We flew over on Sunday, a happily uneventful flight, and arrived around 4 am our time (9 am Dublin time) on Monday. Watched a good movie. Got maybe an hour of very uncomfortable sleep out of a 7+ hour flight. When we got to Dublin, our room was not ready and Glenn and I fell asleep on a couch in the lobby at the Ashling Hotel.
That night, we pulled ourselves together, learned how to ride the tram, and went to the Temple Bar area of Dublin (tons of fun restaurants and bars). Had a nice dinner in a Thai place called Saba and then found a lovely pub called the Vat House, where the three Murphy sisters played wonderful live music, including Irish folk tunes we sang along to like Molly Mallone, as well as Zombie by the Cranberries and some U2.
"Alive alive o-oh, alive alive o-ho, selling cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh."
Tuesday, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Expanded Library. Folks, if you are expecting an extensive Irish history from this post, you'll be deeply disappointed. Have questions? Google it. I can tell you that the Book of Kells is a VERY OLD book that was found in the sea and has the new testament in it in Latin, along with some cool old illustrations.The expanded library at Trinity College had to have a copy of EVERY BOOK in Ireland, which quickly became unmanageable, so they had to raise the roof. It looks like a library out of Harry Potter.
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| Trinity Campus |
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| Expanded library |
Afterwards, we walked to St. Stephens Green, which is a nice park in Dublin - reminiscent of Central Park in NYC. We also stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
Is it possible we also went to the National Botanical Gardens the same day? My notes say yes, although that seems like a lot of things. It was huge and we didn't see it all, but it was lovely. (Lovely is my new Irish word, by the way. I shall be using it a lot.)
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| Here we are! |
Dinner was at a wee place that won World's Best Pizza in Italy several years in a row (including gluten free pizza).
I should mention that so far the weather has been very un-Irish. They have not had significant rain in 7 weeks and are having a severe drought. The temps have been near the highest ever recorded and there is no air conditioning anywhere in Ireland. Also, the sun doesn't set here until 10:30 at night.
On Wednesday, we drove to Galway (pronounced Gullway), which is on the coast. There we had an amazing hotel room - essentially the penthouse, where we had our own balcony and rooftop terrace.
The first evening, we went to see a show called Mire Erin (I am Ireland) at the hotel. IT. WAS. AWFUL.
Fortunately, Glenn and I were of the same mind on this, and when intermission came, I said, "We're not coming back, are we?" and Glenn said, "Hell no!" I have never loved him more.
We found another nice little pub playing live music and enjoyed that much more. Galway was cute but crowded.
On another side note, we've completely unplugged and have not seen or heard any news or been on social media. I don't know if we could get news if we wanted to. There are literally like 3 functioning TV stations here. It's nice.
Our second day in Galway, we headed to Kilmore Abby, one of the most photographed spots in all of Ireland (and you'll see why) and then walked through their Victorian Walled Garden which was like something out of a storybook. We also stopped at Connemara National Park.
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| Kylemore Abbey |
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| The Victorian Walled Garden |
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| Henry the pig |
The next morning we went to see the Cliffs of Moher - spectacular cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. It was beautiful, but hot. Glenn went to the top of O'Brien's tower while I tried to keep myself from burning to a crisp. Like many places throughout Ireland (I think due to the rocky terrain) there are no trees or shade here.
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| Cows of Moher |
There were also supposed to be puffins, but alas, we saw no puffins.
We then drove about 4 more hours to Kilarney - it was a long driving day.
Fun fact, on the drive to Kilarney, we saw several signs advertising "Donkey Farm and Match-Making Museum". I have no idea how these things are related.
The driving has been hard on Glenn. You not only are on the wrong side of the car, and the wrong side of the road, but the streets are very narrow and rural, and you're likely to have to drive past a bus or a cement truck taking up the whole road. There are also SHEEP EVERYWHERE.
Still, after a very long day, we made it to Kilarney, which is a charming town.
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| This was our hotel - the Victoria House |
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| We ate here for dinner. Delish! |
Glenn took these pics on a walk in the early morning, before any of the Irish were awake yet. He also got some pics from the Muckross House and lake. I got some pics of the deer in the field across from our hotel with the superzoom.
We arrived on Friday and discovered that Saturday, they were having a bicycle race around the Ring of Kerry and that an additional 10,000 people were in town. Roads were going to be closed and traffic was going to be a nightmare, so we had to make alternate plans.
So, we booked a tour of the Gap of Dunloe. A bus took us to a drop off point, and from there we had a choice of taking a 7+ mile hike or renting a horse and "trap" (an open, four-passenger- if you are all really thin and socialable- cart.) We opted for the horse and trap, since, if you didn't complete the walk in time, you would be stuck in the wilderness for the night.
Our horse was a 10-year-old Cobb named Nancy. Nancy found it difficult to pull us up the steepest passages, so for those areas, Glenn and I and another passenger were asked to get out and walk. To me, this defeated the whole purpose of renting a horse. It was also a very jarring, bone-shaking ride for two hours, but the gorgeous scenery made up for it.
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| Nancy the Horse |
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| Heading into the Gap of Dunloe |
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| This is our trap - we are walking behind it. :-( |
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| Find the sheep |
We stopped for a brief lunch (the only thing that was gluten free was ice cream, so...oh well), and then got on boats that took us on about another 2-hour trek through lakes that were 250 feet deep. Our boatman had been a boatman forever, and back in the day he used to row people across. He was also quite a character, regaling us with countless stories, most of which were complete fabrications.
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| Our Captain |
The drought had caused the river to drop over three feet, so there were portions of our trek where we all had to get out of the boat and walk on land while they dragged the boat across the shallow portions. The drought is a real problem for them. This is the oldest boat tour in all of Ireland.
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| This is Charlie, our boatman's dog, sleeping in the bottom of the boat. |
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| Charlie at the helm |
He also taught us our new favorite saying about stubborn family members: "Where there's a will, there's a relative."
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| Ross Castle |
Another fun fact, the only major predator in Ireland is the mink. Mink were brought to farms in Ireland to make coats and then animal rights activists insisted the minks be released. There are now a major invasive species and are "killing machines". We saw very few birds out on the water and apparently this is because of the mink.
Anyway, after the boat tour, we took the bus back (most of the way) to our hotel. They had to drop us off about 20 minutes away due to the bike race traffic.
We fell right asleep when we got in, and then headed out to dinner at a place called Kayne's Bistro which had the best desserts EVER.
So that finishes up our Ireland Blog, Part 1. (WHEW!) I hope you are enjoying your tour. Stay tuned for Week 2 and our next stop: Ring of Kerry.
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