Ring of Kerry

We started out from Adare on Sunday morning.  The agenda was uncertain for a bit... find a tour to do the Ring of Kerry? go to our next night's stay first and then head out to the Ring? or go straight for the Ring?  We did the latter and that seemed to work well. 
Early on I realised it would take some planning to pull over and take pictures.  We werent really on a mission to stop at the little villages along the way to souvenir shop.  We wanted to see the sites.  I think we did a pretty good job at it.

We drove anti-clockwise in line with the buses.  This was suggested everywhere I looked.  I am glad I learned this as we did encounter a different scenario towards the end of our drive.  A man on his Harley looks to have been clipped by a bus.  He was OK - up walking around.  His bike - not so much.  The bus - had a flat front tire and caused quite the traffic jam.
Myself - I only knicked the mirror once while driving through one of the villages on that day.

At the end of theRing is Killarney National Park.  Definitely an area that could receive more attention on the agenda.  There were all sorts of hiking trails throughout the park.  Maybe next time.

Adare Manor

Was our first night's stay.  My mom wanted to stay in a castle and this was one of the manor homes that made it to the final decision phase.  I would say it was well worth it.  We spent part of the day walking around the Village and then we took a tour of the estate...  I took a quick nap by the pool - in an effort to get used to the change in weather from summer in NC to Ireland.  Thankfully I realised I had left my camera behind before we headed out the next morning.
I'll have to focus on the food in another post.

Welcome to Ireland

After a long night of fidgetting in our seats... our flight finally arrived in Shannon.

Flat Stanley in Ireland

first in a series of a few videos i think i will be pulling together for the trip
these were the easiest pics to pull together

how to detox...

just ate a half pint of raspberries...  the fridge is now stocked with grapefruit, apples, raspberries, peaches, plums and plan yogurt...  tomorrow is an apple and grapefruit day with some detox tea...
definitely feeling dehydrated today after the early rising and day of travel....
running on fumes at this time...

Last night in Ireland.

We had a late lunch and even later dessert - mmm profiteroles..Followed with wine in the sitting room with the other guests. They went off to dinner. We just relaxed. Both of us have hit our binge limit at this time.
Then late day showers to wash off the grime. We couldnt get the shower to work this morning. You have to yuck it on with the force of potentially breaking it.
Now finishing packing. So glad I didnt buy much more.
And watching rugby with mom. Maybe she will be up to speed by Sundays IRL vs USA game. Of course finding it televised will be an issue. Time zone? Who knows how I'll feel about that at that time.

Pubs of Ireland

Sitting in Durty Nellys Pub having a beer waiting for fish n chips. Thinking if we had visited enough pubs on the visit. The quest of the navigator...
Adare we had lunch in a pub. Gosh wish I could recall the name of it. The chicken brocoli bake was yummy.
Killarney we went Molly somethings and had fish n chips.
Wexford we went to Thomas Moores Tavern. YES... Must be a catchy name.
Doolin we went to Gus OConnors and Fitzpatricks. The latter was more modern day bar than pub.
And now this. So I'd say we hit suffucient.

Hopeful

I was hopeful this storm would finally blow past and we could at least take the Cliffs water tour if not the Aran Islands ferry. But from the looks out our window no such luck.
Speaking of out the window - we have a view out a sky light that looks up the mountain our little B&B has been built into. It somewhat reminds me of my apartment in Bermuda being dug into the side of a mountain. The steep awkward front steps included.
And the wind blustering through reminds me of Greenbank this past Spring when KP and I were there. Unlike Bermuda the wind doesnt seem to subside over the course of the day.
Anyways there will be no boating this trip.
We are contemplating some hiking today. On the way out of The Burren there is a National Park.  I figure we can do a short hike like we did in Killarney. I know all you rugged types question the short hike but with my mom those are the easiest types. No need to overwork and not be able to get back out of the forest.
From there we work our way down to Newmarket on Fergus. Our last hotel is there somewhere. Really not sure - the mapz and directions are somewhat in complete. Nearby is another castle that we may go gawk at -Dromoland. Remember we stayed at Adare in the beginning instead.
There is also Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. I suspect we will visit the Folk Park tomorrow.
We have reservations for dinner there as well.
I have it written as tomorrow night but I truly think it is tonight.
The other night my mom wants to go to Dirty Nellies Pub. She saw it on a tshirt.  She also wants to check out the live music there. The problem with that is we never get through very much of it at that late hour.
The pub last night had live music. It was more live guitar music. I rather enjoyed it.
Well off to breakfast.

Fitz...

So a number of our directions the past two days have includes making a right at Fitzpatricks.
I had thought it was called Fitzgeralds.
But I kept getting the FITZ right.
And then I gad this we did eatch Bridget Jones earlier this week flashback...
Fitzpervert came to mind.

Doolin Cave

Twenty years of visits and have yet to visit the caves in Bermuda.
Today however we did go to Doolin Cave. Breathtaking. Google it in my real computer access inabilities.

Before the drunkard

In the road...
We drove from Wexford to Dublin on Sunday. We went via some town that begins with a C - no map handy at the moment - Curricloe or something like that. We wanted to see the ocean and beach - this is where the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan was filmed.  From there we meandered through Blackwater - my moms family has a connection to Blackwater. We took some pictures not really sure of the connection or if we were in the right area.
And then we needed to make our way back to a main road to make our way to the motorway.
And down around a bend wouldnt you know it - there was a sheep one lone sheep standing in the middle of my lane looking at me.
He promptly got out of the way but it was not something that would happen in the States thats for sure.

Kilmainham Gaol

We did our lat bit of site seeing in Dublin today. We walked across the street to the Kilmainham Gaol.
Lots of history there. Who knew.  So many people were killed there. Hung. Firing squad. Miserable conditions. So much history.
I really cant keep it all straight.

Yogurt

So almost every day on this trip I have had plain Irish yogurt. Some days it has actually been homemade.  And it has been fabulous. With fruit. With berries. With cereal. All by itself.
Unfortunatley it has probably been the only healthy part of my diet since I have been away.
The other variations of dairy have been in the form of whipped cream and butter. They have been just as tasty just not as healthy.
I am so looking forward to being home - drinking at least 2 liters of water each day without having to plan ahead with a purchase at the Centra, to eating a whole days worth of apples - I have not seen an apple since we have landed, and a whole lot of plain grilled or even boiled chicken and brocoli... i know this will shock some of you chicken haters in the mix... i am so looking forward to a bland diet...
In the interim
Tonights baked salmon was tasty as were the mashed potatoes, brocoli and mashed rutebegas - Yes rutebegas...
Tomorrow not sure what the menu will entail.
Thursday night is a medeival dinner at Bunratty. Cant imagine what that will be like.

Catch up again

So when last I wrote we were still at Blarney Castle Hotel. I would say for the money it was one of the better hotels so far. It had parking in back - which was a nice feature, breakfast was included and they had a good variety - really liked the porridge, the restaurant pub had a good variety of food as well and what seemed to be nightly entertainment.
From there we did a side trip to Cashel.
The Rock of Cashel on the top of the hill was amazing. The cold beating wind - not so much. They are in the process of restoring a chapel on the premises and I would say the scaffolding is a bit of an eye sore from the town. But it is truly for a good cause.
We did not walk around the town of Cashel. Perhaps we could have but both of us were feeling a bit of the days walking and hiking and climbing at Blarney.
From there we drove to Waterford. Not too bad of a drive. I tried to stick to the more major roads.
We got turned around some in Waterford - more so from Shannon(our Garmin) than anything else. She has a hard time with the lack of house numbers and her place of interest section was not up to speed. So I am not too sure where she wwas trying to take us. Eventually we turned her off and went on instinct - which really was if the hotel is on an island in the middle of the river, then drive along the river.
We eventually found our ferry to the hotel. What a cute litttle island. We were bumped from the castle because of 2 weddings and given a townhome to stay in. Wow very modern in its style. I think we both enjoyed our own rooms for the night.
They comped us dinner and it was the nicest and fanciest dinner we have had so far. May even be for the whole trip.
We spent the rest of the day walking around the island.
The next day we did what all tourists do when in Waterford - we went to the House of Crystal. AGAIN WOW! I cant beleive how much time we spent just walking around there. We bouvht some items as well.
We walked around Waterford as well. As this was the first real city we were in we went on the lookout for the Catholic churches. Oddly enough they werent as easy to find. Many of the older churches have anglican roots which i guess shoukdnt be too surprising given the Catholics were repressed and persecuted by the church all those yearz ago.
Who knows.
From there we went to Wexford. We had better luck in the church hunt in Wexford - found 3 actually.
More to say but really need to go get ready with my day.

Blogging

Have realised this evening that you can blog a whole bumch even when not connected. Then when the connection is reestablished yiu just hit the publish button.
Maybe I would have written more in the process even when we werent connectec.
Then again maybe not.

Fast Food

Lets talk some on the food options.  It wasnt until Waterford that we saw our first McDonalds. And we even ate lunch there.
In Dublin we have seen McDs, KFC, Papa Johns, Subway and Quiznos. I was surprised that some of them were franchised over here.
The oddest I saw yesterday
THE COUNTER
I know. Who knew that was a chain when it was across the street from the office.
Who knew it was a franchise when it went out of businezs and Cowfish opened.

X factor

Have i mentioned that we had a good old laugh watching x factor on saturday night

Guy Ritchie

I hate to say this but so far I find parts of Ireland to remind me more of a Guy Ritchie film than the romantiscised movies like PS I Love You. Just saying.
I know this will break friends hearts but they will say you still have 5 days.
So I will give another opinion by the end of the trip.
I also found the Temple Bar area to remind me of the riverfront in Savannah.
Lots of pubs and stuff to see with nothing too glossy.
Even The Clarence was modest in its fame. Ok maybe just fame for those British Pop obsessed like myself.
I also know the rain doesnt help with the overall perspective.
I just hope the rain goes away for our Cliffs and Aran tours.
May not have access until get home at thiz point

Dublin

Must admit have lost track between the journal the blog and facebook. I will definitley have to devote some more time and effort to the narrative when i start to sort through pics.
So Dublin has been nice. It has pissed down rain in us both days however.
Yesterday we arrived in Dublin. We got our tix for the hop on hop off bus and headed out. We werent down the road very far and it started to rain.  Our gameplan was to ride the whole trip and see what there was to see.
We didnt really follow that gameplan.
We got off near Temple Bar to check out Dubkin Castle, Christ Chruch and St Patrciks. From there we headed to Guinness.
A sensory overloead type of place.
I think I enjoyed the fuided tour at Miller better. But the exhibits here were cool and a bit over the top.
By the time we got to Gravity Bar the view was bright sunny and a good distance. Could see Croke Park the Dublin Wheel and Aviva Park in the distance.
Our hotel near the goal has not been condusive to going out into nihtlifd but I wont co.plain for two free nights stay.
Today we rode to OConnell Street and did the writers music and walked around. From there we went to Jameson
AND THEN GOT REALLY LOST TRYING TO REFIND ST PATRICKS CATHEDRAL
Have to say that the chapels we found in Waterford and Wexford were a bit more awe inspiring.
Tonight we grabbed a bit for dinner.
Tomorrow we will go over to the goal and art musueum before heading over towards Galway and Doolin
Sorry for the crazu handsrt typing

Funniest sight so far.

We drove into Dublin on Sunday after 2 daya in and around Wexford. I thought the 2 days would give us enoigh time in Waterford and then Wexford. Maybe all that time wasnt necessary. Havent quite decided yet.
The good news with the planning is that we would arrive in Dublin on a Sunday so the traffic would be at a minimum for this unfamiliar left hand driver.
HAH who knee at that time - surely not me - that some 85,000 people would be merging in on Dublin for the GAA National Hurling Championship on Sunday.
It was over the top. So we sat in traffic of the devoted fans travelling into Croke Park.
And in the traffic we saw this man fall out of a charter bus. He fell out the back of the bus along with a garbage bag filled with empty cans. He picked himself up not the garbage. Crossed two lanes of traffic. Stood in the center median and started to pee. At this point he was 3 cars ahead of us. But he was still peeing as we slowly drove by because of the traffic not to gawk.  He eventually finished and sprinted back up to the bus and got back on. What a laugh.