This Leprauchan started the whole trip

Several months ago, our daughter-in-law (whose maiden name incidentally, is Shannon Sullivan) called up to ask if we wanted to take a trip to Ireland with her and our son Aaron. Travel. Family. Two of our favorite things. We’re in!!

Below is some trip information we gleaned. If you prefer to skip down to Day One, you won’t miss much.

We are not tour people, so we began researching the trip right away. We also talked to a lot of people who had already been there. Here are the things we discovered so far.
Flights- The Aer Lingus fly drive packages look great if you have the patience to wait for a 2-3 months before to make arrangements. The only drawback is being limited to the bed and breakfasts that participate in the voucher system. We ended up using frequent flyer miles on Delta, so it was not an issue. Aer Lingus is probably your best deal if you aren’t using frequent flyers.

Car Rental- Important Point: The car insurance provided by Visa and American Express has two or three countries excluded. And Ireland is one of them!! Therefore, make sure you get an “all-inclusive” price with collision damage waiver (CDW) and theft included. We got a great offer from American Airlines. This is great until you find out that it will cost an additional $150/week for insurance.
The best deal for car rental is through the Aer Lingus website. They imply it is for those that fly with them, but actually, you can get the discount by just following the car rental links.
Guidebooks and Websites- The http://www.IrelandExpert.com website is great and has a question and answer forum where Pat answers questions within 24 hours. We liked it so much, we bought her book Ireland 101 and found it gave a very different perspective than other guidebooks and it was well worth the price.
The plan: We plan to spend a few days in Dublin and then do a circle past the Jameson distillery and up the west coast. We will stay in a bed and breakfast until we run out of things to do and then move on. Who knows how far we will get. The farthest north we can possibly make it will be Galway.
OK, no more until we actually get going.

Only a couple hours into our trip we are already having cultural experiences.  I experienced classic 5 way chili , Cincinatti style on short stopover.    Unique ground beef chili, with difference seasonings including a prominent taste of cinnamon.  This chili is served over spaghetti, and topped with onions, beans and cheese.  I ordered it light on cheese, so it was only a small mountain.  Good Stuff!

I stuck a $1 bill into a massage chair to get the second cultural experience.  Best dollar I ever spent!!

On to JFK airport in NYC.  As you would expect.  Great people watching.   Ate dinner here.   Bill was just under $1000. Linda cliams some of you might not know that was sort of a joke.  Oh hey, the next table over was taken by “Big Mike” from American Idol.  And before you ask.  No.  We didn’t.

Off on the red eye to Dublin at 10:30PM, delayed until 11:30.   End of day one.  Kinda still seems like day zero.

We walked around town and ended up at Trinity College where the famous book of Kells is kept as well as the spectacular Long Hall packed two stories high on both sides of the room with incredibly ancient books.

Aaron and Shannon at Trinity College

We walked back to the apartment and crashed immediately.

Saint Patricks Cathedral

Lunch

Keeping the ethnic variety going, we had lunch at a nice Italian place. Lunch is a lot cheaper than dinner here, even more so than in the US.

Dublin Castle

After lunch, we toured the Dublin Castle. We actually took a guided tour this time and got a 45 minute dose of history. It was all quite interesting. The English / Irish interactions dominates the story. Perhaps the English aristocrat’s arrogance in the 17 and 18 hundreds is best exemplefied by the “whistling hall” where the servants were required to whistle while delivering the food to the English Viceroy’s guests to prove they weren’t eating any.

In a single sentence, the Vikings ruled Ireland around 600 AD, the Normans took over in 900, only to be replaced shortly by the English, who lasted until 1922.

Temple Bar

We never made it back to our rooms at all on Friday. We ate dinner in the funky Temple Bar area at a tapas restaurant called Pintxo. Lots of fun to share, food was pretty good and most importantly….. not Irish (remember our Dublin goal).

Friday evening we had reserved tickets for a musical pub crawl. Good thing too, since all 50 or so spots were full. This was a fun
evening where 2 musicians take you to two different pubs and teach you

Musical Pub Crawl in the Temple Bar Area

about traditional Irish music while preforming and demonstrating jigs and reels and ballads. The 2 1/2 hours went by like an hour. At least for the three of us that really like Irish music. I will leave you to speculate who number 4 might be. We made the long walk back to the rooms after 11 and dropped like rocks into bed.

Late Start today. Very late breakfast. Coffee in Ireland seems to be almost universally good. Often regular coffee is in the form of an Americano and even if it is just brewed,  it is good. And strong. Just don’t ask for cream. In Europe, cream means whipped cream. I knew that, but sometimes forget. They don’t seem to have half and half.

Photos of Dublin can be found here

Bread

Two things are fairly universal. Scones are always available for breakfast and are well done. Bread with meals (usually with soup) is what they call Irish Brown bread, which seems to be simultaneously whole grain and soft. Good stuff.

History

This afternoon we went to the National Museum. Lots of Viking artifacts and also amazing Celtic gold and bronze items for 900-1100 A.D. Slowly starting to get the history stuff pieced together, but it is going to take a while yet. I hope to find someone knowledgeable that is willing to sit down and chat a bit and fill in the blanks for me.

Transportation

At the end of the day Aaron and I walked down to pick up our rental car. The guide books all say not to let them bump you up to a midsized car. They don’t fit on the back roads. So….. we let them bump us up to a midsized car. We couldn’t see how all 4 suitcases and a backpack would fit in the compact. Well, I couldn’t. Aaron thought they might.

Friends have recommended getting the SatNav (GPS). Yeah, but it costs a lot !! We decided to try without it. We started to doubt the wisdom of that one on the way back to the rooms. I do want to go on record that driving in Dublin is not the big deal everyone says it is. It’s just like any other city. Well… except for the fact that the street names change every 3 blocks and they don’t bother with street signs much. And well, OK, the one way streets are a bit of a bother. Parking is also a problem. We got the car today so we would have transportation first thing tomorrow morning We parked it in the car park (free on weekends only) and walked for the evening.

Indonesia

Street Musicians in the Temple Bar area

When we were in the Temple Bar area yesterday, I spotted an Indonesian restaurant called the Chameleon. The serve 5 to 7 small courses for a fixed price. A fairly hefty fixed price, but not really out of line with other restaurants in Dublin. Thankfully, the Euro has continually shrunk against the dollar, so it isn’t quite so painful. Forget the Euro, the food was fantastic.

Traditional Music night #2

The guys at the pub crawl suggested a couple of “local” pubs to try out for Saturday night. I picked the closest one and we headed there on foot. The route went through a few blocks of less beautiful Dublin and my companions began to mutter loudly under their breath. When we got there, there was some discussion about whether we would go in or not. In the end it passed the Mary Zoet test (windows that you can actually see inside with), so we went in. I promised the girls a cab ride home as part of the enticement deal. We headed upstairs where the music was supposed to be and were the only ones there. Hmmm…. after a little while a guy came up with a guitar, then a someone with a little Irish squeezebox called a concertina. They played half heartedly for a little while then, two young women showed up with violins and they brightened up considerably. Soon the music was cooking and more and more people kept drifting in until the entire place was full. Turns out one of violinists was a young woman from Peru that was quite the master. The other young woman appeared to have been an apprentice. Lots of fun and good music. I kept my promise of a cab and we were home pretty early.

Today ended our rainless streak in Ireland. Not easily daunted, went down and tucked the rear view mirrors in, maneuvered past the very narrow stone archway where are car was parked and headed south to Glendalough. Glendalough is an amazing 6th century monastic village in the beautiful Wicklowe valley about an hour south of Dublin. Someone said Glendalough looked good in the rain. 6th century ruins look perfectly natural on a dreary, rainy day. St. Keven was a very influential man of God that attracted many understudies to his community. This area is probably the coolest thing we have visited so far. We did the hike up to the upper lake. This area is a perfect combination of nature and archeology.
In a bit of an American touch, there is a hotel now in the valley. However, it turned out pretty well for us, they had a very nice lounge with good food. Seafood chowder and the ubiquitous Irish brown bread was delicious after a morning in the rain. Linda’s chicken salad sandwich and with ham was also excellent. The weather started to clear and the Energizer bunny disguised as Shannon talked us into stopping by the Powerscourt Gardens. We got there with just enough time to see the gardens before they closed. These are formal English gardens with a variety of areas including magnificent Japanese garden area. Linda kept walking around uncontrollably saying ”beautiful, beautiful” over and over again. To many I assume this stopover sounds dull. It definitely was not. We all enjoyed it immensely.

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Back to Dublin and beautiful Indian dinner at a place called Tulsi. Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Korma. Not as hot and spicy as it should be, but very good nonetheless. No pubs tonight.

Out of bed early to get out of town before some big “mini-marathon” race started right outside our rooms. We won’t miss the Fitzwilliam Guest House. Rooms were fine, but the heat came on every night, so we had to sleep with the windows on the street side openq. It certainly was interesting to hear people walking home from the pubs, singing, laughing and talking. One group at one, one group at three, one group at five.

Swallowing Pride

We have always prided ourselves in navigational and map reading skills. However, after a day of driving, our first stop was at the car rental place to pick up a SatNav (European for GPS). We had finally decided the stress reduction of not having to look for street signs that usually weren’t there would be worth it. Improved family harmony and driver sanity for only $100 !!

Castles and Cathedrals

The chapel area of the Rock of Cashel

Off to Kilkenny and Cashel. First stop a gas station for coffee. Unbelievable. Good coffee at a gas station. I love this country.
It is clearly going to rain today. Good thing we had low expectations for weather on this trip !!
First site seeing stop was a medievel town called Kilkenny. It looks quite nice in the rain. We visited Kilkenny castle. This was a 1500′s castle that had the south wall destroyed by good old Cromwell in the 1600′s. Various improvements made over the years and was occupied by the British Butler family for over 300 years as their “Ireland residence”. They sold the castle to the Irish government 1935 and auctioned all the contents. Including the fabulous long hall with paintings and sculptures. They moved back to England.
Next stop was to the Cathedral St. Canices Beautiful medievel church with a typical tall narrow round tower for defence. Aaron was extremely disappointed that is was closed due to rain.
Off just after noon to a small town west of Kilkenny that is home to the famous Rock of Cashel. This was a castle that became a key religious center. To get the full story go <a href=http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/rock-of-cashel>here</a>. The weather wind to the rain here, so we headed south looking for lodging, soon after the organized tour.
Short cutting through the countryside toward one of our key destinations (the Jameson Heritage Center) we spotted a likely looking B and B. The Bluebell bed and breakfast owners were at that very moment unpacking their car from their holidays. They were a bit flustered, but excited to have guests.  The 19th century Farmhouse had been empty for 20 years before they recently repurposed it as a B and B. Brian and Bernie are the owners. Brian is a carpenter and a whiskey drinker. Jameson is his favorite. So friends, remember, don’t be an oddity, most people prefer Jameson.
On host Brian’s  recommendation, we headed into the small village of Fornoy for dinner. Brian recommended the Chinese place above a market. It was quite good. We are noticing that dishes of all ethnic types are much less sweet than their American counterparts. However, Shannon doesn’t think sweet American food is a problem at all.

We had a quiet nights sleep in the country.

We started the day with a full Irish Breakfast. I will take the time to describe what that means in the next post.
Our B and B was only 15 Kilometers from the Jameson distillery. We got to the distillery by ten in the morning and took the tour. We volunteered enthusiastically for the tasting demonstration and were soon comparing Johnny Walker black (scotch), Jameson (Irish Whiskey) and Jack Daniels (bourbon) at 11 oclock in the morning. But hey, It was afternoon in France and mid afternoon in Germany.

John and Aaron at the Distillery

Everyone was amused that my name was John Jameson, but it did not afford me any privileges at all !!   Shocking really. We did buy an incredible amount of Jameson paraphernalia. It is very difficult to resist when everything is personally mongrammed with your name on it.
Sorry, Blarney fans, but we blew off the Blarney Castle and the Blarney stone. I was easily ready to skip it due to the tourist hype. Aaron was just tired of paying entrance fees.

We headed straight to Kenmare to the bed and breakfast we had arranged by phone the day before. It is called Ard Na Lara and is run by a wonderful chatty German lady named Edel. She was the bossy, motherly, opinionated, caring, classic German matron.

Great dinner !! Coconut curry chicken for Linda and Shannon, Nice pasta with tomato cream sauce for Aaron and Monkfish for me that was encrusted with ginger and something else with Thai dipping sauce. Sorry, didn’t get the name of the restuarant.

I insisted after dinner that we head out to a place 3 or 4 miles out that was supposed to be more of a locals pub called Pat Spillanes. There was some serious group resistance Then there was a 5 mile construction detour. Then the place was not even open. Grumpiness is probably the nicest word I could use. We ended up back in town at a pub with amplified live music . In keeping the tone of the evening….. it wasn’t great.

Our hostess Edel’s version of full Irish breakfast added homemade German marmalade and subtracted the pudding. Fine with me. Some of us thought the marmalade was too bitter, I think it was the same person that was fine with oversweet American food.

Killarney in the Rain

Hoping the rain would blow over , we headed over the mountains to Killarney National Park. You could tell that it would be incredibly beautiful with a bit of sun. There wasn’t any.

We stopped to do a loop hike to see Torc Falls and some of the surrounding area. Nice hike. In the rain. At least the falls were in full flow. This area is actually very similar to the Smoky Mountains.
Had a nice lunch from supplies we picked up in Kenmare this morning. Fresh baked brown bread for me, White bread for Aaron, cheeses, hummous , pesto and olives.

About this time Mildred broke. Mildred is the name we had given to our SatNav with the British (not Irish) accent. Fortunately, we were now in the town of Killarney and there was a Hertz office at the airport. After a 30 or 40 minute drive out to the airport and back we were able to fire up our new girl Fiona, who was at least as good as Mildred at keeping us on the right road. It was a high risk move, leaving the girls to shop in town while we went for a SatNav replacement, but I guess we are still under our credit card limits.
On the way back, we stopped at Ross Castle which was a pretty cool place, with the usual ambivalence of the Irish. They love the history but hate the Anglo-Norman domination that came with it.
It was a long day of driving in the rain. we were getting a bit tired and grumpy. This was instantly corrected with a great supper. Fish and chips, Kerry beef and Guiness pie over colcannon.
As best I can tell, colcannon is made different by everyone, but is basically mashed potatoes, cabbage and ham mixed. Aaron’s vegetarian dish this time wasn’t very good.
Rehydrated and restocked with calories, we forced ourselves to head back into town, because several places that didn’t have anything last night, listed traditional music for tonight. This time we wisely chose a place called the Wander Inn. A man and his wife played and sang. I will try to find the CD with their name on it.  The music was quite good, but the passion with which they sang raised the level to great. We still had to leave early due to an early morning tomorrow to beat the tour busses around the ring of Kerry.