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.

A day touring the Dingle Peninsula

we were all prepared to have breakfast at home this morning to be ready for our pick up...it is great when you have 7 people that all chip in..amazing how quickly things can get done...Wayne does most of the cooking but everyone helps.

Our driver Morris arrived at 1030 am and off we went to explore the Dingle peninsula.  We had a stop at Inch Beach..not quite a beach day but we can say we have been on the beach in Ireland.  We stopped at a few other beautiful sites and views along the way..Of course every remnant of a castle we passed was pointed out to make Elaine happy..we went to the great blansket island center and saw a quick movie about these that lived on the island..how they lived and what happened to them..  Interesting story..amazing how many writers and books came out of the community.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blasket_Island

We stopped in dingle for lunch and wandered around a bit.  Beautiful Irish town...just what you picture in your head when you think of Ireland.


We lucked out again with the amazing weather...our drive started a little misty and rainy, but by the time we were ready to get out it was beautiful ..blue skies and even a rainbow.  We tried to get Morris to take us to the end to find the leprechaun and the pot of gold.

We saw some bee hive houses. Which are shaped like a beehive and where the farmers stayed out in the fields.  We also saw the smallest and oldest church..it looked like and upside boat..perfectly made to last.  It was built in 600-700.

Our day ended about 500 pm.  Around 700 pm..Beverly from just cookin , cooking school arrived with our dinner.  We started with a few appetizers..Brie on toast and sausage in pastry.  Beverly set everything up for us and she was on her way.  We has cesear salad.  The. On the main course, Irish stew, baked potato and vegetable.  Very nice irish meal.  It was very nice to have dinner in the  house all together.


Once dinner was over and three bottles of wine were gone..it was time to head out.  Mom and I stayed home and everyone one went to Murphys down the road.  Had a pint and listened to some live music,  no singing this time but nice time..the bar was closing down about midnight,.so no one could get in too much trouble..home and to bed...

Tomorrow we are off to tour the ring of Kerry.

Fitbit tracker 10926.  4.85. Miles