures as an experiment, to see if I could put together a little panorama. Unfortunately, between the two pictures, Karl shifted position, but I was able to get the pictures stitched together anyway:
About three hours after our departure from Holyhead we were coming into the harbor at Dublin. Eventually, the announcement was made that disembarkation would be beginning shortly, so we all gathered up our things and moved over to the other side of the ship to the exit. That is where Prudence got a nice picture of her sister and I waiting to disembark, and you can see that picture here.
Getting from the Ferry to the Dylan Hotel When we left the ferry, our large bags were waiting for us in the terminal. We collected them and then walked outside to the cab stand and, fortunately, found a cab big enough to carry all of us, and our luggage, to the hotel.
Unlike the cloudy, cool weather in England, the weather here was sunny and much warmer, so we were all shedding jackets and such as quickly as we could. As we left the port (going alongside our ship) I made a movie, and you can watch it with the player at left. I was sitting facing backwards in the cab, which made it hard to anticipate when I took pictures, but I did get a few good ones during the early part of our drive. You can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:
I can't be absolutely positive on the route that the taxi driver took to get to the hotel; as with most European cities, we aren't talking about a grid, here. But the map below, right, will give you an idea.
Dublin Street Scenes About twenty minutes after leaving the ship, our taxi pulled up in front of the Dylan Hotel, our destination for this evening.
An Evening Walk in Dublin and Dinner We arrived at the Dylan Hotel and got checked in with no problem. Since it is late today, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to have a section on the Dylan Hotel itself, because tomorrow we'll be able to take better pictures (before we leave for Galway). With that in mind, this last section today will deal with the walks we took before and after dinner here in Dublin.
Then we headed out, turning left on Pembroke Road, crossing the canal, and then walking up Baggot Street to St. Stephen's Green, turning northeast to go by the library, and then following a route that took us past another park and back to the canal crossing on Baggot. There, right beside the canal, we found the
Milano Italian restaurant.
It had an outside patio where Ron could smoke, so that's where we had dinner. Before we got served anything (we had salads, pizza and wine), I got
a picture of our group. As far as pictures from our walk are concerned, we took quite a few.
Pictures Fred Took on Our Evening Walk in Dublin For my part, when we are not at some particular site of interest like a monument, I look for the quirky or the humorous. I will photograph interesting buildings and such as well. My first picture was of the grounds of St. Mary's Church, just across from the hotel. Three others were of two interesting buildings and some local transportation:
One store we passed was serving up Mexican food for the masses, and when Ron took me into a local pub for a look around (he wanted to find a local cigar store), I took a picture of an ornate stairway. And just outside a charity group's building, I had Fred pose with two sculptures. There was also an art gallery where Prudence, Nancy and Guy stopped to window-shop.
We were done with dinner about eleven, so we headed back to the Dylan for the evening.
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Ron and Prudence Ruckman
stay@ruckmanhaus.com |