Blogs from Ireland, Europe

Well today started with a rude wake-up. Kirsten went to turn off her alarm and glanced at her e-mail. There were 3 notices saying our United flight to Chicago was CANCELLED!!! Yes lovely. She quickly got on the phone to United who told her we were all rebooked for the next day. Obviously this was not acceptable. 45 min later we were rebooked on US Air with connections in Philadelphia and Phoenix. Not the quickest route home but still get home today. We arrived at the airport with no problems (a first for our driving). As suspected when we got there the line to United customer services was HUGE (hundreds) with 1 person helping them. Most would miss any option for another flight as they would still be in line. Thank goodness we could go to ... read more

Today was our last full day in Ireland. We spent it driving around a lot, again. Kirsten is doing a great job driving on these “death roads” as we like to call the street from our lodging to the main road. One wouldn’t think 2 cars could pass each other on these winding S curves in the roads that have about a 10 foot flush green hedges and walls on both sides of the road. Today’s journey took us west and a little north. We were headed to the Cliffs of Moher. We drove straight across from our Irish home to Ennis and then we headed north along the coast to the cliffs. We actually did well with directions to the cliffs. The numbers, not names, of the roads are very confusing, and there were a ... read more

Our first full day in Ireland started with a bang, a cold one. Judy was the only one who got a warm shower, Chester got the second shower and it went cold about 4 minutes in. Gene and Kirsten had nothing and did not like it. This was not good start for the driver of the trip. We got over the cold showers and headed for the day’s activities. Kirsten did a great job yesterday driving from the airport to our lodging and this is quite a feat since the roads are crazy narrow and sometimes they are not even wide enough for two cars to pass each other. It gets a little scary coming around blind turns. Gene rode shot gun and as everyone knows, if you are shot gun, you are the navigator and ... read more

Today started with a 4AM wake-up. The Guesthouse owner was supposed to leave us some sandwiches for breakfast in the fridge but they weren’t there. So we made ourselves at home and made our own breakfast. Let’s just say we were not that quiet and when she got up to see what was going on, she was not happy. She had made our breakfast, but left it in our fridge, not the one in the kitchen. Oops. She’ll get over it. But the sandwiches did come in handy for lunch. We had a 5 AM pickup with a 45 minute drive to the airport. We checked in with no problem in about 10 minutes and as predicted, we had 90 minutes to spare before our flight departed. This drives Kirsten nuts. That is another 60 minutes ... read more

Days 10, 11 & 12 After we stayed overnight in Galway, it was decided that in order to fit in as many sights as possible before we had to get back to Dublin to drop Dale off at the airport for her flight, we would skip seeing the Cliffs of Moher, as it would take us a while to drive there and back and see as much as we were planning to. Onward march to Limerick where we stopped for a quick look and some tea. The castle was being renovated so we couldn't go inside but we admired the lovely bridge and scattered with plants growing out of it, it looked quite beautiful - an effect a landscape designer tries to recreate often in a garden and here it is growing naturally! Then we headed ... read more

After nearly 3 weeks in and round the northern half of Ireland we have formed a few impressions we thought you might like to reflect on. Ireland is a beautiful and hospitable country with magnificent scenery and an absorbing past. We have met some wonderful people and are having a great time but it is flying past too quickly. Next week we head across to Galway. In country areas every second person has a sister, brother, cousin, auntie or uncle who has lived in Australia for one year, many years or even generations and they all want to visit their relatives and our country. However in Belfast and Dublin everyone we met has just returned from Oz after doing the 2 years as a backpacker or else they are planning to go and want to know ... read more