Ireland, Day 7

Well, it all had to end sometime, and I think we were both ready to come home and sleep in our own bed. We got up early, and before the Innkeeper's kids were on the bus, we were eating breakfast. As we drove to the Shannon Airport there was this lingering thought "do we have enough gas?" Most of our vacation, we had only put a few euros in at a time, as we got to drop the car off empty, so we didn't want to put any more in than we had to. About 2/3 of the way to the Airport, we stopped and put 2 L in (gas was about 1.22 euro/L, 4L = 1 gallon). When we pulled into the car drop-off, our little meter said we had 15 km left in the gas tank, so I think we did pretty well. As we were driving, we were on the highway, we passed this beautiful castle, and of course there wasn't any time to stop/pull over. So I did what anyone would do - rolled down the window. We made it to the airport, and had time to check in, do a little bit of shopping in the Duty-free store, and change any euros we had left back to dollars. The flight home was pretty un-interesting, which I'm ok with.

Ireland, Day 6

We didn't drive near as much this day as the others, as we were staying Doolin another night. So we drove up the coastline a little bit, and visited the Burren, which is a piece of Ireland that is so rocky, I was amazed that anyone could raise anything, but sure enough when we were out hiking, we saw a man and his dog moving some cattle. Most of this day we stopped at another castle (imagine that) and went to more little church/cemetary combinations. So most of this trip, we have been using this map, that often has a little star and some sight to see, but no real direction as to how to get there. I managed to get B to turn down this little "road" that frankly, I'm surpised didn't rip the oil pan off of our little car. We turned in a little early this day, mostly as we had to pack and clean out the car a little bit. Our flight left pretty early, so we had to leave for the airport first thing in the morning.

Ireland, Day 5

We continued up the coast of western Ireland. To save time, we hopped on a ferry that took us across a small bay, where the Shannon goes to the sea. We then hugged the coast for a while. The view was fantastic, however, there was one slight problem. There are remarkably few public restrooms. And I'll just leave it at that. The big sight for the day was visiting the Cliffs of Moher. Which is I think the one place that every tour bus stops, but it was...wow.

We stayed that night in Doolin, which is a little town that is known for having lots of Irish music. Since it was pretty early in the season, only one of the pubs was open, and when you walked in the door, heat from the fireplace could almost push you over. The music was great. There were 3 guys, with a total of probably 6 instruments, ranging from the accordian, pipes/flutes/clarinets, and the bodhráns (traditional irish drum). And could they play. It was interesting to watch them play, they would just be talking/drinking, and then one would start up a new song, and the other two would just hop right on in.

Ireland, Part 4

On day 4, we drove over this mountain pass on the Beara Penninsula. It was so pretty. The whole way up, we just kept stopping in driveways, and anywhere the road was wide enough, to take pictures.









There were also sheep.
Once we made it through the pass, we went to the Killarney National Park. There was a neat waterfall (Torc waterfall), and found some students to take a pic for us. There was also the neatest monastary (Muckross Abbey) When the most recent structure was built, they planted a yew tree in the center of the cloister. The tree is doing great, the abbey is getting a facelift. To round out the day, we visited the Ross Castle, which had been remodeled (many times) most recently to depict 16th century life. It was interesting to see the layout of life in a tower house.

Ireland, Part 3

So, on day 3 we drove the southern coast from Kinsale, to Bantry. We stopped at a fort (James Fort) just across the bay from Charles Fort. And then started down the coast. We stopped at a Friary at Timoleague, which was just fantastic. The interesting thing is that among the graves inside the church, they noted what part of the building it used to be, ie chapel, sacristy...

Then at the other end of the religious spectrum, we drove to a stone circle. We were using this map that came with the car, and it had some extra sights on it that I hadn't heard about before. So we would just drive towards this star on the map, and hope we found it. More often than not, we would be driving (a little lost) and then see a sign. This is a view from where the circle sits, it was just so picturesque, and ireland-ish.

One really neat place we went to see was the lighthouse at Mizen Head. It's the southwestern-most point of Ireland. To get there we drove down the peninsula, and almost got run off the road a couple of times by people driving on the wrong side of the road. Once we got there we had to walk across this bridge to get from the mainland to the little piece of island that had the lighthouse on it. It was so windy up there, but the sun was shining, and the ocean was so blue. If it would have been warmer, I would have thought we were in the carribean.

Ireland, Part 2

On day 2, our B&B hostess talked us out of taking the highway to Cork City and driving the scenic route (and not taking the Toll road). We ended up driving over the mountain behind the house, and I am so happy that we did. We just started winding up this huge hill, and passed many sheep. This really doesn't do it much justice, but I think the mist adds to the ambiance. The drive down to Cork City was really pretty. When we finally got to Cork City, we went to the Cork City Gaol, which was a Jail. It had a really neat audio tour, and we got to go into the cells and wander around. It was worth getting really lost for.

So, the roads in Cork City? Not labelled so much. The nice lady at the petrol station got us going in the right station. Side story, so, when we decided to visit Ireland, we knew we would probably be getting manual car. Well, I can't drive a manual so Brian and I had our roles. He drives, I navigate. So before we left I printed out lots of maps of the area. The one we used the most? The one that came with the car.

We drove down to Kinsale, which is a little resort town. It has this massive fort sitting on the hill over-looking the harbor. We had so much fun wandering the grounds of this fort. http://www.dochara.com/play/all/charles-fort.php

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