Home sweet home

This morning we returned our rental car to the  Dublin airport after 1900 Irish kilometres,

We had a very long uneventful flight home and oh so fine to be here.

Thus marks the finale of Ireland 2015

The end

Dublin October 23

This morning we took public transit to the downtown area of Dublin.  It takes almost an hour by bus to get to the area, so glad we are not driving

The population of Dublin is 525,000 so not that big really.  The city is divided by the River Liffey.  In 1988 the city celebrated its 1000 year anniversary.  Amazing!

This is the monument in the city center

( this is where I was going to post the photo but having technical difficulties )

Yesterday the tour bus driver called it the worlds largest toothpick!

We wandered around the shopping areas on Henry Street and Grafton Street.  Not that we are into shopping so much but the hustle and bustle was entertaining as were the street performers. We also walked along the Quay.

I thought I would like to have fish and chips one last time but fell in love with this goat cheese beauty instead

Interesting to people watch...and witness fashion statements I will never understand ...like eyebrows that look like they were applied with a sharpie....not to mention leggings that look like pyjama pants....just to mention a few

Many times we have seen school children coming and going.  Today's kids were wearing uniforms in red white and navy.  I asked one of the girls at reception about that...she said with the exception of 4 or 5 schools all of the Irish school children wear a 'uniform', skirts for the girls , trousers for the boys . Sometimes the whole school wears the same color, sometimes the younger and older classes wear different colors.  We have also seen the blue grey combination. It sure looks nice I think and has to resolve a lot of issues....

Dublin October 22

Well just one more beautiful day, including sunshine even!

These are leftover pictures from Blarney yesterday....a fern kind of tree

A great shot of the Blarney house

And one more

We arrived at the Dublin Travelodge before noon.  No picture. Too boring.  But good access coming and going. We get on public transit and head to the city center where we transfer to the hop on hop off bus.  It takes for ever!  The city is so busy.  Yesterday I read that Dublin was in the top 30 travel cities in the world....I am beginning to be quite cynical about the words 'beauty' and 'citiy' being used in one sentence.

No matter we make the best of the day.  We get off the bus at

And  do the tour.  Sid participated in a demonstration on the skill of pouring a pint of Guiness

He was a natural!

Part of the tour artifacts ...the wooden kegs

On the tour we learned that the original Mr Guiness (Aurthur?)  took over an existing brewery in about 1750...he signed a lease for the property for 9000 years...now that's forward thinking!  The family is only about 250 years into the lease!

Also at that time the infant mortality rate was  just 50 %.  Well Mr Guiness and his wife had 21 children...they buried 11 of them....

We see that the Irish are a feisty  group....for oh so many years....

Cork and Blarney

This morning after breakfast , where I had rhubarb yogurt FYI , Sid drove to Balrney via Cork which somehow turned into a nearly 2 hour drive.  Once we were through Cork we decided visiting Blarney would be enough for a day, Cork seemed to be quite a size.

Once we got to Blarney we headed to the 

The castle is a beauty

As is the Balrney house

The grounds are beautiful

For reasons that remain a mystery my photos are not clouding over..jeepers

And one more

We climbed to the top of the castle and I kissed the Blarney Stone

On my...it was a bit freaky, Sid declined.  My favourite daughter asked if I thought I would be talking more or less as a result of kissing the stone.  Isn't she the hilarious one?

The view from the top

There was a very cool shop in Blarney.  It took me 17 days to find a magnet for my fridge of fame that I 'loved'. Who knew that could be such a big decision ?  Well today I 'loved' quite a few things...including a piece of Waterford!

We are off to Dublin tomorrow .  On the last leg...

Waterford & Kilkenny October 20

This morning after breakfast we headed to

The Waterford Crystal Factory.  We had the most interesting time.  I thought I knew something about Waterford Crystal .  I didn't.  I thought I would like to buy a piece of Waterford Crystal .  I didn't.

I booked the tour tickets on line - when we got there we were the only ones at the 9:50 am tour. It was our guide, David, first tour of the day.  Right behind us was a group off of a tour bus.

Here we are next to the largest Waterford Crystal champagne flute in the world.  The display of Crystal in Waterford is the largest display of such in the world

We got to see master tradesmen hand crafting the Crystal.  It takes 8 years of training to be a master tradesman.  The pieces are all carved freehand, if they are imperfect they are tossed into the recycle bin .  The Crystal is made from silica sand, potash and lead- all heated to liquid form.

It is amazing precision work

Here Sid is holding the Waterford Crystal football that is awarded to each player on the winning team of the CFL ( who knew)

In this photo I am holding one of the 60 Peoples Choice Awards being handcrafted at the moment for the 2016 awards. Because it was just the two of us we were very fortunate to take these photos.  In my imagination I rehearsed my acceptance speech.

'Thank you -thank you very much.  The people are always right ( I borrowed this line from the heaved Steve speech from last night in his ' I can't believe you dumped me speech')...I'd like to thank my family...

This is the 2016 trophy being crafted for the Phoenix Open

An excellent tour for sure

In the afternoon we drove to Kilkenny.  For the past 2 days Sid has been driving on 4 lane divided highways (way boring). The passing land in on the right! 

The beginning of autumn - so different than the 50 shades of grey we have at home.

The Kilkenny Castle - nice to look at but we didn't do a tour

The streets of Kilkenny

The doors of Kilkenny

Waterford October 19

We left Belfast this morning in a very light rain and drove all the way to Waterford - about 5 hours.  Northren Ireland uses miles as distance - when we got back into the Republic of Ireland the distance converts back to kilometres - does not make too much sense to me....When we arrived in Waterford the sun was shining and the temp was plus 21.

It only took us an additional 90 minutes to find our hotel.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to navigate without a map, compass, GPS or google map.  Sheesh

We did eventually find our hotel

Located on

With these beauties fooling around

We do a walk about in the town

To gather our surroundings.  We are here for 3 glorious nights, other than the 2 nights we spent in Killarney we have been on the move every day.

Waterford is Ireland's oldest city, founded over 1100 years ago.  It is the home of Waterford crystal ( which I hope to learn more about tomorrow). Waterford is the only city in Europe whose Roman Catholic and Prodestant Catherdrals were designed and built by the same man, John Roberts ( imagine...what will they think of next!)

While we have been here we have learned something of the history of Ireland and the potato.  The potato was introduced to Ireland in the 17th century, and changed a whole way of life.  It suited the soil and climate in a way that cereal crops did not.  A tiny plot could feed a family and pay rent so small farmers quickly became dependant on them.  In 1840 potatoes accounted for 1/3 of the crops grown in Ireland.  In 1845 potatoe blight hit Europe , spreading swiftly to Ireland destroying crops.  Over one million people died of famine and famine related diseases between the years 1845-1852 and at least 1.25 million people emigrated .  Over the next 100 years the population of the country halved. Interestingly , the cereal crops at that time yielded well and could have easily fed the Irish, sadly the harvest was committed to the United Kingdom.  

I expect tonight will be mostly sleepless....between the Blue Jays and the election.....

Belfast October 18

This morning we saw the sun rise as we were having breakfast

The days are getting shorter here as I know they are at home.  We have another day of beautiful sunshine.  We drove to Belfast and spend a good part of the day at

The Titanic Experience.  The venue is located in the heart of Belfast  and includes 9 interpretive and interactive galleries.  It is a bit theatric but well done.  

The centre provides a general history of the industrial revolution in Belfast and provides information on the working conditions while the Titanic and other ships were being built.  The workers had a very hard life, beyond my comprehension .  There was also a lot of information on the linen mills, I have always been interested in the milling of linen.  One thing I learned was that the flax plant was pulled out (by hand) by the roots to enable the extraction of maximum fibre.

This is the spot where the construction of the Titanic began

It was constructed in Belfast and sailed to Liverpool for its maiden voyage .  There were no laundry facilities on the boat so a humongous amount of sheets, towels, tablecloths, napkins, aprons etc had to be included.  The logistics are mind boggling.  The stop was well worth experiencing 

We drove to the city central and walked about the town square.  It is Sunday today so most of the shops were closed.  One of the streets in the town square

In our short time here Belfast seems  a modern city - a few more days here would be a good thing but alas we are on the road tomorrow again

Today's B & B

It is located on a busy street but good access to get out of the city.  The pub we stopped at tonight was again packed with sports enthusiasts - sadly Ireland lost their rugby match today against Argentina as did Scotland loose against Austrailia .  Not sure what this country will do next Sunday!

Speaking of sports...I woke up at midnight last night and checked on the Blue Jays - they were winning 3-0.  Fell sound asleep.  At 2 am when I checked I was sadly shocked to see they had lost 😂

I sincerely hope tomorrow is a winning day for Canada at every level!

Northern Ireland. October 17

This morning we left our B & B and noticed this poor pet.  She made my bad hair look kind of ok

We travelled through some very rocky and desolate country with actually almost real mountains

The Opal Corsa Airbag (OCA) needed fuel

That's 1.34 Euros per litre ...the OCA is not a class act but she does get 50mpg.  One contributing factor is the limited speed I'm guessing

More country side.

We stop for lunch at Walsh's pub in Charlestown.  Mr Walsh Jr bends our ear on the state of affairs in his life.  He took the pub over from his father in 1983. He and his wife raised 3 children- they are open 363 days a year (closed for Christmas and Good Friday).  He is tired with no succession plan.  It wasn't a happy story.

Today we notice the harvest of bog.  Bog is dried, mixed with coal and burned for heat - one wouldn't want to ask the wrong person about the sustainability of that practise....

We get to Belcoo and find this lovely B & B

The homes we have seen seem quite austere in architecture - made of sandstone - very little new construction in our travels so far.

Sid and I went for a long walk and ended up at the Blacklion Golf Club

So nice and green.  We stop for a pint there and talk to some of the local golfers.  After September they are open 3 days a week until spring.  They have 75 members that golf all winter - this is a small remote area.

So- we are in Northren Ireland....about  500 meters into Northren Ireland.  Northren Ireland is part of Great Britan which means their currency is Pound Sterling....which means our dollar is now worth 50 cents.  1 Pound Sterling = 2 CAD.  Our stay in North Ireland will be brief!

Also our Wild Atlantic Way Project is being compromised.  Even though the island is small it takes at least twice as long as one would expect to traverse.  We are now calling it the Wild Atlantic Way and Short Cut Project

The Cliffs of Moher. October 16

This morning we left Spa in yet one more morning of brilliant sunshine.  We drove to somewhere

And caught a ferry to cross the mouth of the river Shannon

Apparently it took quite a bit of time off our trip today.  Once we were off the ferry we drove  to Loop Head

on roads lined with wild (in bloom ) fuchsia trees ( for real)

The lighthouse at the Head

We spotted these ruins and grave yard  enroute- I was some how smitten with this scene so I asked Sid to stop on the way back for a photo ( and scooped a huge handful of beautiful blackberries)

I wish I had taken my good camera.  Just using my phone.

We stopped for lunch 

At the corner stone pub.  We share cod and chips.  We are always asked if we want our bill in CAD, and have experienced that request in the USA also.  So last week I did some sleuthing about that very thing.  Apparently there may be an up charge from the vendor of up to 3% to provide that offering.

The consensus is to always pay the bill in the local currency.  Feckkers! (my newest Irish word...it doesn't mean anything bad) (well I wouldn't use it in front of my grandchildren)

We drove by the golf course owned by Donald Trumph and for the first time drove by a course that actually had golfers on it.  It was definitely a links course ....I was glad to be in the opal corsa airbag!

From lunch we head to the cliffs - spectacular at every level

We are go grateful for the weather

From there we drive through Galway City at 5 pm on a Friday afternoon...not our best decision ever.  We finally find a B & B at 6:30 pm.  

We were so thankful they had a vacancy.  Sid does not like to drive in the dark and we were running out of daylight.

Turned out to be a long day....but no one gets moving here until after 8 for breakfast, which means we aren't departing until after 9.  So pleasant to chat our hosts, so friendly and helpful....even if I can only understand 50% of what they are saying!

As we venture north we are seeing just a bit of a hint of fall colors!  So very very beautiful