Day At Sea Slept in until 7:30ish and had coffee in the room (there's a coffee maker in mini-suites) and read The 19th Wife, good book, for Book Club. About 9:00 I headed up for an omelet poolside. Then off to buy a few items in Ports of Call. sunscreen, a thermal coffee/water mug. It is pretty choppy today, I'm glad I went for the mid-ship cabin. There are a few seasick people around, wrist bands and an herbal remedy are flying off the shelves. My Meet & Greet for Cruise Critic is at 11:00am. Lots to do today, I headed for Trivia, dinner at the Ginza Asian restaurant and Bingo. Weather isn't great for sunbathing, but will be doing lots of reading on my deck as well. Had dinner in Ginza, a Japanese named Pan-Asian ... read more

Today we boarded the bus right around the corner from the hotel for our trip around the Ring of Kerry. What a gorgeous trip! We made frequent stops for photos, shopping, toilets and more photos. First we stopped at the Red Fox Inn. There was a traditional village adjacent, with thatched roof homes, shops, period furniture, even sleeping cats on the bed. Then off for another tour at a sheep farm. The owner talked first about the types of sheep from all over the world. As we listened, his adorable dog stuck his head through the fence to watch. Then as we moved over for the herding demonstration, these two dogs listened attentively to the whistles and brought the sheep down from the hillside. It was an interesting stop. Each of those two side trips was ... read more

An indoor day today. Mostly in the car today. Last day of driving on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!! Not only does the UK drive on the wrong side of the road, but the Republic of Ireland has gone to kilometers from miles, but cross the bridge at Belcoo and you're back to miles, on the wrong side of the road. Conform Great Britain! So left about 1100am and turned off to see St. Patrick's Well. The road was one lane, straight as an arrow, beautiful countryside. We never found the well. Guess the church we passed was built on the site. Oh well. Ha ha! Anyway, continued back to Sligo, past the place of the ruined tire, and into a car.park near town. Had a lovely little.lunch and latte at O'Heire's bakery, the shopped ... read more

Early morning today. 5:00am wake up for a 7:35am flight from Dublin to Sligo in NW Republic of Ireland. The plane was delayed by an hour. Aer Arann was lovely, only 3 passengers on a Damier? Turbo prop, not unlike a Dash 7. The airport reminded me of somewhere out in the bush, but both Avid and Hertz are represented. We reserved with Hertz. The lady was lovely, the car a Jetta with manual transmission. This driving on the left is bad enough but a left handed stick shift as well. Andrea is a great navigator, however I was keeping too close to the shoulder and hit a curb, very hard. FLAT TIRE! Pulled off into a driveway and sent Andrea up the road to borrow a phone. She came back with a lovely retired policeman ... read more

Up early as one does flying west to east, it was good to get going early to see the Book of Kells and Trinity College when they opened at 9:00am. Good idea, thanks to Rick Steves. Others we spoke with encountered long lines after the tour groups arrived. We then got onto the Green Hop on Hop Off bus and did the whole route. It helped to decide what we wanted to go back and see. After a bit of brunch at Bedlam, we decided to go to Christs Church, which on Saturday closes at 400pm. So we hoofed it over to St. Patrick's Church, which you would think that in Dublin was Catholic, but its not.! Many famous Irish aristocrats are buried there, the only of such I knew was George Bernard Shaw. Gorgeous gothic ... read more