Goodbye Queen, Hello Leprechaun

After a wonderful visit across the English countryside we set out for Ireland.  Although it was not mentioned in the last post, we had a rental car to get around our island journeys and I did the all the driving while Julie did all the navigating.  Of course this meant driving backwards (or the correct way according to our tour guide) and about 10,000 roundabouts.  Thankfully we had no major mishaps and only ONE wrong turn, although the first hour was a little shaky getting adjusted. Julie had to shout ‘CURB!’ every 5 minutes because I would constantly drift away from the center of the lane until my brain was able to fully reverse the driving rules.  Our drive in Ireland starting in Shannon (west coast) and ended in Dublin (east coast) and is captured best by either beautiful countryside or endless number of roundabouts.

Our first stop was at Bunratty Castle, where we first learned how abundant stone structures, walls, and landscapes are in Ireland.  This place was very dark, uncomfortable, and full of narrow stairwells.  We all decided Ireland was not the place to live like royalty.  I’d rather take a thatched cottage thank you very much.

We had fun as we explored the small nooks/crannies.  Julie even found her place among the ancient wall art.  :)

We spent the afternoon/evening in Limerick on the Shannon River.  We perused some of their historical buildings/churches.  You will start to notice after a while that it was fairly chilly on our journeys and I only packed the one jacket so I look the same in all the photos.

Here are some of our favorite shots from our strolling about:

The next day we set out for some ocean views at the Cliffs of Moher, my favorite part of the Ireland trip.

Julie and I exerted some muscle as we took a stroll along the unsecured area and were able to get some really incredible views.  There’s that jacket again ;)

Because this was such a beautiful spot we scheduled a boat tour to get even closer to the Cliffs.  We had fun playing with our 5 cameras for 4 people as we waited for the boat to arrive.  We were able to get some really nice shots along the Atlantic coast.

We even had a dolphin friend make an appearance.

Finally, the views from the boat.  Special thanks to Gary/Sandy for taking pictures while Julie and I sat inside the boat fighting off the seasickness we had underestimated (I forget a small boat and a big ocean makes a bad combination for us).

We then made a gorgeous 2 hour coastline drive to our next destination.  Here we experienced picturesque green hills dotted with stone landscapes and very, very narrow roads.  Julie guided us off the beaten path to an unmarked castle where we may have been the only visitors for the whole week.  There was a nice shrine chapel and other structures that were slowly being overtaken by nature.  Good find Julie!

A leprechaun and his rainbow greeted us when we arrived in Galway.  Ok, I lied about the leprechaun part.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to explore what seemed like a very cool, fun city in Galway, but we were treated to beautiful views of the bay.

We made the cross-island drive the following day to Dublin where we spent our final 8 hours. Tired of visiting the churches/castles/cathedrals, we decided to take a tour of Trinity College (founded in late 16^th century) guided by a podcast on our iPhones.  We saw some incredible buildings while learning about some of their biggest contributions (credited with dating the age of the earth for instance - twice in fact, because the first time was based on theology naturally, the second effort was a bit more scientific).

We rested our feet and minds in St. Stephen’s Green park.  Julie felt at home amongst all of the redheaded people that we saw (not pictured).

Then we capped the evening with a stroll through the city capturing some of the essence of Dublin and we stopped for some good Mexican food and drinks (‘good’ by European standards).

Oh, and we did all of this and the travel mentioned in the previous post in 6 days while staying at 6 different hotels.  It was definitely an intense trip, but all absolutely fantastic and well worth it.