Celtic Trip (Day 6 & 7) - Dublin

View of Ha Penny Bridge

Trinity College


We had attempted to get lunch a a restaurant across from Trinity College called 'The Pigs Ear' the previous day, but it's such a small place that they didn't have room for us without reservations, so the next day we had a wonderful meal with Salmon and Pork Patte dishes. So so yummy! Exactly the Irish-modern fusion meal I was looking for.

Afterwards we headed to a wonderful dessert shop called 'The Queen of Tarts', they've won a lot of awards, and it's not hard to see why. We ate the Plum and Pear tarts.

The evening of our Musical Pub Tour came and we had a (generally) wonderful time. I say generally because there was a group of three extreamly rude New Yorkers who spent most of the night with our group talking over the music and crabbing to the wait staff. Wonderful representation of the states ;-)

But regaurdless the music was wonderful and the musicians very knowledgeable and helpful in teaching us more about traditional Irish music 'sets' (ie just regular people who come to the pubs to play and drink beer, not sell thier CDs or gain tips)

We were lucky enough to see one of these sets at the last bar we went to that night. I group of three younger guys were in the bar, just playing and drinking. They didn't take requests, they didn't have a tip jar, and after an hour or two of playing they just packed up their stuff and left.

The last day was pretty quite, we finished up some shopping and stopped at a local Cheese Monger store (The Cheddar is SO amazing over there, and I can say that coming from Wisconsin)
The remainder of the day we saw the Book of Kells, some more of the college, the Castle, and went out for some 'pour your own Guiness'

On to Scotland!

Celtic Trip (Day 5) - Dublin

(Sausage and Egg Sandwiches for breakfast)

When we first landed in Dublin, 4 days prior to this, we took a taxi to our rental car. The cab driver asked us where we were from and when we said 'the states', the first thing he said in a very rich irish accent was "Oh yeah are? Have ya ever bin on that show 'Judge Judy'"?

I balked a bit and said, "No, no I've never needed to be on that show, I don't even know where they film that!" ....and "That is a very poor representation of the US"

Funny what other cultures associate America with. At the same time, I thought Dublin was going to be covered in pubs and stone walls, where in fact, it's a fairly new city. Historically it was a smaller villiage that was never in high demand for occupency (since the Irish chrished farm land more than sea sides) So when other contries invaded, the Irish willingly gave it up. So over the years it has been inhabited by different groups, but not as a 'proper' castle city.



Now it's a very bustling college city, with some beautiful gothic style churches and a strange conglomeration of a castle.

The family owned bar (called the Ha Penny Inn) told us that the Temple Bar area has only become 'popular' and touristy in the last 10 or so years. The first day we walked through the area, knowing that we had a Musical Pub Tour coming the next evening.

That night we had dinner with a co-worker of Mike's and soaked up some Guiness later on. So much better over there, I'm not sure what they do to it, but it's much more smoother and fresher tasting than what they serve here!

Celtic Trip (Day 4) - Cliffs of Moher

Our last morning in Killarney was a bit overcast as we headed north to the Cliffs of Moher. We were both hoping that the sun would be able to shine through the clouds soon enough.

There were many small towns up the coast with brightly colored houses. We stopped in one just south to get some Fish and Chips for lunch. Thankfully by the time we got to the cliffs the sun was shining.

It made for a beautiful misty day, great for pictures

Then a long ride into Dublin to drop off the car and get to our hotel.

Celtic Trip (Day 3) - Blarney, Cork, and Dingle

On day 3 we decided to be aggressive.... b.. b.. aggressive.

We drove down to Blarney and then to Cork, trying to have enough time to make it back up to Killarney and then further north to the Dingle Peninsula.

Blarney Castle was very quite when we arrived that morning. We climbed up the turrets and made it to the top part where we were alone (expect for the stone helpers)

Nice not to have to wait for lines of people kissing the stone. I handed the camera to Mike and went first, being head-over hung down to kiss the Blarney Stone. I got up and Mike took his turn while I took his picture. We started to walk away and he said to me "Kel, I didn't have time to take your picture." AH! I can't come all the way to Ireland and not have a picture kissing the stone!!!! So we walked back and asked if I could do it again.

"Why sure! what ever will make you happy", the guy says to me. So I got my picture and kissed the stone twice! :)


Afterwards we walked around the wooded areas and saw a really beautiful clearing that you could totally understand why the culture is based on fairies and other wood spirits. Sunlight beat in and a little mist came up from the green green plants.

There were waterfalls and lots of areas to explore.... but we had to get moving onto Cork!



The reason I wanted to go to Cork was to visit the Old English Market. A large historical market with local produce and vendors.

We got some sausages....

Saw the different cuts of meat.....

And had some of the best Oragnge covered chocolate peices I have ever had... yum!

After we sped up to Dingle. Seeing lots of more sheep along the way (they are everywhere! Grandpa you were totally right!)

(Oh and that sheep in the lower left corner is staring at me so hard because there is a dog barking at me in the background. All the sheep turned and ran away from me right after this)

More beautiful landscapes next to the sea.

And the iconic green squares of pastureland.
So much to to see :)
We went out for some more traditional pub food and returned to the same bar to hear a live band playing. The bartender even drew a shamrock in Mike's Guiness as he poured it.... you'll have to tilt your computer screen to see it ;-)

Celtic Trip (Day 2) - Killarney

We woke up bright and early the second day to explore more of Killarney National Park. We got a quick breakfast at the hotel and set off towards Moll’s Gap (Kenmare in the south, I’ll use the above map to try and give you an idea)


Stopping off at the Muckross Friary, we walked along the lower lake and up to the House. Everything was so green, even this early in the spring.


The lake has a beatuiful view and the sun was just starting to get really bright.

We didn’t go into Muckross House, but it has really nice gardens and surrounding areas.


We walked south along Muckross Lake to the Torc Waterfall and up the Mountain a bit.

By then my feet were getting really sore as I hadn’t expected this to be a hike, so we took a carriage back to the Friary. There were only 3 horses working that day, but our driver said in the summer there are more than 30 that just run the Muckross roads (not including downtown Killarney)

Continuing our drive up the main road towards the Kenmare exit we stopped at Ladies’ View and another viewpoint.

I finally saw some sheep upclose!

And then it just got rediculous. Up until this point we really hadn’t seen too many sheep pastures close to the roads. So I didn’t understand why people were warning me about having to watch out for the fluffy animals. Then we got into the mountains. There are sheep everywhere. Literally just walking up the roads. We were told they were ‘street smart’ so they would get out of the way. But still unnerving.

Gorgeous views in the hills (can you spot Mike in this pic?)




In Kenmare we got some Fish and Chips and a Fish Pie. Both were very yummy and filling. Afterwards we walked around a bit. There weren’t many shops open so we decided to take the bar tenders advice and try to drive down into the Black Valley and through the Gap of Dunloe, since we didn’t have 5 hours to drive the Ring of Kerry.



We got some bad directions and missed the turn twice (also due to the fact there were no signs) Finally, we made it into the valley. This drive was the most fun, single dirt road with tons of twists, so you had to go slow and if you met anyone you basically played chicken to see who would pull over first to allow the other car to pass. I don’t know how tour buses did it. Thankfully we only met 3 or 4 cars.


More loose sheep going up and over the hills and cute thatched roof houses. The view from the top of the Gap of Dunloe was so amazing. These pictures don’t do it justice.