Day 3: Woke up at 3am Scotland time. Had to climb down out of bed to use bathroom, then couldn’t go back to sleep. It was raining, and we could hear ferry people doing whatever they were doing (it wasn’t loud but just in background)

At 6:00am we got in line for the ferry and got on with no issues. We weren’t allowed to stay in our vehicle, which we were considering since it was rainy and no visibility. We walked around the boat, which was quite large with lots of amenities, like a full restaurant and cabins. We were surprised because it’s only a 2 1/2 hour trip, but realized later that some of Stena Lines routes are much longer.

After disembarking, we found our way to the Titanic Museum in Belfast. Where to park was a bit confusing since the one for cars had a max height and we were too high, but we went around the block again and there was the lot mentioned in the Park4Night app.

We spent about 2 hours in the museum, where we learned a lot about the first and last voyage of the Titanic. To be honest, a lot of the info about the sailing itself was familiar, but how the ship was built and by whom and how it affected all of Ireland was all new. We recommend a visit if you are ever in the area.

We had debated staying in Belfast for the night, but ultimately we opted to drive about an hour south to a quieter location. Relaxing and a quiet dinner was what we were looking for and I found the perfect spot on Park4Night. We arrived in Dundalk around 4pm local time. Nothing we picked up at the Morrisons sounded good for dinner, so we took advantage of the Blue Anchor Restaurant, which was right across from where we were parked, and reviews were good.

Dinner was fish & chips (French fries) for Bill, along with his first Ireland Guinness! I ordered the crab claws (small stone crab claws) and prawns (medium shrimp – prob 24 per pound) in a sauce which was very good; I’m no expert in pairings but it tasted quite good with my Baileys. We both passed on dessert.

We both were falling asleep watching TV (we brought a laptop and a hard drive full of movies) and slept hard. Bellurgan Point was deafeningly quiet, as most commenters on Park4Night mentioned. It was exactly what we needed.

Day 4: In the morning we were well-rested and took a walk along the waters edge before pulling out. It was so peaceful, which I knew it wouldn’t be at our next stop near Dublin.

Bill was happy to hear there’s be little to no “local road” driving that day. It was stressful driving on narrow roads, which some were barely 8-10 inches wider than the RV, which was 2.35 meters (not including the mirrors) – or 7.8 feet.

When we decided to not stay in Belfast yesterday, we also decided to arrive in Dublin a day early to get the lay of the land before our first day of touring on Friday. Thankfully Camac Valley Campground had sites available. Arriving around 2pm after taking our time leaving Dundalk was perfect. We were able to spend some time talking with the guy at the desk who helped me understand how the buses worked, and I was able to get a plan for the next day. We both took advantage of the hot showers at the bathhouse. The bathroom in the RV is quite small, with a wet-bath and also a small grey tank so it is just easier to use the bathhouse.

Knowing we were going to be up and out early for our first day in Dublin, we watched a bit of TV and fell asleep.

Speaking of sleep, we both had a bit of jet lag. Ireland and Scotland are 5 hours ahead of where we left from in EDT time zone. It took us a few days to settle in to local time.

Day 5: Our first day in Dublin did not disappoint! But I’m getting ahead of myself. We both woke before the 7:30am alarm – anxious to get the day started. We’ve been enjoying the coffee bags we bought at Morrisons.

There were two Hop On/Hop Off tour bus companies – one was colored red, the other green. The red Hop On/Hop Off tour bus allowed Camac Valley guests to hop on in their parking lot, even if they weren’t part of the actual tour, to catch a ride down to City Centre. That worked out very well for us because we were reserved on the green bus Hop On/Hop Off tour, which we learned parked right next to the red one in City Centre – very convenient indeed. It would have been more convenient if we had known and booked the red one, but it was ok – just cost a few extra Euro.

Speaking of Euro, for the first time since 2002 the dollar and Euro are about the same. Good for us! We’ve only filled with diesel once so far (and we really didn’t need to but there was a convenient place to get it, so we stopped) and we paid €1.95 per liter or $8.56 per gallon. Thankfully the MH got about 25 miles per gallon so far. Not too bad.

Getting back to our first day in Dublin – in short it was wonderful! Dublin is an amazing city – we took the entire tour but spent a lot of our time walking around the Trinity College and Grafton Street area. Our daughter spent time there while earning her masters from Carlow University in Pittsburgh, so it was important to us to see where she went. On Grafton Street, we walked in and out of the shops, purchasing our first souvenirs. Lunch was delicious – a bowl of seafood chowder for me and a burger for Bill. Both were excellent! A Guinness for Bill and Jameson & ginger beer for me rounded out the meal.

We timed it perfectly to catch the red bus back, with enough time for a coffee and chai tea latte before starting home.

It’s becoming a routine – after a light dinner of sandwiches and a little TV, we were asleep early, as we had another big day on Saturday!

Day 6: Saturday I booked us 2 tours! We caught the city bus and, after needing to walk very quickly, we made it just in time for the first tour. The first tour was a Foodie Walking Tour, followed almost immediately by the Guinness Storehouse Tour. The weather was much improved from the previous day (rainy and cloudy all day) with warm sun shining down upon us! (Am I starting to sound Irish yet?)

The Foodie Tour was really great – unlike any other I had seen. Most had a preset “menu” at each of the stops and everyone would get the same thing. Kevin of “Food On Foot Tour“ does his tours differently. Instead of the pre-selected items, he made suggestions for each stop and allowed his customers to choose their own food and beverages. Another important distinction was his tour was €20 per person, where others were €75 and up per person. Bill and I choose all his suggestions at each of the 5 stops and it came to €44 for both of us! Plus, if something just didn’t sound good – we could have picked another item. Also – the places he took us were places we love to go to – he called it “street food” – affordable and delicious. Little “hole in the wall” kind of places you love to try and return to again and again. He also made suggestions for more high-end experiences if you wanted to try those as well. We loved it and will be writing him a well-deserved 5-star review! He talked a lot about Dublin and Ireland history – which we enjoyed also.

At the end of the tour, he took several minutes to help us figure out the best way to get to our next place – Guinness! He was a great guy and we really enjoyed his stories and company!

Guinness has an online system to purchase your tickets. There are times to pick from on your chosen date in 15-minute increments. When purchasing, I allowed an hour between the end of the Foodie Tour and beginning of the Storehouse tour. With Kevin’s (the Foodie Tour guy) help, we arrived about 45 minutes early for our designated time. Thankfully Guinness isn’t strict with the time slots and we were able to enter when we arrived. There is a lot of information given throughout the tour and since it was self-guided each group could take as much or as little time they liked. Bill tends to want to read and listen fully to each display, especially when it’s something he is more interested in – like beer for example!

The tour ends with a pint of Guinness – and thankfully they also offered a hard cider. The views from the Gravity Bar were amazing on the gorgeous sunny day!

A quick walk took us to the bus stop and we were in our way back to Camac Valley around 5:30pm.

Day 7: Another day that started by catching the 9:30am bus! We had tickets for the EPIC Museum. We could arrive anytime during open hours 10am – 5pm (the museum is open until 6:45pm but last people are allowed to enter at 5). Even after we stopped along the way for a sausage roll and chocolate eclair, we still arrived by 11:15am. We learned a lot about Irish immigration, where people went when leaving Ireland. At the end there was an opportunity to enter the name of a family member into their database, which noted their name, where they were from in Ireland, and where they went. I had 4 names to enter, the names of my great-grandparents on my father’s side.

We wandered around the Temple Bar area and went inside for lunch at the first place with live music. Thankfully we had no place to be after because our newbie waitress was quite slow. We did enjoy the music while we waited but our tummies were growling. I had hoped to maybe stay in town until after dark and see the city lit up with all its lights, but we had been hitting the sightseeing pretty hard and after a short debate, walked back toward the bus that goes directly back to the campground. Since that was our last day in Dublin there was a bit of sadness, contrasted with excited thoughts of where we were going the following day. Bill chatted with a German man, who was also staying at Camac, which passed the time very quickly for him. I just quietly watched the neighborhoods go by.

About The Spire: “The beauty of the Spire is that it commemorates nothing but toasts Dublin’s bustling present and points forward towards a limitless, brighter, and more prosperous future.” from Irelandbeforeyoudie.com. The Spire – a.k.a. Tur Solais, or Momument of Light – was the winning entry in an international architectural competition launched by Dublin City Council in 1998 to provide a replacement for Nelson’s Pillar, which was blown up in 1966. The Spire stands 120 metres (or 400 feet) high and is made of stainless steel. It was unveiled in 2002. The Spire has many “affectionate” nicknames, as is common for public art in Dublin, including the nail in the Pale, the stiletto in the ghetto, the pin in the bin, the stiffy by the Liffey (the river that runs through Dublin), the spire in the mire, or the spike.

Bill’s Lingo Lesson:

Still water = tap water (if you don’t ask for still water you might get bubbly water)

take away = take out

upper saloon = upper deck of double decker bus

for hire/let = for rent/lease

ad blue = D.E.F. (diesel exhaust fluid)

Dash Cam footage:

Since we had brought it with us, I’m including some dash cam footage to show a bit of how it is driving on the opposite side of the vehicle and opposite side of the road, also narrow roads and single-track roads.

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