So Sonja, Ally and I decided we were going to go to Ireland. Here we are. That is obviously the short version of the story. My friend Rebekah Jackson lives there and we had two weeks so off we went.
Rebekah Sonja and I - photo credit to Ally
Journal Entry: Day One June 15& 16 Sunday/Monday
Journal Entry: Day One June 15& 16 Sunday/Monday
Started off to Ireland today around 2:00. Picked up Sonja and said Happy Father’s Day to my Dad. We made it to the airport in plenty of time. Strange thing, my parents had a visitor, Peter Lawson up at the house visiting while Sonja was packing up. He asked her where she was going. She told him she was off to Ireland in a few minutes. It turned out Peter was traveling to Paris on the same flight we were going to be on. He was heading back home to Italy. We ran into him in Salt Lake and of course on the plane and we saw him again at the Paris airport. Small world.
Our flight to Paris got off at the right time. No sleeping for me. Ally slept fabulously, what a champ she is. I didn’t sleep at all. I watched like three movies and tried to close my eyes but I just can’t settle in while flying. We had a nice guy Mark someone who chatted with us and was very friendly. He was heading to Paris to surprise his wife who had been on a vacation with an old school friend, touring Europe but was having a miserable time. Quite sad really, he was going to kidnap her for the last four days and cheer her up. Very sweet. He offered his home in Belize to us if we ever want to stay in it. Seriously, I just might. In Paris we had a few minutes to shop at a little store, Ally bought a little Eiffle Tower statue and we shared a French chocolate and hazel candy bar. It was delicious. Our flight went on time again and had a good fly over to Ireland. We landed in Dublin right on time and were so happy to be there. The whole flight took 14 hours. It felt like a long time.
We made our way to the tourist bureau guy and he gave us some good advice and a few good maps. The Budget Rental car guys turned out to be friendly and while they did make me buy the Irish insurance on the rental car I am actually glad to have it. We got our keys and headed off on our whirlwind adventure. We really had no clue how to find the highway we needed to be on and I was a bit nervous (terrified really) of the whole driving on the left hand side of the road business so we said a quick travel prayer, more of a beg session for me, please please please don’t let me crash this car. We followed the car in front of us out of the rental car lot and somehow made it to the main highway. Roundabouts, left hand turns, small street, no tiny streets, fast cars….everyone feels like they are driving so fast here, having no idea where we are going. It really does make for a bit of stress. We played it cool and did really quite well. We drove right to Rebekah’s town and nearly made it straight to her house. We had no idea where we were though when we pulled ourselves up on Siri and low and behold we were just three miles away. Ahh, well done us. We got ourselves all the way to the right street before we called to ask which house was hers. She did a great job leading us to her place and ran out to the street to greet us just as we were passing by. I managed to get the car into the driveway and was so relieved to have a break from driving. I was so tired by this point, the words on the signs were starting to blur together making it very difficult for my weary tired strung out mind to comprehend what I was doing. Dangerous when you are driving on the wrong side of the road I tell you.
Rebekah’s house is so cute. It has a fun sunroom made entirely of glass that is an addition/dining room where we eat dinners. It overlooks the Dublin Bay and you can watch the boats sail by. There is also an island, Dahlke Island out the window with an old ruin of a church and a watch tower put in during the Napoleon era. It is a beautiful sight. There is also the cutest little red and white striped lighthouse. It is a petit little thing but so darling. We tried hard to stay up until 7 was our goal but we made it until 9 before totally zoning out. Rebekah gave us some Melatonin to take, she always takes it when traveling and trying to adjust to a new time zone quickly. I think it did the trick because we all slept like babies the whole night and slept until almost 9 in the morning. It wasn’t terrible waking up either. Pretty slick. So excited to be here, so happy to see my darling friend Rebekah. I forget how amazing she is when I haven’t seen her for so long. I just love this girl!
Day Two - June 17 Tuesday
We headed off to Glendalough (Glendalock) this morning to check out the old Monk’s village and ruins. It is a historic park where you pay a little fee to check out the museum and watch little video presentation about what you will be walking through. Glad we did I think it explained a lot of what we will be seeing while in Ireland’s little old towns. The monk St. Kevin came to Glendalough to get away from people really and built a little church in this cute little valley. It had a river running through it and a lake up above and he saw it as an ideal retreat/sanctuary from ordinary life. The people loved him though and followed him there and built up little village surrounding his monastic church. There is a beautiful graveyard with stones as early as the 1000’s. Lots of beautiful High Cross’s and a fabulous Round Tower. These were lead the way for pilgrams who were coming from far off. We hiked up to the lake and saw that and Ally played in the water and got an ice cream. The dog, Ahni came with us and ran around like crazy chasing people and sticks. It was a very fun afternoon.
We stopped at Avoca a fun boutique/restaurant for lunch at 3 in the afternoon. They had a very pretty selection of food to eat. Girls love pretty food. I ate a delicious ham sandwich and a pea salad and was very happy. Ally got a pasta with parmesan. We checked out the gift shop and Ally picked out a cute black kitty as a souvenir and I got some scented soaps. It was a very fun afternoon. When we got back to Rebekah’s place we headed out for a paddle in the kayaks to see Dalkey island. We toured through the church ruins guided by our tour guide Sir Douglas Weston, Rebekah’s son. He gave us a great tour of the island. He shows us which plants not to touch as they give you a rash, he told us about how they built watch towers within sight of one another so they could pass along messages of an oncoming army attack by Napoleon. They were never used though as he never made it to Ireland to invade. He was a great tour guide. He’s about eleven years old now. Rebekah had to ferry back over to the mainland to bring Shayne and Brett over as we didn’t have enough lifejackets for everyone.
We saw a few bunnies and a seal and Brett stayed on shore to watch the kids chase after the bunnies and go search for the goats while Sonja, Rebekah and I went to paddle around the island. We didn’t get to far as we ran into a seal sunning on a rock who was happy to let us get right up to him and stop. We sat and watched him for a good ten or fifteen minutes. He was so cute warming up and stretching out his flippers. He barked at a us a few times and farted a few times which we were a bit surprised at. The tide moved out a bit while we were sitting there in the kayak and we were a bit high centered when we tried to move. We eventually wiggled ourselves free and turned the corner and there were at least ten more seals gathered in another cove all hanging out warming up for the night. As we paddled back, we decided to flip a U-turn so we weren’t gone too long, we enjoyed watching the seals slide into the water from their sun perches and head down to swim a bit more.
We ate pizza in the sun room tonight. A sailing ship got high centered out int he bay on a rock at low tide. We were fully entertained watching them try to get their ship the rock. They were leaning pretty far to the left and with no relief. I guess the tide had come down and left them in trouble. They had lots of people out there on the water trying to help them. Another boat ferried a bunch of people back to the mainland. Finally after about an hour the tides shifted and started to come back in and they were able to move their ship off the rocks. It actually looked like they were going to tip over but they didn’t.
We had found a bit of sea glass over on Dahlke island which I was clearly excited about. Brett said the beach on the mainland they walk to has a bit more sea glass. He insisted he do dishes while we walked down to the shore to collect sea glass and take Ahni on a walk. We found loads of glass. I even found a red piece, what? I have never found red before. Thank goodness for the Irish people who drink so much beer and clearly toss all their bottles into the Irish Sea. Best sea glass day ever! I will have to be on the lookout for more while we are here.
We are having a fabulous time though it is 11:50 now and I am feeling pretty tired so I am done. I am taking another Melatonin and hitting the pillow.
June 18 Wednesday
Sonja, Rebekah, Ally and I headed off for Dublin this morning after a breakfast of eggs and sourdough bread. Rebekah showed us the ropes on the Dart train and gave us her passes for everything city related. We were heading to Trinity College to meet a school friend of Shaynee’s whose Dad works for Trinity. He gave us a quick tour. It let us skip the line for the Book of Kells which wasn’t short and got us in for free, which is a bonus. He showed us around for a bit. We had tea with him and then headed over to a Crepe Restaurant for lunch. Trinity College is a beautiful campus. I was struck with the inner court and all the old stone buildings. The cobblestone walkways and the front door/gate. Who knew a college had a front door but beautiful wooden door with an archway carved in so you can always walk through.
It was fun to chat with an Irishman and had some local flavor. He brushed up on his history for us so he could tell us when ladies first were allowed to go to the college, sometime in the 40s or 50s. Also they didn’t let non Catholics in for a long time. It was interesting. There was a team playing Cricket out on the field where we walked through which was fun. The bell tower rang 1:00 just as we came under it. It was a delightful experience. We snuck into the Book of Kells exhibit and the line was long so we thought we would try back again later in the day. He took us up to the Long Room which is their library. Died and gone to heaven. It may be the most beautiful room I have ever seen but most certainly the most beautiful library. Rows and rows of old leather-bound books. The room smells of old library leather. The wood carvings, the ladders lining each row of shelves, the ceiling which arches overhead, the marble busts of genius men. It is a sight to behold. I took loads of photographs. It really was a delight. There was a gorgeous spiral staircase our of wrought iron. The ironwork here is phenomenal, all over town I have a hard time not photographing every three steps I take. We ogled for a bit in the Long Room and Kent invited us up for tea.
He got special permission for us to drink tea with him in the faculty bar which wasn’t being used. It was a cool oriental room with glowing table tops. Low lighting and cool ambiance. We drank our raspberry tea and Ally had a bit of hot chocolate with strawberry marshmallows. She was in heaven. She was wilting after the Long Room and needed a carry to the faculty lounge. I backpacked her around campus while taking photos. Challenging but can be done apparently. She has a terrible cough this week. It seems to be getting worse with time and not better. She perked up with the hot chocolate though. It was past one at this point and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It’s hard to fit in food when there is so much to see and do.
Following tea we headed out for lunch. Kent recommended a fabulous crepe shop just off campus. It was lovely. I had a banana and chocolate crepe with cream and Ally had a strawberry and ice cream crepe. Kent pronounces a crepe as a crep, we say crape. He assured us he was correctly pronouncing it and we were in the wrong. He is likely correct so crep it is.
Rebekah had loads to get done and offered to take Ally home with her to play with Shaynee and Allly was more than happy to oblige so off she went. They stopped at Burger King to use the facilities and then headed home. Ally told me later she fell asleep on the Dart train on the way back to Rebekah’s house. I don’t think she is feeling that great though she is trooping along with us.
Sonja and I headed directly back to the Long Room and to check out the line for the Book of Kells. There was no longer a wait so we headed right in with our professor ticket and got a good look at the two pages they had on display. Those monks were serious hard workers, dedicated and perfectionists. The pages we saw were beautiful. Intricate designs and the writing was gorgeous. We just don’t write like that anymore. We spent more time in the Long Room as well and chatted with one of the curators for a few minutes. He was wrapping broken books which had their spines crack or a cover come loose. He was saying how the books are breaking and decaying faster than they can restore them. Funding is always an issue everywhere I guess. So they wrap the books that need repairing with a ribbon to hold the covers on and it delays further damage for a bit until hopefully they can get to the damaged ones. There were a lot of damaged books once you realized what you were looking at.
Sonja and I had a grand time navigating to Christ’s Church. I was always so proud of us when we found something new. The church was beautiful. It has amazing stain glass and lots of statues of the apostles. We even found a memorial to a John Hamilton in Christ Church which could possible be a great uncle or some relative of ours as we have a lot of John Hamilton’s in the family. We photographed the memorial so we can go home and see if it fits anyone. The memorial has his death date listed so we could potentially match it up with someone. On our way out we saw a sign for the Cripp so we headed down to see the burial grounds beneath the church. It was so awesome with the archways and lighting and memorials. They even had an old crest carved out of wood down there.
As we were heading to St Patricks Cathedral we ran across the Dublin Castle and the downtown library, thankfully it had a bathroom. The Dublin Castle has a fun statue garden on it’s grounds and a city park where lots of sun-deprived Irish folks were sunning. They sure do know how to catch a sunburn quickly. I can’t blame them though apparently we are having a sunny stream like Dublin has never seen before. Amazing weather.
St Patricks Cathedral was beautiful from the outside. They were having a service inside and welcomed us to come on in if we were willing to stay for the entire event. It would have taken thirty minutes and we couldn’t leave early so we decided to skip it. They did have a beautiful high cross in the cemetery behind the church. I am in love with the high crosses. The cross of course is for Christ and the circle is the endless round of love and life, eternity. It is a mix of an old pagan symbol with a Christian symbol that came to be when Christianity was introduced in Ireland. It makes for the most gorgeous cemeteries.
Sonja and I went looking for a musical pub crawl and came upon Ha’Penny Bridge and the Temple Bar District. The Ha’Penny Bridge crosses over the Dublin River in town. Along the bridge lovers have padlocked locks onto the bridge with their initials carved into the padlock to seal their love. It is very romantic really and you can see large clumps of locks all connected in long chains.
The Temple Bar was an actual sand bar put in by a Mr. Temple as a fortification of his estate. It is now the pub district where cars aren’t allowed on the streets for a 6 block or so radius, you can mill about on the coblestone, not worry about getting plowed over by fast moving mini’s and enjoy the local street musicians. They had a brass band trying to pipe up some business the night we were there. They were very good. There was also a few guitar playing folks. In most of the pubs they have traditional Irish music playing live nightly. Great place to live if you know how to play. We couldn’t get a ticket to the actual pub crawl as they were all sold out but we did our own version and stopped into a few different pubs to listen to their sound. It was a fun night. We will have to find another one along the way here in the next few days. We did pick up a tray of fish and chips, cod fish, to eat as we strolled around. It was a lot different than I had thought it would be. We ended up back at the restaurant we purchased it in to sit and eat it. The fish is a big clump of battered fish, not little sticks like I thought it would be. What do I know, I’ve never had fish and chips before. We added a bit of vinegar and started singing our old camp song, “Fish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar, fish and chips and vinegar pepper pepper pepper pop.” For the first time singing it I knew what I was singing about. I had no idea they added vinegar to fish and chips. New taste. I didn’t love it but it wasn’t out of this world either. I would eat it again in the future.
We are getting achey feet by this point so we headed back to the Dart to go home. Luckily we got a bit of help and picked platform 2. Then we walked up to platform 1. I did notice we had gotten on the wrong side so we managed to find out way to the other platform. It is hard being in a new city. It takes so much brain power to get anywhere. Today we were grateful for Sonja’s phone that did aid us quite greatly many times in finding our location. Thank you iphone!
We got off in Dalkey, phew we made it back to where we could get ourselves home. Our tired legs weren’t quite warn out so we headed on a little tour of Dalkey. It is such a cute town. Brightly colored store fronts. Bakeries, and salons, restaurants, etc. There is a castle nearly on every block. I hear Bono from U2 lives in Dalkey but we didn’t run into him. Dang!
We made it home after out tour around Dalkey and chatted with Rebekah for a bit about how all our days had gone. She ended up trying to get her house ready to show to a prospective renter as they are going to be moving soon. She had a very busy day but Ally and Shaynee had a fun time. They went across the street and had a picnic in the park. They played a game with their coordinating toy kittens and pretty much enjoyed each others company. It will be nice to see them again in July when they come to Utah.
I couldn't get to sleep so I took a few melatonin and was able to drift off, not to wake again until around 9am.
Day Two - June 17 Tuesday
We made it home after out tour around Dalkey and chatted with Rebekah for a bit about how all our days had gone. She ended up trying to get her house ready to show to a prospective renter as they are going to be moving soon. She had a very busy day but Ally and Shaynee had a fun time. They went across the street and had a picnic in the park. They played a game with their coordinating toy kittens and pretty much enjoyed each others company. It will be nice to see them again in July when they come to Utah.
I couldn't get to sleep so I took a few melatonin and was able to drift off, not to wake again until around 9am.
Ally enjoying the view this morning out the hotel window. You could see the rock of Cashel off in the distance.
Wait, what? Which way do we go?
How much do I love a high cross? This is the high cross of St. Patrick, yes the St. Patrick. They have moved it inside to help stop deterioration due to elements.
Another high cross. I love the cemeteries in Ireland. They are majestic and beautiful and have such a different feeling to them than our American cemeteries. I could pull up a bench and spend the afternoon reading a good book in an Irish cemetery. True art and beauty in their high cross work.
Ally and our little car. The car treated us so well on our trip. No crashing, breaking down or flat tires. We were all so grateful to have a trust tiny vehicle. So glad it was tiny. The streets in Ireland are crazy narrow.
I loved this stone circle. If I had acres I would install a stone circle.
Beautiful bridge on our drive.
Loved these cave highways we had to flip a u-turn to drive through them again, and again. They are amazing.
Another stone circle today. Not as large as the other stones.
It seems like every other alleyway has a load of beer either heading in or out of the pubs. I found them to be very picturesque.
One of my top three experiences in Ireland was in this little pub. The local gentlemen in here were singing away and telling old Irish folklore stories. I popped my head in to see who was singing and they all waved us in.
They continued on with the fun, asking us where we were from and joking around a bit. Their voices were so true to the situation for a lack of a better way of saying it. We bought a few Irish pub CD's after this experience to try and take home our moment in this pub but none of the recordings are as authentic as these men were. I just loved those few minutes listening in. I started worrying they were going to ask us to participate in their fun. I had decided we could sing them the song Johnny Rebek which is an old campfire song my dad has taught us all through the years. Thankfully they didn't request their guests join in.
Three doors down from the first pub we came across these lads playing and singing. Again such authentic Irish fun. We had such a good time listening to their great talent.
Another stone circle. This was the day of megalithic rock structures for sure. The lighting at the Kenmare Stone Circle was awesome. The sun was just setting and we got amazing shots.
Giving a go at talking with our ancestors through the stones. We will get back to you if we hear anything from them. Radio silence so far. He did say it could take a few weeks for your experience to fully process through your soul.
Cottage row. Loved this little lane of old homes.
More Irish sheep. These guys were sometimes loose on the road. Very skittish. I am surprised they were so scared of me and my camera. I look like a nice tourist.
It was nearly ten o'clock when we came across this waterfall sign. We decided we had just enough daylight to run for it.
Well worth it. Sonja carried Ally part of the way to convince her to come with us, she was tuckered out and had been napping in the backseat when we stopped. The forest we walked through was like a hobbit/fairy dream and. Lots of moss and hanging green stuff. It really was a wonderland. Great hike! And obviously awesome waterfall.
Journal: June 19 Thursday
We got brave today and ended our fun stay in Dalkey. We are getting out into the countryside to see what else there is to see of this country Ireland. We headed off to Kilkenny, a little town south of Dublin. It was gorgeous. It of course has a castle and a church or two. We went into St. John’s Cathedral. Beautiful, probably the prettiest one yet. They have an amazing organ and a beautiful marble carving of the Last Supper. The mosaics on the floor are spectacular and the carvings are just out of this world. We walked over and found a place to eat lunch. We had some great italian style pizza. Ally and I shared a Margharita but it was like they forgot the tomatoes and basil so we pretty much ate a cheese pizza. Seriously yummy though, the sauce was so sweet and delicious.
We decided driving to Kilkenny Castle would be a better idea than trying to find it on foot. It was probably only three blocks away, though we didn’t know that yet. We hopped in the car, promptly got stuck in a traffic jam and waited for quite a while to turn the corner and find the castle right there. How can you hide a castle in the middle of the city. We found another parking spot and paid for more parking but were happy to get to see the inside of Kilkenny Castle. My favorite part was a Moore style Stairway. Beautiful which archways, intricate carved flowers and animals along the railings and a cool red and white colorscheme. White stone and red plaster on the walls. No photos allowed in the Kilkenny Castle though, dang! It would have made for some dramatic photographs. There was also a cool addition done in the 1920s where the owner of the castle added on a portrait gallery made to look like a Mid-evil dining hall. They did a fabulous job. The portraits were painted to look like mid-evil people and the ceiling was decorated like the hull of a viking ship but on the ceiling. It was great. The rose garden was another favorite of mine. Fountain in the middle with rose beds fanning outward. They did a splendid job and the roses were all in full bloom looking dapper and smelling amazing. We sat on the steps of the castle to book our hotel for the night and enjoyed the fragrance in the air. We found a place near Cashel which is where we were heading next so we booked it up. It was $165 for the night but it turned out to be really nice so we are happy to have it. Bailey’s Cashel is our hotel tonight.
On the drive to Cashel we were cruising down the highway driving on the left hand side of the road. Talking out loud to myself at every intersection, turn left, stay left, look right, good, now don’t hit anyone, okay off you go around the round-about, good job Erin you went left, keep left, now around you go, look right, anyone coming, ….you get the idea. It is working so far. If I talk to myself and Sonja tells me where to go most of the time we do pretty well. No crashing so far, we will keep praying for safe driving though! So anyhow we were cruising down the road, going much faster than I would like to drive but trying to stay near the limit and not drive the locals bazerk….what do you know a church ruin. It was beautiful. Old church, green weeds, clovers, moss, flowers growing out the sides of the rocks and of course on the inside. Grass everywhere, tipping grave markers and high crosses. It was a fabulous find. We don’t know what it was called but it was on the road between Kilkenny and Cashel. There was also a castle/home across the street. It is just beautiful out here in the countryside. There really is a thousand shades of green in Ireland. The farms are fantastic, the sheep are darling, even the cows seem romantic.
So our hotel is great. There’s a carpark a quarter of the block down where we left the car while we are here. We have been walking about the town tonight taking it all in. We were shown a path through a hotels garden and up to the Rock of Cashel Castle. I am sure Cashel means castle but it is just a guess. I will have to get that verified in the morning. The hike through the garden and into the woods was so neat. Huge trees, a lively flock of birds, the birds were crazy noisy there must have been mobs of them. A cute stone wall and a few pretty Irish cows out in their pasture. We wound our way up the trail with Ally reminding us every few yards how hungry she is. Got to the castle which is closed and you can’t even see because the walls are well fortifying the castle and still doing their job. We circumvented the entire castle trying to get a look in the courtyard but we will just have to come back in the morning.
There was a phenomenal little Abby we say off in the distance with a little mistiness around it. I got a few photos on my iphone but left my real camera back at the hotel as we were just heading off for dinner. Never leave my good camera behind! Big mistake. Hopefully the photos come out okay on the iphone. It was a gorgeous view from the castle and the Abby is certainly enchanted with fairly magic, it looked absolutely mystical.
We did finally get Ally and some food joined together. She was very happy with that. Poor girl has been coughing all day and I literally mean all day. We stopped and got her some cough suppressant at the drug store before heading off to see the castle but it hasn’t seemed to help yet. The pub food was great. I had Potato and Leek soup and a ham and cheese grilled sandwich. Ally dipped her fries in my soup and didn’t eat any of her nuggets. I really don't think she is feeling well.
The weary travelers wound our way up to the second floor room and Ally hopped in the shower. She was in there for a good thirty minutes singing away in the rain shower head. It is a great shower. Hopefully the humidity will break up some of the mucus in her lungs. I gave her another dose of cough medicine and she has been resting soundly for about an hour without any coughing. This is by far the longest she has gone all day. It would wear me out to cough so much. Let hope she wakes up feeling better in the morning.
I did some laundry in the sink and hung it up to dry. Sonja washed her jeans in the tub, they got soaked on our kayak ride at Rebekah’s house so they needed a wash up as well. I am having a great time and enjoying almost every minute of the trip. It would be nice if Ally wasn’t coughing so much, it is hard to listen to. Lets hope she improves greatly by the morning.
friday - I have given myself a bedtime tonight because I have been staying up way to late. So I have exactly five minutes to journal two days of Ireland. Must type fast. We started Friday at the Rock of Cashel. We had walked all the way around it the night before but when it is open it is much easier to get in. It was a very interesting castle. The cemetery was amazing. There wa a cute blackbird/crow that was injured that Ally followed around for a bit. I am sure that was her favorite part of the castle. It was full of German tourists. Unfortunately I am not good enough at German anymore to follow their tour guide around and understand what he was saying. There was a mural from the 1200s that they are trying to restore as the Protestants came through and painted over to try and make things more simple in worship. They have the castle under restoration right now and there is scaffolding up making it impossible to see the whole caslt. We enjoyed what we got to see. There was an old high cross honoring St. Patrick there which they had to move inside due to wear and tear from the weather. The Rock of Cashel is where he baptized the first king to Christianity. During the ceremony St Patrick dropped a heavy object onto the kings toe and he held his tongue thinking it was part of the ceremony. On our way out of the castle we did a bit of shopping at the Cashel Woolen Mill store. Sonja found a pretty sweater that she purchased. I got Ty a celtic bracelet. We headed off to see the Drombeg Stone circle next. It was off down a little tiny country lane. When we got down there a giant tour bus was trying to turn around. Glad we didn’t ride in on that baby. We headed down the path and found the Stone Circle. It was fantastic. The stones had fifteen around a flat rock in the center. Sonja and I found it interesting that could be the twelve apostles, the first presidency and Christ. Of course we like to try to find meaning in stuff so. There were these people there standing with each stone and communing as they walked around the stone circle. When we got one of them separated from the group and done with his spiritual stuff we asked what on earth he was doing, in a nice way. He told us it is a belief system that you can commune with your ancestors and the earth, a feeling of community, etc. Interesting. They are a collection of people of different faiths who have gathered together in search of something. I hope he finds it. We raced out of there in order to beat the bus down the lane. I hope they didn’t encounter anyone on the way down to the main road. One thing about Ireland is they have a very liberal speed limit. You pretty much can’t get a speeding ticket unless you try. You can hardly go as fast as the limit allows you to go. It is crazy. You do need to slow down to 50 or 60 km for the towns but on the open winding roads you can go 100km. I don't know exactly what the converts to but at least 65. It feels zippy with the tree lined or stone wall lined roads. We headed off from the Stone Circle and came upon a brilliant road with brides blown right out of the rock. A lot like in Zions National Park. There were three tunnels we got to drive through with the most beautiful countryside and sheep all along the roads. Sonja liked it so much we switched drivers and turned around to drive through it again so she could get a better look. She was driving the first time. It was just before we came upon Killarney National Forest. We found a few sheep out of their gates, I have been so impressed with how the livestock is not on the roads, just this one time have we seen them on the roadway unattended. I chased a sheep and it’s lamb around trying to get a good photo of them. They are pretty skittish.
Stumbled upon Bonane Heritage Park late in the evening and decided to go see their megalithic rock formations. They have a stone circle, fulachta fiadh which is a cooking pot carved out of stones. They add hot rocks into the big cooking pot and it boils their meat and veggies and such. Pretty ingenious idea. We also saw a bullion stone. It is a large boulder usually with a indentation carved out at the top, this was was on the side. Similar to what Native Americans would do to grind their corn in. They aren’t sure what they used the bullion stone for, probably religious or sun worship stuff. They were big into sun worship. We also got to see a standing stone at this site. Again, they are not sure what the standing stone was used for, maybe tracking the calendar. After looking at the standing stone I was feeling a wee bit hungry. My sugars had plummeted. I had to dig in my bag for a candy bar to get me through until dinner. We saw the Ring Fort and then headed off. The ring fort os a trenched out plot of land where a home site would have been. They are considered sacred and it is bad luck to cultivate or disturb the ring fort. During the potato famine there is evidence that a family used the earth there to try to cultivate potatoes. They say that shows how desperate they were for food. There is also an abandoned Famine hut in the Bonane Site which was a home that was just left unkept, unsold, etc. as 4 million Irish folks either died or left for a better chance at life in 1945. We headed to the pub for dinner and were so grateful for the grub. We ate a Irish Four Cheese Pizza. It was alright, the garlic bread stole the show. Ally got vegetable soup. After dinner we were walking up to our car and heard a beautiful song coming out of a pub. I stopped and we all stood there listening for a minute. I poked my head in to take a photo at Florry Batts Bar and the Irish folks called to us to come in and join them. I have been impressed at the kindness and true friendly manner of the Irish people. It seems everyone you meet is so extremely friendly and genuinely interested in chatting with you. We stepped on in and were treated with a few songs and an Irish storyteller who gave us a poem. It was amazing, just amazing. They were talented, seriously talented. We walked about four doors further down the row and heard a beautiful fiddle and guitar performing a duet in a different pub. So we stepped inside this pub and listened for a few minutes while Ally used their bathroom. They were also so talented and the music was such good quality. Kenmare is a really cool town. We still wanted to see the Kenmare stone circle, so we followed the guidebooks directions from the Tourist Info Building and walked down the block about two blocks and found it. We passed the cutest 18th century homes along the way. The Stone Circle was abandoned and we had the place to ourselves. It was encircled by a large grove of trees which made the Stone Circle into a serene private place. We walked around for a bit and tried to commune with mother earth. Ally even took off her shoes like the people at the other Stone Circle had done. She was super cute and looked so serious. It was a great evening. We though we were done for the night and were heading off for our hotel at the Killarney Court Hotel but oh no….we came upon a waterfall on our drive from Kenmare to Killarney so we had to stop for a little hike. Today is June 20th and it stayed light enough to hike until around 11:00 at night. It was just a ten minute stroll up to this cute waterfall, Torc Waterfall in the Killarney National Forest. The trees were covered in moss, the boulders were covered in moss, the dirt was covered in moss. You could easily imagine fairies coming out at night and zipping around the place. Truly a magical little forest and a beautiful waterfall. Sonja had to carry Ally on her back to convince her it would be worth the trip up to see it. Luckily she was happy to walk back down. Poor Ally is still coughing. Luckily she hasn’t been coughing at night so she gets a good night of sleep in. She is playing a lot of iPhone in the car while we drive about. It has kept her nice and quiet though. We are all having a very good time. Ally bought a few sheep today from a gift shop, a momma and a baby with black head and black legs. They are very cute. She is pretty much in love with sheep now.
Found these rock piles. So similar to something you'd find in Southern Utah. Felt like home.
No we are not buying your $700.00 shawl.
Thatched cottage. So cute.
Favorite castle. Free and awesome. We explored the tumbling walls and stairwells. Lots of wind up ion this ledge, surprised anything is still left standing.
Inside the castle. Open stairwell and second floor.
Ring fort photo op.
Interior of the ring fort.
We fell head over heels in love with the Irish sheep.
Ridiculously adorable towns. Love the bright colors and flowers on nearly every windowsill.
Can you be any sweeter than this little fella? The chamomile flowers....love it.
We found the beach! So sunny and fun. We had to stop and explore a few tide pools.
Cheese shop. Heavenly cheese in Ireland. I was in love with gourmet cheese by the time we left Ireland. I spent $15 on cheese in Utah the first time I went grocery shopping, not the same. I will refrain from swearing. So disappointed in our Utah cheese selection.
Ally fell in love with this big fella in a gift shop. I tried to tell her no, I just couldn't. In this photo she is contemplating what the name of her newest member of her flock will be.
I was so excited when I spotted this windmill off in the distance. I thought you had to go to Holland to get a legit windmill but we lucked upon this beauty. I was so very pleased.
Our bed and breakfast host played traditional Irish music for us tonight. We were tired but had to sit for a spell and listen in. It is so fun to hear all the music the Irish people play. He was a trained musician and taught music for part of his career. It was very enjoyable.
The button recorder.
Journal: saturday - My five minutes are long over but I really want to get caught up so I can remember what we did on our trip. Today was a long driving day. Lots of time in the car. We are doing very well with the driving. We are grateful for the roundabouts at time as it gives you a second chance at deciding where to go if you aren’t certain you just keep driving around again until you made up your mind. We headed off to the Ring of Kerry this morning. We did a bit of the south side already so we are heading down the north side of the loop today. We made it to the end of the north edge and then turned around and came back so we would have time to do Dingle as well. Along the way we saw a gift shop that we were going to buy some Irish music Cd’s in and ran into the funniest Irish fellow. He was selling the Cd’s and helped us well enough. Sonja put her hand on a cape to tell me I ought to buy it to keep me warm, in a jesting manner. Before you know it he had her draped in the cape and was nearly insisting she call her father to see if he would finance this cape purchase. The price tag on the cape was 750 Euros, that would be around a thousand dollars. What? No, not going to happen. We had to skirt out of there quickly. He was a very convincing shop keeper. We also came upon some hoo-doo’s or as they call them here , Cairn rock towers. They were piles of rock that modern day tourists had stacked up. They looked really cool. Very southern Utah. The Ballycarberry Castle ruins were a big hit. The castle was off in the middle of farmland. We climbed under a barbed wire fence to walk up the well used pathway. The castle was falling to pieces but you could get in there and climb all around on the crumbling stones. We scaled a rock staircase that was half fallen and traversed across a ledge without an outer wall, it was probably once a hallway. It even had a third floor you could access up another set of crumbling stairs. Pretty fabulous. There is flowers and plants growing all over the rock walls of the castle and big giant ivy plants heading up the outer walls of the castle. It really was a gorgeous sight to see. We next were off the see the Ring Forts of Ireland. Cahergal was the ring fort we walked around. There are two of them right near each other from the one you could see the other. They were big rings of slate stacked up to provide protection from invading clans. They may have brought their cattle into the rings to keep them safe from marauding invaders. It may have been used as a house of worship. There were some of the rocks with divets dug out of the tops of them in the center of the ring. This leads researchers to believe it could have been used as a sun worshiping site like the Stone Circles were. They really just don’t know, these artifacts are so old they are pretty much just guessing. We had a great time when we stopped at a local beach. Ally wanted someone to jump waves with her. I didn’t want to get my feet all sandy though. We compromised by searching through the tide pools in the rocks nearby. Lucky for us it was low-tide and there were cool animals to see in the pools. We played for a bit and then I had Ally rinse her feet in a tide pool and I carried her to the car so she wouldn’t muck up the back seat. I bought the two of us ice creams as we skipped breakfast and lunch today, no time….must see more cool stuff. I really think eating takes up too much time! We stopped at Foley’s pub after we had hit the road so Ally could use the bathroom. There was a cool old cemetery and church ruin across the street that I took a few photos of. There seems to be a church ruin and a cemetery in every town. It also seems you can’t really read the headstones as they are faded and the engraving has gone flat. We were closing in on Dingle at this point. The Dingle Peninsula is beautiful and I loved the cheese shop in Dingle. It was a store that sold cheese, it was so pretty in there. For dinner we were all starving to death. Couldn't find something fast enough. Ally did stop in and buy a giant sheep on our way through town. She says she will hold it the entire plane ride home, we shall see if that happens or not. We found dinner at the Diner in Dingle, Ally brought Lammy into dinner with us and decided on a name for her new sheep. We sat next to the nicest lady who chatted us up as the Irish always do. Driving out to the Dingle peninsula we saw cows crossing road with their farmer. They held up traffic on the main road for just a bit and we got a few shots of them heading off for bed. We found a surprise windmill between Tralee and Tarbert. It was such surprise and I was so excited. We got a bit disoriented finding out Bed and Breakfast tonight. We finally arrived at Bed and Breakfast around 9pm. I was bushed but the cute wife asked us what we wanted for breakfast and showed us our room. Sonja and i have ordered French toast and Ally scrambled eggs. Then she asked if wanted to listen in on the live Irish music in the living room. Her husband played for us and the other couples who were staying here tonight. It was a lively little recital and I quite enjoyed it. The Irish are very musically gifted. Dilanes Farmhouse, B&B. We listened to the irish recorder, a button accordion and a flute of some sort. Ally was getting very tired so we headed up for bed. I felt awesome and brilliant when I figured out how to turn on the shower. There is a shower switch on the wall that needs to be flipped before the power to the shower will work. The showers are these heaters that head the water as they come out of the shower head so there is no water heater anywhere in the house. It was nice to have a hot shower and now I can be hitting the hay. I read Candy Shop Wars to Ally tonight who is still coughing, poor thing.
Ferry ride. Fun to ride across the bay and feel like you took an awesome shortcut.
Gorgeous lighthouse, awesome clouds.
Give me more strawberries! Nothing tastier.
What are you selling? Snails! No thanks. Yikes.
Detour...saw a castle ruin, must follow road to said castle ruin. Ally was up to her neck in castles for this day so we hit the dock and explored the water while Sonja toured around this castle.
I found my home in Ireland. I called to see if we could finance this restoration. Byron said it was a no go. Dang! I just love this house with all the wildflower and it had an amazing view of the ocean. Perfect. It will probably still be there in a few years when I come back with Byron. Maybe he will see the vision then.
Another castle ruin. I can't believe how Ireland is littered with church and castle ruins. They are everywhere.
We made it! I have been so excited to see the Cliffs. So excited! These were pretty much at the very top of my list in Ireland. I loved every minute of our time here.
A nice tourist took our photo for us. He didn't even steal my camera. Win/win.
The beautiful Cliffs of Moher. Gorgeous day to view the cliffs.
Ally and I tossed a few items over the edge of the Cliffs of Moher. Mostly rocks. She was making me really nervous. So were the drunk locals sitting on the edge of the cliff. I thought one of them was going to get thrown over as well. Luckily all the people managed to stay on the ledge while we were there.
Back to the safe side. I was having a bit of anxiety on the other side of the ledge.
I love that Ally blends into the not so wild life here in Ireland.
Our first sighting of the burren. Can't miss it. It is a stark change from all the green everywhere else in Ireland.
We found a druid. Well, a modern day man dressed as a druid. He was carving necklaces using the Ogham Alphabet. We had Carter's name done.
The limestone burren. It is really an interesting sight to see.
Ally and I taking this whole place in.
I really want a Portal Tomb in my backyard. They are beautiful and awe inspiring and they speak to my soul for some reason.
I could definitely talk with my ancestors here.
Ally is starting to feel better. Thankfully! She is practicing her ninja moves here over the crevices. Glad she didn't brake an ankle.
Ally and I trying to pose as a dolmen. Wow, she is not as little as she once was. Or could it be I am not as strong as I once was. Either way, hard to do and hard to get up and hard on my back....all around hard.
Sign post- photographed lots of these so I could remember what I learned for longer than thirty seconds.
There were three of these cute hatched cottages. You could actually rent them and stay in one for the night. How fun.
Ally at work here. She is getting to be a pretty good little photographer. Sonja and I enjoying the burren and the dolmen.
Sonja snapped a photo of me at work. I had so much fun with my camera and an endless supply of things to shoot.
Journal: Sunday: We had a great night sleep at the Dilaneys B&B, the breakfast was great. They had yummy berry syrup for the french toast that was divine. We are fascinated with a plant we think is rhubarb. It is three feet tall and has giant rhubarb looking leaves. Impressive if we are right. We planned our day up in our room with our free Wi-Fi and headed off. We had an early start with our 8:30 breakfast time. We are managing to find our way around towns just great. We only do a few U-Turns every day and are grateful to have the maps app on Sonja’s phone. We found our way into Tarbert and got in line to take there Shannon Ferry across to Killimer. It was a quick load on a fifteen minute ride in the boat and a quick load off and viola we had skipped a big portion of road, and gotten to ride on a ferry. Double bonus. We headed up to Kilkee and found a famers market we all called out a need for more strawberries. The Waterford strawberries have been a big hit on this trip. We all love them! We bought a tub and ate it while we walked around town. Out on the boardwalk we were able to get a great view of the locals and tourists playing on the beach. Everyone is so excited about the nice weather, lots of beach goers. We think it is still rather chilly for the beach. I was highly entertained by their “Taco Stand” selling sea snails. We all had a good giggle when we realized what they were selling. I am pretty sure we saw a pod of dolphins out in the bay but they were a bit far so who knows. I like to think we did. We continued on and saw a castle ruin and jetted off down the side road to check it out. It was down by a Doonmore Cemetery sign and a dock. Ally and I walked out the dock and she was determined to find a fish. We did eventually spot a few jelly fish swimming around but not any fish fish. In the next town we got some food for lunch. I do let my little group eat on occasion, though we have been known to skip a few meals once in a while. We ate at a cafe called Quills. It was a bakery/deli deal without any seating to speak of. We found a table and two chairs on the sidewalk and made ourselves comfy with Ally perched on my knee. After a bit another chair opened up and we snuck it over. Sonja had a delicious goat cheese quiche and I ate a ham sandwich and some garlic pasta that I shared with Ally. Heading down the road we finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. I have been so excited to see the Cliffs of Insanity! They are the cliffs from the movie The Princes Bride that the giant has to climb with three people on his back. The cliffs ate 702 feet above the ocean though I read the tour guide wrong and was telling Ally they were 5 miles above the ocean. They are really five miles in length, not height. Durr. We all had a good laugh at my great blunder. The cliffs are breathtaking. I fully enjoyed them. We had a beautiful day and were able to really take in the majesty of their stark drop-off. We walked along the walled in portion of the cliffs and even headed over to the open walkway which would allow you to easily trip and drop to your death. Ally being the bouncing bean that she is made me quite nervous. We did not stay on the non-walled walkway for long. Ally did throw in a few rocks and made me even more nervous and she was chucking them as hard as she could and I could just envision her throwing herself over with a handful of rocks. We both threw a few things off and then headed back to the safe side. I did at one point lay down on my stomach and creep out to the edge with my camera to hang it out over the edge and see what kind of a photo I could get. Sonja and Ally both hung onto my ankles which just made me more nervous as they would both come plummeting with me if I headed over. Gratefully we all came out alive, sadly I did not get a spectacular photo of the side of the cliffs heading all the way down to the ocean as I and hoped. I am glad I made off with my life and my camera still in my hands. There was a herd of cattle near the cliffs, right next to them really. Beautiful ginger colored cows and a giant white haired bull. He was one impressive dude. Muscles and grunting noises, big giant well let’s just say he was a manly bull. I fully enjoyed the Cliffs of Moher. We picked up a few things in the gift shop on our way out. T-shirt, growing boxer shorts, tin whistle, and the history of the Pollan Family on a cute scroll with the family crest. The burren was next on our journey. It is a large area geographically and you wonder if you are in it until you come upon it and you go, ohhh, that’s the burren. We drove through the barren limestone formation rocks on our way to see a dolmen by the name of Poulnabrone. It is a portal tomb. They don’t really know what it was used for but there were 33 men women and children buried under the portal tomb. They have excavated everyone out of it and found a few personal items from them. The dolmen dates back to 3500 BC. That is older than the pyramids in Egypt. I really loved the dolmen, I thought it was so beautiful and somehow magical. I believe it would help you make your way towards heaven with the beauty and wonder of the whole thing. It may be my favorite rock formation we have seen here. At the entrance to the dolmen there was a “Druid” selling handmade necklace. He was a trained artist/painter, who makes his living selling souvenir necklace. Sonja and I both got one. He uses the Ogham Alphabet to carve names or words into necklaces. I have Carter’s name done. It turned out really cool and was fun to watch him make it. Ally spent her time on the burren practicing her ninja skills. She was balancing on the edge of the cracks and jumping from one high spot to another. The surface is all wedged out with channels where the water has eaten away at the limestone. In the cracks is a whole universe of plants and cute growth. Very interesting environment. They have found plants from the arctic and plants from the tropical rainforest growing next to each other in these wedged out cracks. Very interesting geology up on the limestone rocks. On our drive to Galway which was our next planned stop we drove by the Dunguaire Castle. It was crowded out front with tour buses and they do a mid-evil dinner program in there nightly. There was also three thatched roof cottages across the street that were u-turn worthy. We had to flip around and pass the crowded castle doors to photograph the cottages. So fun. We did eventually make it to Galway around 9:00. The Connacht Hotel was great. It had a pool but it had closed by the time we got in. We opted for dinner in the hotel restaurant so we wouldn’t have to navigate the big city anymore. We have decided we are country gals here in Ireland. Ally ordered pizza for dinner which turned out to be the best pizza yet on the trip. We all shared a few pieces with her, the mozzarella was to die for. I am in love with the cheese here in Ireland. So much better than the cheeses we have in Utah. I need to buy more expensive cheese. It is SOOO good. I was telling Sonja tonight I was going to throw out all my clothes I brought and just bring home chocolate and cheese with me in my suitcase. Great day, one of the best I would say.
This lassy can sleep anywhere. Ally was a trooper. Best traveler ever award goes to my little eight year old.
tuesday 24 - So tired. It is 5 am now and we are sitting at our gate waiting to get on our flight for Paris. It is really Wednesday morning but I had no chance last night to journal. Tuesday was another awesome day. We ate our traditional Irish breakfast at our hotel, Alcock and Brown. It consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, sausage rolls, and canadian bacon. It was delicious. I also had orange juice and cruisants. After the OJ I decided to go for a glass of grapefruit juice. It was either old and fermented or it actually was breakfast wine but man one sip and that was it. Ally wanted to try it as well and she also thought it was terrible. So back to OJ instead. The hotel housed an art gallery in their restaurant and hallways so we strolled around and looked at some of the art. It was very cool. They had some really good artists. Ally particularly loved the strawberry syrup, on toast for breakfast. She probably ate four or five pieces of it. For some reason thumb wars have become a part of every meal and we had a bit of a healthy competition. We headed upstairs to pack up our bags. I threw out both of my pairs of shoes and opted for borrowing Sonja’s Tevas. My toes are much happier now. They have been getting very sore in my sneakers. We headed out towards Dublin. We need to end up at our airport hotel tonight. On the road we saw a cool ruin of a castle our on an island in the middle of a lake. They just plopped those castles everywhere. The water would make a good defense mechanism I suppose. We enjoyed the conemara region again and saw the big Ben mountains. We even discovered piles of peat. They lay them around so they can dry and then they burn them in the winter for fuel. I was happy to finally get a good look at some peat, I was wondering if we would see some.
We took a surprise stop at a castle named Aughnauer. It was one we just happened across along the way. This castle had a wall around it and a river running down one side. You could see cave like spaces as we approached the castle wall where the water had cut away under the foundation of the castle. We were greeted after paying out three euros by a few cute springer spaniels. They are on guard in the yard these days. Pretty friendly guard post if you ask me. We played a bit of hide and seek in the castle and on the castle grounds. It is surprising how many places there are to hide in a castle. This one had three layers so we were up and down and behind doors and in hidey holes. It was pretty fun. I was standing up in a window ledge when Ally came searching through a big giant room. She walked right by me though I was in plain sight up on the ledge. It was so fun. We both loved it. We laughed and laughed when she found me. This castle also had a bit called the murder floor. It was an opening in the floor right above the main entrance gates. If someone was able to break in through the front door they would be greeted with arrows shot down at them through the ceiling. Pretty serious defenses in these castles. It also had three more doorways, two of them false doors but the attackers would be confused as where to proceed next and would have to break down more doors while being shot at with the arrows from above. It seems like it would be impenetrable. We found another cow we have been looking for that we wanted a photo of at the castle. It was a mostly black cow with a white stripe around it’s belly. We saw an entire herd of theses cows on the road a few days back. We were very excited to see it and Sonja grabbed a few photos while I continued my search for Ally in the yards. After we finished up at the castle we headed back toward Athenry. We originally had planned to see the Athenry castle but decided to eat lunch instead. We found a restaurant called Dan’s Bar. We filled our bellies and used the water closet and headed back on the road. We have done quite a bit of driving on this trip. Athenry was a sleepy little town and most of it’s shops have closed up shop. It needs a revival of sorts I think to bring the place back. We were lucky to find Dan’s Bar open. To Trim we were headed. We got to talking and I missed our exit so we had to reroute and go for another option to get to Trim. We also missed this option and had to reroute again. We got off the freeway and around the roundabout and mistakenly got back on the freeway. It was unfortunate there was a toll to get off and then a toll to get off again at the next exit so we double payed that toll. That was 6 euros down the drain. We finally got off at the right exit and heading towards Trim. I do believe we took the most backcountry road to get there though. Another wrong turn or two but our map program on Sonja’s phone saved us again and we just kept rerouting and eventually got there. The address system in Ireland is lacking. They just give you the name of the road that your destination is on, no address number. It makes it hard to find things. For this castle we got the address of Trim Town Center. Luckily we spotted the castle as we were driving into town and navigated our way down to it. We found a place to park and headed in after a quick chat with Rachel on the phone. Every once in a while we get a call from Rachel who wants to FaceTime chat with Sonja. She is having a bit of home sickness this summer staying down with her dad. So we found our way up to the castle gate and there was an elderly town bum quite frankly who wanted to take your photo and dance a little jig with you. Anything so you would drop a euro or two into his cup. He has a pretty good location as many people do want a photo with the castle gates or they are just nicer than us and let him earn his euro. We headed in and paid our 5 euro to tour the Trim Castle which included a tour to the top of the Keep. So exciting. We had the most knowledgeable tour guide who pretty much gave us the history of Ireland in it’s entirety in our forty five minute guided lecture. It was a fabulous end to our trip. He claimed he was on speed dial and talked at a rapid pace with a quaint Irish accent. You really had to actively listen to catch all of his words. The spiral staircase in this castle was pretty sweet. It went up three floors and we did get to stand at the top of the Keep out in the open air and take photos. He also explained how the castle was haunted and visitors have seen various apparitions there. A lady had to be removed with help when she went into hysterics over a headless apparition that would not stop showing himself to her. What? Crazy. Luckily we did not encounter any castle spirits while we were there. That didn’t keep me from thinking about them last night after we had turned out the lights in our hotel room though. It was a bit spooky to be honest. The tour was really awesome and I’d sum it up but it was a lot of information to digest in one sitting. It even included conquests to Jerusalem and names of Irishmen who have been left out of history due to political reasons. Apparently the current Irish flag is not the correct flag either, it should not be green, white and orange striped but blue with a harp. It was all a lot to take in. After our tour we headed out to check out a flower lined bridge and play soccer in the park. We found an abandoned soccer ball and put it to good use. We took a few photos of a group of donkeys as we headed out of town. Finally found them, they are on postcards and such but we haven’t had a chance to photograph them yet. These were nice and close up so we got a good look. The castle was the location they used to film the movie Braveheart. We will have to go watch the film now. We found out way to our hotel in Dublim. Luckily we did better navigating between Trim and Dublin than we did between Anthenry and Trim. When it came time to find our hotel though we were hopelessly lost again. Our hotel had a giant sign right out front that we were missing when we drove by. We asked at a gas station where we filled up and he was like, it’s right across the road. Durr. So we were off and finally made it in. The Glenmore Hotel was definitely an airport hotel. Nothing fancy. It did have four single beds in the same room so we all got our own bed and even Ally’s animals got a bed to themselves. We headed out for dinner and ate at Casltemore Inn I think. Sonja and I shared an entree and Ally ordered pasta with red sauce. We also shared a cheese cake for dessert which tasted much lighter and fluffier than the cheesecakes back home. Less cheesy I would say. It was a great ending meal for Ireland. We decided to return out car in the evening so we wouldn’t have to worry about it in the morning. We found our way to the Budget lot and were so glad we didn’t crash or damage their car in any way. We even navigated reasonably well and did get to every sight we set out for. Well done us. We took the budget shut to to the terminal and the hotel shuttle from the terminal back to the hotel. While at the airport we tried to use their machines to print off our boarding passes but they wouldn’t let us. I guess we needed to show a passport or something. It worked out well though as in the morning we checked our luggage at the check in so we don’t have to drag that around the Paris airport with us. Our bags are all much heavier on the return flight than they were coming. We fought the double decker bus back to our hotel and even sat at the top in the front. Ally was in a jovial mood and being rather silly. She was excited to be sitting in the best seat on the bus. We were ready for bed when we reached our hotel and tried to pack our things quickly and climb into bed. It took a lot of tricky rolling and packing to get all of our souvenirs in and our bags zipped up but we managed. It’s a good thing I threw away my shoes. They would have never fit. I am carrying my stained glass ornaments and hoping they will make it without breaking. We shall see we have a lot of miles between Dublin and Salt Lake.
This morning we rose at 3:45 am and threw our slacks on, brushed our teeth and headed out the door. Happy to leave the weird light that kept flicking on and off from the bathroom all night behind. Our airport bus, the Premiere Inn Bus, was right on time and we boarded with a crowd of similarly looking tired travelers. We paid our 4 euro and hopped on. It was a sight to see, piles of luggage in the walkways and sleepy people trying to make the most of our am flights out of town. We have made it to our plane and we are awaiting our take-off to Paris. Luckily we found Ally an Ireland t-shirt at the airport gift shop so she can go home happy. We looked twice yesterday but had no luck. She got a cute on in the end. It has been a fun adventure, we have been safe and happy and so grateful for the experience.
I could definitely talk with my ancestors here.
Journal: Sunday: We had a great night sleep at the Dilaneys B&B, the breakfast was great. They had yummy berry syrup for the french toast that was divine. We are fascinated with a plant we think is rhubarb. It is three feet tall and has giant rhubarb looking leaves. Impressive if we are right. We planned our day up in our room with our free Wi-Fi and headed off. We had an early start with our 8:30 breakfast time. We are managing to find our way around towns just great. We only do a few U-Turns every day and are grateful to have the maps app on Sonja’s phone. We found our way into Tarbert and got in line to take there Shannon Ferry across to Killimer. It was a quick load on a fifteen minute ride in the boat and a quick load off and viola we had skipped a big portion of road, and gotten to ride on a ferry. Double bonus. We headed up to Kilkee and found a famers market we all called out a need for more strawberries. The Waterford strawberries have been a big hit on this trip. We all love them! We bought a tub and ate it while we walked around town. Out on the boardwalk we were able to get a great view of the locals and tourists playing on the beach. Everyone is so excited about the nice weather, lots of beach goers. We think it is still rather chilly for the beach. I was highly entertained by their “Taco Stand” selling sea snails. We all had a good giggle when we realized what they were selling. I am pretty sure we saw a pod of dolphins out in the bay but they were a bit far so who knows. I like to think we did. We continued on and saw a castle ruin and jetted off down the side road to check it out. It was down by a Doonmore Cemetery sign and a dock. Ally and I walked out the dock and she was determined to find a fish. We did eventually spot a few jelly fish swimming around but not any fish fish. In the next town we got some food for lunch. I do let my little group eat on occasion, though we have been known to skip a few meals once in a while. We ate at a cafe called Quills. It was a bakery/deli deal without any seating to speak of. We found a table and two chairs on the sidewalk and made ourselves comfy with Ally perched on my knee. After a bit another chair opened up and we snuck it over. Sonja had a delicious goat cheese quiche and I ate a ham sandwich and some garlic pasta that I shared with Ally. Heading down the road we finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. I have been so excited to see the Cliffs of Insanity! They are the cliffs from the movie The Princes Bride that the giant has to climb with three people on his back. The cliffs ate 702 feet above the ocean though I read the tour guide wrong and was telling Ally they were 5 miles above the ocean. They are really five miles in length, not height. Durr. We all had a good laugh at my great blunder. The cliffs are breathtaking. I fully enjoyed them. We had a beautiful day and were able to really take in the majesty of their stark drop-off. We walked along the walled in portion of the cliffs and even headed over to the open walkway which would allow you to easily trip and drop to your death. Ally being the bouncing bean that she is made me quite nervous. We did not stay on the non-walled walkway for long. Ally did throw in a few rocks and made me even more nervous and she was chucking them as hard as she could and I could just envision her throwing herself over with a handful of rocks. We both threw a few things off and then headed back to the safe side. I did at one point lay down on my stomach and creep out to the edge with my camera to hang it out over the edge and see what kind of a photo I could get. Sonja and Ally both hung onto my ankles which just made me more nervous as they would both come plummeting with me if I headed over. Gratefully we all came out alive, sadly I did not get a spectacular photo of the side of the cliffs heading all the way down to the ocean as I and hoped. I am glad I made off with my life and my camera still in my hands. There was a herd of cattle near the cliffs, right next to them really. Beautiful ginger colored cows and a giant white haired bull. He was one impressive dude. Muscles and grunting noises, big giant well let’s just say he was a manly bull. I fully enjoyed the Cliffs of Moher. We picked up a few things in the gift shop on our way out. T-shirt, growing boxer shorts, tin whistle, and the history of the Pollan Family on a cute scroll with the family crest. The burren was next on our journey. It is a large area geographically and you wonder if you are in it until you come upon it and you go, ohhh, that’s the burren. We drove through the barren limestone formation rocks on our way to see a dolmen by the name of Poulnabrone. It is a portal tomb. They don’t really know what it was used for but there were 33 men women and children buried under the portal tomb. They have excavated everyone out of it and found a few personal items from them. The dolmen dates back to 3500 BC. That is older than the pyramids in Egypt. I really loved the dolmen, I thought it was so beautiful and somehow magical. I believe it would help you make your way towards heaven with the beauty and wonder of the whole thing. It may be my favorite rock formation we have seen here. At the entrance to the dolmen there was a “Druid” selling handmade necklace. He was a trained artist/painter, who makes his living selling souvenir necklace. Sonja and I both got one. He uses the Ogham Alphabet to carve names or words into necklaces. I have Carter’s name done. It turned out really cool and was fun to watch him make it. Ally spent her time on the burren practicing her ninja skills. She was balancing on the edge of the cracks and jumping from one high spot to another. The surface is all wedged out with channels where the water has eaten away at the limestone. In the cracks is a whole universe of plants and cute growth. Very interesting environment. They have found plants from the arctic and plants from the tropical rainforest growing next to each other in these wedged out cracks. Very interesting geology up on the limestone rocks. On our drive to Galway which was our next planned stop we drove by the Dunguaire Castle. It was crowded out front with tour buses and they do a mid-evil dinner program in there nightly. There was also three thatched roof cottages across the street that were u-turn worthy. We had to flip around and pass the crowded castle doors to photograph the cottages. So fun. We did eventually make it to Galway around 9:00. The Connacht Hotel was great. It had a pool but it had closed by the time we got in. We opted for dinner in the hotel restaurant so we wouldn’t have to navigate the big city anymore. We have decided we are country gals here in Ireland. Ally ordered pizza for dinner which turned out to be the best pizza yet on the trip. We all shared a few pieces with her, the mozzarella was to die for. I am in love with the cheese here in Ireland. So much better than the cheeses we have in Utah. I need to buy more expensive cheese. It is SOOO good. I was telling Sonja tonight I was going to throw out all my clothes I brought and just bring home chocolate and cheese with me in my suitcase. Great day, one of the best I would say.
Ashford Castle - The entry fee was well worth it. You can pay and stay the night in this old castle. We didn't as the nightly rate is substantial. We thoroughly enjoyed the grounds and gardens.
Strawberry lipstick on our princess. Let's just hope she doesn't find a frog to kiss at this castle.
The awesome entry gate after you cross the moat. For real, a moat!
Substantial fortification on the walls surrounding this castle.
Rapunzel Rapunzel, let down your golden hair. Not quite long enough for anyone to climb yet.
Byron would have paid to fly the falcons. We were happy with going in for a sneak peak.
Another beautiful cemetery. I can't get enough of the high crosses.
We found a pay phone. Pretty sweet.
We went into a craft store and the shopkeeper made sure we didn't miss this cool Fisherman's Cottage. Really cool fishing trick the monk's thought of.
Drop their net on the inside of the house. Attach it to a bell that rings when a fish gets caught in their net. Pretty cool tunnel/fish trap.
More lost sheep. They seem to get out fairly frequently up on the high country.
Love this guys horns and extra woolliness.
Some days we drive more than others. Actually we drove a lot every day but Ally made the most of it. Playing my iPhone, reading a book or napping kept her busy most of the trip.
Can you believe this structure actually exists? I just love it. Wouldn't want to clean it but wow. Gorgeous. Unfortunately it had closed by the time we arrived here.
Kylemore Abby
Our dinner entertainment consisted of these dancing old men and the pub band. Highly entertained. I love the live music in all of their pubs and restaurants.
Also entertained nightly by thumb wars. Ally is pretty sneaky and can somehow beat you with her short thumbs. She is not very good at playing quietly though.
Double decker bus from the airport back to our hotel. Lots of fun sitting up high and in the very front seat. We were very tired by this point in our trip. Last night in Ireland.
Monday 23 - We woke up at 9 and packed up to head to our next location. We haven't committed to making it anywhere today. We are going to take it a bit more easy and relax a little. We found out way out of Galway and headed north to Cong. Sonja is driving today. I need a break. We have seen info about Ashford Castle, a posh 5 star hotel so we are going to see what it’s all about. We didn’t have breakfast at the hotel so we stopped at a market for strawberries for breakfast. We also bought spreadable cheese and multigrain crackers to snack on. We couldn’t pass by the yogurt this morning either so we ended up with lots to eat in the car. It was good though because it was 11:30 by the time we arrived at the castle and we were all getting hungry. The cheese and crackers hit the spot. Ally decided she needed to use a strawberry as lipstick. She had a coffee stick that she would dip into the top of her strawberry and carefully paint on her lips. She is being a really good sport and trooping along after us with no complaining. I am so proud of her. We really do spend lots of time in the car and then walk a lot. She seems to be having a good time. We were met by the gatekeeper at Ashford Castle who was happy to let us drive through for 5 euro a piece. We were allowed to tour the gardens and walk all around the extensive grounds but not go int he castle. That is reserved for the hotel guests of course. I was more than happy to pay our gate fee and head on in. There is a darling thatched cottage at Ashford Castle where you could have tea or a meal, we just used the restroom. We liked the swan with it’s little gosling family swimming round in the mote. I also really liked their dog statues out front of the castle. They stand tall and proud like two lions would at the front of an entry but they are hunting dogs. Very regal and original. We traipsed all over the castle grounds, in and out of different gardens, enjoyed the view of the lake from the back lawn. They had two lovely fountains and a fun walled in garden with a long arch walkway. We had to sneak in a potty break behind the walled in garden as Ally just couldn’t hold it any longer. We found a Rapunzel tower and took photos of us dropping out hair down below. None of our hair is long enough to make it. There was also a fountain pond full of bugs and shrimpy looking swimming things and the coolest newts. The newts look like sea dragons swimming around in the pond, of course they are only about two inches long but pretty sweet nonetheless. We found a school of falconry on the back of the property. Byron would go nuts. It was 55 Euros to have a falcon flying experience. I was really tempted to do it but we passed. They did let us sneak back to view the falcon yard. They have around 45 falcons that they keep in their falconry. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. Imagine horses boarding in rows and then switch the animal to falcons. They also had some large dog kennel like rooms with perches and then twelve or so birds all in the same open area cage. They were all tethered to a perch though so they couldn’t fly about in their cages. They also had a little cafeteria room for the birds with an individual post to tether the bird to and then a name plate and a spot to eat. It was really quaint. As you come out of the castle you are dropped right in the town of Cong. The Cong Abby is right there and we stopped and toured the abbey and the cemetery. I spotted a lunch spot called Jenni’s Tea Room front he abbey and we ate lunch there. We all took a vitamin C tablet that we dissolved in hot tea water. Trying to get Ally over this cough still. Her coughing has decreased but she is still coughing in fits a few times a day. Poor thing. Next to the tea room was a little arts and craft store. Looked promising so we headed in to check out the local co-op art store. We found some great stained glass ornaments, socks for Byron and gorgeous soaps. It was a home run of a shopping stop as far as I am concerned. The store keeper sent us down to the Monks Fishing Hut to have a look. Gorgeous bridge, clever fishing hut where the junks build a hole under their hut, a tunnel of sorts. They could stand inside their hut and drop a fishing net through a hold in their floor. The fish would swim down the tunnel and get stuck in the net, They hooked the net up to a bell that would ring when the fish entered the net. We used the hole to race leaves. We would pick a different leaf and drop them down the hole in the floor. Since the wall was mostly gone we could race to the side of the hut and see whose leaf came through the tunnel most quickly. Ally had a blast looking for salmon in the river and racing leaves. We only saw one salmon flap around on the river. On our drive into Clifdon we saw many sheep on the road tonight. They were not as skittish as the sheep back in the Killarney National Forest and we were able to get some good close up photos. The Connemara is a beautiful region with gorgeous mountains and fabulous valleys. We headed up to the Kylemore Abbey on our way into Clifdon. It looks a lot like Hogwarts Castle in Harry Potter. We tried to walk up close to see the Abbey but they closed at 6:00 and we arrived at 6:05. We spent too long at the Caslte earlier. Oh well, it was fun to see the Abbey. It was build after a couple had honeymooned in the region together. They had loved the area so the husband build his wife a house there. It is a large house, and a chapel. He also build a church, a gorgeous large church. That is quite the love. We made it to our hotel, Alcock and Brown Hotel. We didn’t look for anything until 3:30 and it seems like we got the last room in the town. This has been the only hotel that has not been a ten. It would probably be more like a six. Kind of old looking and a little muggy smelling. It will due for the evening though and we have had such great luck so far I’m not complaining. We ate dinner at the Atlantic Coast Hotel restaurant that is connected to O’Malleys. They had live Irish music and a bit of dancing at the pub. We could hear the music and quite enjoyed it. They played the song “Somewhere My Love,” which was my grandpa Livsey’s favorite song so that was fun. They also played a song to the tune of “On Der Nord Sea Custe,” which is a German song I learned in high school. I thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment. Halfway through our meal a few old men jumped up and started dancing. We ran over to watch the show, they were clever and it was fun to see. Sonja and I shared a mushroom pasta dish that was yummy, Ally had vegetable soup. We also ordered a deep fried brie cheese appetizer with a plum sauce that was deliciosos. The best was the chocolate fudge cake for dessert though. I need to look up a recipe for fudge cake. Ally and Sonja played thumb wars while we waited for our desserts and while Ally let her chocolate ice cream melt. The dancing and singing and festive atmosphere was fun. On our way back to the hotel I saw a bike with flowers in the baskets and was taking a photo when a few locals hanging out of their car were yelling at me to photograph them. So I did, they were piled into a tiny backseat and I got a fun photo of them all posing for my camera. Only one more night left in Ireland after this one. This trip is sadly coming to a close. We have had such a great time we all hate to see it end. Tomorrow night we will be sleeping in Dublin waiting for our 6:30am flight out in the morning.
We ordered the traditional Irish breakfast this morning. Wow, that's a lot of food!
I had to give them up. They were killing my feet, both pairs of shoes I brought were terrible. I suffered long enough.
This was a well fortified castle built on the tiny island in the middle of a lake.
We were wondering if the black stuff they were farming was peat. Finally we got a look at some close up when we were making a U-turn....yes we get lost from time to time. Confirmation, we have a peat moss sighting.
We ran into this puppy. He was a friendly fella and we had fun petting on him for a few minutes.
Super fun castle. We learned all about fortifications and things like murder rooms. Yikes!
All the castles used to be whitewashed like this one.
Hide and seek with Ally. I was up on a ledge maybe two feet off the ground. She walked right by me like three times. I finally busted up laughing and we all had a good giggle.
This castle was serious about keeping people out.
I love love love the bright colors and flowers in the towns. It is so lively and quaint.
Shamrock-not a clover. Do not call it the wrong name or you will hear about it from the locals. Won't make that mistake again.
Our tour guide brought the kids over to smell the wall. This is Ally, not smelling the wall. There is no way she was going to let this guy trick her.
My borrowed comfy shoes! What a relief to have something cozy on my feet.
A little soccer in the field. Lucky for us there was a stray ball.
They have all sorts of donkey post cards. These were the only donkeys we saw the whole trip. I was glad to get this guys picture. What a handsome feller.
Is this trip really coming to an end? We had such a great time. This is the bus to the airport with all the weary travelers up at 4:00am. Not my best time of day!
tuesday 24 - So tired. It is 5 am now and we are sitting at our gate waiting to get on our flight for Paris. It is really Wednesday morning but I had no chance last night to journal. Tuesday was another awesome day. We ate our traditional Irish breakfast at our hotel, Alcock and Brown. It consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, sausage rolls, and canadian bacon. It was delicious. I also had orange juice and cruisants. After the OJ I decided to go for a glass of grapefruit juice. It was either old and fermented or it actually was breakfast wine but man one sip and that was it. Ally wanted to try it as well and she also thought it was terrible. So back to OJ instead. The hotel housed an art gallery in their restaurant and hallways so we strolled around and looked at some of the art. It was very cool. They had some really good artists. Ally particularly loved the strawberry syrup, on toast for breakfast. She probably ate four or five pieces of it. For some reason thumb wars have become a part of every meal and we had a bit of a healthy competition. We headed upstairs to pack up our bags. I threw out both of my pairs of shoes and opted for borrowing Sonja’s Tevas. My toes are much happier now. They have been getting very sore in my sneakers. We headed out towards Dublin. We need to end up at our airport hotel tonight. On the road we saw a cool ruin of a castle our on an island in the middle of a lake. They just plopped those castles everywhere. The water would make a good defense mechanism I suppose. We enjoyed the conemara region again and saw the big Ben mountains. We even discovered piles of peat. They lay them around so they can dry and then they burn them in the winter for fuel. I was happy to finally get a good look at some peat, I was wondering if we would see some.
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