Headed Home

We had arrange to be picked up this morning at 6am...the only good part of that was that there was no traffic to slow us down.  One of my biggest worried was the return home flight.  We had a flight form Dublin to heather and them a 3 hours layover before our flight to Philadelphia .  Sine the flight were booked completely separately we have to exit the airport and recheck in-  This was the whole reason why we each only had a carry on back for our trip.  I was afraid of getting delayed claiming backs.  going form one terminal to the next etc etc.  

We boarded our flight in Dublin.  Then the pilot announces a delay due to something on the runway. - We later find out that two Ryan Air planes had hit - We were one Air Lingus - they were sure to mention it was Ryan Air to a chuckle from the passengers.  We arrived at Heathrow and started the trek form Terminal 2 to Terminal Three - which sounds like it should be close but thee airport is HUGE.  We had to go back out and check in for our USAIR flight and back through security.  It went pretty smooth and we finally had a chance to sit and have breakfast.  

I tried once again to do a little shopping but no luck...

We boarded the plane and head back to to Philadelphia.  

Great trip!  I am so glad some of my family came along and I am sure eye had a great time!

Day Two Dublin and the Last day of Vacation...

The plan today was of course to explore Dublin.  I do have to add that I really Liked Dublin...I definitely did not get to do any shopping on pretty much the elope trip..and briefly tried in Dubline  but no purchases.  I would love to go back and do some shopping in Dublin.

This morning we walked over to Trinity College for a tour.  We stopped and had a light breakfast then to the college.

The college is beautiful!  All of the tours are lead by students.  They give you a lot of great history and info about the college.  The most interesting part I thought was about the scholars.  In Dec of their sophomore year students can take a test.  The highest scores are made scholar.  Their tuition and housing is then free for the next 5 years!  The test actually covers material that you may not learn until the end of your Junior year so you really have to study and be prepared of the test.  But what a amazing payoff!

The tour finishes with a viewing of the Book of Kells which is quite the masterpiece.  and a visit to the Trinity College Library which was amazing!  

After we finished our tour of trinity we hoped on the Tour bus.  We hopped off at the Dubline Castle.  Another castle for my mom to add to her list.  We did our own self led tour around the castle.  Very cool!

On to our next and last stop on on vacation..the Guinness Storehouse.  I am sure it is always crowded and today was no different.  It is a self guided tour through several different areas telling all about the family and the brewing process.  One part you go through a sensory taking experience.  You start in an all white room where you can smell each of the elements.  You are given a small sample to take with you into the next room.  amazing to me how many people shot down 2 or three samples..in the next room with was very lush - with red drapes and heavy wallpaper which was to add to the tasting experience.  Neat experience.  The last stop if the roof top bar.  Where everyone get s a pint of Guinness to finish their tour.  It is on the top floor of the building with amazing views!  Mom passed on her Guinness.  I finished about half and of course Wayne had no problem finishing his.  The Guinness you are served here is about 4 hours old-  You can't get much fresher!

At this point Wayne was starting to feel a little run down.  he had caught my cold.  We hopped back on the bus and back toward the hotel.  Wayne headed back to the hotel and mom and I wandered around to find lunch and maybe shop.  The dress I had seen in a window the day before was gone..that was my shopping experience.  We ended up at a place for lunch that was not really good or worth mentioning so enough said about that.

We got back to the hotel and decided we would stay in tonight since we had to head to the airport at 6am.  Wayne was napping when I got back.  A few hours later we headed to the convenience store for some snacks...then just watch some Law and Order...yes it is everywhere!

Tomorrow we are headed home after and amazing 2 week vacation.  I wish I could be on a permanent vacation..but I guess at some pint back to real life..

Off to Dublin

Today we left Cork and headed to Dublin.  We made it back down the hill and to the train station for our trip.  Our train trip was about 2 hours.  We met Nicolleteon the train, she was coming back from a wakeboard competition in Cork.  Wake boarding in wakeboard parks seems to be hitting it big in Ireland  right now.  She also does some photography  and had a blog which we looked at.  She is a Canon user but I didn't hold it against her...

We arrived at Heuston station In Dublin and hopped In a cab to to the  Shelbourne Hotel.  This is the way we would travel all the time if we could..although the it is a Renaissance hotel so we did have a good rate.  As we were checking in my my walks up and says this is my friend form Yoga..I am very confused..you mean Yoga in Delaware...how random- She was staying at the same Hotel!  The hotel was really nice.  We arrive on a Sunday so there was a Jazz Brunch and Afternoon Tea happening.  Both looked Very fancy.

We decided to hop on the bus tour and do a round just to get acquainted with the city and to help decide what we want to do tomorrow.  It was quite chilly but we sat on the top of the open double decker bus anyway,..crazy tourists...

We hopped off at the Temple Bar area to find some lunch and explore.  Greatly lively  area with lots of bars and restaurants and lots of love music.  We stopped for a bit to eat, mom says it was her best meal of the trip! I will have to find the name later.

We walked back to the hotel for some rest.  We rested for a bit and then Wayne and I headed out for a drink and music.  We had worn mom Out at this point, plus it was chilly.  We headed back to the Temple Bar area and ended up at "The Temple Bar".  Great live Irish music being played.  We were able to great a few seats so this was our spot.  We hung out for a bit then Headed back to the hotel.  As we left the bar it started raining... We were drowned rats by the time we got back to the Hotel..not the look the shelbourne is used to I am sure.  Off to bed to rest for tomorrow adventure.

Fitbit tracker 13502 steps..5.99 miles

Day two in Cork

We decided to take a day touring sights around Cork.  We felt what had to be seen in Cork was done.  We started with breakfast at our bb and headed down the hill to the Paddywagon desk.   We have used Paddywagon quite a few times on this trip and they have been great!

We bought the hopper ticket which does a figure 8 loop..cork, blarney castle, cork, Cobn, flora park, Middleton and back to cork.  The shuttle only come by each spot every two hours so we had to carefully plan our day.

We were on the first trip to Blarney at 930 am.  It quickly became clear this was the best  decision of the day.  We were able to go right into the Blarney Castle area.  Although mom has said for months no Blarney Castle..we were glad we went.  It was another beautiful day..who says it rains in Ireland all the time?  The castle and the grounds are beautiful!  Mom even climbed to the top! Not sure will ever hear the end of that...Wayne was the only one who actually kissed the stone.  We wandered around the gardens and grounds and some amazing views of the castle and amazing view from the top.  I am sure you will hear mom mom go on and on about the steps and how much walking we did..today topped the walking at about 10 miles.

When we left Blarney the line was huge.  Again glad we are the 930 trip.

Back on the bus and off to Cobn.  Beautiful small waterfront town.  Primarily know as the last stop of the Titanic before the fatal trip.  The Titanic stopped in Cobn and picked up 223 passengers.  44 of whom survived.  The original White star line building and boarding area is still there and has been turned in to a visitor center and tourist attraction.  We did not go though but visited the area.  We walked around town and stopped for lunch.  Nothing impressive.

Back not the bus and on to Middleton the site of the Jameson distillery for a tour.  We had a great tour that explains the history and the process of the triple distilling.  We had a nice tasting of Jameson at the end.  Mom and I had the Jameson with ginger and lime.  Pretty good..Wayne had his straight.

Back in the bus and back to town...what a crazy busy long day!  We stopped at a placed called gallaghers on our way back to our bb and had s nice dinner.

By the time we got back to the bb we had been out for about 12 hours.

Fitbit tracker 22131 steps..9.82 miles.

Off to Limerick and Cork..

Our train this morning was at 730 am so we were all up bright and early and walked to the train station which was just across the street.  We were all on the same train for the first hour.  Wayne, mom and me got off after about and hour to change trains and head onto Cork.  Sue, Mike, Maureen and Scott headed off to limerick for their last night.

We arrived in Cork about 9am.  I had very specific instructions on how to get to our house.  The first and most daunting  part was a set of stairs we need to climb..,we made it and finally made it to our BB the Gabriel house.  They were quite surprised to see us so early..it is practically the middle of the night..lol...  One of our rooms was ready so we dropped our bags and off we went to explore the town.  We had to decide what we wanted to do for the day since the idea of climbing the hill to our BB several times a day was not a great option.


We wandered around town and made our way to the Engligh Market which is one of the oldest markets in Europe.  I do not think it has anything on the reading terminal market but if was neat. We had breakfast at the farmers cafe, everything is sourced from the Market itself.   We went to the visitor center and booked tickets for the bus tour around town.  It was our first rainy day so walking around  was not a very exciting prospect.  The bus took us past all the main sites of Cork.  We hopped off at the Cork Goal which is the city prison and took a self guided tour.  Then back on the bus to finish the tour..

Once we were back in town we wandered around a few small street and came across a chocolate shop which made the best hot chocolate.  Wayne had White , mom milk and I had a mixture of both.  Really delicious.  Now it was definately nap time.  We climbed the hill to our bb and rested for a few hours before heading back out on the town.  We had dinner at the Market Cafe which was on the top of my list.  We were Early so were able to get a table right away.  Our meal was delicious! Wayne had tuna steak, I had a goat cheese cannoli and mom a prawn and rice dish.  We arrived the said they had a table but we need to be finished by 825.. Which gave us and hour and 45 minutes to eat.  I love how they do not rush you in Europe

This time we decided we would hop in a cab and head back to the hotel.

 Tomorrow off on more tours.

Fitbit tracker 15002 steps 6.66 miles.

Our last day in killarney..

We started off our day and headed out to breakfast..,I am not sure what time breakfast starts in Ireland but definitely not early enought for us..after wandering a bit we finally found a place that opened at 900am.  We had a quick breakfast we were off to find a cab to finish our touring of Killarney.  The cab dropped us off at Muckross house..where we were just in time for the tour of the house.  We had a great tour and learned all about the house and who lived there.  The house has 65 rooms, 25 of which are bedrooms.  We were able to see about 1/3 of the house on the tour.  It was quite Downton Abbey..maybe not quite as large but close.  We saw the hall of bells to call the servants, the kitchen and many of the main rooms.

The house was on a beautiful piece of land on the lake and also had beautiful gardens.  It felt like being thrown back into old times as the horse and carriage rode around the lake.

We called for the cab to collect us once we were done and on the way back to town we made a quick stop at Torc Waterfalls.  Sue and Scott were both very adventurous  climbing down Into the falls...we have some great pictures.

We were dropped off at the house and the afternoon was free time..nothing planned...what to do?    We all went our own way to finish up shopping and explore the town one last time.  The town is not very large and we all bumped into each other at some point.  Just as Wayne and I had decided it was time for a pub stop we ran into Scott and Maureen and we all headed off for a Pint.  We started at the laurels pub.. And pub crawled our way back to the house.  We showed up back at the house about 3 hours and 4-5 pubs later.  Needless to say a little feisty.  We gathered the rest of the group and headed out for dinner. We went to a very casual fish and chip place called Quinlan's.  We had to  split up and sit boys at one at one at table and girls at another..the Girls were sure to send our chek to the boys table.

On the way back to the house we stopped for a street performer who was very good and entertaining.

We headed back to the house to pack up for our early departure the next morning.

Fitbit tracker 16745 ..7.43 miles

The Ring of Kerry

Morris arrived at 10am to pick us up for our tour of the ring of Kerry.  Voted as one of the top 10 most scenic drives in the world.  The day started out a little misty and rainy, which has been the case most days, but ended up sunny and beautiful.

Our first stop was the red fox bar lounge and bog village.  We toured the village and saw different examples of homes.  Then we all had an irish coffe which the red fox is famous for..seems like they are all ready to go with lots of glasses filled with whiskey or baileys and just waiting for the buses to arrive.

Our next stop was the highlight of the day.  We stopped to see a Shepard who first told us all about the different types of sheep And then did an amazing demonstration with his trained dogs..gathering and herding the sheep.  The dogs showed how to bring the shep from the top of the mountain to the bottom and how much control the dogs have over the direction of the sheep.

We continue used our drive with lots of stops at some beautiful views of the ocean and mountains.  We stopped for a bite to eat at the highest point ..food was so so but the view was amazing.  I finally had my first Guiness.  Not much of a beer drinker but had to have at least one Guiness.  I guess it was not terrible...but I enjoy the hard cider more.

We returned to the house about 5pm. And. The cousins headed out to scope out dinner spots and look at menus.  We checked out a few and ended up booking a table at The Bricin which is known for its boxty.    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxty

We arrived for out 8 pm reservation and we were greated by The owner who owns the restaurant with his brother Patty who is the chef.  I thought I had done something  special by the way we were treated when we arrived.  He welcomed us and was very excited to have us dine with him.  We were also very excited to be dining, the restaurant was very highly rated on Trip advisor which everyone knows I heavily rely upon.  I think we all agreed it was the best meal of our vacation .  Wayne, Scott and Elaine all tried the boxty. Wayne and Scott had the stroganoff and Mom had the chicken.  They were all very delicious.  Maureen and I had the scallops for our entree which were fresh and prefectly prepared.  Sue had a chicken dish and Mike had a steak which they enjoyed.

The most amazing part of my meal were the mussels.  They were the best I have every had.  The juice they  were in was  so amazing I could have drunk it by the glass.  The mussels were so clean and fresh - DELICIOUS.

We were all so full after our meal we headed back to the house without a pub stop.

Tomorrow is a day in Killarney!

Fitbit tracker 14194 steps - 6.26 miles.