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. :)

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 :)

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. :)

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.