Limerick on Our Last Day

Our last full day in Ireland was rainy.  Did I mention that it rains a lot in Ireland. We decided to take a trip to nearby limerick to visit the castle there. St. John's Castle is steeped in Irish history. It also has a great museum that is an indoor activity so we wouldn't be out in the rain too much. 

Yes, that's me on the right in my battle attire. That's Jim with the helmet. We are ready for those nasty Brits. 

This is a view from inside the walls. No one was there in this miserable weather except us. 

View of a church next to the castle. 

The River Shannon flows by the castle. 

Yes, it was raining. 

After our visit to the castle, we drove to the nearby town of Ennis(didn't know that the Ennis name was Irish). Ennis is much larger than our base town of Adare but has much of the same charm. It also has great shopping in the city center. The picture above is of the group having lunch at the Old Ground Hotel. Their menu is typically Irish and the best value of any meal we had in Ireland. 

Our last stop of the day was at my favorite pub in Adare for a last pint of Guinness. 

Dingle Peninsula

We had one day without any rain. Did I mention that it rains a lot in Ireland. This was the day we took a trip to the Dingle Peninsula. What a nice day it was. 

The Dingle Peninsula is in the southwest of Ireland. There is a road that rings the peninsula which has some great coastal views. Most people drive the road starting in the town of Dingle. The ring road follows the coastline then cuts across the peninsula and then ends in Dingle where it starts. 

Harbor at Dingle. 

Murphy's Pub In Dingle. I'm sure the owner is a relative of my Irish son-in-law. 

The island on the left is Skellig Michael. Between the 6th and 8th centuries monks built a Christian monistary on the rock 600 ft above the sea. The ruins can be visited if you are willing to make the climb. 

This gull did not mind a few tourists. 

Beehive huts built a long the coast are very old. The exact age is unknown. 

A stop along the way for a spot of tea at a cafe overlooking the water. That's Paula, Linda and Jim. 

Scenic photograph. There were many views like this. 

Another photo by Debbie. The fences are for the sheep. 

It is hard to imagine what this place was like a hundred years ago. It probably looked much the same but would be a difficult place to live. Did I mention that it rains a lot in Ireland. It can also be cold when the wind blows off the Atlantic. 

A Little More About the Village of Adare

The place we are staying is on the outskirts of Adare. Adare is a small village and probably the most picturesque that we saw on our trip. With a population of 2,500, it has four nice pubs and several nice restaurants.

The park is on Main Street and the whole town is easily walkable. 

The stream that runs through the park where women would wash their clothes long ago. 

The Main Street of Adare. Orange building on the right is Aunty Lena's Pub. We had dinner there our first night. They have great pub food. I had the fish and chips. 

Lots of thatched roofs. 

Another of the pubs. 

Our favorite spot in Adare where we would go for a Guinness after a long day. 

Rock of Cashel

One of our day trips took us to the Rock of Cashel. This is an important historical site in south central Ireland. In 1101 the King of Munster donated the rock to the Church after being converted by St. Patrick. In the following centuries several structure were built on the site. Most became ruins and some are being restored. 

As you can see, the site is located on a large rock on the edge of the small town of Cashel. 

View from outside.

The cross that was moved inside for conservation. 

Inside Cormac's Chapel. 

Did I mention that it rains in Ireland. Well it really rains a lot. This is a view of the countryside taken from the Rock. 

The kitchen in the restored choir's dorm. 

Inside the Cathedral, built between 1235 and 1270.

Earlier this day we drove to the the town of Kilkenny where we had a short walk around and lunch at Pennefeathers, which was recommended in Rick Steve's book as an inexpensive place to have lunch. 

It was a long day day with 5 hours of driving. We were all happy to get back to Adare where we stopped by Bill Chawkes pub for refreshments. 

Our Home While in Ireland

I may have mentioned that we found the deal on this trip on Group and the price was too good to pass up. The total cost of the package was little more than what you would pay for an airline ticket. I was somewhat afraid that the accommodations would be pretty bad at that price.  Well, was I wrong. 

We are staying at the Adare Manor and Golf Course. This is the manor house. Truly a beautiful place situated on several hundred acres in the small village of Adare. The village itself is one of the prettiest we have seen while traveling here in Ireland. 

Gated entrance to the estate. The grounds were beautifully landscaped and maintained. 

Picture I grabbed from the internet. What little I saw of the golf course looked great. Maybe I will come back here someday and play the course if I win the lottery. 

We stayed in one of the villas on the property. Three ensuite bedrooms, living room kitchen, everything that we needed. 

Livingroom. 

Sunroom. Don't know why we had this. We rarely saw the sun during our visit. 

Fully equipped kitchen. 

The villa was ideally suited for our group of six. More on the trip later. 

Day One in Ireland

We arrived about 6:45 am Wednesday. I managed to get about two hours of sleep on the plane so the jet lag was not too bad. By the time we got through imigrations and customs and got the rental car it was after 7:30 and everyone was ready for breakfast. It was decided that we should go to this neat little crepe shop in downtown Dublin. Bad idea.  Rush hour traffic, a gps that was not working properly and me driving a right hand steer car on the wrong side of the road for the first time in 30 years. We did make it however.  

That's me standing outside the crepe shop waiting for the rest of the party to leave. We are starting our journey to the ancient Knowth burial grounds about a 45 minute trip north. 

These burial mounds date back 5000 years and are in fact older than Stonehenge. We are talking Stone Age here people. 

Some of the stone art. 

Passage to the tomb chamber. 

After Knowth we were on our way to Adare to check into our hotel. This was a 3 hour trip and the jet lag was beginning to catch up with me. We did manage to make it.  We dropped of our bags and headed to the little village of Adare for dinner. Dinner was typical pub grub at one of the local pubs. 

Our small group after the meal. By the way the food was good and the Guinness was excellent, not the same stuff you get in America. The Irish are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. If you meet one on the street and say hello, you have a instant conversation. If they recognize you are American(and they will) it will be hard to stop talking.  

Stay tuned for more on Ireland. 

My Next Great Adventure

It been several weeks since I posted anything. It has been an uneventful summer since our trip Montana. That is about to change. Today we start our trip to Ireland. 

I have been to Europe many times but have never been to Ireland. When we saw this great Groupon deal for a trip to Ireland, we just had to go. We told some of our friends and that decided to go also. The more, the merrier. 

I have been looking forward to this trip since we booked it back in the spring. I hope to take lots of photographs and will be posting some of them over the next few days. Stay tuned and I will give you my take on Ireland. 

These are the other five members of our group. We left RDU for JFK at 10:20 am where we have a 6 hour layover. Good planning!  So here we are at JFK killing 6 hours. The airport food was just what I expected.  Pretty bad.