Blogs from Ireland, Europe

When I told my friends that I would be traveling to Ireland, I got similar comments, "Ireland is green, greener and greenest. The people are friendly, friendlier, and friendliest people they have ever met." I must agree that their observations are extremely accurate. The scenery is stunning, and the people are kind, helpful and, yes, very friendly. I believe there is another trait. The places we have visited so far are tidy, tidier, and tidiest. There are not any wrappers, empty bottles, cigarette butts, or bits of trash on the streets or roads. When we made this observation to our driver he informed us that each town enters the 'tidiest town' contest. People take such pride in their towns and their reward is to be named 'The Tidiest Town.' Last year Abbeyleix in County Lapis won ... read more

Bernie’s phone rang at 7.39am this morning while he was in the shower. I had been instructed to keep it near me in case this happened. I answered the phone, and it was good news … it looks like we are good to sail out to Skellig Michael this morning. We were asked to be at The Skellig Experience Visitor Centre across the bridge on Valentia Island by 9.00am for the safety video and short history of Skellig Michael video and hopefully we would be departing for the island before 10.00am. We finished off our breakfasts and we were on our way to the island just before 9.00am. So easy! Having decided to book accommodation in Portmagee we only had a five-minute drive over the bridge to Valentia. There were so many things to consider when ... read more

Last night there was much debate about the best way to move onto the next leg of our journey, the Ring of Kerry. Our itinerary said we would travel from Bantry to Killarney and then complete the southern part of the ring, but we hadn’t worked out the detail beyond that. Google and Apple Maps had us taking some weird route over to the N22 to head north-west to Killarney. It seemed a bit out of our way but at least we wouldn’t drive the road between Killarney and Kenmare twice. This morning, while Bernie was dropping the keys back to reception, we revisited the plan wondering if we would be best to drive directly to Kenmare and then commence the Ring of Kerry drive from there – heading west - and miss the section between ... read more

This part of the trip is all about the beauty of Ireland's southwest coast. Yesterday we spent a sunny and mostly warm day exploring the Ring of Kerry. The day started out with a cool mist covering everything but gradually that lifted We were on and off the bus for 8 hours. The Ring is a 135 mikes long peninsula jutting out from Killarney. It is surrounded by beaches, mountains and lakes. We drove along the beaches and through the mountains of the MacGullicuddy Reeks. We made some stops just to enjoy the views, and take pictures of course, and other stops to walk around small tourist towns, shop in the small stores, (Sneem for one) along the way, and take more pictures! And one to walk on and along the beach in Waterville, collected shells ... read more

I'm sitting in the hotel bar in Killarney listening to John O'Roardan sing Irish folk songs and thinking over the past 2 days. Yesterday we started the day meeting Ruti Lachs, a Jewish resident of Cork, who has done research on the Jewish community of the past. I had connected with her online and 30 emails later, 6 of us met her to hear stories, songs and see what was once Jewtown (called that in an affectionate way according to our guide) I'm not so sure about that. Jews from Lithuania settled here in the 1880s. We saw the building that was a shul, that closed in 2016 and is now a 7th day Adventist church and walked over the Passover bridge inaugurated by the Jewish mayor Jerrold Goldberg. Ruti sang a poem Tashlich on the ... read more

After another scrumptious breakfast we packed the cars to head south towards Cork but more specifically this morning to the Jameson Heritage Centre at Midleton. The SatNavs were programmed, and it looked like we were going to take the N24 across to the M8 and then rocket down the motorway. Ahem, we were driving around Limerick again on the N18 expecting to flow onto the M7 and then head off onto the N24 at Junction 29 but, that’s not what happened. At Junction 1/30 where the N18 and M7 intersect we were directed off into Limerick. Whaaaat?! After negotiating a number of busy roads in Limerick we found that Apple Maps had decided to redirect us onto R512, R514 and R513 to Mitchelstown before setting us on the motorway (M8) heading south to Cork. And we ... read more