When Irish eyes are smiling.....

Trip to Ireland 2007....

2007-07-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

July 15th, 2007

The Burlington Hotel lobby in Dublin....all of our rooms and hotels were very nice.
Steven Green Park in the center of Dublin, very beautiful with lots of sculpted flower beds and ponds with ducks and rock gardens. It was a very peaceful and beautiful place to walk.

Ahhh, chocolate...

Yes, they still do break-dancing here.
A street in Dublin with a beautiful church in the background.
A typical house and grounds, all beautifully decorated in the old tradition
A post office box in Dublin........and me!

We left for Ireland today. We got to Atlanta at 6:30 from St. Louis and our flight to Dublin was delayed until 10 p.m.. We finally left on Delta flight 518 to fly across the Atlantic during the night. The 8 hours on the plane was brutal, especially with crying babies adding to the festivities.

I looked out the window about 2:00 a.m. (home time) and it was getting light already.
We finally landed in Dublin at 11:00 a.m. Ireland time. We were exhausted due to little sleep, but found our room at the Burlington Hotel and crashed for a few hours. So, now we are on Dublin time: We got up at 5:00 pm and took a walk downtown Dublin. The weather was beautiful and very cool. There was a kind of street carnival going on in the town square. We started walking toward the crowds of people and what do you think was the first song we heard in Ireland, filling the streets? “Who Let the Dogs out!”…(well, that was a surprise:-), no Molly Malone, or Irish eyes are smiling…..ha ha……..they still do break dancing there, and so there they were, some Irish break-dancers performing for the crowds (and begging for some euros).

Dublin is a mixture of modern life and "old world". It is a very exhilarating and busy place. I fell in love with it immediately and can't wait to see more.

Dublin about town....

2007-07-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

July 16, 2007
This view of the castle grounds, was really more interesting than the castle itself.
Dublin Castle...
Me at my first castle, even though it looks like Bill covered up the lens....
Our first pub adventure, but it wouldn't be the last!
It wore me out just watching the energy it took to perform these Celtic dances.

Today we started our tour with CIE. We took a tour of the city of Dublin by bus. It is a very interesting place with much history. Our tour guide is David Darby, a plump Irish man, very nice and charming. I was excited to visit my first castle, but was disappointed because the castle had been recently renovated (1700’s) and looked like maybe George Washington had once lived their. In centuries past, after it had been destroyed by war, fire or whatever catastrophe befell it....the current ruler decided to give it a more “colonial” look as was the fashion at that time. It looked like a castle on the outside though. We saw many government buildings and other historical sights too.

We had a few hours before dinner, so we went to O’Brien’s Pub and had some delicious hard cider (Brummels), which was only 4.3% alcohol. It was fun to listen to all of the chatter by the locals in their lovely Irish brogue. They sure know how to "decorate" their dialogue with lots of profanity...:-) I bought some organic chocolate w/orange flavoring and we started walking back to our hotel and I said to Bill “Hey, I’m walking down the streets of Dublin eating chocolate, does it get any better than this?” I found out that it does.

We had dinner at Doyle’s Irish Cabaret with the rest of our tour group. The food was delicious! We had prime rib, steamed vegetables, and buttery mashed potatoes, loaded with fresh parsley, hard rolls and beer. For desert we had Fitzwilliams chantilly- a custard with sweet whiskey sauce and also Irish coffee (coffee, whisky, sugar and cream).

After dinner a very funny comedian, Noel McVenntey and “river” dancers, along with singers and musicians entertained us. All music was the traditional Irish rhythmic and emotional sounds, it was beautiful! We made some new friends that were from Florida, Brenda, Kim and Dave and Cathy, we enjoyed the entire evening.

Blarney Castle....now that's a castle.

2007-07-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

July 17, 2007We stopped at this old working farm for tea and scones.

Fresh made scones, fresh butter and home-made jams with tea..
The old farm grounds were very well kept, just beautiful and green.
This was the fuse box above the back door in the old farm house. There were lots of wires just hanging out of there...
Bill in front of one of the very old farm buildings that we visited.
The streaks in these pictures is pouring rain...
Our first look at Blarney Castle in the rain....a beautiful sight.

On our way up to the top, one of the many windows...

A view of the lower stories and grounds from the top of the castle.
A view from the top of the castle....just beautiful, and very HIGH! The people lined up on top are waiting to kiss the "stone of eloquence"...the Blarney Stone.
Here is Bill kissin' the Blarney stone. I kissed it too, but Bill forgot to take the picture. :-(

The inside of Blarney Castle today...... I love all of the moss and greenery growing from the stone.
Visitors from the past carved into the inside walls of Blarney Castle, if you look closely you can see the year 1898 etched into the stone wall.
Some of the gardens surrounding the castle .
Just me, sitting in the rain.

Me doing my Leprechaun dance in front of Blarney Castle.....-)

Yet, another picture of me and Blarney Castle...yeah, I know...rule number 1: never give Bill the camera!
Bill and I with our tour guide, David.
A little side street in Killarney.

We got on our tour coach, with David as our guide, and left Dublin bright and early, we drove across the island to a very old farm homestead where we had freshly made scones, fresh butter and jams made on the farm. We walked around the grounds, which were just beautifully decorated with old rock building and flowers of all sorts.

That afternoon we arrived at Blarney Castle, now THIS is a castle! As soon as we arrived it started pouring down rain, so from that moment on we looked like a couple of waifs that drifted in from the “states”…..

I love Blarney castle, it had a very eerie feel about it, and I loved every minute of it!

Everything all over Ireland is very green, just like you see in the tourist pictures; it almost hurts your eyes sometimes.

Blarney castle is massive and is one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen. I think we liked it even more because the entire time we were there, it was raining and thundering, fitting weather for spending a day in a castle. There was lots of lightning as we climbed up 120 treacherous stairs to the top of the castle, where we both kissed the Blarney stone. We skipped the shopping at the Blarney Woolen mills and stayed the entire time we were in Cork at the castle. Soon, it was time to leave, we hadn’t eaten any lunch so we stopped at a small coffee shop and had a sandwich and a coke. So, I said to Bill “Bill, I’m eating a ham sandwich in the rain in the shadow of Blarney Castle, does it get any better than this?”…….yes, it does.

Soon we reached our hotel in Killarney, the Killarney Plaza Hotel. That evening we met our tour guide in the bar for drinks along with our other tour travelers. We had dinner in the hotel soon after and met some more people from our tour, two Australian ladies, Marion and Belinda. Bill had Irish stew and didn’t know he was eating mutton…ha ha!
I had the chicken (and I'm sure it was chicken...!) and enjoyed the company.

Ring of Kerry

2007-07-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

July 18, 2007Bill in front of the McGillycuddy's Reeks, very beautiful, and the mountains aren't bad either...hee hee....

Brenda in front of the bathrooms, which were literally built behind the bushes....notice doorway in back of her. We stopped at this little gift shop with snotty, high-pressure sales ladies. If you even just gave a casual look at something they were on you faster than the perfume ladies at the mall.......I only bought a ring, but they had very nice items, great for souvenirs or gifts. Make sure you have lots of euros.
These are some really tall Irish dogs. (Irish wolf hounds)
This was taken in a bog village. The Irish did and still do burn peat for heat, which they dig from the bogs. This is a thatched roof. Who discovered the value of using reeds to make the roof and that it would be waterproof? It is just amazing to me the ingenuity of man.
A house with peat against the outside wall for future use.

We drove higher up into the mountains, gorgeous views (and this time I'm talking about the mountains).

We stopped at a little mom and pop restaurant on the way up the mountain where everything was too expensive and not all the great, it was the only "show in town" though. This is another lady we met from Australia, Michelle.

Back in Killarney that evening.

Today we drove through the 'Ring of Kerry' which includes ocean inlets and the Macgillycuddys reeks, a beautiful mountain range with just breathtaking vistas and scenery. Riding in our coach/bus up and down these narrow roads is quite the adventure, today we could not see the edge, just dropped off into no where, one of our new friends just started cracking up laughing every time that would happen,( it was a nervous laugh) so we were all laughing at her laughing. most of our tour friends are very friendly and the majority of us are from 'the states' as they call us here.

Cliffs of Moher and Bunratty castle dinner

2007-07-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2007Here is our bus waiting to take the ferry across to the Cliffs of Moher.
Most of us got out of the bus and stood on top of the ferry as it crossed.
These are the beautiful cliffs of Moher setting strangely symmetrical in the north Atlantic Ocean. At one time the oceans were much higher in this area and when the ocean retreated over time, it left these limestone cliffs, which are now used by seabirds for their homes.

These were absolutely breath-taking to see in the fog, even on a rainy day they were beautiful.
I present to you..............some kind of tower............??? (I found out later these is O'Brien's Tower)

This is one of the windows in the tower building.

I found this interesting: the cows are just grazing on the top of the cliff with just a small little fence to keep them from doing a swan dive into the Atlantic.

Droplets of water clinging to the grasses.
Before our banquet tonight, we were taken to our rooms at Bunratty Castle Hotel. Next door was a very old graveyard. Bill and I had to sneak on over and have a look..
This was once a church.

Bill studying the arched doorway of the church.
A view from inside of the church. Someone is buried in the mausoleum on the left side of the picture...some kind of Esquire.

Bunratty Castle as we entered for our dinner.
The castle was built in 1425, and was actually used by royalty in the past. Now most nights it is used for medieval banquets. Here is a harpist playing while we enter the main hall.

Here we are having a little mead (wine made from honey).
Phyllis and Chuck and their girls from Red Deer, Alberta,Canada.

This "gentleman" ( picture below, not Bill!) had committed some crime (having too many sexual encounters with the local maidens). So we had to yell whether we wanted to chop off his head, or make him sing a song for his freedom. We opted for the head removal, but he ended up singing "Molly Malone"

One English lady, and one from Jersey....what a pair they were.

The meal was served as it would have been in mideaval times, with nothing but a dagger to eat with.
We had creamy potato soup, very spicy, but delicious. We just drank it from the bowl. Then we had spare ribs, we just ate with our fingers . The second course was baked chicken and steamed vegetables and oat bread. We just ate with our fingers and used the dagger when necessary.
The dessert was a strawberry mousse. We had to feed each other. I don't know why?!
We were entertained with song and silliness. The entertainers were accompanied by violins and harps, very beautiful and talented singers.

As we were leaving the castle, we were treated to a performance by a Scotsman playing the bag pipes.

More pictures of Bunratty Castle in Shannon, IE

All of the street signs looked like this one....
Some shamrocks growing on a rock wall.
Durty Nelly's tavern, established in 1600's

Here are a bunch of crazy people that we were with all week, and a couple we just met up on the balcony of Durty Nelly's the last night of our trip.

These gentlemen were playing Irish folk songs while we all sang along.
This is another part of the same bar.

These are our friends from Canada again. Phyllis and I had lots of fun singing along with the songs. Once the old boys even played Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", so we sang it with the Irish brogue ( Ring uf Fiarrrrrr)....the we requested "The Battle of New Orleans", which they knew and played faster and faster while Phyllis and I sang the words. The accordian player said, about the piano player : "I think he's on steroids" ....this was really just the best, the old pub, the musicians, our friends and the people of Ireland just being themselves.
We left Durty Nelly's at closing time. Bill and I walked back to our hotel in the damp, rainy night, not wanting our wonderful trip to be over, but vowing to come back again someday.

The culture and beautiful landscape of a different continent can really change your view of life in your own country. I loved being in Ireland, I felt like I belonged there somehow. I will miss it very much, but like Dorothy and Toto found out "There's no place like home".