ireland - day 6

this is bunratty castle. notice how it's much more compact than yesterday's castle? i took this as a very good sign. and inside it was amazing! all stone ... all medieval. you actual enter by crossing the drawbridge. take that kilkenny!


the terlet.


the drawbridge mechanisms (locked so you can't actually take over the castle by shutting out other tourists).


and, kid you not, the MURDER HOLE! so i'm standing, looking at the drawbridge mechanisms, and a tour guide comes out & tells me that i'm looking at the drawbridge mechanisms. and then says something along the lines of, "and if you look at the floor between us, you'll see the murder hole. this is where you would pour boiling oil on your enemies when they attacked." and then he walked away.

he's right. i would pour boiling oil on my enemies if they tried attacking my castle.


two of the four towers are open for tourists. although the stairs were a little tight ... it was great fun to be one top of the castle.


from the tower.

after bunratty we headed towards killarney & did some souvenier shopping. had lunch at a pub that had a bottle of haig sitting on their shelf. i'm sure marlana will post that photo. :)

after killarney we headed to kenmare to see how far around the ring of kerry we could get. it was getting late in the afternoon, though, so we knew we wouldn't go far. on the way, we stopped at the torc waterfall.


the walk to the waterfall was amazing in & of itself. every tree was covered in moss. it was the greenest path i've ever seen.


and the waterfall wasn't too bad, either. ;)


the lakes of killarney.


the stone ring in kenmare. a little disappointing. the assumption is that it functioned as a seasonal clock, much like stone henge. but it's scale is much smaller. the tallest rock is maybe four feet high. and it's hedged in such a way that it's impossible to get a photo of the whole scene.

we headed back to adare after the stone circle. we were tired, and we have to pack tonight as the flight home is fairly early. i can't believe i'm coming home tomorrow! yikes!


we drove back through the lakes of killarney on the way to adare. with the sun setting i couldn't help but stop & shoot more photos. we never saw a pretty colors sunset in ireland. it always seems to get really hazy as the sun's going down & it just gets dark. maybe it's a seasonal thing? regardless, it's still amazingly beautiful here.

we went back to sean's for dinner again tonight. we wanted to thank him for the fabulous advice on going to bunratty. tonight i drank a harp, my third irish beer. add the shot of jameson, and i'm pretty pleased with my trials of the local drinks. :)

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'becca doesn't want to leave.

ireland - day 5

we started our day today at the kilkenney castle. this stitched photo doesn't do it justice ... but i tried. basically the castle is shaped like a huge U - the photo has you look directly at the center portion & then there's a wing of the castle coming out on each side towards you. it's huge. and very pretty. the inside, however, has been restored to its victorian splendor.

ummm ... victorian splendor? there's no boiling oil in victorian splendor.


you're not allowed to take photos inside the kilkenney castle. and we all know that marlana & i are not ones to break rules. however, if we HAD chosen to break the rules, specifically by not using our flashes to draw attention, we would have captured victorian rooms like this.


and this. yes, they're pretty ... but it wasn't what we wanted. we really wanted a medieval castle with stone staircases and a drawbridge. so we were disappointed. after leaving the castle we drove around town twice trying to find an old ruined church we could see ... but we never figured out how to get there, so we finally just left.


our day perked up when we made it to the rock of cashel before they closed. we were a little concerned katie was against us today, as she felt the need to take us down a very obvious one-lane road to get to cashel. it is very hard to drive with purpose & determination when you're rounding blind corners with no where to go if you meet another vehicle.


the rock of cashel has served a variety of purposes over the years: church, castle and now tourist attraction. ;) there is no roof on probably 98% of the structure, and there were flocks of black birds swooping about. it was all very alfred hitchcock.


and very beautiful. there were only maybe 6 other people at the rock when we got there, so photo taking was easy and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. this totally made up for the disappointing victorian castle.


from the cemetery yard we could see another ruined structure down the road. (can you see it in the picture? no? that's because it's not there. silly reader.) so we asked the gal working the front counter what it was and how to get there.


this is hore abbey.


another magnificent set of ruins.


the town of cashel was our star today. ;)

we headed back to adare and went to sean collins' pub for dinner. turns out he also owns the pink potato cafe next door (where we ordered take-away burgers sunday night), so we put in our order & one of the gals from next door brought it over. tonight i tried a smithwick's - brewed in kilkenney and much more pleasing than their silly victorian castle. :) we had a good time at sean's. sean (yup, actual owner running the bar) was a nice fellow and well, i already told you about the boston boys, right? we had fun. sean turned on the end of the championship rugby match, and he and the fellow sitting next to marlana proceeded to explain the game to us. it was fun. those guys are tough!

we also got a good tip for tomorrow. we're going to bunratty castle (about half an hour away) to see if it won't erase the disappointment of kilkenney. we told sean & the other fellow that we were thinking of driving up to trim (north of dublin) to see another castle ... and they both told us we were crazy, to just go to bunratty instead. we were avoiding bunratty as the rick steves' book told us it was just an over-commercialized potty stop. but can two locals really be wrong?

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'becca can't believe tomorrow is her last day in ireland!

loss of power

we lost power in the villa last night, due to an amazing storm. when we get back tonight i'll do a double post for you. yesterday was a very good day, with a bit of a disappointing start. we went to kilkeney castle & then to the rock of cashel. but seriously, i'll tell you about it tonight. for now, we're headed out the door for bunratty castle on the advice of some locals in last night's pub.

oh! one funny pub story before we leave ...

we're sitting having dinner, and these two guys from boston come in. late 50's, early 60's i'd guess. anyway, yesterday was their first day here so they were still getting their bearings. and boston guy #1 is complaining (repeatedly) that he can't find a sport channel on tv. why can't he find a sports channel? don't they watch sports over here? bartender, don't you watch sports over here? where's the espn? and sean (the bartender) chuckles at him & finally says, "espn? what do you want us to do? sit around watching american football all day? it takes you four hours to play a one hour game!" everyone else laughs. and boston guy #2 points out that boston guy #1 is still upset because they couldn't find cheez-its at the grocery store. sean asks what cheez-its are, and the boston guys go on to describe the baked cheesy goodness. the boston guys ask us if we know what cheez-its are, and of course we do - we're from chicago. so again, sean chuckles at him & says, "am i speaking with an american accent? you're in ireland! we don't have cheez-its!"

it was a good time. :) the boston boys were having a bad first day. no sports; no cheez-its; they hit a curb hard enough to blow a tire; they had to wait 2.5 hours for someone to come replace the tire; and then they lost power that night (they were staying in the villas at the manor, as well). hopefully they do something amazing today. :)

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'becca is hoping to see where castle inhabitants would pour oil on the enemy today.

ireland - day 4

today has been my favorite day so far. better than the cliffs of moher, and i loved the cliffs of moher. it was my turn to drive, and i wanted to head south. i was originally thinking of driving the ring of kerry, but after reading the suggestions of rick steves (seriously, if you're going somewhere ... get a rick steves' guidebook. he's been a fabulous traveling companion so far.) i decided we should start by driving around the dingle peninsula and then hit the ring of kerry if we had time. i really figured we'd do both since the dingle peninsula road is only about a 35 mile loop. i was wrong. :) and while i have no idea what the ring of kerry looks like, dingle was amazing.


we grabbed a quick lunch in tralee on our way to dingle. the mickey d's sold curly fries! marlana confirmed that the mcdonald's in ireland do, indeed, sell shamrock shakes ... but unfortunately they were gone for the season.

from tralee to dingle we had two routes to choose from. one was tight, curvy & treacherous. the other was just tight & curvy. i, of course, opted for treacherous. :) why drive if you can't drive on the side of a mountain?


we stopped at the first available pullout, in part, because i wanted to get a photo of this sign. when we got out of the car, however, we realized ...


there was a waterfall right behind us! marlana, braver than i, scurried across the rocks for a photo and went under the bridge we'd just driven across to get photos. i admired her bravery and stayed on dry land. :)


this is at the connors pass view point. the haze was unfortunate, and the wind was ridiculously strong ... but the drive was still worth it. we had to pull way over on the side at one point to let a tour bus pass us ... but other than that, we were very fortunate on the tight road.

once we got to dingle, we relied on rick steves to give us a kilometer by kilometer (gotta love the metric system) guide to driving around the peninsula. seriously, i recommend taking him with you. dingle is classified as a gaeltacht, which means they're officially recognized by the government as as an irish-speaking region. the signs still had english subtitles, though, so we were good.


we got to ford a stream! it wasn't that the road was flooded ... it's simply built to ford the stream instead of building a bridge over it. thankfully, again, we were the only car on the road so we were able to stop & take a photo.

actually, the absence of other tourists has been one of the best parts so far. it's not like it's creepy abandoned ... it's just nice & calm. and we don't have to wait forever to get a photo without strangers in it.



this is it. this is the landscape that makes me breath deeply & exhale all the stress of everyday life. rocky coastlines are therapeutic for me. i could have sat myself down & stared at the waves for hours. at least, i could have if i wasn't so excited about continuing on. :)


we stopped at the gallarus oratory - an early church built between the 6th & 12th century. it looks like upside-down canoe, and it still completely waterproof inside. the walls are about 3 feet thick, and the doorway is about 5'6" tall. i had to duck a little. :)


and we stopped at the kilmalkedar church & cemetery. the surrounding land has risen so much over the years that you now have to go down three steps to get into the church's front door.

there was no way we could have even started the ring of kerry today. that road is at least three times the length of the dingle peninsula, and as it was we had a two hour ride home. home? maybe not home ... but we are feeling pretty comfortable here.


tonight's pub came complete with an illinois license plate. :) excuse the fuzziness of the photo - i'm against using my flash in restaurants. we started our meal with shots of jameson. we figured it only fair to celebrate the trip with a little irish whiskey. sure, it made my tonsils burn for awhile ... but i figured i'd cure that with a nice, refreshing guinness.


i tried marlana's guinness yesterday and enjoyed it more than any other beer i've tried. and it just seemed right to drink a pint in ireland. the bartender knew we were tourists (must be the lack of accent, right?) & my drink came with this cute li'l shamrock on top. i was not able to finish the pint. it was good, but heavy. and i did have a shot of whiskey already coursing through my veins.

speaking of tourists ... the majority of people we see in the pubs at night are americans tourists. tonight we saw at least three groups - a couple of which had just landed today.

we tried ordering a dessert we'd never heard of before, but they were out. the bartender suggested a strawberry peach cream cake ... yowza, that was good.

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'becca thinks today was her favorite so far.

ireland - day 3

note: if you're itching to see all the photos, they're available here on my flickr site.

today was, quite honestly, tiring. we set our alarm clocks & headed to dublin early. it was about 3.5 hours from where we're staying, but we wanted to see the city.


we rode a double-decker tour bus, which i love. i enjoy the commentary & frankly i see a lot more of the city that way. plus, it stops at all the major touristy places making my life easier. and i'm vacation - my life should be easier, right? :)


we didn't tour the guinness store house. we talked about it, but in the end neither of us really enjoys beer. so we skipped it. marlana did, however, have a guinness with her lunch today. i tried it - not bad.


the river liffey, which cuts through dublin east to west.


we did get off the bus at st. patrick's cathedral. we shot photos around the exterior, but didn't pay for the tour.


a random dublin building. sorry, i don't retain much of the information given in the commentary ... as much as i like hearing it. :)


the bus makes a loop in one place, plus was doing some detouring as the munster rugby team was being paraded home from their championship the day before. and we rode part of the route twice. apparently i liked this church. because this is the first shot i took of it.


and then i shot it again half an hour later.


and then i shot it again about 5 hours after that.


this little sign was above the door on the top of the bus. i think it's just good advice no matter where you are.

we had lunch in dublin at o'brians, i think. a nice place with carvery lunches (choice of a half a dozen meats & then as many of the dozen or so sides available that you want). nothing in the eating area seemed to suggest that the bathrooms would be lit by black lights ... so that was a surprise. :)

we hit several souvenir shops, as well, but still didn't find my sweatshirt. i've got a few days left to hunt ... i'll find it!

dublin was nice, but i enjoyed yesterday at the cliff's more. when the countryside is that beautiful, why spend time in the city? we headed home, grabbed take away at the pink potato cafe in adare & chilled out at the villa. marlana gets extra credit for driving in dublin. the first parking garage we tried finding literally ended with a sign pointing us to an empty ally. and it took katie some time to get her bearings to lead us back out when the day was over.


i haven't been able to pass up the irish candy selections. the top one was bought simply because it said "it's NOT for girls" on it, and i've never been good at following rules. :) it was just milk chocolate; nothing too special. the other two were very tasty. white chocolate with hazelnut filling and dark chocolate with praline filling. yummy.

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'becca thinks she driving through the mountains tomorrow.

ireland - day 2

the villas, inside & out. we're in one of the end units, so we only share walls with one neighbor. and either the walls are well sound-proofed or no one is living next door.

fabulous irish brogue story of the day: we stop at the manor house this morning to ask about the internet not working. a fellow named patrick comes out to help us, mentions it may simply be the card that's not working and offers to give us another one to try. we agree to give it a shot, both wondering what we'll do with an internet card that we probably won't know how to install. but it's worth a shot, right? so he goes in back & comes out carrying a coiled ethernet cable and says, "here ya go, try this card. if it doesn't work, just bring it back & we'll have someone come out and look at it for you." immediately, in our heads, we both say, "oooooh! you said CORD!" luckily we didn't embarrass ourselves by saying it out loud. :) i do love the irish brogue.

as a side note, the card did not work. we'll return it tomorrow and probably just make our peace with being internet-less in the villa. we can use the manor house business centre if we need to, but being disconnected on vacation isn't such a bad thing. (you vicarious-livers will just have to be patient.)


today was my first day of driving. it didn't take as long to get used to as i thought. oh, and we have a new car! katie, our gps unit, came with a card that plugs into the cigarette lighter to charge her battery, but it doesn't fit snugly. so every time the car shakes it turns off & on, which really puts katie in a tizzy. so we returned the original car & got a different one. still tiny, still cute. :) it actually ended up being an issue with the card, and not the car ... but the fellow already had the paperwork done to swap cars before we realized that. so we got both. :)

yeah, driving. not as hard to get used to as i thought it would be. some of the roads tend to be narrow, and i think katie actually enjoys directing us through ridiculous routes. it's fun ... and a bit scary. :) she took us down one road today that there was NO WAY two cars could have passed each other. however, luck of the irish, we didn't see another car on that road so it was never an issue.



we did, however, see a fabulous cemetery today, so we stopped to take photos. i'm sure the locals think american tourists are crazy. to them, this was just another cemetery. but for us, it's all this fabulous history - the likes of which we'll never have here. and the fact it was on a hill overlooking a beach? just another luck-of-the-irish bonus, i'm sure.


today's big goal was to visit the cliffs of insanity, from princess bride. okay, so the goal was to visit the cliffs of mohr ... but they ARE the cliffs of insanity from princess bride. and they ARE amazing. :) if we had more time, i'd suggest we return to the cliffs later in the afternoon some day. that way, the sun would be behind us, lighting up the cliff sides for better photos. we were surprised at the weather, however. so far, we haven't hit any real rain ... i think we used the windshield wipers once today. i mean, the wipers literally made one single pass across the windshield. not what we were expecting. luck of the irish, again?


this is the view if you turn away from the cliffs of mohr. i suppose it might technically still be part of the cliffs of mohr, but it's opposite the famous pictures. regardless, this view had the sun hitting it quite nicely. :)


i think they want visitors to be aware of the danger of the cliffs.

we had lunch at the cliffs of mohr visitor centre and did a little souvenir shopping, as well. i found a sweatshirt that i really liked, but they didn't have my size. hopefully i can find it elsewhere, or at least another one i like. it just seems right that i should take home a green sweatshirt that says ireland. :)


hey, even in ireland i can shoot photos while i drive, right? :)


irish countryside with that clear sunny sky that surprised us.


after the cliffs, we headed northeast through the burren, an especially rocky area that was home to the poulnabrone portal tomb. pretty amazing to look at, and the rocky landscape was slightly baffling. i felt like i might have been walking on the moon. i mean, i know i wasn't ... but it was really cool.

after the portal tomb & the burren we continued north to ballyvaughn and then a little ways east to hit a major road to take back to the manor. the tiny roads were thrilling during the daylight ... but i really wanted to avoid them once the sun set. :) we ended up having dinner at this little cafe with fabulous pizza & delectable desserts in the town of gort.

tomorrow we're heading to dublin - big city, here we come! :)

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'becca had an amazing day today.