It's a Lovely Day for a Guinness

 Wednesday September 6, 2023

We slept in this morning--no bag check or breakfast time requirement--it felt pretty good!  Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year--it got up to 77 degrees and everyone was commenting on the broiling heat!

Today was a "free day", so we set out to "Do Dublin" on the Hop on Hop off bus.  It took awhile to find the bus stop, but we got our steps in.  We checked in for the Guiness Storehouse tour.  Guinness began brewing beer here in 1759 and now brews 1.5 million pints per day! 

We found out it is quite a science, as Guinness was the first brewer to introduce nitrogen into the beer. This helps create the creamy white head.  Of course we got to sample a pint from high above, at the Gravity Bar on top of the facility.  What a lovely day for a Guinness.

Dublin is the capital of Ireland, and bustle of activity, with lots of busses taking people in and out of the city.  There is a light rail line called "Lewis" that means "speed" in Irish.  It is quite speedy, and moves a lot of people throughout the area.   There are scenic views around the river Liffey which runs through the center of the city. 

Of course we had to see the famous statue of Molly Malone.

On our walk back to the hotel, we came across sculptures dedicated to the Irish people forced to emigrate due to the famine.   They show the starving people walking toward ships to take them overseas, away from hunger and poverty.  It's almost haunting to see the statues, especially after seeing the ship they were headed for.

On a lighter note, everyone here is getting excited about the Rugby World Cup starting this weekend. It's a big deal for the island of Ireland, as they are ranked #1.  The team represents both the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.   The games will be played in France, and Ireland's first match is Saturday night.  I'll be cheering for them!

We have made our full circle tour around the island, and it has gone quickly.  We've been kept very busy but have seen so much.

We are ready to get home.  We've been here so long, we may start talking like the Irish.

"How are yas?"

"No bother"

"It's lovely"

To go is "Take Away"

"Booking" means reservation

Restroom is "Toilet"

H is silent, so Third is "turd", and Thing is "ting"

Point is "pint" 

I wonder how the Irish say "Your suitcase weighs too much?"

Waterford and Wrapping up

 Tuesday September 5, 2023

Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland, established when the Vikings came and named this their base for piracy.  The name means "safe harbor" and it is a gateway for an extensive river network, and where the Vikings moored their great long ships.  But the city is probably best known for its crystal.

We visited the house of Waterford, which has the largest showroom of crystal in the world.  The company was established in 1783.   We were able to tour the factory and see the craftsmen at work.  I was surprised to see what a painstaking job it is to create the crystal designs (also explains why it is so expensive!) 

The craftsmen train for about six years to learn the various cuts and hone their skills.  We learned that crystal contains more than 23% lead;  if it's less than that, it is just glass.  

Each piece goes through a quality control check at least six times, and is destroyed if it fails quality standards.  The smashed pieces are melted and used to produce more glass.  There are never Waterford Crystal "seconds".  (no outlet shopping opportunities!)

This guy has been working on this custom piece for two weeks; it is a vase with a special etching, and it's not done yet.

The showroom was impressive with lots of beautiful things, including a large crystal gingerbread house!

Jim surprised me with some crystal earrings!  They are beautiful and will be a special souvenir of a special trip.  One other guest said to him "Well, I bet you'll get some good points for that!" (he did)

Our next stop was at New Ross, the ancestral hometown of John F Kennedy.  On display is the Emigrant Flame which burns permanently to remember all emigrants throughout the world. 

The Flame came from John F. Kennedy's grave, and was sent to Ireland by land, air and sea (3700 miles!). It was placed exactly 50 years after JFK's visit to symbolically fulfill his promise to return to the town of his forefathers.

The flame sits at the site of the Dunbrody Famine Ship, an authentic reproduction of an emigrant ship from the 1840's.  

A tour of the boat provided insight into the emigrant experience of so many desperate people who left Ireland during the famine looking for hope.  Most travelled in the steerage area, where entire families occupied a bunk together.  Their belongings also had to fit in the space.

There could have been 300 people in this small space, for up to 6 weeks, allowed on deck for less than 1 hour per day, unless there was a storm, when all hatches were closed and gaslights extinguished.  During the storm, steerage passengers were forced to stay below in the dark.  Many passengers died before they reached their destination.  What a sad part of history.

We weren't quite steerage, but were glad to finally get off of our bus when we arrived in Dublin, where the group enjoyed a nice dinner drinks and Irish entertainment, and stayed out way too late!  We said goodbye to PJ O'Brien, our driver and tour guide. (He's probably doing cartwheels as he departed!)  We will have a full day on our own tomorrow to explore Dublin.

We will wrap things up tomorrow and figure out what will fit in the suitcase to bring home!

A bunch of Blarney?

 Monday September 4, 2023

We hit the road at 8am to get to Cork to see the Blarney castle before the cruise ship passengers arrived.  Good move...we got there early enough to avoid the crowds, but they started pouring in as we were leaving.  

 The Blarney castle was built in 1446--it's amazing to see something that old and be able to go inside the structure.  Although part of it is in ruins, there were several chambers open to observe--a bedroom, the kitchen, a chapel-like area, etc.  

A bagpiper greeted us as we approached the castle.

Once you enter the castle, there are 100 steps up a stone spiral staircase to get to the top where the Stone of Eloquence (The Blarney Stone) is located.  This is Jim going up and me going down!

The Blarney Stone has been in place for 200 years, and there are several legends about it. Some say it was Jacob's pillow brought to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah.  Others say it was a stone used as a throne for Irish kings and served as the power of royal succession.  Regardless, they say if you kiss the stone, you will gain the gift of eloquence!  In this picture, you can see the open space at the very top of the castle where the Blarney stone is located.

The stone is on the bottom of a wall at the top of the castle.  To kiss the stone, you have to lay on your back and hang down over an open area to get to the stone.  Jim did it!  I'm not sure it helped his eloquence, but we have evidence to show he did it!  I laid down, but was creeped out by leaning backwards, so I struck out on kissing the stone and gaining the gift of eloquence! I wonder how many people really kiss the stone? I think the whole thing is a bunch of blarney!

This is Jim at the top of the stairs at the side of the castle (trying out his eloquence!)

We walked the grounds to admire the beautiful gardens and landscaped spaces. 

The stately Blarney House built in 1874 sits on the grounds, and looks like a castle.  The mansion is still occupied by family members!

Later in the day, we made a stop at The Marine Bar, a small pub on the route, for some Irish coffee and Irish music.  We were treated and entertained by the owner who had lots of tales about people who have visited.  His music was good and we even had a sing-a-long!

The Clancy brothers grew up within 5 miles of the pub, and frequented the place.  Also, Maureen O'Hara had a home not too far away, and was an occasional visitor. 

At the end of the day, we arrived in Waterford, and after a quick city tour, we checked into The Granville Hotel, a charming hotel right on the waterfront.  

We'll explore more of the city tomorrow--and that's no blarney!

Room and Ring

 Sunday September 3, 2023

We are staying at the Killarney Plaza Hotel , one of the nicer hotels on our trip so far.  Our room is great and it overlooks the hotel entry, in the middle of town, in the center of the hustle and bustle, and steps away from the entrance to Killarney National Park.

The Killarney National Park is Ireland's first national park, encompassing 25,000 acres, donated by a wealthy landowner.  We took a jaunty car ride through the park.  A jaunty car is a horse drawn buggy!

Yay! I finally got Jim to go on a carriage ride!

It was a great way to see the park, which has a great network of surfaced paths for walkers, joggers, cyclists and horses! 

It is very wooded in some areas, and has several lakes.  The guide explained that the rhododendron grows wild and is quite invasive, so they are trying to irradicate it!  (The rhododendron bushes looked beautiful to me!)  The park has Ireland's only remaining herd of red deer or Sika, and we actually saw one! 

After the jaunty ride, we loaded on the bus headed for lunch in Kinmare.   PJ did an amazing job keeping the bus between the lines, and between the cars!  This is a picture through the bus windshield as we drove through town.  We were hoping nobody opened a car door!

Jim found a seat while waiting for the group to get to the pub.  The sign says "The Happy to Chat Bench...sit here if you don't mind someone stopping to say Hello"

After a yummy lunch (and a Guinness) we began the drive along the Ring of Kerry.  The Ring of Kerry is a famous scenic route on the Island with squiggly winding narrow roads and beautiful scenes along the way. 

We stopped at Ladies View, a panoramic viewpoint where you can see the Lakes of Killarney...a real "WOW" moment!

This is a view across the Black Valley, and you can see the Gap of Dunloe in the distance, a pass that was carved between the mountains by a glacial breach. It is one of the only ways to get across the mountains.  Black Valley was named because it was the last place in the area to get power!

Check out this view from the bus windshield of the tunnel we had to go through.  Thank you PJ for making it through safely!

After a nap at the hotel, we ventured out and thought we'd found a football game on tv!  It was an outside bar, with noisy fans, showing a game on tv but it was the OTHER football--soccer.

We found a quieter outside pub with a little more seating room, and met up with a few others from our group to enjoy a Guinness before dinner.

Before we left Indy, a friend suggested that I buy stock in Guinness--wish I had done it--we are sure helping their revenues!

As the tour winds down we are starting to think about whether everything will fit in our suitcases to come home.  At our last stop we found a charity shop and Jim donated some of his clothes to make room in his suitcase for my purchases!  I also left my hairdryer with one of the desk clerks and asked her to find a good home for it.  Every little bit of room counts!

Dingle Dangle

 Saturday September 2, 2023

It was another foggy morning leaving Limerick as we drove along River Shannon.  A message on the wall of the river pier says "it will rise with the moon", referring to the fact that this is a tidal river --the river water meets the sea water of the estuary in Limerick.  

We stopped for scones and tea at a small pub in Listowel.  It was the home of John B. Keane, the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist.  The pub and its clientele provided much of the material for Keane's writing.

The 1990 Oscar winning movie "The Field" was adapted from a play written by Keane.  (We have it on our watch list now.)   His son Billy Keane, also a writer, now runs the pub and regaled us with stories about his dad and the characters he wrote about.  He was quite a storyteller and it was fun to hear from him first hand.

We passed through Foyes, the birthplace of Irish coffee, and also well known as a hub for transatlantic flights, as the "Flying Boats" landed in the water in this harbor town.  The first commercial passenger flight from USA to Europe, The Yankee Clipper, landed in Foyes in 1939.  I'm learning all kinds of new things on this trip!  I don't think I paid much attention in history class!

As promised, the fog lifted and we had a beautiful sunny day for the drive along the coastal area.  As I've said before, it's just not possible to capture the beauty of the landscape through the lens of a camera, and through the window of a bus!

Because it was such a beautiful day, our driver stopped for pictures of the great scenery.

Jim took this video of the landscape view of Dingle Peninsula, which is the westernmost point of Ireland.

We stopped in the town of Dingle for another "comfort" stop.  It is a charming town with free toilets and good ice cream--I tried the sea salt! 

They were having a marathon/half marathon run in the town, so there was quite a bit of activity.  It's supposed to be the most scenic race in Ireland.  Many had medals dangling from their neck after finishing the race.  One of the runners was having lunch next to us so I asked for a picture of his medal.  I asked how he did and he said "I finished!"

There was a huge beach area with lots of people out enjoying the sunshine.  I'm sure the water was really cold.

We headed on to our final stop for the day, Killarney.  At the top of the hill, we were able to look out over the city and see the lakes of Killarney.

and some pretty flowers too, dangling in the shadow of Dingle!