Ireland Blog
A number of people have mentioned to me that they wanted pictures and updated emailed to them while we are on our upcoming trip to Ireland. Rather than composing individualized emails to each of you, or composing a form letter email to everyone I decided that I would try and do the blog thing instead. How this is updated will depend heavily on the internet connectivity that we have available to us each day. Because we will be traveling most of the week, mileage may vary. :) Hope you enjoy this!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:28:10 AM
Preparation:
Nothing too exciting to see here. Just adding the first entry which includes a list of crap I need to do yet. :) Can’t wait till we leave. Should be a great trip and it will be very nice to get away from here for a bit.
Stuff to buy:
o – Internation Calling Card
o – Power Converter and appropriate adapter
o – Road Map of Ireland
Stuff to do:
o – Get Traverlers Cheques
o – Get reading material for flight
o – Pick up car voucher from Travel Agency
o – Pack (Oy!)
o – Map out our sight seeing desintations
o – Charge camera(s)
o – Register our trip with https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/home.asp
There has to be a thousand other things that we need to do yet. But this is all I can think of at the moment.
Sunday, July 16, 2006 12:40:29 PM
Better Late than never…
We’ve finally found the internet! You’d think we were in a third world country or something. I’ll give a quick run down of the time we’ve been here. There won’t be any pictures today but I think that we’ll get to put some up tomorrow morning.
The flight was loooooong. We were delayed in Louisville so much that we only made our flight to Ireland by a few minutes. Once we were on that plane thought hings went pretty smoothly. That is until we got here and found that our checked bag had been lost. We still haven’t gotten it although we’ve been told it should be delivered to our B&B when we get back there late tonight.
We saw Bunratty Castle and Village on our first day here and got some great pictures. We also checked out the village near our B&B and its very quaint. The night was restful but the Irish breakfast we’d hoped for wasn’t available because of a power outage. The very nice couple that is hosting us promises a better breakfast tomorrow.
Today we saw the Cliffs of Moher and The Burrens. Kelly is absolutely terrified of my driving here. I think I’m doing fine. I think she keeps her eyes closed most of the time.
We’re posting this from an internet cafe in Ennis. A smallish town northwest of Limerick. It took us forever to find one that was open. Apparently they roll up the sidewalks here at 6pm.
If you are expecting a call from us then you’ll have to wait a bit longer. The phone card we have works great but the B&B we are in doesn’t have a phone, so we still have to pay the phone booth toll which is quite steep. We expect that there will be a phone in the hotel room in Dublin so expect to hear from us then.
Monday, July 17, 2006 4:38:48 AM
Pictures!
We’re a little pressed for time so I’ll just throw these up and come back to add a little more description later.
Check em out!
We’re having a great time!
*** adding some text so these pictures mean something! ***
This is our rental. Just took it for the heck of it. Turns out Pueguot(sp?) makes half way decent cars. :)
This is Bunratty Castle. We saw this on our first day before we’d even reached out B&B. It was really cool. We went back the next night and attended a ‘Midievel Banquet’. It was really cool. Check out todays (18th) post for pics of that.
This is the guest quarters of Bunratty Castle. We thought it was weird that the guest quarters were far nicer than the actualy Earls quarters.
Kelly in the gardens at Bunratty village.
A view of the countryside from atop Bunratty Castle
This was the pub in Bunratty village where we ate lunch our first day.
The church in Bunratty village.
This was Collins Pub in Adare village. We had dinner there on our first night in Ireland.
The Cliffs of Moher. Bloody awesome.
Same.
Kelly and I in front of the cliffs.
This is Corkscrew Hill. This wasn’t on our list of places to visit but it snuck up on us. Pretty much the scariest road ever. :)
This was just a cool road in Adare that we walked down. I wanted to wait for those people to move but Kelly was getting annoyed. ;)
The gardens at Adare Manor. We didn’t get to go in but there were plenty of cool pictures to be had on the outside.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 1:56:20 PM
Dublin!
Well we’ve finally reached Dublin! Yesterday was a fun but long day. We drove out of the Limerick/Shannon area and into Cashel where we’d spend our last night in a B&B before heading on to Dublin. After checking into our B&B we headed straight back out of town to Waterford. Waterford is where Irelands famous Crystal is made. We didnt’ get to check out the factory however because we got lost on the way. :(
We did get to drive down to a place called ‘Passage East’ and take a cool Car Ferry over to Ballyhack a small fishing village. From there we drove over to Donbrody Abbey. It’s in ruin but was incredibly cool. We got some great pictures from that that I’ll post soon. We went back to Cashel after that and had a nice dinner at a place called The Cellar Bar. No picture unfortunately. I forgot to bring my camera and Kellys has dead batteries. :P
This morning we had a nice breakfast at the B&B and the checked out the ‘Rock of Cashel’, a castle on top of a huge hill in Cashel. We got some good pictures of that as well. You can check them out below.
After that we started the 2.5 hour treck into Dublin. The drive to Dublin was fine and with a little roaming we even found our hotel without much trouble. Once we found our hotel we went to take the car back to Hertz. Thats where the trouble started. Dublin traffic is absolutely insane. I’ll leave it at that. We were lost and driving in circles for over an hour. But now we are done with the car and the driving… I couldn’t be happier since Kelly refused to touch the steering wheel. :)
Someone mentioned the weather. It’s the craziest thing. Apparently this is the best weather they’ve had since 1976. Any other time and the country would be miserable as always. What luck!
And Don, the entire time I was in Limerick I was Mr. O’Sullivan whether I liked it or not… You say sullivan and they hear O’Sullivan.
Check out these pictures from our stay in Cashel.
This is the B&B we stayed at in Cashel. It’s called the Ladyswell House. We thought the yellow door was cool
This is the entrance to the Chapel at the Rock of Cashel. It’s mostly in ruin but they are working to preserve its current state.
We aren’t sure what the building is. It was off in the distance and looked neat so I zoomed in a took a quick shot.
The holy Mother. This was a statue on a headstone that I thoguht looked cool.
One of the few remaining ’round towers’ in Ireland. This one was built in the 1200s. It’s part of the Rock of Cashel as well.
The Chapel from the inside.
Also from the inside of the Chapel. Facing the ‘Choir’.
From the outside of the ‘Choir’ area.
A shot of the sleepy Cashel village take from the Rock of Cashel wall.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:11:59 PM
More Pictures!
Here are some more pictures from Monday. Somehow I missed posting any pics from that day. These are mostly of the Abbey that we visited after riding on the car ferry. There aren’t many but they are good ones. :)
I’ll be posting some pics from Dublin soon!
Probably the last rolling hill you’ll see from us now that we are in Dublin. This was just outside the Abbey. What a beautiful country.
The Abbey ruins. This was a cool place because there was no guide. We just got to roam about on our own.
You will never seen cool walls like this in the US. It’s a shame.
A shot from inside the Abbey. It was a very large place but so much of it has collapsed.
The only fully intact part of the Abbey. This tower looks solid as the day it was built.
This is just outside the Abbey. I guess this is the front of it. I thought it was a cool shot.
Thats all for now! More to come!
Anthony and Kelly
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:41:42 PM
Dublin Pictures
Dublin is a real city. Not sure what I expected but Dublin is a real city with TONS of people. Everywhere you go the side walks and parks are packed with people. Lots of locals but they seem to be mostly tourists and visitors.
Ireland is known for its artists and musicians and you can tell why. Every side street and courtyard has atleast one street performer. We’re having a great time. there is so much to see and so little time.
Here are some pics of the places we’ve visited and a few street performers as well.
This picture isn’t all that great. It was about a half second exposure. What makes it cool is that I wasn’t supposed to take it. there is no photography allowed in the library. Shhhhhh!
This is the courtyard at Trinity College where the library is.
These two were hard at work with this very cool side walk art.
These guys were setup outside of the ice cream shop we’d stopped at. The drummer is playing a few pots and a guitar case. LOL!
This was taken from across the street from Christs Church Cathedral which is the subject.
This is from the courtyard of Christs Church Cathedral.
The crypts below Christs Church Cathedral.
Another of the crypts.
From the park next to St. Patricks Cathedral. Thats Kelly on the bench. :)
Inside St. Patricks Cathedral.
Another from the inside of St. Patricks Cathedral.
Well we’ve got to go get some grub. Lata!
A&K
Thursday, July 20, 2006 4:49:22 PM
Crazy Dubliners!
Hey all! We visited the Guinness Brewery today. That was tons of fun, for me anyway. Kelly enjoyed it but she doesn’t drink Guinness so she couldn’t fully experience the magic. After that we went to the Dublin Zoo. It’s a lot like home except it’s seems to be a lot more spread out. Much larger areas for the animals. As a result there were probably fewer animals but it was still fun and I got some good pictures.
We are really enjoying the Dublin lifestyle, corrupted as it may be by our tourist itinerary. We start everyday with a big breakfast and end it with several pints of our favorite brew (I do at least!). Sprinkle in a few pints throughout the day and you’ve pretty much got our day in a nutshell.
Yesterday we had dinner in an Italian resturant where we were served by a french waitress while sitting next to a canadian couple, all this while in Ireland. We thought this was quite funny.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Ireland. We plan to take it easy and try not to do too much ‘touristy’ stuff. We’re gonna head down to the harbor and hang out a bit. Other than that we’ll just eat and drink and be merry. :) I think we’re both feeling a bit homesick but we’re having a great time. We miss air conditioning and free refills terribly. Hehe.
See you all soon.
Anthony and Kelly
Friday, July 21, 2006 12:31:40 PM
Boring but relaxing… :)
Today hasn’t been all that exciting. We woke up late and barely made breakfast. Then we took a long walk down the Liffey, the river that runs through the middle of Dublin. I got some great pictures of some old boats at the docks and a few good ones of the seagulls flying about.
We cut our walk a little short when we noticed that it was looking like rain. It never rained but it was about as close as we’re gonna get though. It cleared up and is nice and sunny now.
After we got back from our walk we headed to the pub for lunch and some Guinness. Thats really about all we’ve done today. We head back tomorrow and a nice relaxing day is just what we needed. We’re headed down to dinner here in a few. when we get back I’ll put some pictures up.
Lata!
Anthony and Kelly
Friday, July 21, 2006 2:36:05 PM
More Pictures!
Here are some pictures from the past two days here in Dublin. There are pictures from the Dublin Zoo, the Guinness Brewery and the Liffey river. I cropped several of them to give a better view of the subjects. Not all of the animals are cooperative and run right up to the camera and pose. :)
This was a cool waterfall at the Guinness Brewery.
A bunch of pint glasses ready to be filled at the ‘Gravity’ bar in the Guinness Brewery.
A pint of Guinness, slightly molested by myself. :)
Me drinking a pint.
Kelly… drinking a coke… in the Guinness Brewery. I shed a tear…
Now starts the Zoo pictures. Monkeys… you get the idea.
Orangatan. I probably misspelled that.
An Arctic Fox. the zoo people came in to feed them and he ran right up to me.
We arrived just in time for the sea lion feeding. It was kinda cool. Way too many people though.
Sumatran tiger, I think. He was just lying against the glass.
Hungry Hungry Hippos!
These Rhinos got into a scuffle while we were watching. Pretty cool.
I don’t think this monkey liked Kelly…
I’m lucky I got any pictures of the lion. The people were crammed up to see them.
Red Panda. We thought it looked like a kitty cat.
Dave… do you want me to eat your other kidney?
It’s an ass… on it’s ass. Good times.
This is a bridge on the Liffey. I took another picture of it before from another angle. Might have already posted it… oh well!
A neat statue on the Liffey.
Kelly and I’ve eaten at this resturant several times since we’ve been here. they have awesome breakfast.
Just an interesting shot as we were walking along the river.
This is a neat boat we saw on the river. Kelly and I thought this mast chick was kinda creepy.
A seagull.
Thie is the entrance to the Blooms Hotel. This is where we’ve been staying in Dublin.
Thats probably the last of the pictures for the trip. We’ll throw up a post before we leave tomorrow.
Anthony and Kelly
Saturday, July 22, 2006 3:02:34 AM
Farewell Ireland!
Well our trip draws to an end. We’ve had a great time and barring flight problems we’ll be back in the states soon. Thanks to all you guys who’ve been watching this. It’s been an awesome trip but we are ready to come home.
Time to go find some breakfast befpre we head off to the airport.
See you soon!
A&K
