A few more favorite pictures

Wandering the back roads in Connemara by the Twelve Bens

River Nore, near Bennettesbridge, Kilkenny

Favorite pictures from around Ireland

These are some of my favorite pictures from Ireland. They actually could be anywhere, but they bring back such great memories when I see them.
The top one is from the stream that run around the edge of Blarney Castle grounds. It's a beautiful area to sit and enjoy. The second in behind Cong Abbey. I always think of this area as such a magical place. The third is from our wanderings on the way to Cong. It's one of those times when you see a dirt road and just have to explore. So glad we did. And the last picture is up at the top of Moll's Gap. The sheep wander all over the area and are so similarly colored to the rocks they almost blend in. Hope you enjoy.

Video of Derry City, Northern Ireland

Derry City

A Little Video from Wexford, Ireland

Wexford in a very pretty town on the south east coast of Ireland. Lots to see and we barely scratched the surface.

Video from Connemara Coast, Ireland

This is a video made from various places around the Connemara Coast, Ireland.

Reflections

Some trips defy planning and end up as more an adventure than expected. That was this trip. Of course, we did get to most of the planned places, but discovered more surprises just stopping along the way to explore, or even getting lost.

Now that I'm home, I've been thinking back and wanted to reflect on some of those unexpected adventures and observations from the past 4 weeks.

When you arrive in a town a little earlier than expected and call your B&B to see if it's alright to check in early and they say, “Well, get on over here, I'll put the water to boil for a cuppa.” You know you've chosen the right place to stay. Thank you Margaret Deane at Novarra House in Mullingar.

When your B&B hosts are like friends and know that you are running late and won't have time to go out for dinner before you go to an evening event so they have a casserole waiting when you get back from the Aran Islands, you know they will be friends for a long time. Thank you Philip and Maura at Rosin Dubh in Spiddal.

When your B&B hosts give you a history lesson on the Inishowen Penninsula, loan you their coveted Ordinance Map of the area, and even share how to get to their “local” for great atmosphere and dinner, you know the drive up the hill past the sheep and cows was well worth it. Thank you Irwin and Olga at the Inishowen Lodge in Moville.

When your hostess takes the time to share the history of her B&B, and family, and then teaches you how to cook some tried and true Irish foods, you will always do your best to replicate. Thanks to Rita Meade at Berry Lodge at Spanish Point.

When your hostess shares the book of photographs she's published for a class she was taking, and then shares her mother's bread recipe with you, it's not something you get everyday. Thank you Majella in Rostrevor on Carlingford Lough.

When your hosts explain how he cooked his morning eggs so perfectly you know he's been formally trained. Thank you Barry at MariaVille in Cork.

These were the stand out B&Bs. There were others who were friendly and helpful, but these were a category of their own.

If you ever find yourself at the Clontarf Castle Hotel just outside of Dublin, Eric, the concierge, will take good care of you. We felt as if we were the only guests he had to deal with. He even offered me the use of the computer at his desk when the one supplied in the room was having problems.

We were referred to the Mourne Seafood House in Dundrum and saw a sign for Dundrum Castle across the street. Far be it from us to pass up a chance to see a castle. It was not on our map. So after a delicious lunch, we headed up the narrow road and found an amazing ruin that was part of a park at the top of a hill. A great place to take kids and have them play castle for a day, picnic on the grounds and just enjoy the view from the hilltop. Things like this made for exceptional adventures.

We were invited to join the “Clifden Gang” for drinks after our lunch in the town. I think they had already had a few too many. They were much to young for us! LOL Do have to say, not bad looking though!

Many thanks to our taxi driver in Derry for an amazing ride around town. Much more than we could have gotten from the bus tour we missed. The whole 24 hours in Derry was a highlight.

And to our friend and tour guide in Wexford, Michael, who was still apologizing for the weather, a note of thanks for another memorable evening and day. We will always be his LA groupies! :)

While traveling from O'Hare to Midway yesterday one large thing we noticed were the billboards. There are few, small and low to the ground ones in Ireland. At least they don't clutter the amazing views. So many cars on such huge streets, going so very fast.

Beware the portions of food they serve you in Ireland. I get the feeling they think we don't eat enough. By the time we left, I was barely eating half of what was served. Forget trying to eat a 3 course meal. An appetizer is the size of most meals here. While there were a couple of forgettable meals, for the most part, Irish food has come a long way. Locally sourced and cooked with care. Delicious.

It was a wonderful vacation. I'm exhausted, but very happy and can't wait to go back. No more touring. I'm done with that pretty much. Just a nice little cottage by the sea shore to enjoy the weather. It's going to be difficult to chose one location for that cottage. Galway, Antrim, Inishowen, Wexford, Kinsale. All great places to stay for more than a few days. :)

Last Days

Tuesday, July 19^th

From 31,000 feet up. :)

This is a bit of a bittersweet day. It's time to go home. The last 4 days have flown by, having a great time with Walter and Ardis who were able to fly in from London. It was great seeing them again. It's been a good year and a half since the last time. I do hope to catch up with them when they get back to the states in December.

Not sure where I stopped off the last time as good Internet access has been a continuing problem this trip. As I've said before, I usually write these blogs in the evening and if the B&B, or hotel doesn't have decent connections, I'm limited to just checking emails and a short post on Facebook, if that.

Not sure if I mentioned we took a drive through the Mountains of Mourne. Always a great drive, especially on a sunny day, which we had. Along some of the Antrim Coast, and up to Carrickfergus. Belfast was a quick run through as we always seemed to be sidetracked by little off the beaten path castles and ruins. But that's what makes the trip all the more interesting.

We arrived in Clontarf, just to the north side of Dublin about 5:00 on Friday. We had plans to get to Howth and Howth Head that day, but as I've said before time got away from us. We found an unmarked court tomb just past a “view point” that we thought was just off the road. Turns out it was about 20 minutes up a steep narrow hill (of course, what great view in Ireland isn't up a steep narrow road?). I mistakenly missed the turn off for the view point and decided to find a decent point to turn around on this road. Not much further was a small pull out and Ballymacdermot's Court Tomb. It was signposted at the tomb, but no where else. Truly an amazing sight. They obviously picked this spot for the view also, at the other side of the hill we had climbed. Just beautiful. After a return to Berwyn “view” and looks over Dundalk, we headed back to the motorway and off again, until we saw the signpost for Monastiere Boice.

I've been to this site before, but it has one of the most incredible high crosses in Ireland. The carvings in the stone are so deep that they have lasted all these years and are still pretty clear. The round tower at the site is 110 feet tall, the highest round tower still standing, I was told, except it has lost it's top. At least 15-20 of the bottom of it is now buried underground as the first opening that should be that high off the ground is only about 6 feet up. There are stairs to walk up and look in.

We did a little of our now famous, “getting lost and seeing more of the country” before we made it back to the motorway. And on to Clontarf.

Early on in the planning of the trip we though it might be nice to treat ourselves to something special our last night out on the road. We booked the Clontarf Castle Hotel. The concierge, Eric, was spectacular with all his help and humor. He could not do enough for us. Yes, this was a nice, treat, but as in all nice things, the special “Internet on the flat screen TV” would not work for me. I'm staring to feel it might be me! Eric did offer his computer at his desk for me to use, but I just didn't feel it would be right to sit and visit on Facebook at his desk.

The Knight's Bar and interior of the hotel were done in a stately motif and the dinner that came with our room and bottle of wine followed suit. I wish we could have spent more time there. Breakfast the next morning topped it all off.

On Friday we had to turn in the car, but not until the afternoon, so we decided to catch up on having missed Howth Harbour and Howth Head. Unfortunately the cloud layer was not very cooperative when we arrived at Howth Head. We were able to look across to Dublin, Ireland's Eye and Dublin Harbour for about 2 minutes when the clouds rolled over the entire scene, including where we were standing. We headed down the hill to Howth Harbour below the clouds and took pictures and walked along the harbour for a bit. Then off to Thrifty/Dollar to return the car and make our way to City Center.

We were all settled at the Mercantile and took a walk to the tourist office waiting for Ardis and Walter. When they arrived we headed out for some lunch downstairs at the Mercantile lunch carvery. I guess if you get there early the choices are better and the meat is not all dried out. Not one of our great meals.

We walked around some but thanks to Eric at the Clontarf, he had recommenced a musical show in Howth that night at the Abbey Tavern. So we piled in a taxi and off we went. The show was good, more local than Trad on the Prom, but still good. By the time we got back we all were tired from the travel, so planned a full day with a bus tour out to Powerscourt on Saturday. I do have to say that these one day bus trips are a great way to go when in Dublin. Saturday was Powerscourt, Bray, Dun Laoghaire, and Glendalough, along with a few more sites pointed out as we traveled. The weather started out just overcast, but by the time we got to Glendalough, it was pouring. Typical Irish summer weather. By the time we got to the Wicklow pass it was clear, but very windy and cold. We had a great tour guide full of information.

Sunday was the hop on hop off tour of Dublin. Again the day was overcast, and did rain some, but for the most part, it was fine. I've noticed that they have extended the passes for this tour to 2 days. I was so glad to see that, even thoughtwe only had the one day. There just is no way to see even most of the sites on the tour in one day. We did get to Trinity College, Merrion Park, Dublin Castle, Guinness Warehouse, and Kilmainham Gaol. It did take a good hour to ride the tour around once so we could make some decisions for the day. I think the most time was spend at the Guinness Warehouse and Kilmainham Gaol. The but let us off near the end of the day right in front of the Arlington Hotel, so we took the opportunity to have a drink and book the dinner and music show for that night.

With everything I had heard about this show, I was a little disappointed. Trad on the Prom was a very professionally put together show. This was more like 3 musicians taking requests from the audience to make up their set list, then 5 dances doing mostly hard shoe for a bit. The speakers were not very good and the bus crowd that they brought it talked through the entire performance, even while they were eating dinner. I much preferred the Abbey Tavern to the Arlington Hotel.

We walked back to our hotel over the Ha' Penny Bridge and through Temple Bar. Ardis and Walter would be leaving early the next morning, so we said our goodbyes, and headed off to bed.

Monday Rita and I headed off on another bus tour to New Grange. This also went to Monastiere Boice again, but we didn't mind. With my knees bothering me a bit I stayed back at the visitor center at New Grange as I've been there before. Rita headed off to the megalithic tomb and as Ireland is, it started to rain. In between showers and breaks she was able to spend some time enjoying the site with the others who braved the weather. Our tour guide, Collin, had a lot to share about the Dublin area as we left town and headed out for the day and was great about pointing out sites along the way that we might not have known about. He did share that most of the barley fields we saw were almost ready to harvest and the lot of it would be going to Guinness for brewing. Almost all the barley grown in the fields around Dublin is used for that.

So that brings me to our very early day today and our trip home. I'll post this as soon as I have some Internet, and follow up with ending comments when I get back on a regular sleep schedule!

Getting down to one Week

So it's been a few days again since I've blogged. We had an amazing visit to Clonmacnoise, the monastery site for St.Kieran. The high crosses there are some of the most incredible in all of Ireland. And the site itself is just so calming and serene, even with all the tour buses arriving. We left the monastery and headed to both the Tullamore and Kilbeggan distilleries to check out their wares. As usual our day ran much later than we planned and dinner was somewhere around 9:00.

We've been staying at a wonderful B&B called Novara House in Mullingar. Margaret is a very friendly host and I couldn't think of a better place to stay.

From Mullingar we headed to Dundalk for the pony races. I should have been as lucky as the gentleman sitting next to me. The best I could do was break even. I should be happy for that. After the races we headed for Rostrevor on Carlinford Lough. Loved going to sleep and waking up to see the blue waters of the lough outside out windows. Majella was another great host and shared her recipe for the warm bread she served in the morning.

Today was a beautiful driving day. We headed into the Mountains of Mourne for more amazing scenery. Lots of stops for pictures. After that we headed from Kilkeel toward Belfast with a stop at Dundrum. We decided to follow a sign that said "Dundrum Castle". We had heard nothing about it before and were treated with the ruins of a 12th century castle that is the centerpiece of a picnic and park area at the top of a hill overlooking Dundrum Bay. What a treat.

Lots of stress driving through Belfast to get to Carrickfergus. The castle here is very restored and not as old as many we have seen. We settled into out room for the the night and I'm finishing this up with a few comments on some of the food we have had here in Ireland.

Ireland has definitely moved beyond the meat and potatoes country that many think it is. You can still find lots of potatoes on plates, but the main courses can be very sophisticated at times. Our favorite meals have been the fresh mussels when they are cooked just right. Grilled salmon, hake, and plaice are also excellent choices other than fish and chips. If you ever order bangers and mash plan to share it with a friend. The Irish seem to think they have to feed us giant portions at each meal. At this point of the trip we are only ordering starter as our dinners as they are more than enough to have. There are only a few miscues on the food we've had. As I am able to download pictures, I will share some of the delicious meals we've had around the island.

One last comment tonight. I am always very aware of the fact that when I am traveling in Northern Ireland that I have a car with a license from the Republic. While we've had no problems, it's just something that I am aware of. I try very hard not to make any other drivers upset with my driving style. A little tough driving through Belfast at rush hour today, but I did survive!

Heading south to Malahide and Howth Head tomorrow for our last day our with the car. Then on to Dublin for the weekend. Looking forward to that and meeting friends from London who will be joining us. :)

Last week is here!

Finally Internet Again

It's been 3 days since I've had any Internet to where I can do some posting. Hard to believe that there are still a few small towns out here where there is no Internet available, or the signal is so very bad that I can't do any posting. Just a sign that when I get back I must get my iPhone!

The last few days have been full of surprises and great craic! The Inishowen 100 was beyond amazing. Do have to say that the windy roads were not always my cup of tea, but we did survive. Getting out to Malin Head and to the top of the hill at Bamba's Crown was a real highlight. The most northerly place in Ireland, Bamba is a metaphorical name for Ireland. Bamba was one of the mythical queens of Ireland. Looking out to the expanse of the ocean you could actually see the curve of the earth. We were stopping every couple of miles to take pictures, one more incredible than the previous.

We were so far behind in the day we actually had to eliminate some of the 100 miles of the drive, but loved every minute of what we did see.

With Friday morning arriving we were taking the long way to Derry for the day starting with a visit to the Ardboe Cross along Lough Neagh. I was determined to make a visit to Swatragh and the Rafter's Pub as the town is the basis for the story I am writing and the pub is referenced in the story. We met Brandon and talked to him about the story and the pub. Have to say they make a mean brie and Irish bacon panini. :)

On to Derry and a taxi tour of the city. Michael our taxi driver was the best. He took us across the river to the highest point in Derry to look back at the city, stopped at all the murals for some great pictures opportunities, and shared tons of history about the city. We finished up our day attending the From the Heart 3 concert at the Millenium Forum. I've know about this concert from it's first go round and have always wanted to go. This year we ended up planning part of our touring around being at the show.

Just over 4 years ago, Eamon Johnson committed suicide. His mother, Bebe, wanted to do something in his honor that would help those in need of services to help prevent suicide. The suicide rate in Ireland appears to be higher than most other countries, and much of it is evidently related to the economic downturn, as explained by the Mayor of Derry that night. To that end Bebe asked Mickey Coleman to write a song to support the effort. Miss You More Then Words Can Say is a striking heartfelt song that says it all.

Bebe Johnson is an amazing woman herself. She put together such a variety of talent for the night, including Francis Black, Ben Kelly, Damian McGinty, Plunkett McGartland, and many more. I was hoping that Mickey Coleman would be there to sing his song, but for the second visit he's not around when I am in Ireland to see him. After the show the performers were in the lobby to meet with those attending. After communicating with Plunkett several times on Face Book, we finally had the chance to meet. He looked at me and said, "I know you!" I do have to say I was surprised at that. Always nice to meet face to face. He is an amazing piano and fiddle talent. I would love to hear more of his work.

We also saw Damian and he was surprised to see me. A friend had posted to him on Twitter that I would be there as I'm on vacation, and he said hi and asked how our trip was going. The world keeps getting smaller. I do want to say, he was brilliant on stage that night. Obviously comfortable in front of his home crowd, and having a great time. Jesse's Girl, Mac The Knife, Falling Slowly, Home, another Buble song, and Mickey's Miss You Morn than Words Can Say.
Beautifully done!

So here we were in Derry after this amazing 4 hours show. At intermission I went down to Bebe to thank her for all she has done and just to say hello. She asked where we were staying, and I told her I had an hour drive back to our B&B. She told me I should not be doing that and that she had a room in the hotel around the corner that was not being used, that she would have to pay for anyway, and insisted we should stay there for the night. We accepted as I knew that drive back on the dark Irish roads would be tough. Little did we know at the time that this was not just any room, but a suite! The artist she had booked the room for was not staying the night. I had just met Bebe, and she was so very gracious to offer us this room. I cannot thank her enough for the amazing show she has put together, and her generosity.

So with no tooth brushes, and minimum luggage to change clothes in the car, we started out the next morning on the Causeway Coastal Drive. Beautiful beaches, Bushmills, the Giant's Causeway, and a peek at the Carrick a Rede Rope Bridge. The day was beautiful and sunny until the evening, but by then we were tucked snuggly into out B&B for the night.

This morning we started out early for Mullingar to get to the Cathedral for the 11:00 Mass. It was a road full of "bends" as the signs are marked here in Ireland, and with everyone heading to Mullingar for the Agri festival it was not as quick as we had hoped. A little late for Mass, but we made it. The cathedral is beautiful, both inside and out. The rest of the day was a day to relax and catch up on some email and rest up. I needed a day where I was not driving as much as I had been for the last couple of days. The driving is not difficult, just needs a lot of concentration, and that is exhausting after several long driving days.

So for tonight and tomorrow we are in Mullingar. Tomorrow we hope to get out to Clon Macnoise to see some of the high crosses, and to a couple of whiskey distilleries. Just can't get to enough of those! Maybe a stop at Belvedere House just outside of town for a bit also.

So that catches you up for now. Always some new adventure around the corner. :)

Sunny Mornings and Other Thoughts

Good Morning...At least it is here. After a very rainy afternoon traveling here, we've arrived in Inishowen. The sun is out and it looks to be a grand day. Our B&B is at the top of a hill overlooking Lough Foyle. Last night we could see the lights of Derry as it got dark. Today will be the Inishowen 100 - sounds like a car race, but is just the distance of the circular drive around the peninsula. Hope to get some great photos.

Just a few comments here. The Irish road signs leave a lot to be desired. Either there are too many different directions, or they are really lacking. It's difficult to explain this, but suffice to say, it has lead to many reversals in direction as we drive along. Funny thing is most of our Irish hosts have told us the same thing. When they give us directions, often they will say, "Now there's no sign, but...". And when we are used to looking at a street on a map, and it being a street, here, it could be a dirt road, or an alley. I'm not complaining, just commenting. It's lead to to fun situations as we travel.

Round abouts are the most fun. I love the challenge of merging into crazy traffic and driving in a circle to make sure I've positioned myself so I can exit at the correct area. I did cut one driver off as I needed to get over when I was stuck in the center of the circle. Otherwise, I love them when they are well marked and not too crazy.

And lastly, there is the speed limit on the roads. A kilometer is less than a mile, so this is very disconcerting when the speed limit says 100 km/h. It psychologically seems so fast, and yet it's only around 62 mph. And I have to say, I've seen narrow windy roads marked at 80 km/h. Even dirt roads marked the same. I can say that I've been keeping up with the Irish drivers. If I'm wanting to look around a little more, I just pull over so they can pass. Then there are the big trucks and tourist buses. That can really be a challenge on some of the roads. I'm not sure I really like seeing all the little paint details on the side of a bus as we pass each other!

Just a few comments for this morning. I'm off to shower and have some breakfast, before the day gets away. :)

Onward to Yeats Country

After a good night's sleep we headed off to take the ferry to the Aran Islands for the day. Once again our getting lost adventures landed us right where we needed to be at the last minute. We ended up having to take a smaller ferry to Inish Mean before getting to Inish Mor, the largest island where Dun Angus is located. Rita did the climb and I ended up visiting with a friend of Philip's who used to live in Dublin and now lives on the island. She does lectures all over about Ancient Irish Spirituality and was just fascinating to talk to.

Later that night after we returned we went to an Irish performance called Trad on the Prom at the Salthill Hotel. Lots of Irish dancing by some very talented dancers. Great trad music added to it for a wonderful end to the evening.

The next morning we headed around the Connemara Loop, or at least as much as we could cover. A stop at the Connemara marble store for some purchases, the Kylemore Abbey, and around the Twelve Bens mountains. At the end of the day we arrived in Westport for a great dinner at The Helm. Wish we had had time to go to Matt Malloy's Pub. It's owned by one of the Chieftans.

Today we left Westport in the morning and headed to the Sligo area. Actually we're in a small town called Grange in the view of Ben Bulben. This mountain and it's stories never cease to amaze me. We'll take the drive through the Ben Bulben loop tomorrow before leaving this area as today was busy with some horseback riding on the beach. Now for those of you who know me, you can stop laughing! I did actually ride an Irish Cob. They are huge, and wide, and with my short legs, it was a real challenge. I'll share with you tomorrow if I can actually get out of bed! LOL

Tomorrow we head to Inishowen via Belleek and another round fort in Burt.

I do want to write a bit about the whole road sign, driving experience we are having, but Rita and I are sharing the computer, so it's her time to catch up now. I also want to get some pictures posted on FB while the computer connection is relatively good.

BTW, it stormed today. At least 4 times. No more than half an hour each time! But this evening is clean and beautiful. Hope tomorrow is the same.

Spanish Point

Here I am again, fighting for a decent network connection. While most of the B&B's advertise that they have WiFi, the fact is that unless you are directly connected, the wireless is mostly less than necessary. Last night, here is Westport, Rita was working away on answering emails and was kicked off and could not get back on. We're lucky if we can get one bar of reception.

We leave our computer time until late at night, or early in the morning – as it is now – since during the day we are traveling, or sightseeing. We don't want to spend precious touring time on the computer. Besides we all know how fast time goes when you are busy on the computer.

Now I am catching up on what's been going on the last few days. As I stopped last time we arrived in Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, for a 2 day stay at Berry Lodge. We were just a bit off the main road but could still look out our upstairs windows and see the ocean. More than once as we passed by, we stopped at the beach to watch the surfers and swimmers. The weather was beautiful.

The reason we chose the Berry Lodge was because besides being a very nice B&B, the owner, Rita, also runs a cooking school there and we were scheduled to take a cooking class with her. We had to rearrange schedules as she had just found out that the electricity would be turned off the first day we were there – isn't that just the way it always is?- so we changed plans and took off for the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren for the day. On the way we found some great ruins of an old church and graveyard to explore. There are plenty of old ruins from old stone homes that were just left at the famine times, but we found this 15^th century church ruin very interesting as it was overlooking Liscanoor Bay and partially covered with ivy growth. I will upload some pictures as soon as we have a better signal. I've been to both the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren before, but the beauty of it all and the starkness of the Burren still amazes me. One minute you are in this lush green country and the next it's like you have transported to another world. And yet all this starkness is truly beautiful also.

We also made a stop at the Ailwee Caves. Not as impressive as I had imagined, but it was interesting walking 300 plus feet under the Burren and seeing a few stalactites and stalagmites along with some underground waterfalls. At the entrance to the road for the caves there is a farmhouse cheese shop with the best cheese. We stopped to taste and purchase some cheese before we left.

The next morning was a leisurely one as we sat by the window watching across the yard to the field beyond with the donkeys and cows. Rita Meade, the Berry Lodge owner, has trained her staff to prepare some amazing breakfasts as we strayed from the Irish breakfast and tried some porridge with honey and cream that was so thick you could almost spread it. Fresh fruit compotes before, and we were some happy travelers.

At 11:00 we started our Irish cooking class. What fun! We made a salmon and leek quiche, date nut loaf, brown bread, and scones. As we mixed and measured and talked about how to perfect these dishes Rita told us how she had been a home economics teacher for many years before opening the B&B and cooking school. After all was done and cooled – at least for the breads – we sat down the enjoy the results of our labors. YUM!! Can't wait to try the quiche and scones at home. I'll wait until the weather cools down for the date nut bread and brown bread.

After that the rest of the day was mostly driving with a few stops here and there to get to Spiddal. We did stop in Ballyvaghan to see where they had taken the famous sign post down. Unfortunately while we were in the Tea Shop for a smoothie and a cookie, some one who doesn't know how to judge how close they are to parked cars sideswiped us on the passenger side taking out the passenger side view mirror and scraping the car from the back door to the tire area. I did call Thrifty and they were more concerned about if we were injured than how the car was damaged. All is well and we are just missing that side view mirror for the rest of the trip.

On to Galway, the Salthill Prom, and to Spiddal we went. Traffic was a mess when we got to Galway City and all along the coast road at the Salthill Prom. It finally thinned out around Barna and we arrived at Rosin Dubh, Philip and Maura's, safe and sound. We had a great visit with them since I've met them before and finally got sorted out and off to dinner at Padraicin's on the water.

I'll close for now as I still have to post a blog for the last 4 days since our arrival in Spiddal.

Heading West

Two thousand miles already, or just about. Can't believe I've driven that much. Between some put craic and exhaustion from all the driving, I need to catch up a little on what has been going on over the last couple of days. I think last time I posted we were on our way to Killarney.

As we arrived in the city our first stop was at the Tourist Office. It was a short stop but while we were there checking on a boar ride at Castle Ross, a lad approached us about a musical pub tour that evening. Far be it from us to turn down the opportunity to listen to music played by a Riverdance fiddler, or visiting a couple of pubs, so we signed on and headed off for Killarney Park and the boat ride. A nice ride in an enclosed boat (we could have done the small fishing type boat, but that's not my stryle!) around Lough Leane for an hour with commentary and great views was just what we needed.

After that it was off to Muckross House and a jaunty cart ride up to Torc Waterfall. It was getting late in the day and I wanted to make sure Rita had the experience of riding in the jaunting cart pulled by an Irish Cob. We did the hike up the hill to this amazing waterfall. As Rita said, “It's like the prize at the end of the trail.” I could have stayed there all day, but our cart was waiting at the botton of the hill to take us back to our starting point. It was a little late to tour the gardens and the house so we decided to wait until the next morning before heading out of town.

We actually found our B&B easily – I”m a little more familiar with Killarney – and got checked in just in time to turn around and head out for the Musical Pub Tour. The ticket included a single course dinner and Rita and I both had the Guinness Beef Stew – delish!

Long story but I did my “noble call” by sharing a song – no one else offered - and shared “A Place in the Choir” with the group. Would have been much better if I could have remembered all the verses! It's so much easier when you sing along to the song! I can just blame it on the Guinness. LOL

The next morning we headed back to Muckross House and Gardens for a while, then off to the Ring of Kerry. I can list all the sites, but it won't mean much to anyone but me. I'm going to try and post more pictures on FB in the next day or so, now that I've gotten better Internet access. Needless to say, riding around the Ring is a wonderful day, with lots of sites. As we finished, we headed on to Dingle, past Inch Beach. Our B&B was on the Strand right in front of the harbor and just upstairs of the pub of the same name. Can't ask for anything better than that.

We had dinner down the street at John Benny's and stayed for a little music. I was drained from all the driving again, so we headed back to our room for the night. As much music as was still going on downstairs, our room was quiet.

Yesterday we dropped off our laundry after breakfast and headed out the Slea Head Drive. Ancient ruins and magnificent sea views was the plan for the day, and it didn't disappoint. The sun was in and out with a few showers, but that didn't dampen our travels. Again, I hope to be posting pictures on FB.

The little church on Main Street in Dingle has a Folk Concert once a week. We just happened to be there on Wednesday at the right time so we bought our tickets and were treated to another wonderful evening of music followed by a visit to the Dingle Pub for some libation before heading back to our beds for the night.

This morning we stayed in Dingle just long enough to visit Fungie, the dolphin statue for pictures and some pictures of the harbor, then headed off up the west coast of Ireland. I love the views over Connor Pass as we left Dingle and was tempted to climb up the rocky mountain path at the waterfall to the pristine hidden lake, but the old knees would not have made it back. Maybe that would not have been such a bad thing! Again, many stops for pictures along the way at Blennervile at the windmill, Adare for the thatched cottages and church, at Bunratty for the castle, We've ended up at Berry Lodge in a town called Miltown Malbay, right near Spanish Point watching the surfers tonight after dinner.

That catches my journal up to date for now. I'll work on pictures tomorrow after another touring day. :)

More days, and heading southwest

Good Morning! It's Monday morning here and I've just had one of the best lie ins of the trip. We're in Cork at the moment and staying at a lovely B&B called Mariaville. It's tucked down a little street not far from the University of Cork. Just have to love those power showers after a long day of touring. :)

So let's back up and catch up some. Day before yesterday was Wexford Day and we had the honor of being shown around Wexford by one of it's ambassadors. All day long we saw people wearing the purple and gold of Wexford. After breakfast we met up with the ambassador and had a chat for a while, then decided to head off for the Wexford Heritage Center. It's set up as a walk through life from time 9000 years ago. Strolling through the forest to see the exhibits was wonderful, but chatting all the way about growing up in Wexford and listing to our guides memories was the real treat. After we went to the Ferrycarig Hotel on the Rive Slaney for tea. WOW what a beautiful place. Sitting, talking with that view. I could have stayed there for the better part of the day, but it was off we must, so on to Dunbrody. Many, many thanks to our guide and Wexford ambassador for the day, Michael.

We backtracked because of the weather the day before so that my traveling partner, Rita, could do a little heritage research. I dozed in the car as she did the Dunbrody Famine ship tour. After that we headed into the west. Our next stop was Midleton for the Jameson Experience, and an experience it is. We were too late for the tours, but did do a tasting. I'm not a big whiskey drinker but the chance to taste some of the better aged stuff is a nice thing now and then. A little shopping in their place and a few pictures by the giant copper distilling kettle outside and we were off to Kinsale.

I was told by my friend Tom that I had something waiting for me at The Spaniard in Kinsale. I was determined to get there Saturday and see what it was. We were running late and also wanted to get checked into our B&B. I'm now really realizing that when I look at a map for locations here in Ireland, often I'm looking at what we would consider alley ways. After spending about an hour driving up and down and in and out the streets of Kinsale, we turned around and headed to The Spaniard for a respite. And so glad we did. I do have to say that parking in Kinsale is a nightmare, but we were lucky enough to find a tiny spot for our little car.

First, I must say, to find out about The Spaniard you must Google it and it's history. Interesting place. Now for the fun part. So we walked into this small bar area and here I walk up to the bar and tell the barman, “I'm here to collect my drink. It's been left for me in an envelope with my name on it.” So the search for the envelope began. There were quite a few white envelopes along side of the register, and none were mine. As this search was going on I was telling the story of how my friend, Tom had visited a few weeks earlier and left it there for me. One of the gents looked above the bar where there were tons of pictures and spotted the envelope tacked up there. Now everyone sitting at the bar was surprised including a gentleman whose picture I had seen in one of Tom's posts.

This was Michael Barry and he had been listening all along as I told the story. Needless to say, once I opened the envelope and gave the barman the receipt I was given my drink. We sat down with Michael and had a great chat with him and a few others at the pub. It was a great evening, but was getting late. We still had to find our B&B, so off back into town. To shorten this story, I have to say I love the Garda in Kinsale. We stopped and asked for help. The female told us just to follow her in our car, which we did. She walked, we drove, until she saw a parking space for us, then walked with us on foot down the narrow street to the B&B. It was already after 9:00 when we arrived and we still needed some dinner. That ended our Saturday. I can say, that I have been up and down the hills and streets of Kinsale multiple times!

Sunday morning we checked out Kinsale some after a wonderful breakfast, then headed to Cobh to the Heritage center. After some time there, we were on the road to Blarney.

The rest of the day was spent at Blarney Castle and the Woolen Mills. This time I did have the time to visit the Rock Close and waterfalls. We could have spent even more time walking the grounds but needed to get back to town and fine our next B&B!

Now we're sitting having our breakfast and getting ready for the ride to Killarney and a day spent roaming that area.

More later. A :)

Day 3, I think

So, where was I, oh, yes....It's day three and we are now settled in at a wonderful hotel for a pampered night in Wexford. Maybe I should back up a little since I didn't post last night.

Yesterday morning we left our B&B in Newbridge after a scrumptious breakfast at our B&B cooked by our host John.

Rita and I felt obligated that we have a full Irish breakfast at least our first morning in Ireland. We then headed off to the Irish Nation Stud. Most of our day was spent wandering around checking out amazing horses; stallions, mares, and both yearling foals, and younger foals. Beautiful horses, and the many of the foals were so friendly.

We got an up close and personal with a stallion called Indian Haven. Hard to even describe the power you could feel standing next to him. And boy, what a pampered stall. Hay piled high and metal name plates on the doors. Pretty fancy.

After we left the National Stud we headed to Kilkenney. Through the countryside for a wonderful ride and after checking in to our B&B we walked over to the castle garden and castle and did some picture taking. Across from the castle is the Kilkenney Design Center. At the back there are some craft shops that I have visited before. Veronique, a knitter who sells she scarves all over Ireland has a shop there. She aways has baskets of scarves she has in excess at great prices. We each bought something and headed in to the silversmith where I had previously purchased a bracelet. Had a wonderful visit with him and made a purchase there. Then a delicious dinner and headed back to the B&B. It was a long day and we were beat, so we headed to bed early as we wanted to get a good start for today.

This morning we headed off to Bennetsbridge and Nicholas Moss Pottery to see what goodies were there. The area is so beautiful on the River Nore around the pottery factory. From there it was Jerpoint Abbey. Jerpoint is one of my favorite places to visit. After the abbey, it was off to Waterford for a little lunch and crystal touring. The new location is quite nice. Tours are still pretty much the same, but the showroom is huge. I bought my first piece of Waterford. It's a crystal seahorse ornament that can only be purchased at the factory in Ireland – or on Ebay, I guess! LOL

It had started raining by the time we got to Jerpoint, and by Waterford it was really coming down. We passed on New Ross, in hopes the weather is good tomorrow, and came straight to Wexford to get showered, changed, and ready for some party time tonight with the Gossip Girls show and a little celebration after.

So I need to get showered and dressed. More later, :)

Rain, Wind, Lightening, Delays, and Arrival

Tuesday morning I was picked up by the shuttle at 5:45. It took 2 SWA flights to get to Chicago Midway, and then a transfer to O'Hare for the evening flight. It was then that things started to unravel. We boarded as expected and seemed all ready for a 6:45 take-off, but were notified that they were checking the electrical systems since there are no back-ups and they wanted to make sure all was good.

That took until about 7:15 and we were now running half an hour late. The sky was getting quite dark with thunder storms, but we headed to the tarmac for take-off behind 5 other planes. That's when the lightening started. All flights were being held. We were then given the news that we were going to have to deal with some strong winds while on the tarmac for about 30 minutes. STRONG!!! I'm talking 82 miles an hour!! The plane was rocking from side to side. The guys in the tower abandoned the tower it was so bad. At the gate things were blown around like toys. So before taking off, they had to check the runway and have us return to the very crowded gates to have the plane checked.

After all was said and done, we sat on the plane for 4+ hours and left 5+ hours late. So instead of arriving in Dublin at 8:00am, it was 1:30PM. We did not get out of the airport after immigration and getting our rental car until 3:30.

So our plan for the day was a visit to Jame's Joyce museum at the Martello Tower in Dun Laoghaire, lunch in Bray, Powerscourt Gardens, and Glendalough. Then a drive over the Wicklow Mountains through a town called Hollywood (named such before Hollywood, CA) and into Newbridge. Needless to say everything changed and we headed directly to Glendalough and over the Wicklow Mountains and into Newbridge. We checked into our B&B and were having dinner at 9:00 this evening. Both of us are totally wrecked and hope to get a good night's sleep. It's been a very long 36 hours with very little sleep on the plane.

On to better days tomorrow! I've put a small tripline on this blog so you can see where we are geographically. If you look to the right of this posting, there is something that says "Links to Other Travel Sites". The link to the Tripline is there.

Sunny days from here on out! :)

Ready to Leave

So my bags are packed - except for the last addition of cosmetics, and all my paperwork is printed out, including boarding passes. Other than a few last errands today, and bill paying, I'm pretty much ready to go. At least I think so! There is always that last minute detail that comes up and needs to be taken care of.

It's an early to be tonight as I'm being picked up by the shuttle before 5:00am. Southwest Airlines to Midway through Las Vegas - maybe I'll strike it rich during our short layover! Then a transfer to O'Hare and American Airlines for the overnight flight. I know that sounds strange, but there are no direct flights from LA to Ireland. And with airline miles, this trip was virtually free. So for a little inconvenience, it's worth it. Just hoping for some sleep time on the flight from Chicago to Dublin as the next day there will be no nap time in order to quickly adjust to Ireland time.

We will land in Dublin Wednesday morning, pick up the rental car, exchange enough money to get started, and be on the road. Most of the B&B's where we are staying have Internet access, so I hope to be posting a blog at least every other day with some pictures. If I can, I'll post more often, but pub time comes first, so there may be some delays! :)

I'm also going to try and use tripline to map our trip. It does show "as the crow flies", so not necessarily the roads we'll be traveling, but you'll get an idea of our location. I'll post the link on the side bar of the page after our first day and it will update as I add locations.

Now it's time I get moving and get those last minute things done. As I post this, it's just over 20 hours until our first flight leaves. YIKES!!!

Less than a week!

Just a short post here.

It's less than a week until we leave and things are still happening. We've found out about a fun event in Wexford at the hotel where we are staying. It's called Gossip Girls . Secondly, we're not quite sure where we are staying in Kinsale.

It's a long story, but basically we canceled an over night in Kinsale to stay in Wexford, and wanted to move one of our days in Cork to Kinsale. Now to locate a B&B, or Inn, in Kinsale to stay. I was not really impressed with the first one we located as they didn't have quite the room we wanted. And we have to stay in Kinsale as I have a drink waiting for me at The Spaniard. Another long story there, but suffice it so say, a kind gentleman has made these arrangements. Besides the fact that Kinsale is one of the places I've so wanted to visit in the past and never really had the chance.

At the moment, I'm out of town watching the grandkids while their dad travels for work and their mom is in Sweden with her brother. Again, a long story, but they are picking up my son's car at the Volvo plant in Sweden. Mostly I'm chauffeur for all the places the kids have to go - swim team, swimming lessons, Bible camp, and day care, and making dinners in the evening. When my SIL is here we split the driving duties. So very little can be taken care of for the trip unless it's online.

I will have 3 days back a home to catch up on sleep and get organized and packed. I'm not too panicked about this yet, as I've done this 3 times before and with a smaller suitcase. At this point I can't imagine how I possible managed.

I do want to thank a couple of people who have helped make the planning for this trip even more exciting. One is my friend, Tom, from Mass. who has given me all kinds of hidden gems from Dublin, to the Kinsale area and the Dingle Peninsula. He just returned from his trip there. The other is Michael Londra, who shared the information about Gossip Girls. It's things like this that make the trip much more of an adventure than just sightseeing. :)

My next post will probably be the night before we leave. Looking forward to sharing this will everyone who is interested.

Slan!

24 Days and Being Flexible

So here we are 24 days away from departure and we've already made 2 sets of changes to our "set" itinerary. I have to say that is the beauty of getting started early enough on all this. Yes, unfortunately, I've had to email some of the B&B's and see about changing dates, or canceling reservations, but this far out there are no extra charges or fees.

The first came when we were able to adjust our plane flight so we didn't have to stay overnight in Chicago on the way to Ireland. That gave us an extra day. We planned to stay around Clontarf, Howth and Malahide that day, and then head out on the road. As we looked at our itinerary more, we realized that we needed an extra day in the Cork area. So all days up to Cork were moved up a day and we changed a 2 day stay to 1 day at the end of the trip to plug in our Clontarf, Howth, and Malahide day.

As of yesterday we have decided to change an overnight in Kinsale, to an overnight in Wexford so we are able to meet up and have drinks with a friend. Totally an unexpected change, but being flexible is what it's all about. And when we looked at the itinerary for the day, this actually makes a little more sense to our travels. We'll still be spending some time in Kinsale, but not an overnight, and we will still have two nights in Cork.

Another friend just returned from Ireland and messaged me that he had some recommendations for me. I hope it's just great pubs, as I'm not sure I can handle too much more in the way of changes. I feel so very bad emailing the B&B owners and canceling reservations. I'm anxious to see what he has to recommend.

Still considering one more change, but it's more of a convenience one, than a travel one. Still thinking on that one. I like the idea of staying at one place for a couple of days now and then, and this was one of those places. Still time for that decision as it's near the end of our trip.

I'm finding that at times this trip is designing itself and we are just working around it. And actually it's working itself out just fine.

Under 30 days to Go!!

My traveling partner and I met this weekend to talk about last minute things. We are now just under 30 days until departure and this was the last time we would have a chance to get together face to face and check to make we had things covered. At least as much as possible covered. No vacation ever goes without a little catch here and there, but that's what makes it all an adventure.

Since this is my 4th trip to Ireland and her first, she had some questions about details that I take for granted. So I thought for anyone following this, I might take a minutes to write about these things so that anyone reading this might find it helpful.

Money....Yes, it's always good to have some. LOL But what everyone needs t think about is exchanging money from dollars to Euros. Where, when, how much? You can purchase Euros from AAA, or your bank. They make it sound great with only a $5 service charge per $1000. What they don't tell you is that the exchange rate they quote you is higher than the standard exchange rate. That's where they make their money. And unless you are at the main branch of a bank in a big city, you need to give them a couple of days notice to get the Euros in.

You can take dollars to Ireland and to to an exchange window at the airport and get Euros there. Again, you will pay a little more for this service also. If you can hold off and use your credit card until you get to an ATM, this is where you will get the best exchange. You are not paying for someone to give you the money, you're just taking it from your account. If you can't find an ATM at the airport, and need cash right away, just exchange a small amount at the airport and stop at the first ATM in the city when you arrive.

Electrical - basically make sure you have adapters with you. If you take a hairdryer, it must have a little place to change the voltage, or even with an adapter, it will burn up! I've only been to one B&B where they had adapters available. As you travel and repack so often, make sure when you pack that the adapters are the first thing to be put in your suitcase. I found a great deal on the ones for Ireland and Britain here:
http://bit.ly/hHeYZ5
The shipping was more than the adapters, but the total price was perfect.

Before you go-- Before you leave contact your credit card company and bank that you will be using your ATM and credit card(s) in Ireland. Some banks have rules about how much you can withdraw per day, or may question the use of the card outside of the norm. Make sure you know their withdrawal rules. They may also charge you to convert your Euro purchases on your credit card back to dollars. Nice to know if you are watching how much you spend.

Speaking of money - So how much money do you take? This is a difficult one. Almost all hotels and B&Bs take credit cards nowadays, but there are a few out there that want cash. If a B&B runs 40 Eruo, and you still need to pay for admissions, and meals and or drinks at pubs, or small restaurants, you might want to have around 100 Euros on hand. That's around $140. That may sound like a lot, but it goes very quickly. And that is only one day! Don't forget the cost of gas for your rental car, or bus and train fares.

If you need to transfer money from your savings to your checking and are using a computer that you don't usually use (or different URL) you may have to go though a verification process that will take a few minutes. This can happen even if you notify your bank. They are watching for hackers.

Internet cafes - If you don't have your own computer with you, you might need or want to get in touch with family using an Internet Cafe. They are not as predominate as they used to be, but you can still find them. If you use a site where you log on, make sure to log off and don't just close the window when you are done. Most Internet Cafes do wipe all info once a person is finished, but some don't. Just to make sure no one can get into your account, make sure and log out.

Make sure someone at home has a copy of your itinerary and a number where to reach you. And carry an itinerary with your that has the phone numbers of all the B&B/hotels where you are staying in case you get lost, or need directions. Make sure your traveling partner has an emergency phone number back home if they need you to call for them.

Oh, and don't forget. Take an small travel umbrella! If you don't have one, it's sure to be raining! :)

Holy Days Batman!!!!

When I began this blog there were over 100 days until our trip. Now there are just 51 left until we depart. Not much has needed to be done in terms of reservations, rentals, or anything but there is still a lot of planning.

As I research areas, I still continue to come across places I want to add to the itinerary. Even with the length of the trip as it is, there will not be enough time to see it all. And many of the places are very different than what I would have visited before. For example, the Cork English Market is such an amazing place. I guess you could compare it to Pike's Place in Seattle. Can't wait to be taking some pictures there and try some of the local cheeses and chocolates.
http://www.corkenglishmarket.ie/

Two very different locations have a very similar product - smoked salmon. One is just to the north of Dublin in Howth Harbour called Wright's of Howth, and the other is in Lisdoonvarna called The Burren Smokehouse. Obviously, we'll have to sample both and compare!

http://www.wrightsofhowth.com/

http://www.burrensmokehouse.ie/

I'm going to need an instruction guide as to how to bet at the races in Ireland. We've planned a day at Dundalk Stadium to see some horse races. I've bet at horse races in the US for a win, place or show, but I'm not seeing place or show when I research betting in Ireland. I may just have to bet to win! Not that there would be any sense in a place or show bet. Now there's a real course of study before we get there. I hear if I set up an account beforehand I can phone in my bets! I'm sure they take credit cards! LOL

We would have loved to catch a High Kings show while we were in Ireland as their tours have not come to the west coast of the US, but unfortunately we'll be in the North when they play in Killarney. If they do add some more shows we'll try to get there. We've already booked a concert in Derry. Missed it last time I was in Ireland.

As I finish planning docs I decided to load them onto the "cloud" so I have access to them while we travel. Trying not to have to print everything and I'm not taking a big laptop with me. I've finished the document with the list of 28 days of B&Bs, hotels, and inns. Need to work on that as the pictures with maps did not transfer. Always something with technology!

As the days tick down, it gets more exciting. Until next post! Slan :)

So many places, so few days

Now that flights, car, and B&B have all been confirmed and we have set our itinerary - not in stone - but a general plan is in place, I've been searching out roadways and directions since I'll be doing the driving. I did all the driving on my last trip, so I don't mind. I do realize that the driver sees the roadside sights much differently than the passengers. The only way to help with that is to constantly pull off to the side of the road so the driver can take a gander at the wonderful sites being viewed by the passenger. And that is what sightseeing is all about.

As I've checked out roads and directions I've come across more sites to check out. And when I came across this site, things got even more complicated.
http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/index.html

I was so glad to discover that I had previously seen some of these "hidden gems" and that we have already scheduled to see many more. But in amongst the ones I've seen and the ones we plan to see were a few extra suggestions that I wanted to try and fit in.

I do have to say that after 3 previous trips most people would think I've seen pretty much all there is to see, but while Ireland might be small in size, it packs a punch when it comes to sightseeing. It was not until my third trip that I saw Kilmainham Goal in Dublin, or the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. With this trip lasting just under 4 weeks, there is that extra time, so we will adjust as needed, where we can, and I hope we have the time.

I want to pass on another website that is a great reference. Wish I had found it earlier for some additional references for B&Bs, but will mostly be using it for restaurant and pub references.

http://www.goodfoodireland.ie/

I love that Ireland is working on becoming a foodie destination. My last time in Dublin I was pleasantly pleased to find some very delicious tapas, and a surprisingly scrumptious vegan place for lunch. There will always still be the lamb and potato places with traditional Irish food, but they are now taking the traditions and turning them into a delicious and unique dining experiences. I'm looking to visit some of those places and see for myself. But don't forget, I am taking a cooking class in traditional Irish cooking! :)

So the list of places to see keeps growing. I'm sure we will have to weed through and eliminate a few, but we'll see. We've tried to leave enough time in each day so we are not too rushed. Hopefully that will help.

More to come now that we are under 60 days to departure.

Moving Along With the Agenda

As we move along with plans we've made our reservations at B&Bs along the way. It took an entire weekend just to get the majority of emails and enquiries sent off to approximately 17 locations for our 4 week trip.

This week I finally heard back from the last of the B&Bs with confirmations. I did find out that often the responses came back to me in my junk mail, so was checking there daily. And those online enquiries that are part of the B&B network don't always work. After not hearing from a few B&Bs, I searched for direct emails and received responses within 24 hours.

So at this point we have plane reservations and reservations at B&Bs, and a car reservation. I'd say we're pretty much ready. We did end up changing the tour plan for our last 4 days on the road to include a visit to the horse races. Something new for me during a vacation to Ireland. Now we are down to finding some additional unique places to make sure we have a chance to visit.

I'm very excited that when we are in Dublin a friend and her husband from London are flying over to spend our last weekend with us touring this wonderful city. They have never been to Ireland before, even though they have lived in London for a year. Have to admit, with everything there is to see in England, I might be in the same boat if I was there.

As a reference, I'll be listing the B&Bs in the various locations as we travel, so that if anyone is looking for a B&B in a town they might want to use the same one we stay in, or not, depending on our experience. For the most part, after having stayed at B&Bs my last trip, I really haven't found one that was unacceptable. It's really important to understand that some are newer and "purpose built" - built as a B&B, and some are older and converted to B&Bs. Most are ensuite, meaning each room has it's own bathroom and shower, but on occasion, they are not. For the most part a "double" room means a room for 2 with a double bed, no queen-sized, or king-sized. They are not really what you would consider luxury accommodations, but very comfortable and homey.

Outside of a hotel or a self-catering cottage, a B&B gives you a better chance to meet people. Both the people from Ireland and others traveling to visit Ireland. Some B&B proprietors are very business like and only tend to the business at hand, others are much friendlier and spend some time getting to know their guests and chatting with them. Back in 2009, at a B&B in Dublin, Mary our hostess sat down in the evening and had a nip of whiskey with us while she shared about her life. It was great.

In all these plans we did make reservations at hotels in and around Dublin when we first arrive and the last 4 days before we leave. It was important to be closer to the center of things where walking would be our means of transportation. If you are staying in Dublin City Center you are within walking distance of most locations. It's not really a city I'd want to do much driving in.

As we approach our departure time in close to 80 days, we'll make a few more online reservations where we can save a little with online reservations, like the ferry to the Aran Islands, or a hop-on-hop-off tour of Dublin.

I wanted to post this little picture of one of those "out of the ordinary" sites. I hope we get a chance to go and see this little church.

Always read the fine print!

Here it is almost the middle of March and other than inquiries and airline reservations we have not moved ahead much. Part of this is our schedules being so hectic, and part it the need to look over the itinerary now that we have added one day at the front of the trip and 4 additional days at the end of the trip. Want to make sure we have planned for the time we want to have a rental car and not be stuck somewhere needing to travel across country at the last minute.

This post is about rental cars. I've been doing a lot of searching for the best prices and thought I had found a deal. Yesterday when I went to check the reservation again I realized that the car I was looking at was a manual. I can drive a stick shift, I'd just prefer not to. As I dug deeper in the "more info" on the site, I realized that the reason this rental cost was so good was also because the CDW was not included. That can run anywhere from 14 to 19 euros a day. For a 24 day rental like ours, that's a pretty penny.

So back to Thrifty.ie and I think we'll be getting something very small to save some money. So at this point we're looking at a Nissan Micra, or something similar. Sounds really, really small. We could upgrade to a VW Golf for about another 75 euros. We'll see.

I've used Thrifty before and it was just fine. In fact, compared to the other major car rental places their prices are better than the rest. Just when I thought I had a deal. Make sure you read the fine print! :)

I also get the feeling it's going to be totally packed with our luggage.

Only good news

I know the title here sounds like something momentous might be happening, but we are moving closer to all that we had hoped for in this trip, short of moving to Ireland :)

Since we are using airline points and credits we are at the mercy of the availability of seats on the airlines and trying to coordinate 2 different airlines on the same days can be pretty tough. We're flying to Chicago first and then on to Dublin. As it was yesterday morning the only way we could even be close with the two flights was to fly into Chicago on June 21st and fly out to Dublin on June 22nd arriving on the 23rd.

By just a fluke, American Airlines opened up some seats for airline points yesterday evening on the 21st! So now we will just transfer from Midway to O'Hare without an overnight stay. I was excited that I might get to see some Chicago friends, but not sure that will happen now. By making the flight all in one day, we get an extra day at the front end of our trip. Always a good thing.

We did have to work a little and purchase a few points to get the return flight we wanted. Considering that 90% of the flights were free, that was nothing to worry about. So now we'll be in Ireland for 4 weeks. And our flights back are all in one day, with just the airport transfer in Chicago. This next weekend will be the start of reservations for some of the specific locations that we know where we want to stay. Now that we have the extra day at the front and have added 4 extra days at the end, we need to make some adjustments to the itinerary.

Imagine, we have to think of more places to visit in Ireland! As if that will be difficult. We have already decided to spend a few days on the Antrim coast. That way we won't be rushed and can enjoy all the beautiful Antrim coastline and find those little hidden gems that most people don't know about.

So all in all only good news for this weekend and trip planning. :)

Small steps

While there is still plenty of time, I'm thinking our airline reservations will be firmed up this weekend. We needed to purchase some extra miles so we could extend our trip over one more weekend. This will be my longest stay in Ireland and I can't be more pleased.

I ordered some electrical adapters - I never did find the ones I had from before - and received them this week. I ordered through Rick Steves site. It was the best price and now that I have them I understand why. If you are doing this check to make sure the adapters have the ability to connect with US 3 pronged electrics. Fortunately, all the electrics I'm taking have only 2 US prongs. If I was taking a larger computer with me (I have a netbook that I travel with) I would need the 3 pronged adapter. These were quite cheap - $2 each, but the shipping was $6. In the long run, it was still a deal.

Also, still waiting for some lightweight luggage I ordered and a better small carry-on for the plane. It's not pretty, but it will do the job. Over the last couple of trips I have never taken more than a 26 inch suitcase. We'll stop to do laundry, so I should be fine. I don't like to have to drag heavy suitcases up flights of stairs in B&Bs, so I try to stay on the light side with luggage.

It's time for some spring cleaning in the house and I'll be going through closets and looking at clothes I want to take with me. I shouldn't need to purchase much except for basics like socks, but a nice new lightweight sweater that can be layered would be nice. It's always a little cooler along the Irish coasts like Galway Bay, and the Antrim Coast. Malin Head will probably be cooler and very windy from what I hear. I don't think I've ever been really cold in Ireland.

For some reason I've never made it to Belfast. That will be remedied this trip. A Hop-on-Hop-off tour and maybe a Black Cab ride for starters. And I definitely want to get to the famous Crown Liquor Saloon. Some places just can't be passed up.

Hopefully firmed up reservations will be done in the next two weeks. Now that we have extended the trip, we may have to change a few things around. Just have to be patient and wait for confirmed plane reservations. :)

It's the little details

Even though we have not made any reservations yet, except for the airline flights, there are still way too many details that cannot wait until the last minute. I try to think of what some of these are as I go along, but I'm not the most organized person. I have at least a couple of power adapters for our electrical appliances, but have no idea where they are. I'd like to try and avoid purchasing something I already own, so I need to start searching my drawers and locate them.

Another thing I always worry about is luggage weight. Since we are going for 3+ weeks, there is no way that we can take everything and never do any laundry. More on the laundry plan later. But with having to porter our own luggage up flights of stairs, I like to keep my luggage to one suitcase and just under the 50 pound airline limit. The suitcase I've always used is 14 pounds empty and this really causes problems when I'm trying to load it with clothes, and a few souvenirs when we head back. I spent a lot of online time today looking for luggage that was under 11 pounds. That seems to be the breaking point and even 3 pounds will make a difference. My other choice is to use a rolling duffel. A duffel can run around 7 pounds so that would be a nice weight to deal with. Still thinking about that one.

The last time I went to Ireland we did laundry twice. Would have liked to do it a third time, but we stretched things to last. In order to do laundry we need to be staying in a location for 2 days. Arrive one day, drop off the laundry the next morning, go sightseeing, and pick up the laundry before 5:00PM the second day. We have already planned where we will be and use at least one of the same laundries from my last trip. And in doing some research, one of the B&Bs we are planning to stay at provides laundry service. Yeah for that!

So my job for the next couple of weeks is to find my power adapters and some acceptable luggage. I also have to replace my travel "purse" for everyday. My old one had the zipper break on the last trip and I had to replace it after the first week. Definitely got my money's worth out of that one. Eagle Rock makes some wonderful travel accessories and I'll be checking that out.

Everything else will have to wait until about mid March when seriously get planning.

Looking forward

I was just looking at the countdown at the bottom of this page and realized that by St. Patrick's Day our trip will be less than 100 days away. Once that gets to double digit counting I'll be very happy.

This has been a very trying year, and this trip is just what's needed to relax and have a lot of fun. Other than plane flights we haven't yet made any other reservations. We have contacted some friends outside of Galway who have a B&B to let them know we are heading their way and another B&B that does cooking lessons (can't wait for that) to inquire about what they provide. This trip will definitely have a different focus in addition to the required sightseeing locations.

While I've seen a lot of Ireland, there are still little nooks and crannies and bigger places that elude my travels. I'm hoping to catch up on some of those this trip. There are always sites I love to return to for some very special reasons that hold very special memories.

I would love to get back to the National Museum of Archeology in Dublin again for a longer time. My first visit was for only about half an hour when I needed to make sure I saw the Tara Broach. I know there are so many more amazing exhibits to see there, so I'd like to have the opportunity to spend some more time wandering around.

I'm also looking to another visit to Killarney Park and hiking up to the Torc Waterfall. And while there we have to have a ride in a jaunting cart. There's nothing like walking the streets of Killarney in the evening with all the summer energy.

I really missed getting back to Donegal last trip and would like to drive the Inishowen 100 out to Malin Head. I understand the scenery is something to behold. And County Donegal is such a beautiful place to be. Maybe if we have time a side trip to Glenveigh Castle and the grounds will fit in.

This trip I'd like to fit in some of the wonderful Irish gardens as we travel. I've never done that before except for Powerscourt. I'm hoping to get to Seaforde Gardens in County Down. I've seen some pictures and would like to capture my own.

Enough reminiscing for now. There are still more than 100 days and lots of plans to put in place yet. Just a few reflections on this next trip.

The Plan

So here it is the beginning of February, 2011, and we have our flights, tentative at the moment, and a general plan for another trip to Ireland. For me this is trip number 4. For my traveling mate this is trip number 1. The great thing about this trip is that my traveling mate is taking an active part in planning and suggesting activities that I may never have thought about.

I love the planning part, whether I'm driving the plan, or whether someone is working with me on the plan. We're still haggling with American Airlines on trying to depart a day earlier and stay a few days later, but that all depends on when they release seats that can be purchased with airline miles. Whatever is meant to be, will happen for that.

I have gathered my maps and Rick Steve's 2011 travel book, but still need to find my electrical converters. I think I have two stashed away somewhere. All the little things I need to think about in the next 136 days. With all kinds of things going on at work, this helps to give me a focus on the future. While I'm excited, it's still doesn't seem real yet. Probably not until I actually get on the plane.
So goes post #1
A :)