Ireland Trip: Day 3

Well, I have to admit that our third day in Ireland was kind of a wasted day.  Partially my fault for not planning it better and partially the fault of how tired we were from all the driving/riding the day before.  We started our morning out with breakfast at the Amber Hill B&B, certainly not as great as the B&B the night before but not terrible either.  After breakfast we made our way down to Salthill to check out the promenade, which is supposed to have some of the best views in Galway.  And, it was very nice.  Too bad it was a little too cold to enjoy a nice stroll on the Prom, as they call it.  So, we ventured into downtown Galways, drove around a bit and then headed to Dublin.  Yep, that's right, we didn't even get out of the car.  Next time, right?!?  In Dublin, the story isn't too different.  We walked around their shopping streets for a few hours and that's where our Ireland trip ended.  We were T-I-R-E-D!  Maybe next time we can stop and relax a bit more, lol!

View from the Prom in Salthill.

And again.  I am sure it is even prettier when the tide is in.

Dublin!

And the last Ireland picture in Dublin.  I was obviously tired this day as I hardly even got my camera out.  That's not like me, lol!

I highly recommend a trip to Ireland for anyone.  It was fabulous!  I do recommend taking it easy though and not try to do everything in 3 days, lol!!

He figured it out!

And I am sure he will be zooming by us at the park in no time!

Ireland: Day 2

Our second day in Ireland was by far the best day of our trip even though we spent most of it in the car.  Just to get this driving bit out of the way, the below map shows our almost exact route that we took in Ireland.  And, we had to drive back to Dublin on Monday to catch our plane back to London.  Yes, lots of driving was done but considering the beauty of Ireland, it wasn't so bad at all!  GoogleMaps estimates that the route below would take almost 10 hours.  I can almost guarantee that it took longer than that, lol!

Bummer.....my GoogleMaps picture disappeared!

Okay, onto the fun part!  We started our morning at the adorable B&B of Kathleen's Country House.  What a super great host Kathleen was!  I would certainly recommend this out of town B&B for anyone visiting Killarney.  It is very nice to be outside of the city and just enjoy the quiet, especially when in Ireland.  After munching on our tasty breakfast, we made our way to the start of the Ring of Kerry.  Ah, the views from this route are simply amazing.  Every time we turned a corner we were met with more spectacular views.  We were constantly getting in and out of the car to take pictures.  And, we did take a few random roads, which increased the excitement of the trip!  This route consisted of exactly what I had expected of Ireland, long, winding, single lane roads going through the mountains.  Unfortunately, we were never stopped by a sheep crossing and had sheep surrounding our car.  Maybe next time!!  I'll let our pictures do the rest of the talking.

Our first stop-off.  Ah, beautiful!

Hello there Dingle Bay!  Can you see the mountains in the distance?  Imagine the views if it hadn't been so foggy?!?!  Next time the sun will come out for us!

Here is one location where we took a random road trying to get closer to the water.

This is as close as we could get and still see it.

We drove on lots and lots of these.  And there were even some two lane roads that appeared to be more like 1.5 lane roads, lol!

Reed trying to put on a good face after waking up from his nap.  He was such a trooper.  We are so happy that he loves to ride in the car right now, otherwise this trip would have been misery.

Imagine if you woke up to this view every morning.  Oh, the jealousy!

From the looks of most of the mountains and hills, Ireland is one big rock!

A view from the top.

Killarney National Park, one of our favorite views of the day!

After exiting the Ring of Kerry route, we made our way about 2.5 hours north to the Cliffs of Moher.  Oh, how I especially wish it had been sunny for this visit!!!

Cliffs of Moher!  See those tiny people on the top left of the picture?  Yeah, we didn't venture over there, no railing equals crazy nightmares for mommy.

I didn't even like seeing these people leaning over the edge.  I definitely don't think the risk is worth the picture people!

The Fam

You aren't kidding!!

The other side.

I think this one just might get framed.

After seeing these beautiful views, we ended our day with another semi-long drive, ate yummy crab claws at Moran's Oyster Cottage and then put our heads on the pillows at Amber Hill B&B near Galway.  Phew, that was a long day but oh so worth it!

Ireland: Day 1

We absolutely loved Ireland, with its rocky mountains, water views, curvy roads and all the things in between.  It really was a cool place and probably our most favorite that we have seen so far since we've been here.  It combines that rolling hills that we loved in the Cotswolds with water and mountains.  I mean, you can't get any better than that!!  We definitely want to come back here in the future when we can spend more than three days and do a lot of relaxing and hanging out in their beautiful surroundings.

We took an early flight out of London on Saturday, which meant all of us waking up way too early.  We got to the airport only to discover that their was a terribly long queue (otherwise known as a line) at the check-in counter.  We were definitely going to miss our flight.  Thankfully, one of the representatives agreed to let us go through the quick line stating "there's no reason why you should miss your flight just because there is a queue.  You didn't know there would be a queue."  Do you ever envision anyone in the Atlanta airport saying this to you?  I highly doubt it.  So nice.

Our flight was a little delayed getting into Ireland, so we were already a little bit behind schedule but no big deal, we're on vacation!  We stopped to grab a bite to eat and then headed over to to the rental car company.  And guess what there was?  Another queue!  And one that wasn't moving very quickly.  Ugh.  Once we got to the counter we discovered that if you book through a US website you don't have to take insurance, which actually doubles the price of your rental once you get to Ireland.  And no dice on coverage with our American Express, they don't cover you in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Iran or Iraq.  So, note to self, it is best to book directly through the rental company when going to Ireland and Northern Ireland, Iran or Iraq, for that matter.  

I had estimated that we would be in our rental car by 11am or so, but we didn't get in our car until 1:30pm.  We had a packed day planned so things had to be altered.  Instead of checking out Cork and then heading to the Blarney Castle, we had to go straight to the Blarney Castle before it closed for the day.  We drove the 2.5 hours to the Blarney Castle and that is where the fun began.  Thank goodness for us that the travel issues stopped once we left the rental car place.  The rest of the trip was just wonderful!

The Blarney Castle

The lookout tower.

Chris and Reed doing their best to maneuver up the winding staircase.

Looking down into the family room on the first floor and the chapel on the second floor.  You can see a few things jutting out from the wall in the middle of the picture, this is what would have held the floor in place.

After kissing the Blarney Stone, not such a great picture but I couldn't not post it.

Chris kissing the Blarney Stone.  Apparently if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will have the gift of eloquence bestowed upon you.  Not that we believe this, but we couldn't come to Ireland and not kiss the Blarney Stone.

At the top of the castle where the Blarney Stone is.  Not the safest place for small children.  We've never held on to Reed so tightly!

Looking up from the ground to where the Blarney Stone is.  Just a few bars between you and the ground.  It was a little scary!

Chris and Reed in the Rock Close with an awesome tree in the background.

The Witches Stone.  Apparently the money left here is used to purchase wood for the fire that the witch burns each night.

Firewood left for the witch to burn.

Reed and I in the Rock Close.

Housing for the Wishing Steps.  Story has it that if walk down these backwards with your eyes shut, all your wishes will come true.  So we both gave it a shot.  We read after we did it that we were supposed to walk up and back down with our eyes shut thinking about our wish the whole time.  We definitely didn't do that.  Good thing we don't believe in this stuff.

Chris and Reed at the Blarney Castle.

Mommy and Reed