Ireland, Part 1

So, we went to Ireland for vacation in April, and I'm finally getting some of the pics up on the net. We flew out of JFK to Shannon, Ireland. The flight wasn't too bad, I even got some sleep. Well as much sleep as you can get sitting up, or twisted around to sleep on a flying partner. We rented this little car, a Ford Fiesta, and it was a party. A tiny party, with a surprising amount of trunk space. The first hour of driving was an adventure. Brian did really well with the manual, but getting used to the turns was tricky. When a traveler lands in Shannon, which is an airport straight out of the 70's, there are 4 round-abouts, and then you hit Limerick. Limerick is a fairly large town (in Ireland), and the streets are very narrow. For someone who had only been driving on the left for about 10 minutes, this was crazy intense. When we finally got to open highway we were so happy, and for me, I think it was the point when vacation finally started. The flights and picking up the car were still part of the planning process.



On the first day we went to The Rock of Cashel, which is a huge fortress on a hill, which is putting it mildly. And here's a neat view from the top of the hill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Cashel

After we wandered around for a while, and took way too many pictures, we drove down to Cahir. There we went to Cahir Castle. This was so interesting because they had alot of the building open. We could climb up on the walls, and climb the towers, and basically run free. It was fantastic.

We stayed that night in a B&B near Cahir, called the Ballyboy House. It was fantastic. The room was huge, and very quiet. Breeda pointed us towards a lovely pub for dinner.

http://www.dirl.com/tipperary/cahir/ballyboyhouse.htm