Kilkenny to Rathangan to Dublin

Yesterday, we checked out the castle in Kilkenny and then lazed around the adorable town for a while before setting out to meet up with our friend Bernie's fabulous sister and husband in Rathangan. It was wonderful to meet Phil, Dom, and their daughters and have a wonderful dinner. Phil certainly made sure I was well fed!!

Today we made our last drive in the rental car as we headed toward Dublin and turned in the poor beat up ol' vehicle. We're now checked into the hotel in Dublin and are getting ready to head out for our last day in Ireland


The castle in Kilkenny:

My growing bump:

A yummy mocha in Kilkenny:

A Day of Castles

Ok, so I posted the pics of us kissing the Blarney Stone, here I will also post the actual pictures of the castle (I ran out of time yesterday). Yesterday, we first stopped at Blarney Castle before popping up to the Rock of Cashel to see the castle there. Here are some of the photos:

Blarney Castle (this is the castle we had to climb to the top to kiss the stone):

These narrow, circular stairs were the way up and down -- a little nerve wracking:

Here's the castle at Cashel:

A random castle in the distance:

After our castle experience, we made our way to our hotel in Kilkenny. Once we checked in, we popped into a pub where the kind bartender told us his bar pretty much sucked and to head down the street if we wanted to have a good time. We followed his sage advice and came apon a lovely old dive of an Irish pub with tons of locals and live Irish tunes. We spent some time there just enjoying ourselves before heading back to the hotel for night-night.

(BTW - this is what I mean by enjoying ourselves... lol!!!)

So today we're off to check out the castle here in Kilkenny (which I can see from our hotel window) before heading up to visit a dear friend's sister just north of Kildare for the night. It will be a relaxing day! I can't believe we only have a few days left!!!

Thank Goodness for Insurance

We're very happy that we took the full insurance coverage on our rental car. We've actually not done any damage to the car, but it seems that others have hit us a few times (never when we're in the car). We just keep noticing new little dings and holes in the car! LOL!!!

Kissing the Blarney Stone

After dragging ourselves several stories up a terrifying castle tower today, Chad and I both kissed the Blarney Stone!

Ireland Strawberries Rock

Ok, so I'm not sure what is different about strawberries grown in Ireland -- but they are soooooooooo good! They are smaller and sweeter than the strawberries I've had in the U.S. They sell 'em all over the place on roadside stands and I'm addicted.

Finally, An Open Laundry Facility

This morning we managed to find a laundry facility that was actually open and could do our laundry for us. It seems that there are not many "do it yourself" laundromats here in Ireland, so a nice older chap named James is washing, drying, and folding our clothes. I'm sure he'll appreciate my hot pink Victoria's Secret undies that say "Bite Me" on the back. Oy!

So it will take two hours for Sir James to wash and fold our laundry, then we can take off to check out the Blarney Stone, ending up in Kilkenny for the night. It looks like it will be a decent day with plenty of "sunny spells" -- so it should be a good drive!

Day Off in Killarney

After a week of solid touring, Chad and I decided to take a "day off" in Killarney. So, we slept in, had a fab breakfast, TRIED to do laundry (laundromats aren't open on Sundays -- one more day of being stinky I guess), and then took off for a lovely walk in the national park here. Of course that walk turned out to be a FOUR HOUR hike! Wow am I sore. However, that made it so I didn’t feel guilty eating ice cream later. There is something called"sea salt" ice cream at this cute little place down the street that is soooo good. They mix it with caramel ice cream – amazing!

Here are some pics from our hike (btw -- I sorta look like a homeless person because all of the rest of my clothes are dirty. LOL!!!)

Off to kiss the Blarney Stone tomorrow!!

Stable Sheep

I'm just always amazed how the sheep can stand on the side of a mountain and not roll off!!

Driving to Dingle

Ok, so after spending the morning sick to my stomach at the B&B (I now apparently have an aversion to eggs -- go figure, one bite and I wanted to barf) -- we managed to get on the road and on our way to Dingle before hitting Killarney. We saw so many beautiful sights on the penninsula and are so glad we took the time to check it out. Here are some of the pics:

After our lovely sight seeing, we again SOMEHOW made it to our next B&B with no real directions! LOL!! Chad is doing an amazing job driving on the opposite side of the road with me barking out things like, "ummmm, TURN HERE." We spent the night out in cute Killarney, met some fabulous Germans and had drinks with them at a pub, then dined on some fine Italian food (I know, we're in Ireland, but days and days of fish and chips and stew get old). And I do have to say that my goat cheese and walnut pizza with maple syrup on it was FABULOUS!! YUM! Now, it's off to beddie-bye! Night!

Galway to Bunratty

We had an amazing day yesterday in County Clare, despite some more downpours. We left our B&B after a fabulous breakfast and headed south. Our first stop, the Alwee Cave. It‘s a wild cave that was found to be used by bears to hibernate in around 10,000 years ago! It was really cool to walk down into the pitch black cave and the scenery from the mountaintop where the cave wound underground was just beautiful.

From there we drove to a really cool looking monument. It stood all alone out in the middle of a bunch of rocks. We didn’t take too many pictures as it was down pouring at this point!

Then it was off to the Cliffs of Moher . Thankfully, the sun popped out (we had a “sunny spell” as they call it here), so we had some great views of the cliffs! It was still rather windy though, so I was thankful that I had my warm wool sweater that my new sheep friends made! LOL!!

We then made our way to Bunratty Castle where we checked into our next B&B for the night and headed off to our Medieval Banquet at the castle. It was a bit pricey, but very fun. The food was actually quite good and the actors put on quite a show.

We ended our evening at a bar called Dirty Nelly’s across the street from the castle where we made friends with a bunch of Americans as well as several locals. We spent a few hours chatting and drinking (they had decent non-alcoholic beer for me – yay) and just having a grand old time!

Today we're off to Dingle!

Rainy Drive to Galway

Unfortunately our good luck with the weather did not hold out for our drive from Donegal to Galway. We took the scenic route, which was pretty -- but downpours made it a little terrifying from time to time. Many of the side roads here are very tiny and prone to flooding and it makes you want to scream at the top of your lungs when a truck comes speeding at you on the opposite side of the road! I have to say, Chad did a great job. Unfortunately, many of our pictures of the beautiful scenery just did not come out due to the foggy, rainy conditions.

Without any detailed maps or GPS, we did amazingly make it right to our B&B outside of Galway. I always did feel I had a pretty good sense of direction -- thank goodness! Once checked in, we headed into the city of Galway for some shopping and food. I bought my very first Irish wool sweater! And I NEED it as the pouring rain and 50 degree temps are making me shiver! I also had one of the BEST desserts of my life here in Galway -- warm chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream. It had sort of a chocolate cake outside with heavenly warm and creamy chocolate inside. YUM!!!!! Galway is a gorgeous little city and I wish we had more time to spend

here, but it's time for bed now and we'll be off to sight-see in County Clare tomorrow, ending up at Bunratty for another night.

Beautiful Donegal

We had a nice drive from Ballycastle to Donegal today. We stopped to check out a castle along the way. I also have to say that I have seen more sheep already in Ireland than I imagined there were in the whole world! LOL!! Once we got to Donegal, we had a bit of a sunny break so we went to check out the Slieve League (fabulous cliffs).

Dunluce Castle:

The cliffs (and sheep):

No Island Today

We were really hoping to be able to pop over to Rathlin Island this morning to try and see the puffins and seals, however we've discovered there is a funeral going on there this morning and we won't be able to get a ticket for the ferry. I guess I just wasn't meant to be there. Oh well. We've just finished a fabulous breakfast at our B&B and are ready to check out and drive west to Donegal.

Belfast for the Day

It started out as quite a rainy and dreary day, so instead of braving the waters to try and get to Rathlain Island to see the puffins, Chad and I drove an hour south to Belfast. We ended up buying tickets on one of those double decker sight seeing busses and had a great time. Many of the political and religious murals around Belfast are very powerful and moving!

The Rope Bridge & Giant's Causeway

After the gorgeous drive north, we checked into our adorable B&B in Ballycastle and did some sightseeing. We traversed the terrifyingly high rope bridge between some cliffs as well as hiked Giant's Causeway.

The Rope Bridge:

Giant's Causeway:

Gorgeous Drive into Northern Ireland

The drive into Northern Ireland along the coast was absolutely breathtaking! The thin, twisty roads made for some nervous moments, but overall the drive was great. The one issue was that once we crossed into British territory, there were signs indicating that the speed was now in MPH instead of KPH -- only problem... our speedometer was only in KPH! LOL!! We did some fast conversions, especially after seeing the signs that speed was enforced by cameras -- YIKES!! ;-P