Blogs from Ireland, Europe - page 371

Geo: 53.7096, -6.53999After a tasty breakfast at McDonalds, we caught our bus tour right in front of our hotel to head north from Dublin. As we traveled through the north side of town, we were told that the north side of the river was once the posh end of town, mostly built during the reigns of the Georges. Later, however, the wealth moved south of the river and many of the buildings turned into tenements. To this day, it is clear that the area has not been very well maintained. Out from the city we drove through Slane, home of Slane Castle where many concerts are held. They were setting up for the Rolling Stones as we passed by. Our guide made a joke about the collective age of the Stones, referring to them as "famine ... read more

WOW Ireland. It was Claires choice to come here but boy I'm sure glad she did! It is beautiful. Im still amazed that after all the traveling i've done, the scenery i've seen and architecture i've gawked at, i can still be amazed by a new country. The countries across europe are so completly different from each other. All separte worlds of history. Ive so far experienced Dublin city and Galway. Dublin is wonderful! The Irish people so friendly and helpful, quiet a contrast to the Spanish. We took some timeout the first day to catch Harry Potter at the movies. And then like everywhere in Europe, discovered that Ireland too is having a massive retail sale, so we all went shopping. I had to get another bag to pack all my new stuff and ... read more

The alarm goes off at 3am......After only two hours sleep and too much beer from The Roots concert the night before ..... up and on the road again for the next adventure.....Ireland! I'm amazed at how many people are looking so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at Stansted Airport at 4:30am......I'm somehow running on adrenaline & momentum from the night before! But bright-eyes and bushy-tails seem a world away to me!! We arrive at Cork airport at 8am and are greeted by our lovely friend Stewart. None of us are from Cork, so we proceed to drive around in circles trying to find our B&B! All I can think about is breakfast and a quick powernap, but they seem miles away!! We finally stumble across 'Killarney House', our lovely B&B in Blarney and then go on the hunt ... read more

Were now in the land of the leprechauns. Only a 4 night stay here but it's been great staying with Elaine. Elaine is Chad's (Thomas') sister and Chad is one of Dad's mates from the Harp Irish pub in Tempe. Lew and I happened to visit Mum and Dad when they were having a BBQ with their Irish mates and Elaine was out visiting from Ireland and offered us a bed in her place if we needed it on our travels. We're calling in any and all favours on this trip (especially after the cost of the insurance for our van) and it's been great. After a "fry up" for breakfast on Sunday, Elaine drove us up the Sugar Loaf mountains to her sister's place. Only 2 doors (or frontages) down lives Daniel Day-Lewis!!! We picked ... read more

Being that today was Chet's first day driving on the "wrong" side of the road, he did so well! I will let him recollect today's journey when he gets online tomorrow. He is fast asleep, because today was such a big day. I wanted to post pics from the trip Grandma took us on, on Sunday after church. We drove up the Rhein and saw various castles and got to see one of the most famous sights, the Lorely (a large cliff named after a legend). Legend was, that men steering ships would look away from their course, to see her singing, and would be so distracted that they would crash their boats in the rocks or get stuck in whirlpools. We even got to have cheesecake with Grandma, at a CASTLE-overlooking the Rhein!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tired, ... read more