Jason drove us over 1300 km (850 miles) over the 10 day period (Sept 22-Oct 1) - a significant amount of ground to cover! We stayed at 7 cities/towns: Dublin (2 nights), Wexford (1 night), Cork (1 night), Killarney (2 nights), Ennis (1 night), Ballynahinch (1 night), and Carlingford (1 night). Everyone was a good sport about all the driving, but if I had to do again, would reduce the # of locations and spend more time in the Killarney and Galway areas.
River Liffy runs through Dublin's center.
Temple Bar area of Dublin has a lot of neat looking bars & restaurants. Was deserted on Monday morning, think the whole town was sleeping off from the previous day's sports celebration.
Joan in front of cool doors at entry of Trinity College, Ireland's oldest university, founded in 1592.
Some other Random pics during walk: Park memorial statue to Oscar Wilde (think I'll have to read some of his stuff.. from the quotes around the memorial, sounds like he has a nicely cynical sense of humor) and Jason in front of some doors at Christ's Church. Finally, Joan & I enjoying our ~$20 Guinness ("free" with admission to the Guinness brewery). The Guinness tour was terrible, the 360 degree view of Dublin at the top of the brewery would have been spectacular & maybe worth the trip if it hadn't been so crowded (too packed to be enjoyable).
Next day we hit the road to Glendalough (medieval monastery) and Wicklow State Park - very picturesque area. Had a picnic lunch and took some short hikes to enjoy the views.
En route from Glendalough to Wexford where we were staying for the night, came across this nice old church and cemetery in a medieval town called Fern.
Katy having a little too much fun... guess the movie.
If you hadn't already noticed, ruins were EVERYWHERE in Ireland... old churches, monasteries, manor homes, castles - you name it. At first we were pulling the car aside for each ruin, but after awhile we settled for drive-by photos. This was one of the first ruins we came across so we stopped the car. I was able to go inside - it reminded me of something from The Secret Garden on the inside (overgrown with no roof). But, it was also kinda creepy with all the crows & some indication that vagrants might often hang out here, so I didn't spend much time hanging out.
Quickly stopped in Waterford. Decided not to tour the crystal factory, but did see the crystal manufacturer's Visitor's Center & Gift Shop. Most Waterford Crystal is not made in Ireland any more, only a few unique pieces like this very crystal bear (why are you so small?). For only 30,000 euro, we could have taken this cheesy monstrosity home.
We stayed that night in Cork, which is a fairly big & modern city. Not many pics to show, but here's one of Joan in front of an old cathedral.
The following day we drove from Cork to Killarney. The Ring of Kerry Peninsula is renowned as the prettiest part of Ireland, and apparently can be quite packed as a parade of cars and buses traverse the narrow roads to take in the views. I thought it would be a 2-3 hour drive to see the sites, but our innkeeper told us to plan 5-6 hrs. We got a late start driving the peninsula (left around 1:30pm) and got back to the Inn rather late for dinner, but ultimately I think it worked out really well. The weather was perfect, & most of the tourists had cleared out for the day so it was a fairly relaxing drive despite the very narrow roads. Think the pictures will speak to themselves, the Ring of Kerry deserved its reputation.
The Fogher cliffs are on Velentia Island and not accessible by bus tour. I'm glad we were renting a car, because they were definitely worth seeing!
There were sheep wandering everywhere in Ireland - some fenced in, some not so much. Here's Jason getting friendly with some sheep at the top of the cliffs. The sheep were painted with bright colors -- not because of their own unique sense of rebellion, but to indicate their owners. Apparently a bright red mark on their head indicates they're ready for the slaughter...
Stopped at a secluded beach we came across along the way - it was one of the most beautiful views I can ever remember ever seeing. A couple surfers in wetsuits were taking advantage of the waves. I rolled up my pants and waded into the water - I didn't think it was all that cold. If I'd had a swimsuit (or even just a towel) & if it hadn't been so late in the afternoon, I definitely would have taken a swim. Not sure if the beach gets crowded in the summer, but its feeling of seclusion in being framed by green hills descending straight to the water was one of the charms.
Next day we remained in Killarney and took a boat ride followed by a horse-drawn carriage ride to see the Gap of Dunloe. This was another trip highlight. The day was a overcast and rainy to start, but the weather began clearing and the mix of clouds & sunlight just added beauty to the scenery.
Tour started out at Ross Castle, which is located in Killarney National Park (you can pay to tour the castle, although we didn't). We did, however, get the only full group picture of the trip (at least the only one on our camera), excluding the one we took in Boston airport.
Took a ~45 min boat ride through the lakes in Killarney National Park. We crossed through 3 lakes which were interconnected by narrow waterways with beautiful old stone bridges.
Next series of pics are from the carriage ride through the Gap of Dunloe. Jim, Joan, Jason, & I were in one cart, and Mom & Dad followed behind us. The way was steep (both uphill and downhill), and at some times I was afraid for both our own safety and that of our horse Jessie! It was especially scary during the downhill portions of the ride, since it felt as if we were going to overrun poor Jessie with the cart (he was running for his life!), plus his feet kept sliding on the rocks & I thought a couple times he was going to go down & take us with him. In addition to being afraid of our horse falling over or being run down during the down hills, I thought he might drop dead from the exertion of trying to pull 5 people up the mountain.Mom and Dad's horse Sally had significantly more energy than ours.
In any case, I tried to choose pics that represented Jason's apparently popular blog post about this day... while some of that was fictional, most was real, so enjoy seeing picture part of the story!
At the end of the horse ride, some fresh beers awaited the weary passengers (I doubt the horses were so lucky)!
The next day we headed to a Ennis, which was supposed to be another quaint town with nice architecture, shops, and restaurant. However, a 2nd type of crazy Irish sports championship was being held that day & made for an unusual visit. This time around, the game was Hurling, which is another unique Irish game which appears to be a combination of cricket & rugby? Like the "Celtic Football", the opponents score by either putting the ball through the goal or uprights. I tried to take a video of the game action from our tv screen, hope it turns out for the post because it's pretty crazy.
The entire town was festively decorated, and all the shops shut down early for the game (most had a sign similar to the one below). During the game, the streets were empty because everyone was in the pubs, & you could hear the Irish cheering wildly (Ennis won). We were told the town would probably be shut down for the entire week, because it was the first time Ennis won in 50 years or something... our American's Super Bowl celebrations don't hold a candle to the way the Irish apparently celebrate their sports!
That night was my & Robert's 34th birthday. I was sorry to miss seeing him, but it sounded like he had a celebration in MD about akin to the Irish celebrating their Hurling championship in Ennis. I did get a nice birthday ice cream at the restaurant where Mom & Dad embarrassingly had the wait staff come sing happy birthday to me (guess that's not just an American thing), but the closest I had to a birthday cake I saw in a shop window (not that I'm complaining, just thought it was a neat cake).
By the way, Robert's & mine weren't the only birthdays to occur during this trip: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE, hope you had a great one!!
Next day we went to see the famed Cliffs of Moher, which were very dramatic. You can get an appreciation for their scale by the small castle built at the cliffs edge. It's very windy on the cliffs, and apparently a lot of people die each year because they are too near the edge when a strong unexpected gust comes along.. I was careful to stay far away from the edge (and in fact, near the Visitors Center there are happily railings).
Leaving the cliffs we took a trip through the Burren State Park. Of course there were more ruins, & cool manor house had been decorated with the Ennis flag in celebration of the hurling championship. The Burren landscape was very desolate and really cool (at least I thought so). The ground was a field of continuous interconnected rock for as far as the eye could see, with grasses and bushes growing in crevices. Would hate to try to walk across it, there's no way my ankles would survive.
The next night we stayed at Ballynahinch Castle in Galway County. The castle is fairly new by Irish standards, built in the 17th century. It's been refurbished as a resort with pretty river walks, lake and mountain views, and apparently great for hunting and fishing. Lots of great fireplaces and nice pub. Would be a nice relaxing place to stay for a few nights (if you have the cash, wasn't cheap).
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Last stop was Carlingford, which is about an hour north of the Dublin airport (almost in Northern Ireland) & some websites had rated as one of the most picturesque towns in Ireland. It did have a quant tiny shopping and dining area, but it seemed really touristy (and unfortunately seemed mostly shut down). There were several castle & church ruins directly in the town itself which was kind of neat mixed in with the other buildings. Overall, though nice, not sure it's worth a trip out of the way to see it.
Next day we flew out of Ireland and back to the good ol' US where the TSA employees are working without pay & the beer is better. As always after a long trip, it was good to be safe home again with the cats (thanks to Butch & Lisa for taking care of them!) & sleeping in our own beds.
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