Thursday, June 7, 2012
Well we are back from our trip and trying to catch up on everything. I plan to post some more photos and information such as review of the places we stayed and the things we did. We loved Ireland and would go back. The people are the nicest and most helpful we have ever met. The weather was the best they have had in the past three years, so we were told. I would highly recommend Ireland because of the people and the beauty. More later.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Today started out as a very nice day with the sun
shining. The Hop on Hop Off bus came by
the hotel to take us to the tour. We
rode on top of the double decker bus where it was open air and soaked up the
sun. We decided to ride it around one
loop before getting off. It gives you a
good tour of the city, Dublin, with 24 stops and a guide pointing out the
sites. Very entertaining and fun. We got off the bus at Trinity College and
took in an exhibit of the book of Kells which was very interesting. Our next stop was Dublin Castle where we had
to wait an hour for the next tour. This
was a very interesting tour and the guide was very good as well. We went down into the area that had recently
been excavated that showed the Vikings original wall around the city. We
grabbed a quick bite for lunch before the tour.
Moving along, we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and took another
tour. Our tour guide was Italian and
very nice. Very interesting history for
all these sites. Next we went to the
Guinness Brewery. Interesting, but not
that exciting. At the end, you get a
pint up in the Gravity Bar which is an observation room at the top of the
building. It is a glass enclosure and
gives you a 360 degree view of Dublin from above the buildings. Nice view, but it was getting foggy and rainy
by then. Back on the bus we were too
late for the tour of the jail, but rode around to another stop where we got off
to walk through the Temple Bar area. Ate
dinner at Brunos which was very good.
Our waitress was not Irish and we had a little language barrier when I
asked how the chicken was fixed. I
wanted to know if it was baked, but she didn’t understand so she had to get
someone else to help her. It was baked
so I got it and it was very yummy. Ed
had Irish stew. It was raining more and
we decided to head to the DART station for the ride to the hotel. On the way, we heard bagpipes and walked
toward the sound. It was a parade of
firemen with bagpipes leading the way. We
walked a ways to get to the DART train station and finally arrived at our
hotel. A little walk in the rain didn’t
hurt us at all!
Tomorrow we leave for Boston where we will spend the night
and celebrate Ed’s Birthday.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Today we left Galway and headed toward the Cliffs of
Moher. On the way we stopped at
Dunguaire Castle which was located near a bog and also across the street from a
house with a thatched roof. We spent a
lot of time today on very windy narrow roads, so we were both exhausted. Me from hanging on to the seat, door or dash
and Ed from driving! It was a very
beautiful drive, but it is somewhat difficult to get good pics from the road as
the walls are high or the vegetation along the road is high. Makes viewing sometimes difficult beyond the
road. Of course I don’t want Ed trying
to look at the scenery on a windy road.
When we arrived at the cliffs, it was very foggy and the
cliffs weren’t even visible. The
visitors center is in a cave. Nice
center, but the real scenery was outside!
We ate a sandwich at the snack bar and as we were eating, the fog began
to lift making the cliffs visible. Impressive. We spent a couple hours here and took another
1000 pics. The sun came out and there
was some blue sky at times. We were too
late in the day to see the puffins on an island just off the cliffs, but it is
a spectacular place. If we had gotten
here any earlier, we wouldn’t have been able to see the Puffins either since it
was this fog. Pictures don’t do it
justice. Over the years there have been
many people jump or fall to their deaths off the cliff. This has caused the government to secure the
cliffs with barriers made of stone from the area. People from all over the world were at the
cliffs. A German lady started talking to
me about my camera and showing me hers.
She said she was here about 15 years ago and it had changed
considerably. One of the parts of the
cliff had apparently disappeared over the years.
After a couple hours, we decided to head towards Dublin
where we will be staying for the next couple of days. It took more than 3 hours to get to Dublin
and we were getting tired and in need of some caffeine. We got off the main road and thought we would
find something in town to buy some coffee.
We passed up a McDonalds, but ended up going back there because we
couldn’t find anything in town easily. We
drove by Dromoland Castle and took a few pics, before continuing to Dublin.
We grabbed a bite at the hotel and will explore Dublin
tomorrow.
Ed Here: Deb took the night off to catch up on her sleep so I have the honor of bringing you up to date on our Ireland travels. Today was the first really rainy day we have had so far. The original plan was to drive down southwest of Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher. Instead we decided to do that the next day on the way to Dublin (yes I know its really not on the way..cut us some slack..we are from out of town).
Today we drove west of Galway into the Connemara region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connemara). We first headed into Galway for a last minute camera repair as Deb's beloved Canon DSLR fell off the bed last night right on the front of the lens. The good news is the camera itself is ok because the filter on the camera lens tool the brunt of the contact. The bad news is the filter is cracked and cannot be removed at the moment meaning the lens is useless. This lens will be going into the shop once we return to Dallas. Between the two of us we have some additional lenses so this setback should not be a trip killer for Deb and her photos.
Back to the trip: On the way out of Galway, we stopped at the Celtic Crystal shop
(http://www.celticcrystalireland.com/). If you visit the web site and choose the link for "Limited Edition" you will the most exquisite examples of colored cut crystal. The pieces we saw were just incredible in craftsmanship..and in price! Colored crystal takes 2-3 times longer to create than clear crystal and the price reflects the additional craftsmanship needed to create such incredible pieces of art. I was able to talk to the owner and main designer of the crystal. She gave me a good 20 minute explanation of how the crystal is cut and why the specific shapes and cuts are used. If you have a few minutes I stongly suggest you browse through their web site. Fascinating indeed!
From the crystal shop we continued west until we came to Aughnanure Castle. The literature states this is a prime example of 16th centure Irish Tower house. As you can see by the photos this castle is in restoration phase but we were still able to get a sense of how live might have been in the Sixteenth
century.
From the Castle we continued west until we came to the "Connemara" statue. Initially I thought this was some long lost relic from bygonne days but if you read the inscription you will see the statue was created in 1999 so I am thinking its pretty much a billboard to stop a the gift shop across the
street...which we did!
Moving on down the road, we cut through the loop and got a real view of the "Bog land". This baren land with over 100" of rain annually creates a unique ecosystem. In the past the major source of fuel for fires and such was the land itself. Parts of the "Bog" were cut into sections and dried, flipped over, and dried some more until the brick looking pieces of peat were dry of all moisture. Then the pieces could be used as fuel for fires, cooking, etc. In recent times conservation movements have deterred the use of the land for this purpose to better preserve the rare ecosystem of this region.
Turning off the road we came to the Kylemore Abbey. The ground were picturesque but we only visited a short time due to the mass quantities of gnats and flying bugs! What a shame as the gardens were supposed to be spectacular..we just couldn't take the bugs anymore so we left.
Finally we reached our destination of Clifden. We were told that this region of Ireland has really been at the forefront for the preservation of the traditional Irish music and dance. Sure enough we were met in town by a festival celeberation 200 years of the Connamara region, complete with fiddle\accordion traditional music..and dancers! The children of town would take turns dancing to the tunes played by the local band. All in all a great end to an unexpected day. What we thought might be an uneventful day turned out to be one of the most memorable!
Today we drove west of Galway into the Connemara region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connemara). We first headed into Galway for a last minute camera repair as Deb's beloved Canon DSLR fell off the bed last night right on the front of the lens. The good news is the camera itself is ok because the filter on the camera lens tool the brunt of the contact. The bad news is the filter is cracked and cannot be removed at the moment meaning the lens is useless. This lens will be going into the shop once we return to Dallas. Between the two of us we have some additional lenses so this setback should not be a trip killer for Deb and her photos.
Back to the trip: On the way out of Galway, we stopped at the Celtic Crystal shop
(http://www.celticcrystalireland.com/). If you visit the web site and choose the link for "Limited Edition" you will the most exquisite examples of colored cut crystal. The pieces we saw were just incredible in craftsmanship..and in price! Colored crystal takes 2-3 times longer to create than clear crystal and the price reflects the additional craftsmanship needed to create such incredible pieces of art. I was able to talk to the owner and main designer of the crystal. She gave me a good 20 minute explanation of how the crystal is cut and why the specific shapes and cuts are used. If you have a few minutes I stongly suggest you browse through their web site. Fascinating indeed!
From the crystal shop we continued west until we came to Aughnanure Castle. The literature states this is a prime example of 16th centure Irish Tower house. As you can see by the photos this castle is in restoration phase but we were still able to get a sense of how live might have been in the Sixteenth
century.
From the Castle we continued west until we came to the "Connemara" statue. Initially I thought this was some long lost relic from bygonne days but if you read the inscription you will see the statue was created in 1999 so I am thinking its pretty much a billboard to stop a the gift shop across the
street...which we did!
Moving on down the road, we cut through the loop and got a real view of the "Bog land". This baren land with over 100" of rain annually creates a unique ecosystem. In the past the major source of fuel for fires and such was the land itself. Parts of the "Bog" were cut into sections and dried, flipped over, and dried some more until the brick looking pieces of peat were dry of all moisture. Then the pieces could be used as fuel for fires, cooking, etc. In recent times conservation movements have deterred the use of the land for this purpose to better preserve the rare ecosystem of this region.
Turning off the road we came to the Kylemore Abbey. The ground were picturesque but we only visited a short time due to the mass quantities of gnats and flying bugs! What a shame as the gardens were supposed to be spectacular..we just couldn't take the bugs anymore so we left.
Finally we reached our destination of Clifden. We were told that this region of Ireland has really been at the forefront for the preservation of the traditional Irish music and dance. Sure enough we were met in town by a festival celeberation 200 years of the Connamara region, complete with fiddle\accordion traditional music..and dancers! The children of town would take turns dancing to the tunes played by the local band. All in all a great end to an unexpected day. What we thought might be an uneventful day turned out to be one of the most memorable!
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