Travels in Ireland

In my last post, I mentioned Dave was in Ireland golfing, and I was going to join him to do some site seeing. The golfing portion was with the crew pictured below. Dave said the courses were spectacular.

The site seeing portion was with Matt, Megan, and Megan’s mom Carolyn.

We visited sites within four of the counties of Ireland. I’ll walk you through those sites (and maybe a little bit more) in this post.

County Clare

I landed at Shannon airport which is about as easy to get through as PBI or Manchester, even with customs. I quickly made my way through the airport to the taxi stand where I got into a waiting taxi and drove by a Trump protest on the way to the hotel.

For one night, we stayed at Dromoland Castle.

What a treat.

If we needed something, there was no waiting. The grounds and interior were meticulously maintained. After wandering the grounds, we had drinks outside on one of the many patios, a delicious dinner (lamb for me) in a beautiful setting, and drinks again in a sitting room.

The next morning, we got to play with various birds of prey.

After our falconry experience, we got picked up by our driver Paul who took us to the Cliffs of Moher.

From the cliffs, we headed to Killarney. On the long drive there (partially via ferry), Paul did his best to keep the conversation going while I napped in the far back of the van.

County Kerry

Our hotel in Killarney was very nice with a comfortable lounge to have drinks and a great open-faced smoked salmon sandwich. But it was no Dromoland Castle. We immediately noticed a drop off in level of service (as would be true of most hotels), and Dave and I were checked into a room that was already occupied. Because of a laundry fiasco on the golf portion of the trip, laundry at this point became imperative for the two golfers. €40 to launder three pairs of underwear and two pairs of socks.

In the morning, Paul took us up to Dingle Peninsula via Slea Head Drive stopping at Inch Beach, a petting farm (Matt wanted to stop at multiple of these, but settled for one) and Dunquin Pier.

The scenery along this route was beautiful. This was my favorite, so lots of pics.

After leaving the pier, we headed into the town of Dingle, and, on our third attempt at getting into a restaurant, ended up at John Benny’s for a late lunch. Four of us had toasties – a grilled Irish cheddar cheese sandwich with ham, tomatoes, and onions. I regret not having tried one of these during the trip. Instead, I got fish and chips. And they were hands down the best fish and chips I have ever had.

We then headed back to Killarney where we said goodbye to Paul.

That evening we shopped for sweaters and went to pubs.

The next day we took the bus to Killarney National Park and saw the Torc Waterfall, Muckross House, and Muckross Abbey. We took a horse and carriage from the house to the abbey because we thought we missed the bus, but didn’t, and then did. (Does that make sense?)

Later that day, we did some sweater shopping and pub hopping. In one pub, we invited a couple to join us at our table since they were having trouble finding seating. They turned out to be French, and Matt spoke French with them. The problem is Matt doesn’t really speak French. But they were very appreciative of the attempt.

County Cork

From Killarney, we took the train to Cork where we stayed at The Montenotte Hotel. This hotel had a large veranda off of the main restaurant with a beautiful view of Cork. We spent quite of bit of time on this veranda, even in the drizzle, enjoying lunch and afternoon drinks.

In addition to exploring Cork City, we visited the Blarney Castle where we felt no need to wait in the 90 minute line to kiss the Blarney Stone. I have no desire for the gift of blarney, and David already excels at it.

After visiting the castle and grounds, we stopped in Blarney Woolen Mills to do some more sweater shopping.

County Dublin

We hopped our last train up to Dublin to check in to our last hotel. This was the first time during the trip that tensions flared. Hey, we had been together a week. To me, the tensions seemed to be caused by a problem in communication. For some reason, people didn’t seem to be understanding one another. I don’t know why. It was perfectly clear to me. So, I pulled out my mom voice, the one that has been known to scare small children and coworkers, and said (paraphrased) “This is what’s going to happen.”

After which, we had a very nice dinner.

The next day, we walked all over Dublin.

We visited the Book of Kells, St. Patrick’s, and Trinity College.

While at Trinity college, we had fun running into the UNC and TCU students who were there for the College Football Classic. Dave, as usual, had no problem making friends.

It was a struggle to find a place for lunch, but we finally ended up at the Cheeky Pig. If you are ever in Dublin, make sure you seek it out and have the Truffle BLT.

After some more sweater shopping and a pub, we toured the Guinness Storehouse as our last adventure of the trip. This was … an experience. Some of you might even enjoy the experience. I found it to be similar to a long and crowded line at a Disney theme park where the ride is a pint of Guinness. And you feel queazy after the ride.

FAQs

Here are some questions I imagine you might have about the trip.

What did you like most about Ireland? The scenery. And the accents. I miss the accents.

Did it rain a lot? Yes, but not as much as we expected. It’s obviously part of the life there. People just go out in the rain, and it’s no big deal. Matt wanted more.

Driving? We didn’t. But being a passenger in a car on the left side of narrow roads often gave each of us heart attacks.

How many steps did you get in? 82,047

What other traditional Irish foods did you have? Irish porridge every morning.

What about the pubs? There were a million. All dark and cozy. Most of them were called Murphy’s. Matt and Dave had some form of whiskey at each of them.

Did you buy a sweater? I think Megan and Matt might have bought several. I bought one each for Caleb and Lucy. Dave wanted to buy one, but I asked him when he was going to wear it.