I've been one lucky lady this year with travel opportunities! My husband flew out to visit his company's offices in 3 countries in Europe, and I was able to join him Sept. 8-16 on the middle leg in Dublin, Ireland.
We spent the first couple days in Killarney in the southwest corner of Ireland. We stayed at the wonderful Loch Lein Country House and enjoyed the grounds of nearby Muckross House, which had the Torc waterfall on the property along with the lake seen behind us and lots of walking paths:
There's the house way back on the expansive lawn. I didn't get to see inside as the last tour of the day had already left when I got in there.
From Muckross, we proceeded to drive a portion of the Ring of Kerry that was scenic but alarmingly narrow. (I say "we," but all credit goes to my husband, who drove a stick-shift rental car the whole time. He had to shift with his left hand as the steering wheel was on the right while remembering to keep left and not get in a head-on collision--nuts!).
After mistaking a hiking trail for the continuation of our path, we took some pictures at the beautiful Gap of Dunloe (below), then relaxed with a nice meal in Killarney and slept in till 11:30 the next morning, partly from jet lag I'm sure--Ireland is 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time--and partly from the harrowing drive.
It was nothing but heavy rain the next day, but we did stumble upon the best pastries either of us had eaten in our lives at Petit Delice in Killarney. He had a superb chocolate croissant, and I had this flat sugar donut thing with what tasted like homemade strawberry freezer jam inside--nom nom nom!
The event of that day was touring Ross Castle, which is actually a kind of mini castle called a tower house. It was likely built in the 1400s and had some interesting history and design features:
I was very amused by the super short tunic this soldier wore; I saw his picture in the small museum and waiting area before our tour began:
The next morning was sunny, so we planned on playing a short par 3 golf course, but it was raining again by the time we were ready. We decided to drive on to Dingle, a charming small village I'd read good things about. On our way, we stopped at Inch Beach, which may have been my favorite single spot if I was forced to pick. The sand was super compact, the water was shallow for many yards out, and the water was surprisingly warm:
The surrounding scenery was decent too:
Here's The Bravest Guy Around in our rental car. He figured out we were covered for car insurance in Ireland through a Chase credit card we have--who knew?
From the beach we followed signs for Slea Head drive, a half day excursion that wasn't as crowded as I'd read it might be. We lucked out with the weather as you can see:
We attended church on Sunday in a small Mormon branch in Tralee with maybe 40 people in attendance. They do have their own multi-floor building, which was nice to see, as opposed to renting a spot. Their dedication in a heavily Catholic country was inspiring.
On our drive back to Dublin, we stopped at the Rock of Cashel, a castle and cathedral where we again felt the impact of how old everything is in Ireland and learned more about what jerks the English were, Oliver Cromwell in particular.
There were crowds of people lining the road almost all the way back to Dublin for some sort of rally car race. The road wasn't shut down or anything, we just kept getting passed by very speedy, expensive cars. We started waving to the spectators from our Ford Fiesta. This was more entertaining to us than to most of them, but we did get several waves back.
It was fortunate that my husband got to have 4 days off to visit the countryside, but he didn't have any time for sight-seeing in Dublin as he was working. I kept busy by riding a hop-on, hop-off bus for two days. It was a great way to learn TONS of history and not get lost.
My favorite site in Dublin was the library at Trinity College. I originally went to Trinity to see the famous Book of Kells, a beautifully impressive book of the four gospels of the New Testament that was created by monks around the year 800. After I saw it, I didn't know I'd be treated to this:
It was two stories of shelves filled with books that looked so old and magical they could have been props for a movie. Busts of famous authors and philosophers lined the sections of the lower level with a barrel vaulted ceiling above:
I found my artwork souvenir in the library gift shop. It's the Trinity College library done in the style of the Book of Kells:
I also visited Marsh's library, which was smaller and even older than Trinity; it was established in the early 1700s. People were originally shut up in these cages and chained to the desk while they read so they wouldn't steal the valuable books:
The lovely St. Patrick's Cathedral was also a stop that day. Did you know Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels, etc.) was the head (a.k.a Dean) of this cathedral for more than 30 years and is buried in the floor? I didn't think he was particularly religious, let alone a clergyman.
The very colorfully patterned floor was installed in the mid 1800s when local businessman Benjamin Guinness spent major money to restore the cathedral:
Dublin Castle had many beautiful rooms, but this navy and gold one where formal government events are still held was a stand out:
Fourteen men who participated in the 1916 Rising that eventually led to Ireland's independence were executed by firing squad in this yard:
Although I really liked the Green Bus tour, in hindsight I would have done the red hop-on, hop-off bus as its route included a stop at Glasnevin Cemetery. As it was, I had to figure out a leg on the regular city bus to get there, but it was worth it for the informative walking tour and very well done exhibits, not to mention the beauty of the grounds:
A few random tidbits: the buildings near our hotel in Dublin had brightly colored doors in a variety of colors:
This pot of beans was part of the hotel's breakfast--I never tried them--along with more meat and veggies than we usually serve in the U.S. for a morning meal:
The Dingle Skellig hotel was just okay overall, but they did have a mini pancake machine! It made adorable, delicious pancakes and was the first I'd ever seen:
Despite the rainy, cold climate, the Irish seem to like their ice cream. It was readily available:
I ate so many candy bars! I love trying ones I've never seen before. Cadbury Dairy Milk was my favorite, the honeycomb and mint crisp varieties in particular:
We brought "edible paper" home for the kids, which tasted like an ice cream cone. A couple sheets of the paper had "tongue tattoos" that were pretty cool:
Some other observations: signs that warned of "traffic calming;" "sale agreed" instead of "sale pending" on a property; there was a bottle opener attached to the side of the bathroom counter in our Hilton Dublin hotel; we saw a man with "Social Welfare Inspector" on the back of his fluorescent yellow vest talking to someone who got pulled over in a car--the name seemed straight out of a George Orwell book; I sampled the brown bread ice cream at Murphy's, which was kind of like ice cream with Grape Nuts and was strangely good, but I never got a chance for a full serving as the shop was closed for the night when we went back.
My mother-in-law should really never give us a Christmas or birthday present ever again as she single-handedly cared for our kids while we were away. Temperatures reached 100 degrees for the first 3 days we were gone...and we don't have air conditioning in our house. She faced the uncertainties of getting around based on my written instructions and a hard copy map as she doesn't use a computer or have a cell phone. It was not an easy task, and we are forever grateful to her!
