Arrived in Ireland

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We're finally in Ireland! We arrived in Dublin at 9:30am and unbelievably so did all our luggage. Yea Delta! We had too much luggage for the car we rented...must have been the bag full of shoes for "you know who". Upgraded to a Hyundai SUV Diesel...gets good mileage but sounds like a truck. We made our way cross-country and arrived in Galway around 2:30pm. Met up with Jessica and after lots of hugs and kisses, we checked into the bed and breakfast. It is a nice place overlooking Galway Bay. We have a room with a balcony that looks out over the bay. After we unpacked and freshened up, Jessica took us to the city center to see the shops and pubs. We started our pub crawl at The King's Head where I got a pint of Guinness and we all had cod and chips. The bar was beautiful with stony walls and giant wooden timbers. The original owner was given the property on which it stands as payment for beheading King Charles I of England in 1649, thus the name. We next stopped in at The Quays (pronounced "keys") where I had a Jameson's Irish Whiskey, neat of course. Another fabulous pub with 3 levels, 5 bars and completely packed on Friday and Saturday night, according to Jessica. I wonder how she knows this? After walking around for a while to stay awake...we only had ~2 hours of semi-sleep on the plane...we stopped in at Monroe's for a coffee/tea and carrot cake. We finished watching the Manchester United/Barcelona soccer, uh, sorry "football", game and then some traditional Irish music and set dancing. People get really crazy about "football" over here! I don't get it...96 minutes of energy expenditure for 1 point, and a lot of screaming. BTW, Manchester United won so everyone was in a great mood afterwards. We dropped Jessica back at her room and then went to the B&B to collapse into our bed, planning on seeing the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow.

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