Iceland on Silver Cloud

Tuesday, 17  June. Dublin

We caught the 7 pm Ryanair flight to Dublin from Valencia. We had a little difficulty ordering an Uber in Dublin airport but finally arrived at the Gresham Hotel around 10pm local time. The hotel had been bought by the.Riu Family from Catalonia around 2009 and now had over 400 rooms. Our room, 608, suffered from the fact that the lift only went to the fifth floor and then there were some 20 stairs to climb with the heavy suitcases to get to our room. It also had a balcony that was locked to stop access. After getting the necessary things out of the small suitcase we hit the hay

Wednesday, 18 June. Dublin

The Gresham's breakfast room left a lot to be desired, although the food was actually not too bad, the room itself was cavernous. dark without windows and overcrowded. We then went out for a 30 minute walk before returning to read for an hour in the pleasant lounge that fronted onto O'Connell Street  We then packed up and left the luggage in their store well before noon. 

Down O'Connell Street we went into what was once the Abbey Theatre, but now the Peacock Theatre, to try to book there for a play but there was nothing on the night of our return to Dublin in two weeks. So we walked further down O’Connell Street to Grafton Street where we found the "Build a Bear" shop and bought two T-shirts of Dublin for the boys. Close by we found the Gaiety Theatre and obtained tickets for River Dance for the evening of our Dublin stay on the completion of the cruise

From here we went into the wee Free church of by great grandfather and saw the gloss cube for offices that the insurance company had inserted, without touching the original building.

Once back at the hotel, we collected our suitcases from their storage, and got an Uber to board the Silver Wind for its 14 night cruise to the north coast of Iceland. David had problems booking an Uber to the ship, but we still got to berth 18/3 soon after 2 pm and had an efficient booking in process. 

We were impressed by our cabin, 643 which had obviously recently had a makeover and had a nice extra little space attached to it where the sofa fitted snuggly. It was right next to the forum where reception and the expedition team had their offices. It seemed more modern and slightly larger than what we were accustomed to on the Silver Cloud or the Silver Wind. We then enjoyed lunch at hot rocks having found that we could not sit outside on the Terrassa because they were already too many people there

After lunch, I unpacked while we watched the safety video and signed ourselves off for that. I went for a swim, very pleasant.and in the warm afternoon Dublin sunshine. Then a siesta until almost 6 when we went up to see the sail away: but the ship was late in this and it happened during the briefing which started at 6:15 pm. There was an introduction by the expedition leader, Werner from South Africa, and his team of 22 people The only one we really knew was Malcolm the Birdman from Australia.and Alin, now the wife of Werner. Others included Mareika, Jaime, Ken, Josh, CK, Sasha, Nico from Ecuador, Jeremy the photographer

We enjoyed a drink and canapés in the panorama lounge and had a chat with Florandy, the pianist. Both he and some of the bar staff remembered us because of the boys.We then returned to the cabin and we met the Butler, Kelvin.  I unpacked quite quickly, everything fitting nicely in the wardrobe on hangers. 

Then we went up to hot rocks about 8,30 for supper. We went to hot rocks Alias" the Grill " for dinner , only to discover that on the Wind the hot rocks have been discontinued: one waiter told us that this was because of health and safety, but the restaurant supervisor said that it was just out of order at the moment, We nevertheless still enjoyed our meal and then went up to the Panorama Lounge for a coffee, amaretto and brandy. There were 250 passengers on board and the ship did seem rather over full.

Thursday, 19 June At Duart Castle, Mull

We were in the restaurant bang on 8 am for a very civilised breakfast. The staff were very good. During the mornng we had crossed the whirlpools of Corryvreckan at 9 am,  these being fairly low-key as there was not a high tide. Then there was a compulsory lecture on Zodiac use followed by, at 10:45 am, a lecture by Sasha the anthropologist and archaeologist on board, about  Saint Kilda. We had the impression that she had never been there before, but hopefully we will find her more helpful in the future.

We had lunch at noon again in the restaurant, again very civilised, although my carrot soup were somewhat like dishwater - the kitchen had clearly failed to stir the sop before serving, so we just got the watery top of the brew.

We went ashore around 1:30 pm to an old castle, Castle Duart on Mull. An easy zodiac ride in very calm conditions and a blue sky with sun, quite unusual for this part of the world. We had an introduction to the castles history in its courtyard by a kilted Englishman and then wandered around by ourselves, middling interesting. We then walked for some time outside with an immense number of fox gloves in bloom. 

We were back on the ship by 4 pm and I had a swim before we had our first afternoon tea on board: yet again we felt the sandwiches could have been fresher as they were curling at the edges

We then sat outside on deck eight for a while before returning to the cabin where I had a siesta until the 6:15 pm briefing and recap. After this we got changed for dinner and went up to the Panorama Lounge for a pre-dinner drink, just getting there before the new closing time of 7:30 pm: must remember this in future. We had a long chat with the bar manager about the cuts that Silversea had made and some of which they had now retracted. Then into the restaurant for dinner around 8:30 pm.

Friday, 20.June. St Kilda

We had the earliest breakfast in the restaurant and then went by Zodiac to land on Saint Kilda around 8:30 am. There were two organised hikes but we had got permission from Werner to go off by ourselves. The island was covered by low cloud and we walked past the buildings of the Ministry of Defence and up the road until we were well into the clouds. Then we decided it was futile continuing further and retraced our steps down out of the cloud. We then with a little difficulty cut across country to get to the end of the row of cottages on the old main street of St Kilda: This involved crossing a stream which I managed successfully. We visited the graveyard and the museum house and then walked on to the gun which have been installed at the end of World War I. Then back to the church and schoolhouse which were pleasantly empty.

There was a long queue for the zodiacs so we sat near the gabions for a while and enjoyed a banana. Then back to the same queue but it dispersed fairly quickly and we had a zodiac cruise round the bird filled cliffs for about half an hour with Nikolai, and Norwegian who in fact worked on the Ecuadorian Silversea ship. He remembered us from our Galapagos trip in April 2024.

We had lunch in the restaurant and then coffee back in the room: I preferred this to the coffee served elsewhere in the ship. But we discovered that the coffee cups and the coffee machine were not really compatible - the cup was too big for the machine. Later the butler changed them for cups that fitted. We sat out on the balcony as the ship headed around the stacks of Boreray. Here there were something like 60,000 gannets covering the stacks, a rare site. It was quite cold outside and we obtained two blankets for later use if we wanted to sit on our balcony. We also got the Butler to attempt to get someone to glue one of my boots which was falling to pieces, which they did manage to effect quite successfully.

After afternoon tea we listen to Malcolm‘s lecture on Puffins and Penguins, quite amusing. This was followed by recap and briefing and then we had a shower before going to the captains welcome drink. The captain thought he was returning to Dublin down the other side of Scotland. We then enjoyed a cocktail up in the lounge and almost had a dingdong with a restaurant manager in La Terrazza who was not too keen to let us wait for a table with a nice view, but he seemed to come round to our way of thinking in the end. An average meal and then a glass of desert wine up in the panorama lounge until driven out by the thought of Verana, the entertainment manager  hosting yet another of her events in there.

Saturday, June 21 at Sea.

Although we gained an extra hour sleep due to the clock change, we were very sleepy when we woke up and went down to breakfast in the restaurant by 8:30 am in order to attend the 9.15 lecture by Alin on the Cod War. But the restaurant seem to be run off its feet and we left at 9:15 without getting my ordered pancake, which still had not arrived: This did not worry me at all as we eat far too much all the time on board.

After the afore-mentioned lecture, which was interesting, especially as we had chatted to Alin at the captains reception the previous night, we retired to the cabin for an hour or so before a meeting with the hotel director at 11:15: I had asked for this two days previously at reception and had not had a reply until after 10 this morning when reception rang me up and asked me for my views on the cruise so far, to which I replied, I had expected a reply about the hotel director. Anyway, both David and I went along for this chat and felt we had projected our views successfully to the hotel director,Csaba, from Hungary

Meanwhile, we had missed Josh‘s lecture on the history of Iceland so we caught up with this on our television during the afternoon. Another pleasant lunch in the restaurant with coffee back in our room which has only been made up during the lunch break: obviously we much prefer that they do the room as early as possible. There was a briefing at 3 pm for the excursions in two days time, and then another at 5:45 pm for tomorrow’s activities. After this we went up to the Panorama Lounge for our pre-dinner cocktail and canapés.

After dinner we had coffee back in the cabin.

Sunday June 22, At Djupivogur 

Of the 254 passengers aboard 114 were American, 39 were British and there were 16 other nationalities amongst them 13 Spanish, nine Irish and many other European nations. 18 nationalities in total

We discovered late the previous evening that we were not on the morning super Jeep tour but the 1 pm tour. Therefore we did not need a super early breakfast so we wandered into the restaurant at 8 am to find it completely empty. After a pleasant breakfast, we went down for a 9 am zodiac shuttle into the local town. The weather was overcast with a light rain at times. We walked around for about two hours, away off to the right of the pier until we came to the local collection of egg sculptures and also found that the National Geographic Explorer was berthed there. We tried to get to the Lighthouse but could not find the appropriate route to it. So we continued on up the road for quite some way before returning into the town and then wondering on a bit in the opposite direction. A good healthy walk we then had a zodiac to ourselves back to the ship at 11:30 a.m. 

So into lunch at 12 noon prompt, out by 12.45, and down for a zodiac for our one p.m. super Jeep excursion. Super Jeeps are an Icelandic specialty in which locals spend large amounts of money in getting their car customised with enormous wheels. We were in a jeep with seven other people, but David had the front seat and was able to enjoy good chats with the informative driver. We wandered up a valley with the eight jeeps stopping several times to look at waterfalls and abandoned farm buildings with a history of the prolific family that lived there from 1922 until 1944. We eventually stopped on the way back for some coffee and very good home baked chocolate cake.

Once back at the pier there was chaos as there were no zodiacs ready for us but we eventually got back in the first small zodiac to takeoff from there, only for it to run out of petrol and have to spend some time floating stationary, while the driver sorted this out

A delightful shower and hair wash , before going up to the Panorama Lounge at 7 pm for our cocktail and canapes. We went to La Terrassa at 8:30 and the restaurant manager put on all charm and gave us a table in the window. A very pleasant risotto and then sea bass for me, tuna for David Then back to the cabin for a coffee as Reverana was occupying the Panorama Lounge with evening trivia. We watched a lot of television, as overnight the Americans had bombed the nuclear locations of Iran. It all looked very dangerous for world peace

Monday, June 23. Tumavik and Raufarhofn

We went to shore soon after 10 am for a wet landing, It would really be dry as the crew would put down lots of plastic crates for us to walk ashore on, according to Werner. We felt very sorry for the expedition staff who were up to their waists in cold Arctic water whilst we did manage to make it ashore with only slightly wet boots, perching on these inter spaced beer crates as stepping stones.

We then walked towards the marquee where we left our life jackets and joined up with Alma, our local guide who was quite good. We had the voice boxes with us, but I had difficulty keeping a bud in my ear with the rain and my hair in the way. The weather was like a hard Irish day well maybe just a wee bit harder than soft. 

We walked along the black sand beach for 30 minutes or so and then went up onto a higher land for a while before descending to another beach and then eventually to a salmon river. The whole walk was about 5 km and I got very tired on the return journey and had great difficulty reaching the marquee again. But once here I perked up as there was a delicious lamb stew plus home-made bread and even some chocolate cake afterwards. There were freshly constructed tables and benches in the marquee and a local who was singing and playing his guitar. There was also a shop there selling handmade soaps and some Icelandic jerseys.

Getting back onto the zodiac was again a great challenge and my feet got somewhat wet. And then once back at the ship there was a tremendous swell and some excitement in managing to get out of the zodiac. We were back at the ship by about 2:15 pm and had a coffee and banana in our cabin and then I had a 30 minute siesta before going to afternoon tea soon after four. But here there was chaos, and we left not having received our ordered sandwiches to go to Werner's‘s briefing at 4:30 pm: They did send the sandwiches back in our room by the time we got back at 5 pm.

Werner  got tremendous applause for the expeditions mornings feat and then proceeded to overload us with details on the excursions for the next two days. The ship repositioned itself to Raufarhofn by 5 pm and we went up for a drink in the Panorama Lounge at 6 pm and were able to see the Arctic henge on the hill from the ship. But there was a lot of swell around and we were not at all surprised when Werner announced over the loudspeaker that the evenings visit to the Arctic henge was cancelled. Instead, we would be sailing to the Arctic Circle which was just north of where we were and there would be an event in the panorama lounge at 10:10. David was not convinced that we had in fact crossed the Arctic Circle

We had a pleasant dinner soon after eight and then I did this diary before the 10.10 event which turned out to be a non event.

Tuesday, June 24. Hofsos & Dragney

After an early breakfast, we went to shore at 8:30 am and had a leisurely walk around the town with a local guide, whose family had lived in the village for many past generations although he now lived in Reykjavík. 

The town had a population of just 100 today, but did support a school with about 17 children and a good supermarket and the population was said to be stable. There was a much larger town 50 minutes drive away. We saw some old houses but the majority had been built in the 1950s and 60s and nowadays there was very little new build as this was so expensive with the price of imported building materials. We ended up at the museum which had some interesting facts about migration of past generations to Canada and to Brazil and then we stopped at the library where they were serving coffee and biscuits. We got back to the ship about 11:15 am.

After an early lunch we disembarked again about 1:45 pm to tackle the island of Dragney . This was a home of thousands of sea birds including puffins but we have been told it was exceptionally difficult to climb up to see them, the climb being about 200 m via steep steps with a rope handrail and vertical ladders . When this visit was described by Werner, I had told David to do it by himself as I did not think I was capable of it: but he decided otherwise and signed me up for it and, being a very good smooth sunny day, I decided to give it a try. But was very frightened in climbing up to the top and even there the ground was very uneven with many holes in the long grass so all in all I was a little out of my depth. I saw not a single bird on the climb up as I was so concentrated on keeping hold of the rope but did see many puffins in the binoculars once at the top. There was a house on the flat land at the top which used to sleep people when the villagers came here for periods of 2 to 4 nights to gather eggs. The island was now owned by the community, but the same family of father aged 65 and son, around 40 and one daughter now did tours of the island between mid May and mid August after which the puffins flew away . For the descent the daughter took me in her  charge and managed to get me down with zero anxiety, really commendable.

We enjoyed a coffee in the room on our return and then canapes and a cocktail in the panorama lounge between 7 and 8 pm. Then dinner in La Terrazza and back to the room for coffee, given that Verana was occupying the panorama lounge with a loud voice and some game show at 9:30.

Wednesday, June 25.  Djupavik

We had an early breakfast and disembarked for the medium hike at 8:15 am. This was led by Malcolm and had about 30 people in it and consisted in going over grassy and uneven land for the first 2/3 and finally back along the edge on the road to the herring factory.

I found the first part middling difficult due to my sight, not being able to distinguish  the stones in three dimensions. We then had a tour round the derelict herring factory, which have been at its peak in the 1930s, then very much state of the art, producing tons and tons of herring oil for the world market.. Nowadays it was completely derelict and in any other country would have been forbidden for any tourist to enter due to health and safety. It was absolutely vast and had been saved since the 1980s by one man who had also established a hotel here. He also claimed to have an art gallery here but this was virtually non existent. At the end of the tour we were given a slice of "happy marriage cake" plus coffee. There was also a museum on Basque whaling in one of the old fish oil tanks.

We were back on the ship soon after noon in time for lunch . Then a siesta for an hour before a coffee in the cabin at 4 pm we went on a Zodiac cruise in very calm conditions but with little to be seen other than a few birds and one or two seals, but I actually saw nothing. Once back aboard we had some bread and cheese in the cabin with a cup of coffee before Werner’s briefing at 6:15 pm. 

Then to the panorama lounge for a cocktail and canapés before its normal closure at 7:30 pm. Dinner in the restaurant at 8:30 pm where we had a long chat with Pierre after a very agreeable meal then into the panorama lounge where there was sufficient space still available to listen to Nico, the guitarist, playing and singing.

Thursday,  June 26. Husavik

We went off at 8:15 am for a whale watching tour. Once ashore it was a 10 minute walk to a different part of the harbour to find our vessel and here we were kept waiting for 15 minutes or so in the light rain. Once the 80 of us were aboard this whale boat, we were provided with dry suits to keep us warm and then a southwestern which meant that we could hardly walk, we were so bulky. Several whales were sighted and people in general seemed contented with the tour.

We were back in port by noon and walked to the whale museum which must be one of the best museums of its kind in the world

Then a short walk around the town, including entering the modern church, before a zodiac back to the ship where we were able to get lunch just before the restaurant closed.

In the afternoon I went for a swim and a Jacuzzi before having a siesta. Then afternoon tea before Werner’s briefing which included the news that there was very bad weather awaiting us on our journey down to Orkney on the 29th and the plans might have to be changed.

There was a Venetian society welcome at 6:30 pm and we were the second most travelled passengers on the ship, the first couple have travelled about 650 nights on Silversea. Then we had dinner with the captain., Ulf– Peter and his surname was Hansen-Lindstroem and his wife, Emma, was the assistant expedition leader. There was five others on the table and it was quite an interesting conversation, mostly about the demise of Silversea.

Friday, June 27. Eskifjordur

After the ship had moored at the pier, we set out in five coaches to Vok, about 45 minutes away, which was a thermal spa complex. We stopped on route at a point along the loch for a photo op.

The thermal spring complex was remarkably well run with state of the art technology. We each had a rubber wristband with built in electronics, which let us into the complex, enabled us to choose and lock our locker, buy drinks, pay by Credit Card, and exit once we had paid.

There were four pools two of them at about 35° and then one at 41 and one at 43 we enjoyed the first for some time and had a delicious avocado and ginger shake and a yogurt shake there which turned out to be very reasonably priced just over €5 each. Then we progressed to the other pools and David even plunged into the lake at 10°, no mean feat but then his feet suffered as a result.

We stayed at the complex for at least two hours arriving back at the ship at 12:45 pm for lunch,

We went to a lecture by Nikolai on Galapagos then we went for a walk around the town by ourselves which was very pleasant, visiting the museum which house artifacts from the late 1800s of life in the town, many of them connected with fishing but also such things as dentist chairs and doctors consulting rooms

After tea we had another briefing by Werner on what he and the captain had decided was the safest way of riding out the oncoming storm. The result was that we would have another morning in Iceland before one whole day and two half days at sea before arriving at Iona on the afternoon of June 30. Thus we missed out going to Orkney and also to my favourite, Lunga island.

Later on the ships, officers appeared in the panorama lounge for drinks and caviar were served. No treat to either of us but we had a nice chat with the hotel director and then a very short one with the captain. We dined in the Terrassa and then went back to the Panorama Lounge to see how the bingo, which has appeared on the daily schedule, would be conducted. This after an assurance from Conrad that there would be no bingo aboard an expedition ship ever again. But it turned out that this must have been sanctioned by Silversea as there was a television screen with it on. There were probably 30 to 40 people playing it and it seemed remarkably stupid to us.

We sat outside the Panorama Lounge in the warm evening sun. Then a sea mist rolled in and it became to cold to sit outside

Saturday, June 28 Seydisfjordur.

Once back a board, I washed my hair in order to enjoy a shower without a lot of ships movement as the next 48 hours appeared to be a grim prospect. After lunch, I had a siesta before a lecture by Gabriel. on how the history of Britain has been affected by geology.

When we returned from our walk, we found the cabin decorated with balloons and towels and animal shapes wishing us a happy anniversary, 58 years of marriage. We were also promised a cake too and it was delivered to the suite around 4 pm

We then read for a while before going to an awful lecture by Josh completely on films and delivered with far too loud voice. 

Before the recap and briefing we found bur delightful cake set up on a table cloth topped table in the cabin and we enjoyed a slice of this with a glass of champagne each

Then a recap and briefing at 5:15, no differing news on our new route home and no startling recaps

We then read in the suite until 7 pm when we went up to the Panorama Lounge for our cocktail and canapés and enjoyed talking to a group of Americans. After dinner in the restaurant we went up for Liars Club but found that this was presented by Verana and her voice drove me out after one round

A sleepy morning with no interesting lectures to attend. I had got Verani to put bridge on the schedule for 10 am but only one other person arrived at that.

After lunch another siesta and then a talk, by Malcolm on mammals of the sea, which was quite interesting at the time but not memorable. He took the whole hour and then Alin talked on scam salmon farms, a subject to her heart yet she did not convince David that there was any alternative to cheap food for the world.

We returned to the cabin for a cup of coffee and the rest of our Happy Marriage Cake And then we attended Werner’s briefing at 5:30, which told us about what we would be doing on Iona on Monday.

We then went up to the Panorama lounge and had an early cocktail and canopies at 6 pm before returning to the cabin for an hour before going to the restaurant at 8 pm.

 For once our old adversary Verana was not occupying the panorama lounge at 9:30 pm but Florandy and Nico were playing and singing old tunes, which was most enjoyable. 

Monday, June 30. Iona

A rough night but it had calmed down by 9 am. After breakfast there was a weird lecture by Sasha on Tartan and Plaids, just 20 minutes of it. This was followed by a briefing by Werner on the tours available in Belfast on the morrow. Then at 11 am a very interesting presentation by Csaba, the hotel director, on his use of photography around the world.

A quick lunch and then ashore by zodiac in the rain at Iona by 1 pm. Here we had a guided tour by Anna to the Abbey And I found this very good. We left the Abbey by about 3 pm and headed off by ourselves in the opposite direction to the hikers to explore the side of the island that we had not covered two years previously. But it was very wet and we did not proceed as far as we had intended but still nonetheless we found it interesting

Then back on  board and our last afternoon tea of the voyage complete with overcooked scone

At 5 pm, there was an overview of the voyage given by Werner and then the auction of. a voyage chart done by one of the waiters: I did not think this was up to the normal standard of their charts. David started the auction at $500 just to get it going and for several minutes I thought we would be landed with this chart but eventually someone else, from Utah, offered $550 And became the owner of the chart.

Then at 6:30 pm there was the captains final presentation of all the crew which the boys and I really enjoyed, applauding enthusiastically. 

The dining room was very full at 8 pm and we had to return after 8:30 pm for a table but then a pleasant enough meal and back to the cabin as Verana was occupying the Panorama Lounge yet again with a late evening session of trivia.

Then a final sending off to the laundry of all the rest of our washing so that we returned home with practically everything squeaky clean.

Tuesday July 1 Belfast

We set out at 9 am on an eight hour tour to Dunluce Castle and the Giants Causeway. The bus was full and we had a good (Catholic) guide, Adrian who spoke for almost the whole journey that was quite biased and did a lot towards American connections of Ulster There was also a driver Alan with whom David chatted quite a lot. We first had a photo stop along the Antrim Coast and then stopped at Dunluce for about an hour in gorgeous weather.

Then onto the Royal Mount Hotel, a fairly modern three star hotel overlooking the 18th green of Royal Portrush, where the British Open was about to be staged in two weeks time,. The roast beef lunch was not too bad and this was followed by a huge potion of Pavlova. We wandered around outside for some time here.

We eventually got to the Giants Causeway at 2:15 and had two hours there Which seemed too short, but we managed okay. We took the coastal cliff footpath from the visitor Centre and then went down steep flights of stairs before arriving at the giant's organs, most impressive. Then back at low level towards the visitor centre to where the main part of the Giants Causeway existed. David persuaded me to climb over some of these basalt rocks and it was very peaceful sitting down there. Then back along the almost 1 mile path to the visitor Centre where we had a salted caramel ice cream.

We arrived back at the ship at 5:45 pm and managed to pack one suitcase before 6,30 when there was an end of cruise party up on deck: This was far too noisy as usual and not really worth visiting, but we had some champagne there and listen to the speeches. Then back to the suite and the rest of the packing was soon finished and we went up to the Panorama Lounge for our last portion of canapes and cocktails. Then we sat outside there in the very pleasant evening sun watching the planes going into Belfast's George Best airport and wondering at the quantity of coal along the docksides.

After supper in the Terrassa, we returned to the suite and put the suitcases outside and then went back to the panorama lounge for an Irish whiskey and a couple of my marzipans . 

Wednesday, July 2. Dublin

We breakfasted in La Terrassa for the first time of the cruise and disembarked at 9:30 am. We exited the Port area and then hailed an Uber but we obviously had found the newest recruit on the block and we could see on the Uber app that he gradually became further and further away from us. So eventually we cancelled him and did indeed obtain an Uber to take us back to the Gresham Hotel where we had stayed coming out to the cruise.

We left our luggage at the hotel and then sat in the lounge reading for half an hour or so before going out for a walk until 2:30 pm. We went to Arnotts and looked around there for a summer dress for Chris and she eventually bought one, David being very patient. Later on we went into Marks & Spencer’s and bought another dress for a fraction of the price which was in the sales

Back at the hotel we were assigned room 557 which again had a very dismal outlook was otherwise satisfactory. We had a picnic lunch in the room and were going to go out for another hours walk but a shower stopped us so we just went down to the lounge and read there. 

Then we had a short walk outside as the Sun had reappeared. We had a snack in the room and then set out at 6:30 pm for the Gaiety Theatre where we had tickets for Riverdance. This was a real electric performance even though I could not focus too well on a lot of it but I managed with a combination of my special glasses and the binoculars

Back in the room we had a rum and Coke and another snack. 

Thursday, July 3 Dublin to Moraira.

A leisurely breakfast at 9:30am in the better restaurant of the Gresham: we had a window table giving  out views onto O’Connell Street. We then packed up but went down to the lounge with a nice views on O’Connell Street for almost an hour before checking out and going for a 3 plus hour walk round Dublin

We walked along the Liffey, very pleasant . We came to the bridge just past the castle then we crossed the river and found ourselves at Saint.Audiens Church which had a visitor centre we went into this, found it was free and then spent a very pleasant informative hour there mainly watching a very very good film on Dublin through the ages: pity I will not remember that much about it!

When we came out of this, it rained a little but we went in to the castle and walked around the inner courtyards there and then back into the castle gardens where we had a cold drink and a chocolate cake on a wet table but the chairs were dry.

Then back to the hotel where we read for another half hour before taking an Uber, which arrived within 10 seconds, out to the airport. There we had to do a machine check-in, with help, of our suitcases. Our 18.50 flight did not take off until past 19.30 so with the hours difference between the two countries we landed in Valencia Around 23.30pm. And not home until gone 1 am and then unpacked the suitcases but not the piles of clothes before falling into bed at 2 am.

A really good trip. Cheap, with the $3000 we have been given by Silverseas, and now we have just nine days at home before we take off for the Rwanda Gorillas and the Rovos rail train across Africa. 

Iceland on Silver Wind