We left Strokestown and headed for Westport, I had a rough map for the location of the B&B (Boulevard Guesthouse), we drove the main drag, found the Octagon and were able to find the b&b w/o problem. Parking was available on the street right in front of the b&b, lucky us. We checked in, carried the suitcases up and set out to walk around. First stop was a bar on the main street for a drink. We continued on our walk, looking in shop windows, we just missed closing time by about an hour. We started to get hungry so we asked a few guys where to eat, this is when Neal made the mistake of saying he wanted traditional Irish stew, or fish n chips and the guys said what part of America are you from?. :) Neal says how do they know Im American? Then they proceeded to tell him that if he wanted a good Irish stew, he should put me in the kitchen to make it for him, ha ha, I laughed, but when they continued to press the issue that a woman belonged in the kitchen, I put them in their place and walked away, one of their wives obviously made a great stew and he had no problem eating more than his fair share. Guys will be guys. :)

We asked someone else and they wanted to send us down to the waterfront, but we didnt want to drive and didnt feel like walking, so we continued to search on our own and came across JJ OMalleys. We walked upstairs, which was packed, there were two women at the desk who were debating putting their names in for an 8:30 opening, they declined and we said wed take it. This gave us time to go downstairs to the bar for a drink. Went back up for dinner, Neal had chowder appetizer, I had breaded mushrooms, we both had burgers which were HUGE and absolutely delicious, and we enjoyed the atmosphere as well. This is when Neal fell in love with the Irish butter. He had some on his bread and I asked him if he thought it was better than ours, and he said its butter, so I told him to try some by himself BAM it was love. After that, I often caught him just eating butter right out of the packet. They sell Kerrygold here and I bought a slab of it on Saturday, its already half gone. :) The other thing he loved was getting a fresh lemon wedge with his seafood chowder. Weve never seen that before.

Walked around a little more, looking for a pub to hang in for the night, peeked into Molloys but there didnt seem to be much going on and it was packed. We headed up a hill and found what seemed to be a more locals (?) place called Tobys Bar. Had a nice drink there and enjoyed just listening to the conversations and cozy atmosphere.

The next day we woke up to sunshine and decided it was a great day to drive to Achill Island. After a yummy porridge breakfast, we headed out. We took the coast road the entire way, stopping at any photo op or anywhere really that deserved a wow moment. I dont have the map in front of me, but that part just before you come around Achill Sound where its just the road then the cliffs then the water and the view is of Clare Island (we guessed?)amazing. Again, we got out and ran around like little kids there, then went around the big bend, down the hill, over the little bridge and stopped to watch the big coach behind us make the curve, then we chased sheep a little and got back in the car. We spent quite a while at Keel (not Keem, which came later) what a HUGE beach. The sand was gorgeous, Neal took off his shoes and walked in the water which was crystal clear. I dont know why, but I didnt expect that. There were a few surfers in the water and about 3 or 4 other couples/families on the beach and that was it. We had a snack, saw some dolphins jumping in the distance and decided to keep going. We drove out to the very end and were rewarded with a beach that looked like it belonged somewhere in South America. I just kept saying I cant believe this is Ireland. It was a great drive. Headed back, stopped for lunch at The Last Drop. Then we went to the Deserted Village to climb around for a while. On my OSI map it showed a megalithic tomb, which we wanted to find. What we found was a sign and a little trail in between to fenced private properties, so we decided to climb, and climb and climb. Did I mention it was warm and sunny? And we climbed, and we thought we missed it, but we kept climbing and found it. We were about ½ way up the mountain, or so it felt, and the views out to the beach were rewarding, so I guess it was worth the climb. Plus the tomb was cool to see, if you like big piles of big rocks, which I do.

We returned to Westport and it started to rain slightly. We went to the Wyatt Hotel for a set dinner for two, an incredible deal an appetizer, a dinner and a dessert each, plus a bottle of wine, all for 50 euro. The food was delicious, cant remember the appetizers, but dinner was chicken stir fry for me and salmon for Neal. Because of the set menu, I expected smaller portions, but they were definitely full portions, and dessert was as well, chocolate fudge cake with ice creammmmmm. Went back to Toby's Bar for a drink.

Up the next morning for another yummy breakfast (Neal was now literally eating the butter off of his knife) and we set out for a drive through Connemara.

Pictures from this report (also with Doo Lough Pass added in by mistake!): https://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll178/ASTROKelli/Ireland/2%20Westport%20Achill%20Island%20and%20Doo%20Lough%20Pass/

Left Galway in the rain, headed for a day in the burren. Somehow missed the first road I wanted to take, luckily there were options, and after we chose one option, there were more options. At some point this day (dont remember if it was before or after lunch) we came upon a very very curvy uphill climbing road, that I felt Id been to before (Corkscrew Hill??) EXCEPT there was evidence of some construction or roadworks or something that required a large sign and large pile of gravel. But still, you just need to turn your back to the gravel and enjoy the view in the other direction, even through the gray rain. Eventually, we found our way to The Burren Perfumery, watched the short film which showcases the various flowers that grow in the region. Had a look around the gift shop, bought a few items, toured their gardens and when the downpour came, we ran for the car. Im so glad we went to the Perfumery, it really is a beautiful location and they have great products. http://www.burrenperfumery.com/

I wanted to go to the Michael Cusack Centre, which we did find, but hubby wasnt too excited about it because he has no idea who this Michael guy is :), so we skipped it and headed on. We did stop at the Caherconnell Stone Fort, paid admission, watched the film and explored the fort. At the time, it was interesting, but it was trumped later in the trip by other finds. We headed up to Poulabrane Megalithic Tomb and arrived just as a bus tour was leaving, so we only had to share it with about 5 other people. Amazing sight. We walked all over, hopping from stone to stone. Wed just come from the Perfumery, so of course were paying attention to all the tiny little flowers, took about 80 pictures of flowers. Why do we do these things?? The rain picked up again, so we headed up to Ballyvaughan for lunch. And there was Monks and a friendly dog out front to greet us. This is when we did our first big tourist move in ordering Irish coffees. Hey, its a delicious way to warm up! Soup and the scallops for me, a smoked salmon platter for Neal. We were cold and soaking wet, the view was of rain, so we decided we'll go back again next time with sunshine. :)

We decided to skip the Black Head drive and head towards Lisdoonvarna, somehow we missed the smokehouse and the next stop was the Cliffs. I was there before the new visitors center, so I could compare. Neal, however, hadnt seen it before and he was actually impressed. So theres one opinion. The Cliffs themselves werent busy at all but the Visitors Center was. Could be the driving wind and rain outside. We stayed about a half hour and headed down towards Lahinch where Neal promised wed come back for a golf trip. I HAVE to play that course, I just HAVE to. We did see two brave golfers, but that was it. We found our way down to Berry Lodge, where we were greeted by Rita and hot tea and scones. www.berrylodge.com
Right away we knew this was going to be a favorite stop. Her home is beautiful, warm, very very welcoming. We were the only guests at the moment so I peeked into other guestrooms. I would be happy in any of them. We got settled in and dried off (what was the point though?), took a little nap and headed back out to find a Megalithic Tomb noted on my map that didnt seem too far away. We went back to a beach wed seen on the way in, got thoroughly soaked again, then set out on the yellow roads to find this tomb. Drove past it w/o realizing it, after about ½ mile, we turned around and saw it on the way back. It was just sitting up there, on a small hill in a field off the road, not a fence or gate or any markers at all, we parked the car and climbed through the tall grass to have this mini Poulabrane look a like all to ourselves (although we shared it with hundreds of leeches? Slugs? What are those things??). It was very cool. I got extra bonus points for finding it.

Now absolutely thoroughly soaked, we went to dinner. Rita directed us to Bellbridge House Hotel, http://www.bellbridgehotelclare.com/food.htm because she wasn't cooking dinner that night, and she said there wasn't much going on in town. I felt awful walking into this establishment in the shape we were in, but they were gracious and treated us well. We both ordered from the set menu, appetizers, entrees and dessert with tea or coffee for 35 euro each. Beef for me (delicious) and Salmon for him. Their potatoes were mixed with mustard seeds, another new flavor for us, we ended up buying a few bottles of the mustard and Im going to try this at home. Various ice cream desserts for each of us, and the most delicious mint chip ice cream ever, was crowned (not by me, I dont like mint). A great meal, I would like to go back sometime when I dont look like a drowned rat.

Back to Ritas, I should be calling it Berry Lodge, to watch the soccer match and go to sleep.

Despite the rain, and nixing half our plans, I really enjoyed this day. The Burren is a unique area, I have a feeling you could drive the same road once a week and see a new sight each time. There are views in every direction (if you happen to like looking at rocks, which we do). Then to the coast where you have the Cliffs and the views, and a sort of welcome home feeling that seems to be in this part of the west.

Breakfast the next morning, was fantastic as expected. We lingered a bit after the other guests were finished and chatted with Rita in her kitchen. We could have stayed there all day. Her kitchen is HUGE, its the only time on the whole trip that I wanted to do some cooking.

Such a beautiful day, we decided to seize the opportunity and drive the Loop Head Peninsula. Stopped in Kilkee for gas, but couldnt find a gas station. We asked at the Tourist Info Center and she said there isnt a gas station in Kilkee? Hmm. But there is one on Loop Head, its also a farm co-op store where they sold farm bits. I wonder is that like meadow muffins? Hmm. So we took off and found the gas station. From there we headed for the coast roads, stopped at Kilbaha Bay to climb around on the rocks and take pictures, it was a perfect day. Calm, sunshine, warm. Made our way out to the lighthouse with no idea what we were about to see. Ferdia, youre very clever when you advertise Loop Head. We parked along with about 3 other cars and got out to see the cliffs. I think we were there for about 2 hours at least. Unbelievable. We walked all the way around, out to the very point, to the tip of the world, it seemed. There was absolutely no wind. It was bright and sunny, crystal blue water, the grass was full of those little purple flower things that smell like springtime. Amazing. Reluctantly, and one of us with a tear in *his* eye, we got back to the car and headed towards Kilimer to catch the ferry.

Pictures from Galway and Co. Clare reports: https://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll178/ASTROKelli/Ireland/3%20Galway%20and%20County%20Clare%20%20Cliffs%20of%20Moher/
NextDingle, music, good fish and chips and the sneaky little weasel at Galarus Oratory.

Oh, the drive from Killarney (out to Moll's Gap, then down to Kenmare, etc) was beautiful. AND we had a beautiful day, at least for the first part. As mentioned earlier, we had a later than usual start, so we skipped the Beara Peninsula, which is ok because I know we would have never made it to Kinsale, we would have wanted more time in Beara. Again, no map in front of me, but I think we drove through Glengariff, Bantry (definitely planning on 3-4 days in this area next trip), it was just stunning, the sunshine helped, too. We got out a few times to stand on top of rocks and dare the wind to blow us away. We saw some of the MINI group we'd met in Dingle, they were on their way home from Sneem. We drove through a few more very postcard perfect towns and made our way to Castletownshend for lunch at Mary Ann's.

The sign said they stopped serving at 2:30, it was 2:45 and they said we'd just made it. I'd been wanting to try John Dory, but they were out, so I had Hake, Neal had their version of fish and chips which was a new take, it was more baked than fried and it had a sort of...corn flake coating. Very delicious. My fish was perfect, as were the potatoes and the sticky toffee pudding we shared! Fantastic lunch which cost more than some of our dinners so far, but we knew it would. My boss is from Dublin and he used to spend his "summer holidays" in Castletownshend, eating at Mary Ann's often, so if I didn't stop in for a meal, I'd be fired. :) Not much else to do in that town, though, from what we could see. The main street is interesting, with the steep hill and the tree in the middle of the road. We came out from lunch to gray sky, stronger wind and the smell of rain coming.

Sure enough, the closer we got to Kinsale, the worse the weather became, canceling the stop at Old Head and the walk to Charlesfort. A lot of construction happeneing in Kinsale right now, traffic was the slowest we'd experienced. Even though we entered town the opposite way of directions to Desmond House B&B, we managed to find it on our own, we even found parking in the closest lot, free of charge. Lucky us. We checked in, chatted with Michael for a while about the origins of the house, went out for a quick walk, but the rain and cold and late night before got the best of us and drove us back to our room for a nap. We headed back out for dinner, it was after 8:30 by this time and the town seemed completely empty. Michael had made some suggestions, but we were looking for casual. I know Kinsale is the "gourmet capital", but we weren't in the mood to get all done up. We ALMOST settled for either Chinese takeaway or pizza and we stumbled across The Shack, which was packed. They had one table open, we took it. This was the best thing we'd stumbled on the entire trip.

I had fish - can't remember what kind!! - and Neal had a pasta special with shrimp, fish, ginger and tomato sauce. The sauce was so good, I stole his spoon and started to eat it like soup. Dinners came with side of potatoes and fresh veggies. We also had a half bottle of wine and chocolate ice cream for dessert. Total was around 50 euro? It felt like a steal! Absolutely delicious. As we were eating (window table) we saw a large group of people all walk by at once, later walking around, we saw them a the Tap Room ? Tavern, and realized that was the ghost tour, we decided we'd take it the following night. As it was pouring rain and freezing cold, we headed back to the Desmond House for the night. This is where we discovered Coronation Street - I'm hooked! Someone please fill me in on what's happened in the last week, ha ha!

Next day we headed to Cobh and Midleton. Outside it was...you guessed it, raining and cold. As we drove to get the ferry to Cobh, the weather cleared. Quite an easy drive, simple ferry ride and we were there. Found the Cogh Heritage Center (Queenstown Story, Titanic Exhibit, etc) and parked on the street, went in to buy our parking display/disc/ticket for the car and enjoyed 2 hours in the Center. We thought it was a great museum. You start out walking through a very dark room with the noises and stories of the coffin ship, life size displays and images. It's basically a self guided tour, a lot to read along the way so take your glasses. A lot of history on emigration, deportation of prisoners, the role Cobh played as a port, then they have a section dedicated to the Titanic and also the Lusitania. We knew the Lusitania sank close to the shore, but didn't realize it was only 3 miles offshore. I can't imagine. We finished the exhibits and shopped a little in the shops, they also have a cafe which was packed with a bus group, the food looked and smelled good, but we didn't eat there.

We got back in the car and drove around Cobh a bit, stopping to take pictures, but we were unsure of the parking situation, so we didn't leave the car for too long anywhere. Neal snapped a great picture from the cathedral looking out to the water, with the White Star Line offices below. Looks like something from the early 1900's. So, back in the car and up to Midleton we went. Ready for some whiskey.

We made our way into Midleton looking for the Jameson Distillery, I've been on the Dublin tour, but never this tour. I had no directions, and we saw one sign, but that was it. We drove down the main street and asked for directions, realizing there was a large sign 10 feet in front of us, so we found it without a problem after that. :) We had just missed the 1:00 tour by about 5 minutes, so we bought tickets for the 2:00 and she told us we'd have time for lunch, we were seated in the cafe and completely ignored for 10 minutes. We flagged someone down to put our order in, chowder and a salad - simple, right? Then we sat and sat and sat, as did others, it was like the entire wait staff vanished for 35 minutes. Realizing we'd miss our 2:00 tour, the lady at the desk said we could join the 2:30 tour. Fine. Our food arrived at 2:00 - at least it was delicious. We ate, paid and made it to the lobby to join the 2:30 tour, which we were VERY rudely told was for the ... group only (can't remember the name), even though we pointed at the exact lady who told us we could join that tour, they pretty much just BARKED at us, "NO, this is ... ONLY". And so we had to wait for the 3:00 tour. Pretty upset at this point, we almost left. We used this time to buy our souvenirs and buy a sample of a few different whiskeys at the bar, since we'd been browsing for a good 2 hours already. Joined up with the 3:00 tour. The tour guide was great and we tried to enjoy it even though were were not happy altogether with the whole operation. Neal volunteered to be a whiskey taster happily. To my surprise, he liked the scotch, so because of his bad judgement, I drank his Jack Daniels (my second love next to Jameson). We finished our "complimentary" samples and booked it out of there around 5:00, two hours later than planned. Looking back, I wish we did the tour in Dublin. Overall, the Midleton facility was just a bad experience. The staff needs some help, manners and organization. It was cloudy but not rainy when we left and we thought we'd be able to do the Charlesfort walk and tour when we got back to Kinsale, but of course as we came out of the Lynch Tunnel...guess what?? R-a-i-n. Yes, it always rains in Kinsale.

Back to the rain, we decided instead of hunting for another restaurant for dinner, we'd return to The Shack. Good decision. We sat at the same table, had an appetizer this time, a full bottle of wine, I had a chicken with pasta dish and Neal had another pasta with seafood dish. It was like comfort food, we also had dessert and enjoyed a leisurely 2 hour dinner. Francis (our server and later we found out owner along with her husband) talked with us for a while and offered us two more glasses of wine on the house. How could we refuse? Total for this night was still only around 65 euro. People back at our B&B sort of did a tsk tsk at us because we didn't opt for a "fine dining" restaurant, as if we were losing out. As far as I'm concerned, it was their loss. Our dinners were excellent. We ended that night deciding against the ghost tour (partly because of the weather again, and because of our long dinner) and went to The Lord Kingsale (?) for a drink and to listen to the horrible one man keyboard/band who was pitiful, yet entertaining enough.

The next day was Tuesday and we were in no rush, so we walked down to the Farmer's Market (in the rain), oh if I only had a traveling kitchen with me, the things I could have cooked up with what they were selling!! We browsed around a little, looked in some shops, walked down to see the marina, back to the farmers market to buy some strawberries (which were soft and tender and juicy and actually tasted like strawberries!! something we can't find here), and we took off for Kilkenny, via Cahir Castle.

I switched routes last minute at the advice of a friend. I wasn't too hip on going to the Rock of Cashel (shame on me, I know), so he suggested Cahir Castle instead. We found it w/o problem and in a much shorter drive time than we'd been told. At first sight, Neal's age dropped by 30 years and here we go again, like little kids. What I love about the sights (most, anyway) in Ireland is you can basically go anywhere, it's not all roped off like it would be here. We'd just missed a guided tour but joined up with them a few minutes late. I think admission was less than 3 euro each. A steal! What a great castle to climb around in, interesting history and a great display model in one room showing the events of an attack that took place over a weekend. We ate lunch at a cafe directly across from the Castle on the corer. Castle View? Soup and a sandwich and a piece of cake. Fresh and delicious and less than 15 euro, we though it was a mistake, but it wasn't, just a good deal.

We cut across to Kilkenny, where we parked and walked. I had done zero research on the town, so I didn't know what to do or see, we didn't want to do the castle tour and really I wasn't impressed with the town at all, not sure why. I wanted to leave but it was still pretty early and we were only 1/2 hour away from our stop for the night in Portlaoise, which I knew had nothing to offer, so we just kept walking around Kilkenny, stopped in a bar or two for a drink. After stalling as long as we could, we hopped in the car and found our B&B for the night in Stradbally, just outside of Portlaoise.

Tall Trees B&B, which I found through the County's tourism site. Kathleen, the owner, met us at the door of her beautiful home. Showed us our room and had hot tea ready for us, along with cheesecake, ice cream and cookies (biscuits)!!!! Still a couple of hours until we'd want dinner, we took advantage of this time to unpack/repack our bags in preparation of dropping off the car at Dublin Airport the next day and taking the bus into the city.

Wow, this is a long report without proof-reading, I hope it's ok. And not exciting, I think. Blame it on Kinsale, I really really wanted to love Kinsale but I think the weather just defeated me. It was rainy and "unseasonably cold" as everyone kept saying, and when I'm cold, I'm grumpy no matter what. Also, the town seemed empty, no activity, no buzz, the b&b was empty, the bars were empty. It was more upscale (I could use the word snobby) than relaxed, I felt out of place. There's a way of being upscale and still comfortable and welcoming and I just didn't get that vibe in Kinsale. Not sure why. But never say never, we'll probably give it another try in the future.

Ok, next, and possibly final (!) Kelli's rock fort discovery and Dublin!

Hopped off the aircoach just around the corner from The Davenport Hotel, where wed be staying for our last two nights (boohoo). We were able to check in, and were directed to our room on the 6th floor. Now that I look back, we didnt spend any time at all exploring the hotel, using their restaurants, bars, etc, so I cant comment on all that. I can comment on the front desk staff and our room, all fantastic. The hotel itself is in a unique building, I think I remember reading somewhere it used to be an opera hall? In any case, a beautiful building, seemed like newly refurbished rooms and furnishings. The location was great as well, borders Trinity College and is next to government buildings, Merrion Square, etc. Its close enough to walk to Grafton Street, Temple Bar, OConnell Street, if you want to +/- 10 minute walk, we walked everywhere.

A big problem we ran into on our trip was wed somehow over-budgeted certain things, so we had extra money (we exchanged $ ahead of time and went over with euros in hand, understand many prefer to use ATM or Visa in Ireland, but this scenario worked best for us, we planned to use Visa as back up but never needed to). We needed to unload our cash and had extra room in the suitcases after reorganizing (using those vacuum seal bags, wow those things are great), so we decided wed just shop. About 10 shirts, lots of little trinkets and 3 pairs of new shoes later (and maybe a few chocolate bars)!!!!! We were thirsty, so we headed to Temple Bar for a drink and a look around. First we had a pint in Gogartys, where the musicians had started at 2:30, but just stopped for a break. We waited for them to start up again and listened for a bit, then we headed over to check out The Auld Dubliner, not sure why, but I liked this place better. Looking out the window, I spotted Gallaghers Boxty House across the street (I didnt realize it was in Temple Bar) and have seen enough coverage on Food Network, Travel Channel, etc. that I knew I wanted to eat there. We finished our pints and walked over to check the menu and make a reservation for 8:30.

I dont recall exactly the events of that afternoon/evening. I know we wandered around a bit. We stopped in the Dublin Tourism Office to ask about the Hop on/Hop off tour for the following day, Neal found a hat (and some chocolate!) there that hed had his eye on and finally decided to purchase. TIP: If youre looking for a good place to buy the same old souvenirs (t-shirts, hats, etc) youve seen everywhere, we found their prices to be some of the lowest not only in Dublin, but also in Galway. Prices were lower on most things by 1 to 2 euro. At some point we walked over the river and down Henry Street, but of course, just as the shops were closing! Money still burning a whole in our pockets, we dove into more tourist shops and added a few more items to our bagdecks of cards, a Dublin shot glass, a fridge magnet. We hung out by the river for a while to rest and do some people watching. I know sometimes Dublin doesnt get the best review, but I love it. As much as I loved the west and the countryside, I still need a little city in my vacation, and Dublin was perfect. Oh, we also stopped in to The Arlington Hotel and had a drink at the bar, just because.

We wandered back over to Gallaghers for our reservation and were seated. If you want a private, romantic dinner, this isnt the place, as you are seated at long tables next to other diners. Luckily, after 2 weeks of traveling together, we werent in need of privacy or romance, so it worked out for us. This was the first time Ive seen coddle on a menu (or paid any attention to it, at least) and Ive heard about it, so we ordered the starter size to share, a bottle of wine, corned beef boxty for him and beef for me with a side of potatoes, we also ordered sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Holy cow, we were SO FULL! But so happy. Everything was delicious. I thought for sure the coddle would be just so-so, but I am now hooked and will order it every time I visit Dublin! The pudding was more like bread pudding with a load of raisins, not really sticky, not really toffee, but wed finished our bottle of wine by this point, so it was all good to us! Heres a picture of our dinners: photobucket.com/albums/DSC01595.jpg

Yum! I would go back for sure. After dinner, I think we wandered over to The Auld Dubliner for drinks, I seem to remember a rugby match?? Ireland vs.Columbia maybe? Hmm. Ireland won, whatever it was. Hooray! Without a map, we found our way back to the hotel on foot. Lucky lucky.

Up the next morning and grabbed a quick breakfast sandwich at a Café del Sol (?) down the street, and we waited for the Hop On/Hop Off (HOHO) Bus, 15 euro each, I believe. The sun was out, so we rode upstairs all day. First stop was The Guinness Storehouse. It was nice to ride up so high and be able to see over the people on the streets. The guide, of course, sang the Molly Malone song and pointed out sights along the way. But we were on a mission. Hopped off at Guinness, purchased our tickets (we were 2nd in line, no crowd at all) and started our tour. I wasnt expecting much, I knew it was a self guided tour, and was actually very impressed with it compared to my expectations. Combine that with Neal reminding me that we were on a shopping spree, and I was going to enjoy it no matter what! Honestly though, Im a big Guinness drinker, surprise, and I enjoyed the tour very much, Im so glad we didnt skip over it. We both elected to pull our own pints, so we were given a certificate and took our pints up to the gravity bar to enjoy them. It was a clear day so we had a great view of Dublin.

Back on the HOHO bus, out to Kilmainham Gaol. Another great tour, very somber though. That is not a happy place. Also glad we elected to see it. We had a sandwich in the little tea room before the tour and had a few minutes to wander around the museum. Ben, our tour guide was great, keeping the mood right, and answering all the questions we could throw at him. Back on the HOHO bus (we never waited for more than 3-4 minutes for it) and we hopped off at the stop for Jameson/Bow Street. Wed already been on the Midleton tour, but we wanted to check in their shop for items we wished we bought in Midleton, so we stopped in and decided to have lunch while we were there, we split some sort of chili pita which was delicious and went down to their shop, which was much smaller with less selection than Midleton. Still bought a bottle of whiskey though, they have plenty of that to go around.

We caught the HOHO bus back to the stop right by our hotel and dropped our bags (lots and lots of Guinness stuff, we actually bought a Guinness duffle bag to carry everything in), we went back out to catch the last bus and hopped off at Temple Bar, where we walked around, enjoyed the buzz, it was the middle of the week, so it was pretty calm. Ate dinner that night at The Auld Dubliner where I had coddle again, and it was just as good as I wanted it to be, Neals last meal in Dublin was fish n chips with mushy peas (ick) he said it was the best fish second to Marina Inn in Dingle. We pretty much just hung out there with a few drinks, going back over our trip and how much wed seen and experienced. We wouldnt have changed a thing about this trip, it was a great overview. We wandered sadly back to the hotel for our final night.

The next morning our friend came and picked us up at the hotel and dropped us at the airport, where we STILL had money leftover, and got even more money at the VAT refund counter, where the girl was incredibly rude, holy cow. In any case, we had a lot of time, so we decided to eat in the rerestaurant, be warned that the service here is VERY S-L-O-W. We asked three times for coffee, menus, our food, etc, as did a majority of the tables around useventually our food was delivered and it was good, considering. We shopped around the duty free shops, bought some more whiskey (oops, I think we went over our 1 litre each limit, oh well, most of it is gone already), and we ended up with about 16 cents left. Not bad! Our flights home were uneventful, except for the stupid little tears that found their way down my cheek as I looked out the window seeing the west coast of Ireland pass below

Darn it, its enough to make the tears well up as I sit and type this. Obviously I have a great love for Ireland, and Im not even Irish! As far as I know, although several of our B&B owners were quizzing me on family history and names, and 2 generations ago my family name was Harrington, so for sure thats got to be Irish, right? Right?? Ahh, anyway, thanks everyone, for your help and for letting me post my memories here. Its such a beautiful place, Neal doesnt know how to describe it to people when they ask how he liked it. I think the only answer isyou have to go for yourself, then youll understand.

Cheers