Dublin Once Again

   We packed up and reluctantly left our Castle for the drive across Ireland. We took some back roads (on purpose) before finally getting on the “M” highways into Dublin. Dublin traffic wasn’t nearly as overwhelming after a week of driving throughout the country. We keyed in the GPS and headed for the Guinness Storehouse Brewery. Here is the home of Guinness brew that I have been enjoying all across the country. The tour is amazing. You start on the second floor and work your way up to the Bar on the eighth floor. One of the first things that you come across is the lease, signed by Arthur Guinness in 1759. What makes it unique is the length of the lease. Not 20 years, or 50 years, or even 100 years but a 9,000 year lease for this property!!! How’s that for confidence?

    You learn about the history of the brew and a lot about the ingredients that go into it. As you work your way upstairs, you eventually come to the pouring bar. Here you learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. It takes exactly 119.52 seconds to properly do it. I now have the certificate to prove my successful accomplishment of the task. And yes, you do get to drink the pint after pouring it. 

    After quite a while at the Storehouse, we headed back to the Croke Hotel and checked in for our last night in Ireland. If you remember from a few blogs back, we had been promised an evening of Irish music and dancing due to a miscommunication with the Dublin City Tour company. Well, we were picked up from our hotel and transported to the Merry Ploughboy Pub in the suburbs of Dublin. Along the way, we stopped at several different hotels in town and picked up others who were going to the show. We had a great conversation with the bus driver and, at one stop, we picked up one of the Merry Ploughboys himself. He provided us with a very spirited running conversation and description of the areas we were driving through. He also answered our questions about everyday life in Ireland. By the end of the trip, we had a new friend. 

So, this is a sweet deal. They own the pub, provide the meals, and the entertainment. There were probably 50-75 people in the pub. Countries like Russia, Norway, Germany, Turkey, and France were all represented by tourists in the crowd. I think Barb and I were the only Americans present. We were led to our table that was front row just off to the right of the stage. Dinner was fantastic and the show began. The boys played rousing Irish folksongs, ballads, and jigs. 

    During intermission, Owen (the bandmember that had ridden the bus with us), came over and chatted with us. He wanted to make sure that we were having a good time (we were). We had a great conversation. It was like we were the only ones in the Pub. After the brief intermission, we were treated to a local step dancing troupe (you know, like Riverdance). What can I say about that, it amazes me to watch them. 

    Then it was time for audience participation and, yes, I was nabbed. Here is my one (and ONLY) public Step Dancing. 

    The Ploughboys came back for a final set and the evening ended all too soon. This was a fantastic evening of traditional Irish music and dancing. I can’t think of a better way to end our trip and it left us with many great memories. In the long run, it was good fortune that we missed our Dublin City tour. This was something we would never have known about and are glad that we didn’t miss it. 

Cliffs of Moher & Ashford

    It rained overnight, but this morning the clouds began to break and we saw blue skies. Today is the longest day in terms of miles to travel. We are going from Dingle all the way north of Galway to a little village called Cong. Here we are to stay in a real Castle! 

    There are two ways to get where we’re going. One is through Limerick and overland northwards. The problem is, this bypasses another well known Irish sight, the Cliffs of Moher. Like Torc falls, the Cliffs of Moher are frequently seen in books on Ireland. Their sheer imposing forms, constantly being battered by the North Atlantic, are a proud National Heritage. In order to see them, and still have some daylight left to roam the castle, we decided to take the ferry from Tarbert to Kittimer. This short 1 1/2 mile trip over water, cuts out almost 100 miles of road travel! It also keeps us on the western coast where we want to be. 

    That’s our “roller skate” third from the right. 

    Barb wants this as our new summer home. 

    

    After a relatively uneventful drive we arrived at the Cliffs. When we were here in 2003, it was a small parking lot, no admission fee, and you could literally crawl out to the very edge of the 600 foot cliffs and look down. Since that time, they have moved the parking lot across the road and added an admission gate. They have also built an eco friendly visitors center and restaurant into the hills leading up to the cliffs. They have surrounded the edge with large stones to keep the dumber tourists back from the unstable ledges. 

    Here you can see some of the more adventurous (i.e. dumber) tourists. Every year portions of the ledges drop with no warning. Not sure how many of these folks drop with it, but I wouldn’t want to be one!!

    We left the cliffs and headed towards Galway. It was a long day and we were tired. We turned into the entry gates and were enthralled. This is just the entry. It led to a road that wandered for another mile or so of manicured grounds and forest until we came in sight of the castle itself. 

    This place was owned (up until just recently) by the Guinness family (of beer and world record fame). It hosted King George of England in the early 1900’s. It is the ultimate in luxury treatment. We were met by a bellman in the parking lot who delivered our bags to the lobby and parked our car. Once in the lobby, we were met by Grace at the reception desk. She checked us in, made our dinner reservation, then took us on a quick walking tour of the castle. She then led us to our room and made sure that we were comfortable.  We hadn’t been in the room more than a few minutes when the phone rang and it was management calling to make sure that everything was up to standard and that we were satisfied with our accommodations. We walked through a hallway where there were photos of past dignitaries and celebrities who had stayed there. Robin Williams, Brad Pitt, Ronald Reagan, and the Prince of Wales to name a few. We were definitely above our station here!! 

    A stroll of the grounds revealed unbelievable manicured gardens, tennis courts hidden in the trees, a falconry where you could learn the art of flying falcons, and a boat dock where you could rent kayaks or small row boats. Further down the road was a heliport, an equestrian center and large golf course.  

    Inside was regal and rich, dark woods.

    Dinner was a coat and tie affair. Since I had neither, Grace came to the rescue and provided me a coat from the castle stores and then found me a nice tie to match my shirt. So now, properly attired, we went to dinner. Again, very upper class. Two waiters for our table and multiple courses for the meal. We thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner, I returned my borrowed coat and tie and we strolled the grounds. It was now after sunset and the castle was wrapped in the low glow of lights that lined the pathways. Tomorrow it’s back to Dublin and only one more day in Ireland. This trip has gone by wayyy to fast. This is a good way to end our adventure in the countryside!

Cahirsiveen to Dingle

    This morning, after another fantastic Irish breakfast, we worked with Kathleen to straighten out the whole voucher confusion. She was very helpful and let us use her phone to get things worked out with the Irish Travel folks. She also let us call Christina to let her know that all was worked out. What a nice lady!! 

    We left and today was planned a short travel distance day, but planned for a full day of sightseeing. We have only traveled a third of the Ring of Kerry and we also wanted to see the Killarney National Park. From there the plan called for us to drive up to Tralee and enter the Dingle Peninsula for the short trip to our next B&B in the town of Dingle. We were here on our last trip and we really love this part of Ireland. The views are always spectacular and the people are so friendly. 

    In the small town of Waterville, there stands a tribute to Charlie Chaplin. Seems that he stayed here frequently during his lifetime. 

    One of the things that is interesting is the stone fences. There is so much rock that you have to find something for it once you’ve cleared the land for farming. The answer was to make fences with it. All through the Ring, you can see patchwork hills, separated with stone fencing. 

    And of course, the locals always come to check you out if you stop by the side of the road...

    The National Park is magnificent, even this early in the season. The trees are beginning to bud out and many flowers are in bloom. Tucked away in the Park is Torc Falls. This is a very popular tourist site in the summer and pictures of the falls are frequently seen in travel books and brochures. 

    From here we took the short drive into the Dingle Peninsula. Here there are more spectacular cliffside panoramas leading up to the fishing village of Dingle. 

    The village is a popular tourist site in the summer and a hub of fishing activity year round. The brightly painted shops are quaint and the pub food is excellent!

    This part of Ireland prizes its Irish heritage and Gaelic is the predominant language spoken. 

And its translation...

    Just outside of town begins the Slea Head drive. This road follows the Peninsula coastline and returns along the base of the mountains to Dingle. It was cloudy and overcast when we drove it, but it just adds some mystique to the views. 

    Then, as is our habit this trip, we settled down in the commons room and read until long after sunset. We enjoyed the views and the warmth of the fireplace. We also took some time and chatted with others who were staying the night and had come down to visit. 

Kinnitty to Cahirsiveen

    Our next day dawned bright and hinted at actually clearing skies. We ate a fantastic homemade Irish breakfast, and planned our route with the help of our hostess. Today we were headed to the Ring of Kerry. Christina told us that a GPS was fine, but don’t trust it. We found out why. Seems that there are a few new roads that the GPS didn’t know about. In fact, even the paper map we had didn’t have all the roads right! So we learned to use the GPS to guide us basically from town to town and kept a close eye on the map to make sure that we weren’t going too far astray.  Also ran into another little “glitch” today. The last time we traveled to Ireland, we were mailed paper vouchers for each night’s stay. We in turn gave these vouchers to the B&B’s so they could get paid. This time, we were told that the confirmation number that we had was equivalent to the voucher number and we just needed to give that to the B&B operators. Surprise!!! Wrong answer!! Since it was still the weekend, Christina said that she would call the main offices Monday and get things straightened out. In the meantime, she trusted that we were honest and victims of the system. Very nice lady. 

    The drive itself was very pretty. The countryside was rolling hills and farmlands, much like the Ozarks in Missouri. We came across an interesting sign in Moneygall (Christina told us about it so we looked it up). Seems that President Obama has Irish roots! This sign traces his connection to the village. Who knew??

    Another small village along the way is Adare. It is known for it’s brightly colored shops and Irish gardens. 

Notice the real thatched roof on this place and the end of the row of shops above!

    We stopped briefly at the Kerry Bog Museum. This is a small set of homes recreated in the style of the past. There was a blacksmiths home, Town Thatcher (who was a skilled tradesman and one of the wealthiest in the village), general laborer, and farmer.

    Outside each of the homes, there was a big pile of Peat for heating. Inside the homes, there were working models of life in yesteryear. 

    We stopped for a while at Glenbeigh Beach (beaches are also called Strands in Ireland). Here we walked along the shoreline and watched the waves of the North Atlantic crash ashore. There were a few brave souls who donned wetsuits and were actually surfing! 

    We left Glenbeigh and went up over the mountain pass to get back up on the Ring of Kerry Road. We stopped briefly to look back at the beach and got this great panorama.

    Now the Ring of Kerry is a road that encircles the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest corner of the country. It starts and ends in Killarney and shows the traveler a new, breathtaking view at every corner (and there are hundreds of corners!!!). One of the cutest sights this time of year is to check out the herds of sheep and see all of the new little lambs. If you’re lucky, you can catch them jumping and playing like only lambs can do. Pull off to the side of the road and stop, you can listen and hear them calling out to each other (and to their Mothers)!

Some more of the Ring...

    We arrived at our B&B with plenty of time for exploring the local sights. I had sent an email to the proprietor, Kathleen O’Sullivan (an Irish name if I ever heard one) when we made the reservations. When we got there, it turns out that they really didn’t plan on opening until the first of April, but Kathleen said that our note was so nice that they decided to open early, just for us! The home was situated on the banks of the inlet where the Atlantic Ocean comes in to Cahirsiveen. 

Here’s the view from the back yard. 

At the edge of town there is a castle called Balleycarberry. There is no OSHA in Ireland. This old castle just sits in the field, and you can climb all around it (at your own risk of course). It’s amazing to wander in the spiral stairways and come into the great hall, knowing that hundreds of years ago, someone lived here.

    The cathedral in town is the only one in Ireland that is named for a lay person! It is named for Daniel O’Connell who was the leader in the fight for Ireland’s independence.  Begun in 1884, it commands the view as it sits in the center of town. 

    After a quick supper, we retired to the sitting room to read and relax (pictured below). From here we watched the sun set over the hills and into the Atlantic.