CandiJoy

Saturday, October 16: Happy Birthday Ed!! We woke up this morning at the O'Neill B&B in Dingle with a beautiful view out a picture window from our room to the bay and the mountains beyond. It was a fabulous start to our last day in the Emerald Isle. We had a tasty breakfast--still not the 'full Irish breakfast'--but enough brown bread to last a lifetime. We packed up and took off to tour the Dingle Peninsula on Slea Head Drive. It was prettier and more scenic than the Ring of Kerry. We skipped by some tourist stops at ring forts and famine cottages and passed by Ventry Beach where people were surfing the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped at the Blasket Island Visitor Centre to learn more about this population of island dwellers that ... read more

Thursday, Oct. 14: Packed our bags and checked out of our B&B, The Anchorage, after breakfast. Our hostesses, Ann and Mary, were terrific. We took one last stroll around Kinsale on another sunny October morning in Ireland before leaving for our day-long road trip to Kenmare. This was our most scenic drive yet. It included coastal views, mountain vistas, Irish countryside along pleasant routes again with rock walls, tree overhangs…you get the point…it was a beautiful drive. Our first was Clonakilty where we had a pint at an sugan. Our witty bartender, Denis, filled us in on the correct way to serve whiskey with a water jug, advising us to “never water another man’s whiskey”—words to live by. Ed really wants a ceramic Jameson’s water jug. We’ll have to look for one. We strolled around the ... read more

It is really Day 3 as I write this but we got in so late last night that we did not have the energy to work on it. Yesterday was a long day but we met a lot of people. Had our first Irish breakfast at the Country House. Ed had oatmeal with whiskey and cream. I had eggs and bacon. All delicious. We had a great night's sleep after a sleepless night on the plane Sunday night so we felt well rested and ready to go yesterday morning. We bid farewell to our wonderful hosts at the Carrygerry Country House and headed north to Ennis. Ed's getting the driving thing down so it was an easier day of getting around. Ennis is a lovely bustling village with lots of shops and pubs. We walked around ... read more

Monday, October 11: We woke up fairly early for us—about 7:30! Repacked after three nights in the same place, loaded our car, and checked out of the Royal Marine Hotel. The Royal Marine is a grand old historic hotel in Dun Laoghaire and it was a wonderful place to stay. We learned that Queen Victoria, Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra, as well as Michael Collins (hiding out with his mistress), have stayed there. It was a beautiful morning in Ireland and we walked down the East Pier to see Dublin Bay (the water, not our favorite pub back in Ames) and back—about two miles. The Pier is a busy place with walkers, joggers, bikers, fishermen, and mommies with strollers. We stopped back at the Harbor Bar for a shared lunch of fish and chips and then ... read more

Saturday, October 9: We had another very lazy morning. Either the trip is catching up with us or we're really beginning to feel like we're on vacation. We had hoped to be out and about by 9:00 am but that's when we woke up. We took our time getting ready and headed out about 11:00. It was a beautiful day so we dressed in what we thought was appropriate for the weather--more about that later. On the advice of one of the bartenders from last night, we caught the 46A bus into Dublin. We were two of the first people on the bus so we got the front seat on the top of the double decker bus. We had a wonderful view of the city as we rode into downtown Dublin. The bus dropped us off ... read more