Day 11 - Robin W-O & Kathy K. Drive from Belfast to Dublin and city tour with a local guide. Downtown Hotel Our Blog began on Friday, March 23rd at 12:01 AM in our room at the Stormont! Robin is icing her back from the long bus rides and the ice pack is leaking into the mattress! Samuel, from the hotel, quite amused, came to the rescue - he changed the bed mattress pad and sheet! What a guy! (See the pictures) Best thing about breakfast at the Stormont is the porridge with honey, cream and Bushmills whiskey! Now, that will be missed! So, after our group picture on the steps of the hotel, we took off on our long trip from Belfast to Dublin at 9:45 AM. And it ... read more

Day 8 & 9 – Jim R. and Gladys R. Galway to Londonderry via Knock with a side trip to the Belik factory. Everglades Hotel, Prehen Road, Londondery www/jastomgsjpte;s/cp, Causeway to Belfast and stay at the Storemont Hotel www.hastingshotels.com It was March 20ish, not necessarily a Hibernicism, somewhere around ten-a.m.ish, and the coach was ready for personality inventory by Herself, the McNally (Laurie Ann), who smartly gazed carefully to learn if all the Fabulous Flexible Friendship Follies Folks of the 2012ish team was aboard for the first stage of today's trip, to Knock. Of course she succeeded an... read more

Day 6 - John and Jeannie V. With Doris and Art Tour Tralee, Dingle Peninsula and Slea Head with a wonderful guide. “Sure an’ it’s a fine, bright sunny day,” said our coach driver, D.B. He tells us his initials stand for “Darlin’ Boy.” A chatty, well-informed fellow, we discover. He pipes Irish music through the coach softly, and it adds to the cheerful spirit of the day. We’re on a local coach with an experienced local driver/guide to explore the farthest southwestern part of Ireland, the Dingle peninsula. Right away, we’re treated to the story of St. Patrick and descriptions of the area - all the way up to the massive housing and commercial projects of the Celtic Tiger-era of the 1990s, which have now become empty shells or “ghost estates.” ... read more

Day 4 - Mike G. Waterford to Killarney via Cobh and Blarney 3 nights at Killarney Towers Hotel 4 www.killarneytowers.com After the usual fine breakfast, we found our bags securely stored in the belly of our coach. We boarded in an orderly fashion, each selecting our “seat of the day” and like a great ocean liner of the past, Alan slipped the coach away from the quay and entered the swarm of wee cars and monster trucks, heading down the highway, westward on the N-25, across the southern side of Ireland for new adventures in Cobh, Blarney and Killarney. It was a rainy, grey, drippy day. The fields we wer... read more

Ireland’s Treasure is its People Introduction – Jim C. This is an account of a wonderful Friendship Force Tour of Ireland in March 2012 (March 13 through 25th). My role is to coordinate the blog and write the introduction and last day. It is a collaborative blog and as such, we get to see various locations of Ireland through different peoples’ eyes. On behalf of all of the Ambassadors on the trip, thank you to Laurie Anne S. and Alan Wilkinson at PhoenixTravelCo@aol.com for putting it all together. I would also like to thank Cathy O. for editing the blog. While I received a good education, I am not always capable of demonstrating it. In regard to the pictures in the blog, I would like to thank everyone who sent me pictures. I have ... read more