Month: June 2011

For our third day of travel we were westward bound – all the way to Westport.  Pam, Bethany’s Step-mom, had ancestors that were traced back to this area, so we wanted to explore the town.  This was quite a drive, and probably will be the most time we’ll spend in the car on this trip.  Many of our pictures were taken from the car, and in some cases where the road was one lane, we had to take some moving pictures.  Hopefully these pictures will give you an idea of some of the beautiful countryside we’re seeing.  I’m not quite sure how to explain the terrain in terms of American comparisons.  I would maybe say “Kansas, but much greener”, some parts are as beautiful as taking a drive in the Rocky Mountains, but not as mountain-y.

Westport itself seems like a typical small Irish town, with many shops along the town square and shops that line the busy streets. For friends that have been to Fort Collins, imagine Old Town, but with an older appearance and on streets that are a little more narrow and a little more busy.  It’s not a very good description, probably because the towns in Ireland are different than anything that I’ve seen.

In the center of Westport they had a big structure called “The Octagon” – almost like a town’s clock tower without the clock, instead they have a statue of St. Patrick at the top.

We stopped by the Westport house, which is basically a tourist attraction with activities for kids.  We walked around a bit, but opted not to pay the admission to see the house up close.  Instead on the way over there we saw these kids that were put into these big round balls and rolled down the hill. I couldn’t help but wonder how many times people have gotten sick inside of those balls.

We then stopped by Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St. Patrick went up and fasted during Lent in the 5th century and drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  In the last week of July over 15,000 people make a pilgrimage up the mountain.

Below the grounds of Croagh Patrick lies a moment for those who suffered while seeking refuge from the Potato Famine.  While they escaped Ireland to immigrate to the United States, the ships they sailed on had horrid conditions that resulted in many of them dying along the way.  If you look at the picture of the ship, you’ll see that the masts are made of skeletons to signify the life that was lost during those journeys.

We then drove through Doo Lough Pass, a beautiful but windy road across the hills on the way to Galway.  There we saw some beautiful sights around a large lake.  It was drizzling throughout the drive and made for a very pretty two hours.  We had to slow down a few times to avoid some sheep alongside the road. This reminded me of when we’re in Colorado and people stop to take pictures of the elk – now it was our turn to take pictures of the sheep.

We finally reached Galway for dinner, and choose from what seemed to be 100 pubs and rastaurants in this small walking area in the town.  There were some pedestrian walkways that looked like an old version of Pearl Street in Boulder.  We’ll be back in Galway later on this trip, and I’m looking forward for the opportunity to explore some more.

Day three is in the books! Thank you for continuing to accompany us on our adventure!

What a difference a night’s worth of sleep can make – after only getting 7 hours in nearly three days, we all slept off the long Saturday and got rested up for our big day.

We started out day heading south east to Killaloe and checked out a farmer’s market, where we picked up some cheese, bread and I couldn’t resist stocking up from an olive merchant.

Killaloe has a beautiful old arching bridge over River Shannon. We drove over it to make our way down to Blarney, home of Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone.

We climbed up to the top of the castle, up a very narrow staircase, to reach the Blarney Stone.

To kiss the stone, you need to lay on your back, then grab two bars as the attendant lowers you faced-down onto the stone.  You don’t want to look down and see the clear image of the ground below.

It has been said that those who kiss the stone are blessed with the “Gift of Gab”, or eloquence.  You’ll have to let me know if you see a difference!

Later on I’ll post my pictures of us going through the castle, stopping by a few rooms on our way down.  We then toured the grounds of the castle, including the Poison Garden:

It was crazy seeing some of the plans in there, some of which had cages around them to keep people out:

We built up an appetite walking the grounds and stopped for a snack at a place called The Lemon Tree.  We then made our way to the Blarney Woolen Mills to do some shopping. Bethany and I didn’t end up buying anything, but I was definitely tempted…

We then drove up to Limerick and had dinner at Dolan’s Pub, and of course had our daily fix of Guinness.  The GPS took us on a very narrow road home, where most of it was pretty much one lane.  We made it back safely and had a nice evening playing Phase 10.

Day 2 is in the books! We are heading out the door to go start Day 3!

Not very many pictures from the first day, but I wanted to share with you the views of where we’re staying:

This was view from the street in Ennis – pretty much all of the roads in these towns are this narrow.

Our cottage in a golf village by Bodyke. There are two bed rooms inside, two bathrooms and two levels.

The outside of our cottage, I love the rolling hills.

Of course you can’t let a day in Ireland go by without enjoying some Guinness!

Day 2 pictures will be on their way later!

We have arrived in Ireland!  After leaving Colorado on a 7:45am flight, we finally arrived in Shannon, Ireland at 7am the next morning! We took three flights to get here: Denver to Chicago Midway, Chicago to Newark and finally the international overnight flight to Shannon.  Our second leg of our journey was pretty stressful, as everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. We originally had a 3.5 hour layover between the 2nd & 3rd flights, but that soon dwindled down to barely enough time to get on the third flight. First they delayed out flight to Newark by 50 minutes, we then spent an extensive amount of time taxi-ing before we took off. While we were in the air, the flight went well. The flight itself featured WiFi, which was pretty fun to use at 35,000 feet. However, when we landed the jetway that was supposed to let us off our plane apparently broke, and we had to be towed over to another gate.  Throughout this time Bethany and I were sweating bullets, watching the clock tick and knowing we still had to get off this flight, retrieve our bags and then turn around and check-in on our flight to Shannon.  Luckily with a little running, we made it in time.  Our flight to Shannon was very enjoyable, as Bethany and I had a row to ourselves and got to spread out.  The flight itself was almost 7 hours, but then you add on 5 hours of time-change which made it 7am when we arrived.

Most of our Saturday was spent lying low and getting settled.  We got into our cottage with no problem.  We’re staying at a Golf Village near the town of Bodyke.  We then drove out to Ennis where we got some phone service for our international phones and enjoyed a cup of coffee and peach ice tea at a coffee shop out here. I am blown away at the kindness and generosity of the people here. When we parked in Ennis we were in a “pay & display” lot, and some departing people offered us their parking ticket so we could park free for an hour!  We also bought some groceries for breakfast  &lunches for the next few days, and then stopped at a farmers market in Scarriff before we headed back home.

The roads here are something else. Like England, people in Ireland drive on the left side of the road.  Also I’m not sure how England is, but the roads here in Ireland are very narrow.  When come from the town of Bodyke over to our cottage, the road is one-laned.  However, the shrubbery is so grown that there really aren’t any pull-offs when you see another car driving. The road curves so much that it’s made for a few close calls as we drive down that road.

We went to this pub called Pepper’s Bar and ended up riding over in a shuttle with an Australian couple that has been traveling around the world for 6 weeks.  We ended up sitting with them for dinner and enjoying some good conversation and of course some Guinness as well.  By the time we headed back to our cottage at 8:30pm we figured that it would be late enough where we could fall asleep without ruining our jet-lag.  We ended up sleeping nearly 13 hours.

We’re out the door for Day 2, so a recap & more pictures will come later!