Wednesday, July 1st - Dublin Dublin itself is a one day town, especially when compared to the other great cities of Europe. It’s really more of a business or party town in my opinion. The drunks we often heard at 3:00am in the morning would agree with me. The beauty of Ireland definitely lies in the countryside. Still, this was a great place to complete our trip and wind down before heading to the airport. And so on our last day of this great trip we visited the Book of Kells and the National Museum of Archeology. The Book of Kells [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, June 30th - Rock of Cashel With time running out on our trip, we left Tuesday morning for our last destination which was Dublin. By now you could tell that I ran out of planning time before we left because I horribly underestimated the time to get from Cork to Dublin and oh by the way the car rental had to be back by 2:00pm as well. With reluctance we chopped out intermediary stops at Ardmore, Waterford, the famine ship in Ross, and the Glendalough monastery which left us barely enough time for the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of [View Full Entry]

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Sunday and Monday, June 28-29 - Pirates of Kinsale Next on the Rick Steves itinerary was the town of Kinsale, just below Cork in southern Ireland. One of the reasons I was excited to visit County Cork was because I had another Irish ancestor connection here. After my great grandfather (the one from Sligo) immigrated to the United States, he met and married Elizabeth Collins who was from Cork. So after this trip I could say that I had visited the home towns of both my great grandparents.. Sausalito, Not. Kinsale was a more upscale town than other places we had [View Full Entry]

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Friday and Saturday, June 26-27 - Dinging Around Dingle The Dingle peninsula is one of the most amazing parts of Ireland. It’s like a smaller but less crowded version of the Ring of Kerry, with a little bit of everything including ancient ruins, the ocean, farms, the mountains, and music in every pub. There are over 2,000 archeological sites in Dingle. One could spend an entire trip in this area, exploring the nooks and crannies of the land and climbing the mountains. Milestone Bed and Breakfast Our bed and breakfast was situated just on the outskirts of Dingl [View Full Entry]

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Thursday, June 25 - Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora and other Kool Keltic (Celtic) Names Two days in Galway was barely enough, yet we were forced to hit the road once again to drive to Dingle today. Along the way we had grand plans to stop at the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren. The long drives between destinations were definitely cutting into our sight seeing time by now and even sapping our energy but we had to press on. Our first stop of the day was another random countryside ruin of an old abbey called Kilmacduagh. I just love Celtic names. Put “Kil” [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, June 24 Connemara National Park Today’s activities were an easy choice, we were going to drive back towards the north and see Connemara National Park and Kylemore Abbey. The abbey was practically next door to Connemara so we were almost obliged to stop. As we drove over a bridge on the approach to the abbey I let out an ooooh and ahhhh at the beautiful image of the abbey set on the lake. Kylemore Abbey, Pretty (and) Expensive Kylemore Abbey had started out as rich person’s country estate before it was eventually purchased by nuns from Belgium [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, June 23rd On the Road to Galway Choices, Choices We left Sligo for Galway Tuesday morning in what would turn out to be a long day in the car. Our plan was to hit a few major sites along the way like Connemara before arriving in Galway by dinner time. Guide books and tourist maps only point out the major sites, but as you drive along Ireland’s roads numerous distractions encourage you to pull over. A medieval tower there, an abandoned monastery there, hungry sheep peeking over the farmer’s fence looking for food. Imagine an American kid and an Ir [View Full Entry]

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Monday, June 22, Megalithic Fun in Sligo Ireland is littered with leftovers from the bronze age, after all - stone is pretty durable. Sligo is home to the Carrowmore megalithic cemetery, a huge collection of dolmens and cairns dating from the bronze age or before the pyramids of Egypt. We visited Carrowmore Monday morning and were impressed by the size and number of the structures. Sadly there used to be many more tombs but the farmers scavenged the stone to build walls for their fields when the British passed a law requiring that all lands be enclosed. Towering over the landsca [View Full Entry]

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Sunday, June 21st Country Sligo is a wonderful introduction to Ireland. It’s not as touristed as the rest of the country but still just as beautiful with mountains, megalithic ruins, the ocean and a countryside full of farms. Most importantly, it is also the ancestral home of the Gilmore family before they emigrated to the United States over 126 years ago. Ancient Gilmore Family My brother Stefan and I were fortunate to have a written account of the Gilmore’s in Ireland handed down to us by our father’s Aunt Margaret that we used to do genealogy re [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, June 20th, From Gaul to Gaelic Oh how I hate travel days. They are full of tension and stress. You have to wake up early, be at such and such place on time or miss your train/airplane. Don't forget to triple check your room to see if you forgot to pack something or you might never see it again. On Saturday we left France and headed for Ireland after another planes, trains and automobile marathon. We were up at 4:30am, and after sad goodbyes with Pierre and Christine we were on the road by 5:30am to Lyon, catch the TGV [View Full Entry]

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