Once again we had the same tour as Jan and Tom, so we got on the same bus for the drive to the Grey Abbey. There are different stories about how it got the name. One says its from the grey garments worn by the monks. Another says it was from the many crows that would settle on the roof making it look gray from a distance. I forget all of the details, but it was founded in 1193 by a woman in thanks to God for delivering her safely to land after a storm at sea.
The guides are all volunteers and they were good, if a bit talkative. One of them took the part of a monk and shared information in the form of a quiz.
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| What it looked like when it was operating. |
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| Here's the "monk" |
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| The ruins were impressive |
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| The original abbey had an herb garden for medicinal purposes which has been moved now to the other side near the entrance and is still tended by volunteers. |
The next stop was for an Irish Coffee at a restaurant in the village of Donaghadee. The restaurant is the setting of the hotel/bar/restaurant called The Commodore in the British TV series, "Hope Street". In the show, the village is called Port Devine. I've watched most of it, so that was kind of a fun coincidence.
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Here's the bar in the TV series.
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| And here's the real thing. You'll notice that the real name, Pier 36, is now just a tarp that they put up and can take down when filming is underway. |
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| It's very cozy inside, like a typical Irish pub |
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| There are little nooks all over to find a quiet place for you to enjoy your pint. |
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| Here we are with our Irish Coffees |
The village is really picturesque, which is why they use a lot of the exteriors in the show.
We had 30 minutes or so to wander a bit and chat with the locals.
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| Each of these rocks on the planter was handpainted, it seemed most were by children. |
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| I liked to see that the girl on the left was actually picking something to eat from this sweet little garden. |
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| And this advertisement certainly caught my attention and made me laugh. |
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| I'm not sure this is a manhole cover, but it looks close enough. |
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| Such narrow streets, even with the cars parked up on the sidewalk. |
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| This house is certainly all decked out and beautiful. |
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| The Irish countryside is just so beautiful. |
The biggest export now from Northern Ireland is milk, followed by beef and lamb. We did see large farms with cows and sheep all over.
We got back to the ship in time for lunch of a cheeseburger at the pool grill and then a rest and reading until Trivia. It was odd today in that every answer was a letter of the alphabet (e.g., what is the symbol for potassium, what is the letter used in Roman Numerals for 50). We only got 11/15, but it was enough for a point.
Then we had another successful Zoom call with the siblings before dinner in Compass Rose.
At dinner the captain announced that, due to upcoming stormy weather, we would have to miss the port for Dublin. Cruise ships now have to anchor in a town called Dun Laoghaire, which is a little ways out of Dublin. And if the wind is too strong, it's not safe to run the tender operation. Our guide had mentioned that there was a big storm headed this way, but she wasn't sure if it would extend south to Dublin. Ah well, that means another relaxing sea day. And we still have some credits on account to spend in the shop.
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