More from Ireland....

Well we have been in Ireland for more than a week.  We arrived in Dublin, stayed at Trinity College for two nights (in students double room).  Great central location but the accommodation left a little to be desired.  We took a tour around the college which was amazing, so much history here.  The tourist area near here is a mall with lots of buskers and stuff happening all the time, great place to stroll.

We bought a Green Tourist bus ticket to see the sites.  Have toured Dublin from dawn till dusk (well nearly).  It seems that a day in Ireland should be finished with a Baileys on the rocks.  We bought a bottle of gin when we arrived and have not even opened it yet!  What is wrong with us?  Norway I am sure will have a drink of choice too - who know what it will be.

We went to The Arlington for a dinner and show (singing and Irish dancing).  Great fun.  It is funny how we are finding all these Australian wines over here, trying lots of others too.

We hired a KIA Picanto take us around Ireland.  It has been very good, just big enough for us and our luggage and we whizzed along collecting squashed bugs on the windscreen.  Most people drive little cars here, very good for the little roads, one we had to pull our mirrors in to get past another car.  A bit scary when you come around a corner and there is a tourist coach in the road.  Anyway, we have handed the car back with no extra scratches but at least a kilo of dead bugs.

We drove right across the country from Dublin to Galway the first day.  Only about 3 hours.  Galway was beautiful.  The first of our B & Bs quite interesting - lots of china ornaments and brickabrack.  We walked down to the harbourside for a wonderful dinner at a really quirky place called Ard Bia.  We met a couple here who invited us to their home in Transylvania, but we think that it is too far to travel and apparently the trains are pretty bad there.

Off the next day to one of the Aran Islands, the smallest one, where there is a pub and a cafe or two and heaps of horses with carts taking tourists around.  They were also filming something for a film called The Rafters.  Amon and his horse Sam took us for a ride around part of the islands, to an old ship wreck and past a ruined castle.  The whole island is rocks and people have taken the rocks on the lower slopes and made them into walls and then added seaweed so that things could grow so that sheep could graze.  It is like stepping back in time and so relaxed.  We visited the Cliffs of Moher before heading towards the Shannon River for a ferry across on our way to Killarney.

We drove to Dingle before dinner which was a little optimistic, past a "beach".  It had grey sand no waves a lot of people in wetsuits and some floating things in the water to swim out to and jump on.  There were lots of happy people taking this up at 5pm on a grey evening.  We drove over the highest pass in Ireland through lots of fog and into Killarney.

The next day was a ripper.  Sun up, hottest day for months, all the Irish people melting!  We went into town, hired bikes and rode to a castle on a little spit in a lake.  There was a rowing shed beside it with "Killarney 6s" in the shed.  We had a chat to one of the rowers.  They are sweep oar boats, wooden and stable enough that the cox can stand up.  They race these boats over 1 and 3/4 miles.

Anyway, I digress.....  we then loaded our bikes on wooden boats that took us up through a lake and river system for 2 hours and dropped us at a cottage for lunch and the ride back.  Our host at the B & B said that it was not a hard ride!!!!!  She has obviously never done it.  It was up and up and up and......... for kms!  Beside pretty scenery, to be sure.... but still up (except when I fell down - or over - and landed in some reeds by the side of the road).  There were walkers, two of whom tried to talk me up the hill.  I made a pact with myself that these fellas would not get past us.  Another fella on a bike came and talked me nearly to the top of the pass (The Gap of Dunloe).  It was magical on the way down, not only that it was not uphill anymore, but the streams and even the rocks were gorgeous.  I will try and find a photo that does it justice.  Anyway we got to bottom, had a cup of tea and then discovered after riding for around 12 kms already, that there were 12 kms still to go.  We arrived home exhausted but very happy.

I finally feel like I am on holidays. It has been pretty much go go go..... so many things to see and do!

Visited Muckross House which was tree heaven, many tree piccies taken here and then walked to Torc Waterfall.  Then off to Kinsale via a town which was the last stopping place of the titanic before its fateful end.  A sad looking town, with a big looming cathedral but a lot of poor people.

Kinsale was wonderful, a seaside town with lots of yachts, great places to eat, good music and we stayed at a fabulous B & B with a bathroom that we could swing a cat or two in - hooray!

As usual, didn't have time to edit, so hope that the typing is not too bad.

Love to all