After a three-year delay due to COVID, Dorie and I finally made it to Ireland. We were not disappointed by all the green of spring, flowering trees, and flowers.
Day 1-2 – We arrived mid-morning, so we had half a day to see some sights in Dublin. Our hotel was only a few blocks from all the sights and activities. We started at Trinity College. Unfortunately, they were in the process of dusting all 250,000 books in the Library, but the Long Room still was truly impressive. The big attraction was the 9th century gospel manuscripts of the Book of Kells. Our dinner stop was at a local pub named Kennedy’s for, of course, a Guinness and a traditional pub meal. The next day we took a Hop-on-Hop-off bus to see the city. We toured the 800-year-old St Patrick’s Cathedral, supposedly built on the ancient well used by St Patrick himself. From there we went to the Guinness Storehouse and brewery. It was huge, over 64 acres! It was an amazing experience, full of advertising memorabilia. The facility and architecture were incredible! Dorie made friends with a “jaunting Cart” horse outside as we were leaving. Did you know that every pint of Guinness has 300 million bubbles? I probably consumed over 5 billion on this trip. We stopped in the Jameson Distillery for a shot before heading to the Temple Bar area for an excellent birthday dinner for Dorie. After dinner we found a little speakeasy, the Blind Pig for drinks and music, though not traditional Irish music. (click on any slide)
Day 3-4 – We knew driving in Ireland would be a challenge, but we didn’t know the first part of that challenge was finding the rental car office. We walked through the pretty St Stevens Square to get there, and the rental car sign was evident on a building, but the office was housed discretely in the middle of a shopping center, which didn’t look like a shopping center from outside. A woman saw us struggling with our luggage and kindly called them for directions and she walked us there. The car wasn’t ready, so we wasted half a day. On the drive out of Dublin, we saw many fields of vivid yellow, which we found out was rapeseed. Our first stop was Glendalough, an early medieval monastic settlement founded by St Kevin. We had a 6-mile hike planned around the lakes and hills of the settlement, but unfortunately it was a rainy and foggy afternoon. (Our only day of rain on the trip). We settled for a nice warm lunch in the pub before driving to Wexlow, founded by the Vikings in 800. We toured the very cool 35-acre Irish National Heritage Park. Over 9,000 years of history are recreated in the park, starting with the prehistoric stone age dwellings, to the medieval ages, then the Vikings and finally the Norman invasion. We drove to Kilkenny to meet Ailish, a friend of a friend, for lunch. She provided us with passes for the Kilkenny Castle tour, which was beautiful, and another pass for Rock of Cashel. We got some of the best soft serve ice cream ever, from an ice cream truck on the way back to our car. (click on any slide)
Day 5-6 – We stayed the night in Cashel and the next morning toured the Rock of Cashel. This is a limestone castle built on the pagan site of a circular stone fort. Supposedly in 450 St Patrick baptized the King Aengus there symbolizing the conversion to Christianity in Ireland. We drove to Waterford and walked around the Waterford Crystal Store – didn’t buy anything. The plan was to do a Viking tour, but we were there too late, missing the last tour of the day. We visited a time museum instead, with a vast collection and the history of watches, clocks, and chronometers. We stayed in Killarney for 2 days. At our hotel that evening, the proprietor heard we were planning to hike Carrauntoohill, the highest mountain (3400 ft) in Ireland. She admonished us severely for not using a guide. Her cautions made me look a little closer at the hike, but a guided tour was not for us, and it’s a good thing because a group of 30 was at the trailhead. Not our style. Dorie went with me for the first 3 miles and 1,000 ft. I climbed on and almost everyone I passed told me “fair play.” I thought I was violating some Irish hiking rule about passing, but it turns out they were essentially saying “good job.” (click on any slide)
Day 7-8 – The next morning we toured the 19th century Victorian mansion, Muckross House and Gardens. The beautiful setting was on the lake with the MacGuillycuddy Range in the distance. From there we drove though the countryside viewing rolling green hills and stone fenced pastures on our way to Dingle. Dingle is a picturesque little port town and the home of Murphy’s Ice Cream. It’s homemade from Kerry cows, so we had a scoop. The splurge of the trip was to stay in a castle. We stayed at Ballyseede Castle, and it was not a disappointment. Across from the entry was a fenced pasture with 3 donkeys and 2 miniature ponies. There was also an Irish wolfhound napping on the sunny lawn. It was the most opulent place we’ve ever stayed. We were on the bar terrace having a cocktail when a beautiful red headed little 5-year-old girl befriended Dorie. Bea took Dorie on a “guided” tour of the gardens and then stayed with us for 15-20 minutes showing how she could jump and discussing the necklace and bracelet she was wearing, and her nail polish. The castle also had 2 other dogs that made themselves at home! No trip to western Ireland would be complete without a visit to the Cliffs of Moher. It was windy while we hiked along the cliffs and then up Obrien’s Tower. Incredible scenery. We went on to Galway and found a pizzeria right next door to our hotel. We were craving pizza, and they had an authentic wood fired oven from Italy, which made excellent pizza. That night, we finally got a chance to hear some traditional Irish music at Taaffes Pub. The official tourist season had not started so all the other cities we visited did not have what we were looking for. It was a fun evening. (click on any slide)
Day 8-9 – We grabbed the free guided tour of Galway outside our hotel the next morning. Of course, you tipped at the end. The city was built around a walled fortification in 1124. In the Middle Ages 12 tribes ruled the surrounding area, the most prominent of which was the tribe of Lynch. Could this be my roots? Maybe. It was time to return to Dublin. (click on any slide)
On the return drive we had a pub lunch in the fortress town of Anthon. This was a great vacation. Driving on the left was not too bad and I hit the left curb only twice and was honked at once. But I’m sure there were other drivers who were glad not to be behind me but were too polite to honk. It didn’t help that we arrived near the airport at rush hour, and I was very happy to turn in the car!
Click on the link below to see more slides of Ireland set to music.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WpGFq1EMBWmO4AmpnPHkj5iuvzginrYw/view?usp=sharing