Our last days in Ireland

Ireland, con't.

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Thursday night we went to the pub in Creegh and enjoyed traditional Irish music. Three musicians, a conchatina (sp??) player, a guitar player and a tin whistle/flute player. They were really good and we enjoyed them for a couple hours. Things here always start later than we expect. This was no exception. The music started at "half ten" (10:30 p.m.).

Friday we got up and did a little laundry and then headed for the Burren. It is a rocky, desolate area, but beautiful in its own way. We had another beautiful sunny day, although a little windy. We were able to tour a 1,000 year old ring fort and saw some more castles. It is getting to the point where we say "look, another castle". It is amazing.

Saturday we packed up and left Sean and Allyson. They feel like old friends! we drove to Dublin, stopping at Bunratty Folk Park on our way. It is kind of like Old City Park in Dallas, but the main attraction is a castle from about 1400. It has been restored. There are a lot of period farm houses and other restored buildings around it.
We finally made it to Dublin about 5:00 and turned in the rental car. We took a cab to our hotel, walked around the area a little, had dinner and relaxed in our room. The computer here in the hotel was down all weekend so this is my first chance to be online.

Sunday we got up and caught a tour bus. It is a bus for one fare you can get on and off as much as you want. We got a three day pass which will include our transportation to the airport. On Sunday we toured the Guinness Brewery. We also toured Kilmainham Gaol which is a jail from the 1700s.

Today we caught the tour bus again and went through Trinity College (founded in 1500s) and saw The Book of Kells, an amazing collection of the Gospels transcribed in 800 AD. We then walked through Grafton Street, the shopping district of town and headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. From there we went to Dublin Castle and toured that. It was built in the 1600s and is where some of the government offices are still housed. It is also where the Presidential Inauguration takes place. From there we went to the train station (Tommy wanted to see it!) and then on to the Jameson Whiskey museum where Tommy got to be an official whiskey taster!

We have had an amazing time. Our flight leaves at 11:00 tomorrow. We will leave the hotel around 7:30, have some breakfast and catch the bus to the airport. We have a layover in DC and then it is on to home. Tomorrow is a long day of travel so we are staying in again tonight.

We saw our first rain of the trip today. I think it sprinkled on us for 10 minutes!

Our first Days in Ireland

Tommy and I took a dream trip to Ireland March 13-24, 2009. We were supposed to share the trip with our dear friends, Kirk and Denice, but because of some health issues, they had to cancel.

While on the trip, I did a "trip journal" that I emailed back home to friends. Here is the journal (in three parts)
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We arrived in Ireland without a hitch. We supposedly had a two hour layover in Boston, but by the time we found our terminal and ate a quick bite, it was time to board our next flight. We arrived in Dublin at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday. Got through customs and got our baggage by 5:30. The car rental did not open until 6:00 so it was close to 7:00 before we got on the road. Neither of us felt sleepy at all. We were able to sleep a couple hours on the plane.

Driving on the opposite side of the road is quite an experience. I am already a nervous passenger and it was multiplied about 100 times. While we were on the divided "interstates" it wasn't a problem. But the last 70km or so was narrow roads. Very well traveled narrow roads. Very well traveled roads with a speed limit of 100kph (about 70 mph). The whole time I felt like Tommy was headed off into the ditch. I was so tense by the time we reached our destination that my body almost hurt.

We saw lots of ruins of castles, beautiful countryside and yes, Denice, even sheep in the meadows. Everything here is green, leaves are budding on the trees, and daffodils are blooming wild everywhere. We got to the cottages about 10:00, got settled, took a shower and a nap.

Our cottage is very nice. We have a living room/dining room, kitchen and bathroom downstairs. Upstairs is the bedroom. The downstairs has stone floors and upstairs is wood floors. We have a lovely fireplace in the LR/DR. The resident dog has adopted us and Tommy is happy to have a dog to talk to.


After a nap, we got up and went into "town" which is Kilrush. It is about 10km away from our cottage. Our cottage is in Cooraclare which is a "village" that has three pubs, but no grocery store. We walked around a little, and went to the grocery store for some snacks and breakfast foods. (you have to buy plastic grocery bags here for about a quarter each) Stopped at a fish and chips store for dinner to go and headed back to the cottage. Apparently the clerk didn't understand Tommy because when we opened our bag at the cottage, we only had "chips" so we had a dinner of chips. We watched a little TV. Our TV gets two channels -- RTE1 and RTE2. We chose the All Ireland Talent Show over rugby. We were in bed by about 8:00 and slept until 10:00 the next morning.

Yesterday we got up and Tommy fixed scrambled eggs, "rashers" (which is Irish bacon -- a little different than ours!) and toast. We relaxed a little while and headed back to Kilrush for a St. Patrick's Day parade. There was a band playing on the town square and lots and lots of people lining the streets. It was a lot of fun. The final entry in the parade was the "Hell on Leather" dance school. There were hundreds of kids aged about 5-16 surrounding the town hall. They all did a traditional "set dance". It was also very fun.

After that we headed to a pub and had some "real" fish and chips. We learned that we could order one meal here and split it! After dinner we headed to another pub where we saw they were having music from 6:00-8:00. We were a little disappointed when they started playing "American" music but they were quite good. We listened to them for a while and then headed down the street to another pub. There was no music there, but we were surprised to see the All Ireland Talent Show on the big screen TVs! Everyone was watching it and cheering on their favorite act. It was actually the final night so we watched and saw the "winner" of the entire show. It was fun to watch the people so excited about it!

Everyone here recognizes right away that we are foreigners and they are quite nice. I don't think they get a whole lot of Americans in this part of the country.

Today we stopped at the library here in Kilrush to send this email and we are off to do some sightseeing. Tonight we plan to visit the pubs in Cooraclare. I became the official driver yesterday. I am much more comfortable in this position. Tomorrow we plan on heading to Galway (about a 2 hour drive) for a bigger St. Patrick's Day parade.