Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is a newly revitalized city. There was a great deal of development around the port area. The city sits on the banks of the Leffy River. It is the European headquarters of many multinational corporations. The reason is that their tax rate is low, there are a great number of young workers and Ireland is close to the European mainland. The total population of Ireland is 6 million. Ireland joined the EU in 1973.

Trinity College was chartered in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. The famous Book of Kells is housed there. We had seen them on a prior trip. The oldest church is Christ Church Cathedral. Handel’s Messiah was first performed there.

The Vikings settled the area in 820 AD. The area has been continuously lived in since those times.

One of the biggest employers is Guinness. The company started in 1759 and cleverly arranged to lease their land for 999 years. The production site is huge. We learned that the company has always been a very good employer, providing cheap housing and medical benefits.

Our tour took us to Phoenix Park. It was established in the 1700s and is the largest park in Europe. It is bigger than Central Park in New York. We got to walk around some and saw a beautiful flower garden and an organic vegetable garden.

We had some free time in the city and went to the National Art Museum. We saw some Rembrandts, Vermeers and Monets. The building itself was quite pretty.

We had a lazy afternoon back on the ship.