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"