going home!

well it's that time....just lucky for us the Shannon Airport has free wi-fi and we were able to do this today.
It's been a great trip, even though there were days where we didn't have the best weather. Fortunately for us, most of those rainy days were full of rainbows which were really beautiful.
I'm really going to miss the Irish brown bread and REAL butter (I sound like Andrew talking about all the food of the trip!) and definitely Bulmers hard cider (didn't quite get into the Guiness or Murphy's like Andrew, but I did try it once)
I feel like we did everything we wanted to do...which is great - we put 2,867 km on our rental car in these past two weeks, and I'm looking forward to not having to look at a map again for a little while, driving on familiar roads :)
Looking forward to a safe flight home and taking a rest!
Can't wait to see you all and talk to you soon...
Oh...and this was my favorite picture of the trip because it was at my favorite place - Dingle. Andrew and I didn't get too many pics together so this is special for that reason too...

One Reflection....

So this is the end of the trip... a great time with many wonderful memories. The above picture is one I selected out of hundreds we took and there are many others I really like as well. This one was taken on our first day as we were climbing up the hillside near Sligo. The view was amazing and the day was long for us. Little did we know that this would be one of three days that was bright and sunny and it was fortunate that we took full advantage of each day. I really was struck by the beauty of the landscape and recently heard a report that many families are entering a time where the kids are not interested in taking over family farming business. I can imagine that this same landscape may change like Vermont has over the last 50 plus years. Have to wait and see....
Cheers.... Andrew

HONEYmoon

Saturday, November 15....
On our last day on the Dingle Peninsula, we decided to hit some of the sights that we couldn't cover yesterday. We went to the Kilmalkedar Church, a 12th century church that was built around an ogham stone, that was there 900 years before the church was built. There is a hole in the top where people have come to "seal the deal" or even just renew wedding vows. The idea was that you were standing on the graves of your ancestors in the front of the house of God to pledge to one another your love and devotion.

We stopped at yet another set of ruins - this one is known as the Reasc Monastery. There is a Celtic stone piller (500 B.C.) that is on the property - and when the Christians arrived in the 5th Century they didn't throw out the Celtic society, they just carved a cross directly over the Celtic scrollwork on the stone. hmm....

On our drive toward the Shannon area, we drove through the Connor Pass - what normally is a spectacular view in the valley below - but not only could we not see the valley below, we could barely see the road in front of us! It was extremely windy and narrow and portions of this road are only wide enough for one car. whew! I was glad when that drive was over.

We also went to the Crag Cave - yet again going on a tour where we were the only 2 people! However, the parking lot was packed as it also has an high end indoor play area for kids and a pretty stocked gift shop full of Christmas lights and toys. It was quite an operation!
The cave itself was discovered in the 80's when they were searching for a source of water pollution in the area - and an underground limestone cave stretching over 4km and covered in stalactites was discovered.

We finished off the evening by attending the traditional Bunratty Medieval Banquet at the Bunratty Castle. We had a great place at the banquet at the end of the table right in front of the performers and I recognized our server from my first time here. We drank lots of mead - a wine made from honey, supposed to be consumed by newlyweds through the first moon to ensure fertility! ("honey...moon") We had a lot of fun and the singers were really talented, making it a truly enjoyable evening!

Dingle

Today....
wanted Andrew to write today's blog...but he had too many beers, so I guess it's up to me again.

Explored the Dingle Peninsula today - staying in the same B&B for 2 nights (apparently this has been voted the "Best B&B in Ireland" several times, and some famous U.S. folks (i.e. Julia Roberts) have stayed here in the past - so we had a relatively laid back day, which was great considering the weather.

We passed the folks from the U.S. that we met at the pub last night several times on our drive today which was funny - we ended up meeting with them at the pub later on this evening too.

We were able to get a few nice short walks in today - in between the rain showers, although it was still a bit chilly. We walked along the beach with a great view of Dingle - I found an awesome shell here, never seen anything quite like it, I was very excited and took a picture before I picked it up just in case it doesn't make it home in one piece!

We also climbed a low grade mountain with a view of the bay and Atlantic Ocean (in between rain and fog, which we waited on top of the mountain for) we got an awesome view of Skellig Michael - the pointed island on the left - where an ancient monastic site was discovered, and the "Sleeping Giant" a mountain that looks like a man sleeping on his back with his hand on his belly - to the right in the pic. It turned out to be great since we couldn't see Skellig Michael on our journey yesterday.

After a few other short stops on the peninsula we headed back into town where we had some awesome 'craic' (gaelic for 'chat') with a Dingle native who runs a music shop in town and who we later saw performing with her brother at the local pub. We bought her CD and she was so kind to give us a painting she did of a view of the Blasket Islands, off the Dingle Peninsula. It was really a highlight of our trip so far.

We also got a great pic of the sunset today - considering the stormy day we had this was really a blessing - and rare! Dingle being a huge area for angling (fishing), it provided a beautiful backdrop.

So now it's off to bed (it's almost 2:30 here) before waking up and heading back near the Shannon Airport and the Bunratty Castle area - not sure if we'll have internet again but will do our best to keep you posted through the rest of our journey as we fly back to Boston on Monday!

Ring of what???

TODAY!
We traveled the Ring of Kerry - not only one of Ireland's most popular tourist circuits, supposedly some of the best views in Ireland. We didn't get to see too much of this today - because of low lying fog that clung to the mountains and obstructed most of our views.

We made the most of our journey today, stopping first at the Staigue Ring Fort - one of the best remaining examples of a ring fort in Ireland. Built during the Stone Age, this ring fort was a means of both protection and also a way to contain property (livestock, etc.) Except this time we dodged gates to keep the livestock out...

We detoured off the main route later (no buses or tour groups here) and the narrow winding roads led us to the beach of Ballinskellig Bay. Andrew and I were the only ones to troll around the sand here (quite cold and rainy today) but enjoyed walking the look of painted sand and around a set of ruins set in the middle of the pier - extending into the bay below. It was a really nice break and something we haven't done yet - get nice and close to the water!

We drove down a very bumpy and unpaved path to visit St. Brendan's Well. Another site of Catholic Pilgrimage. Most must come by foot though, not much of a road to speak of here! But there was no one else for as far as we could see and did enjoy our walk both to the well and also to the edge of the Valencia Island on which it sat.

After lunch at a nearby Kerry town we decided to head straight to Dingle and settle in - we'll be spending the next 2 nights here...

When we got to Dingle we checked into yet another awesome B&B overlooking the Dingle Bay (we kind of splurged and upgraded to a bay-view room). Walking around we visited the Dingle Crystal Co. owned and operated by a local "Harley" man who was trained at Waterford and decided to go on his own to recreate the original Irish crystal style - deep cuts and intricate patterns. We had a great conversation with him and purchased an ornament for our first Christmas tree :)

We later stopped by a few pubs for live music and ending up spending a few hours with some other Americans we met - had a great time, but we're off to bed now to rest and enjoy another full day tomorrow...and hoping for some better weather!

a EWE farewell

on Wednesday, November 12...
As we left the farm today, the fog was just rising above the grass... we were hoping to get some pictures of the farm and the ewe (sheep!) but it wasn't looking good. As we pulled down the long driveway, the fog seemed to be rising quite quickly, and we slowed down a bit to take a picture. Just as we stared to do that - all of the ewe from our one side looked up and started running toward the fence! We couldn't contain our laughter! It was by far the funniest thing that has happened to us! If only this picture had the sound of our laughter and all the noise of the sheep!

We spent our morning at the Rock of Cashel, taking in yet another beautiful blue sky day. Since there was no tours today, I relied on our trusty travel book and read aloud a self-guided tour to Andrew and I which really put the castle in context for both of us (in comparison to my first trip here 5 years ago where I just aimlessly walked around and thought - this is nice...where's the next pub?)

As we headed toward Kenmare we drove through Tipperary and the beautiful Glens of Aherlow. Listening to our great new Irish CD's, it was just a beautiful drive, full of trees that still had their autumn leaves attached. We stopped for lunch in Killarney (really just a huge tourist trap of an Irish city - but we did finally find an Irish sweater for Andrew) and then headed just south to Kenmare (stopping to take a hike to the Torc Waterfall in the Killarney National Park) where we would spend the night at just a great B&B on top of a restaurant in the center of town. We had a chance to walk to one of Ireland's many Holy Wells as well as walk to a stone age circle fort. I was sad we were only in Kenmare one night because it really was a pleasant little village and was kind of neat to be on top of it all at our B&B - plus the breakfast was awesome and we really enjoyed the hosts there as well. But there is much more to see and do before the end of our trip, and we must move on...

ruins, ruins, ruins

Tuesday, November 11...
a little behind because we haven't had the internet...but here goes!

We finished our time in Connemara and were supposed to travel down to Cashel where we were going to visit the Rock of Cashel - well...instead we headed straight east to Clonmacnoise, a site of ruins that contain grave slabs from the 8th to 12th century, and is situated in the center of Ireland. St. Ciaran is said to have founded Clonmacnoise as a Christian site around the year 543 AD. We were able to view some of Ireland's finest surviving high crosses, dating from 900 AD. It was the most beautiful day - the sky was so blue and we were able to walk around and truly enjoy the view along the river Shannon. This was our first encounter with a tour bus on our trip so far - but we managed to go to the rear of the ruins and as they made their way back...we made our way forward! We walked over to a pretty interesting set of castle ruins, looking almost perfectly balanced on a piece of high land. This was private property, so we weren't able to look too closely.

We continued our drive south toward Cashel - stopping for lunch and checking out a local Irish music shop. We picked up a few CD's to listen to along our drives, and then continued into Cashel. Since we missed the last entrance to the Rock of Cashel, we decided to walk around the town of Cashel - checking out a bookstore, etc. and scoping out a good place for dinner - then we checked into our farmhouse B&B. Also a working ewe farm and a bit chilly (what else could we expect from an old house???) but definitely a warm welcome, homey, and friendly. We had a great dinner at a fancy French cuisine restaurant and hit a pub later for a guiness and irish coffee.

P.S. This would have been our "1 - year engagement date"

Why did the sheep cross the road? ...

...to eat more grass!
TODAY...
Lots of driving today, lots of sun pockets that came out of the clouds, but with winds gusting to 60 mph, we didn't stay outside of the car very much. We finished our tour of the Connemara peninsula, and there were two things here very different than what we've seen so far. The first would be the many sheep that tended to be alongside the road unfenced and free to cross from side to side in search of the perfect grass to munch on...on quite a few occasions we had to hit the brakes or cheat to the other side of the road in order to avoid hitting them! The other was the beautiful mountains. The Maumtauk Mountains stretch from the ocean inland, and we were able to drive completely around them between yesterdays and todays journey.

We drove north to the Westport area, pausing at the National Famine Memorial, and Croagh Patrick, a very daunting mountain that seems to stand out from the others around it, a pointed top with a wide stone path, visible from its eastern side. This is where St. Patrick was said to have driven the snakes from Ireland, and once a year Catholics come from all over to pilgrimage to the top, many attempting the journey in their bare feet. We would have liked to have hiked to the chapel at the top, but the high winds and time it takes to do so prevented us (they say it takes 2-3 hours just to reach the top, and then 2 hours back down!) The roads we drove today also allowed to us to almost completely uncircle it, viewing it from all directions.

We stopped for lunch at a coastal town of Clifden, not much else exciting here, but along our coastal drive we stopped at the town of Roundstone visiting a local pottery shop and also a local jeweler. Both design and make their wares onsite, and we each picked something out to take home with us. The land here is even different from what we saw earlier - unfortunately the narrow winding roads with no where to stop didn't allow for us to take any good pictures - but the best way to describe it is that it's just like the Burren, except instead of being flat there are lots of hills dotted with green and rounded rocks (perhaps how that nearby town got its name). A few more sheep crossing the road and then it was on our way east of Galway to spend the night.

The Rainbow Connection

TODAY!
We woke up to a sunny day! It wasn't long after we hit the road that it started raining, and off in the distance we saw a spectacular double rainbow! By the time we were able to pull over and take a picture, it had faded a bit - but when it first appeared it was so brilliant in color! We decided we had never seen anything like it!

We drove about 20 min to the Cliffs of Moher - a place that I visited on my first trip to Ireland. It was extremely windy, even Andrew could barely walk against the wind. These cliffs are much more stark than those at Giants Causeway, but also a high tourist attraction - even today there were several tour buses. The ocean was extremely angry below, reacting to the high winds and storms in the sea the day prior. I decided not to sit out on the cliff's edge like I had on my first trip here. We also saw another rainbow off in the ocean.

We continued our drive along the coast, stopping several times when we saw something of particular beauty. We saw a completely different part of the Burren today, an area much more dense and walked out to where the limestone meets the bay. Looking down the coast you could see large waves crashing high into the rocks.

Around lunch time we walked around Galway city. We stopped at a great Irish pub for lunch, sat by a peat fire and had Guiness and Irish Coffee with our toasted specials (I finally got one Mom!) while the rain poured outside. We did a little shopping - I found a great green irish sweater :) and then headed north into another peninsula known as Connemara where we will spend the next day and a half. On the way to our overnight stop, we stopped at the Cong Abbey ruins - built in 1100. The picture is me in the Monk's Fishing Hut that juts out into the water. The monks would sit inside next to the fire while they waited for salmon to swim into their nets they had in the stream below. Even after all the rain today, the water was still clear straight through to the bottom.

We are spending the night at The Rosleague Manor Hotel in Letterfrack and we're going to have a special dinner here. Definitely not something we could do every night on our journey, but Andrew picked it out as a treat for us. It's a beautiful old manor house that appears to have a spectacular view - I can't wait to see it in the morning!

The Burren

TODAY!!!
We drove up into the Burren, a protected land area of Ireland, a unique limestone landscape that whose origins were beneath ancient seas. We are now heading toward the western coast of Ireland. Our first stop was the little town of Carran, where we visited the Burren Perfumery. The only one in Ireland - they don't welcome any tours or buses, so we knew it was going to be quiet! It was a really great place - they use the wildflowers from the Burren area to create their scents - Andrew and I each picked one out for each other. Finding our way there was quite the adventure, we made a wrong turn and went through some of the most narrow roads I've seen so far! With periods of rain off and on, we weren't able to see much of the Burren rocks that cover the lands, but once we left the perfumery we had enough sunshine to truly appreciate the area. We even got a glimse of a rainbow across the fields.

We drove further north making a couple of picture stops - too cold and rainy today to take any walks. We saw the church of Carron - ruins and a walled cemetery that were first built in 1200! This was truly a neat place - one that isn't visited too often, we had to walk through thick mud to get there, since there was no path. We also saw the Poulnabrone - a Portal Tomb that is believed to be from 4,000-5,000 years old.

We finished our day with one of the best pubs for local seafood - Monk's Pub in the tiny town of Ballyvaughan. We were one of 3 tables in the pub, and Andrew noticed the man at the table next to us had a Pittsburgh Brewing Company sweatshirt on! We got to talking, and not only are they vacationing from the states, they live in Mars, PA! These were the first Americans we've seen so far, and to think how close they live to us back home! They wanted to know if we knew where to catch the Steelers game!

On Friday November 7th...
Andrew participated in a morning practice and meditation at the Buddhist Center named Jampa Ling. We had a nice breakfast with the people there (we were the only visitors right now - but there are a group of folks who live there - and a group from the area who come to practice) It was really a peaceful place and a nice rest for us.

Then we started heading south, stopping at a used books store in Carrick-on-Shannon we hit up the internet cafe and just walked around a bit, having lunch at a sandwich stop (very good and packed with the locals) before we drove to Arigna to tour the mine. This was the oldest operating mine in Ireland, closing down in 1990. This was the first time this entitre trip that we really got turned around in circles. Since it was a smaller town it wasn't signposted very well, and we felt like signs for the Mining Experience we always pointing the direction of a circle! We found it though, and it was a great afternoon excursion since it was raining pretty good this afternoon. Once again, we were 2 of 4 on the tour, and it was really a facinating experience.

We then drove about 250 km down to where we will be staying for the next 2 nights - Ennis - where the Trad Festival (traditional Irish music) is being held this weekend. We were able to catch up with a couple we met at the hostel at our first day (Monday) which was really fun! Andrew had a lot of Guiness, I had lots of Bulmers (Irish hard cider) and we had great conversation and listended to good music.

After a late start, (hmmm...I wonder why) we are headed for some sights in the Burren...

The pictures are from the mine tour which shows the originial mine entrance and main shaft.

Antrim Coast and Glengariff Forest

On Thursday November 6....
We continued our journey along the northern coast of Ireland. We did a short hike to the Carrik-a-rede Rope Bridge. Thankfully, it was closed for the season, so we didn't have to pay the 8 Euro just to walk along the path and see it! Again, there was only 2 other people along this 2 mi. walk we took. The ocean here was extremely blue and although we were high along another Ireland cliff, you could hear the waves breaking below.

We continued in the car driving along the coastal route - definitely not for the faint of heart! We only encountered 2 other cars along the way, and cannot imagine what the drive would have been like during "high" season along these narrow, curvy roads. No tour buses allowed here, and the pictures we took just don't capture the beauty here.

In the late afternoon we drove into Glengariff National Forest and were able to take a short walk (It gets dark at 5PM here). There was only one other car in these 3 huge lots, and we didn't even see them! We took the "Waterfall Path" and although we didn't have enough time to walk the entire way, we did see a few nice waterfalls along the river.

In the evening, we traveled 270 km to our overnight destination at Jampa Ling Buddhist Center. We are now back in the Republic of Ireland. Amazingly, we were able to find this place in the middle of a forested area - let's just say the Irish don't mark roads in the country very well!

A "Giant" Walk

On Wednesday November 5...
We spent most our day walking the Giant's Causeway, an area of hexagonal cliffs created by ancient volcanoes. So large and unique, it was believed that Finn MacCool (not "Joe" although Andrew thinks they could be distant relatives) the Giant used these columns to build a bridge to Scotland. The weather has been cool but no rain as of yet - just enough to keep us sniffling a little bit :) We really enjoyed our hike along the cliff-side looking down into the ocean, especially because we barely passed anyone along the way! We figured that in the summer months when the weather is a bit warmer there must be a lot more people who visit here.

Later in the afternoon we toured the Bushmills Distillery. The oldest licensed distillery! Andrew didn't like the whiskey he picked out to sample at the end of tour, and he made me drink both.

We also enjoyed a quiet evening at a local seafood restaurant where we had the place all to ourselves. In fact, the waitress had to turn on the music after we sat down. Casey had stuffed peppers and I had the Surf and Turf. Yum Yum!

In the picture here, "Where's Casey?" The ocean is behind and around this narrow point along the cliff.

"London" Derry

On Tuesday - November 4
Drove up from our (very cold) hostel room room to Londonderry today. This is Ireland's only walled city and has a lot of history from conflict in the early 1600's to the most recent conflicts of the 80's. We enjoyed our walking tour of the city. With it being "out of season" we were the only 2 on the tour! That was kind of neat. Our favorite part of the day was walking through the Bogside to view the Political Murals that pay tribute to the many years of struggle. Today the city is peaceful with little conflict to report.

Following our day here we drove to our B&B in Portrush, a summer fishing town that is sleepy this time of the year. It looks like we were the only ones here, and we got a great bay view from our second floor room.

Aer Lingus

Well...we made it! Finally on our honeymoon here in Ireland :) Our "red-eye" flight from Boston to Shannon Ireland took only 5 hours and with the time change we landed at 5:30 AM! We got our rental car and had a full day of excitement. Driving on the other side of the road (and sitting in the opposite seat!) of what we're used to in the states has been quite an adventure in itself - with one or the both of us saying "stay to the left, stay to the left!" at every turn. Andrew will be doing 100% of the driving and Casey is well, supposed to be doing 100% of the navigating but every once in awhile we're pulling over to double check!

First we stopped in the village of Knock where a vision of the Mary, Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist occured over a period of hours on August 21, 1879 and Catholics have pilgrimaged here every year since then. We then headed further up north to Sligo (where distant relatives of Casey's family are from) to check out the sights. We hiked up a huge mountain to Knocknarea Cairn, believed to be the grave of legendary Queen Maeve (of English folk tales). It took us about 45 minutes to reach the top but the view below was breathtaking and worth every step! After a short stop at the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetary (the largest Stone Age cemetary in Ireland) we headed just south of Donegal where we are staying the night at a simple hostel. I would say we are in the middle of nowhere except there is a pub across the street where Andrew had his first Guiness in Ireland! We drove the 15 minutes into Donegal to the famous "Chippery" for fried cod, haddock and chips!

Tomorrow we continue up north where we'll be spending Ulster "pounds" instead of "euros"!