Part 1 When my 13 year old daughter suggested Ireland as a vacation destination for this summer, I was immediately suspicious. "But Dad, I know you've always wanted to go there..." she told me. "Yes, but why do you want to go?" was my reply. "Welllllllllllllllll, Green Day is playing in Dublin on June 23 and they won't be in the States this Summer and..." not believing I would ever fall for this ploy of hers. You see, my wife and daughter both love Green Day more than any other band in the universe. They have seen them 4 times in the last 4 years, the last time by driving 14 hours to Phoenix from our home in Austin, Texas. It's not just an obsession, its a way of life to those two, especially my daughter (who recently acquired her 17th Green Day t-shirt- no joke)
So after thinking about it for a couple of days and making sure we had the money to take all 4 of us over there (myself, my wife, 13 y.o. daughter and 6 y.o. son), I started planning and soon settled on June 14-25 as the dates of our trip. When I told my wife and daughter that I was agreeable in principle to the trip they were extremely excited. "One thing though" I said. "You guys get June 23rd. I get to plan the other 10 days." "No problem!" they said. Ok then. NAturally, within a couple of days, my mother inlaw weasled her way into the trip. Thinking she might be a valuable babysitting resource, I agreed (not that we ever got to use her for that purpose!).
I have to say that this site was by far the most helpful and useful online resource I found. None of the others came close or were particularly useful (although Tripadvisor is a good resource to confirm opinions) but without Michelle and this community, my trip planning would've been extremely difficult and more fraught with risk to visit the "wrong" places.
Before I delve into trip specifics, I'm going to make some general observations about Ireland.
* Guiness tasted VERY different there. I don't particularly like it here in the States but its completely different in Ireland. Creamy, smooth, almost like a beer milkshake. Even the wife and mother in law liked it and they don't drink beer. * The Irish love mayo. Caesar salad? Mayo, mayo and more mayo. Hamburger? Mayo on both buns, huge dollops of it. Everywhere I turned, mayonnaise in copius quantities awaited me. Peculiar. Mustard was rare and white pepper seems to predominate over black pepper (my wife HATES white pepper for some reason- we made many an inquiry for the black variety). Also, a lot of the food we ate was very bland. This country needs salt! Outstanding Steak and Guiness pie everywhere we went though. * The roads are insane. There are reasonable wide streets while driving though most villages but as soon as you get to the edge of town, the road narrows and the speed limit increases. Bizarre. The speed limits don't make sense either. 50 kph in towns is ok but 80 or 100 kph on roads barely wide enough for a single car and loads of blind turns because of walls or tall hedges? I only had to drive into a ditch once as an oversized trash truck flew down a narrow lane. The swine. * Once you've done one castle tour, you've basically done them all. There will be unique details that are talked about in each but I estimate at least 50% of each of the tours we did were close to identical in content. * There are ruins freaking everywhere.
If someone has not been to Ireland, and you try and tell them about how different Guinness is there, you probably will not be taken seriously. But you are so correct -- completely different.
I can't drink one of these rank amateur brews they call Guinness here, but over there a good switch between of Guinness and Smithwick's keeps me going.
And I concur with the other points you make as well!
But wasn't it great fun?
Best regards,
Monty
-- Edited by Monty on Friday 9th of July 2010 02:33:04 PM
Welcome back. Thank you for your kind words about my forum! You've made my day.
You should be glad mustard is rare in Ireland. They tend to use English mustard. Ever try it? A tiny amount will take the top of your head off. When using mustard in Ireland you should mix it into the mayo. I also think they should use more garlic in Ireland. I have my own shaker of black pepper and garlic powder for Ireland.
Keep in mind that you don't have to do the speed limit. Although the Irish try to meet or exceed the speed limit signs! And don't you love the way they pass on the main highways? Just get out of their way.
The trip over- June 14-15 We had booked our flight out of Houston, a 3 hour drive from Austin, because I was able to get plane tickets $200 cheaper per person. The drive and the initial flight leg to Philadelphia was fine. Unfortunately, the Philly to Dublin leg was a nightmare. I am generally unable to sleep in airplanes so was expectly a relatively restless evening but unfortunately I had managed to book our seats with 2 babies in the row in front of us, 2 directly behind us and another one behind us to our right. Ugh, what were the odds?. To make matters worse, one of the babies was ill and managed to defecate all over her father about 3 hours from Dublin so the combination of smells, intermittant crying and having my chair constantly being bumped by a particularly rampant toddler behind me made this flight probably my worst ever experience on a plane. Oh, and absolutely no rest.
Arrival in Dublin was a relief. I found the airport to be rather dirty and it appears to have outgrown its original design so it is quite inefficient. Dan Dooley's rental desk is rather out of the way and there was a bit of a wait as most of the passengers I arrived with seemed to have rented with them as well. Overall, my car rental experience with them was good although we are still haggling over my deductable (I bought max CDW so only had a 100 Euro deductable). They still have not credited it back to me...
Anyway, we got on the road heading north on the M1 to get to the Bru na Boinne center. As I had anticipated some weary bodies after our flight, I had purposely left some ambiguity in our schedule with very much a "play it by ear" attitude for Day 1. We eventually arrived at the site and got our first taste of 2 of the characteristics we would come to know quite well over the following 10 days, the tiny, winding roads (as mentioned in my first post) and the truly godawful lack of sufficient signposts. I pride myself on my sense of direction and actually found the process of getting lost to be somewhat interesting but the insufficient signage (or complete lack thereof) was really, really shocking. Advice for fellow travellers...rent a car with GPS!!!!
The Bru na Boinne Visitor Center is really nice and I highly recommend it to others. We arrived and I asked to buy Heritage Cards (Great deal BTW). "Sure thing" they said "but a tour is leaving for Newgrange right now, do you want to go and we'll figure out the cards and payment after?" So! Off to Newgrange we went. My impressions of Newgrange are that its well worth a visit. There is a good tour, its set in an absolutely gorgeous valley and the structure itself is really impressive and interesting. A quality start to the trip.
We returned to the visitor center and got fixed up with our Heritage cards. I could see energy levels in my group were already starting to flag after the horrible flight so I relectantly ruled out a visit to Knowth. Desperate to eat, we sat down at the cafe in the basement of the Visitor Center. Advice for fellow travellors...Don't do it! Overpriced food that ranged from bland and uninteresting to borderline inedible.
We got onto the road to travel to Trim, the base for our first nights stay. Depending on how we were feeling we planned on visiting Trim Castle either that afternoon or first thing in the morning. We drove through Navan (It struck me as being quite charming) and after a wrong turn, got to Trim in about an hour. I had told Anne at Crannmor House we would be arriving significantly later so when we got to her B&B, she wasn't there! Decision made: a visit to Trim Castle was in order!
We really liked Trim Castle, a very large castle with an extensive set of grounds. Our tour guide, Linda, was absolutely outstanding. She discovered this was my son's first castle visit so she went out of her way to include him in her discussions, prompting him to ask questions and generally making him very involved. He loved it and Trim Castle was his favorite stop on the whole trip. From the top of the tower, we were able to see the Hill of Tara, some 30 odd miles away I believe as it was a brilliantly sunny day. Absolutely gorgeous stuff.
After this we went back to Crannmor House and Anne had gotten home. I'd definitely recommend Crannmor, the grounds are beautiful (Anne and my wife immediately had a 30 minute conversation on gardening) and the rooms were comfy and Anne is extremely friendly and engaging. She cooked a good breakfast too. She recommended we eat at Dunderry Lodge down the road that night which is an interesting place as it looks like you're driving down a country lane to nowhere, then suddenly it appears on your right. I had my first Steak and Guiness pie (excellent) but the women in my party both got seafood platters. To their horror, "Platters" apparently means "Irish sushi" and both of them have a deep aversion to raw fish or meat so unfortunately they disliked the meal. Another lesson learned!
We got back to Crannmor House and forced ourselves to stay up until 9pm or so before all dropping off into deep slumber. Finally, some rest!
What a horrendous flight! I'm glad you survived it and managed to enjoy your first day fresh off the plane.
Thanks for the recommendation for Cranmore. I tried to visit it last time but no one was at home to show me around. Glad you all enjoyed Trim castle. It is impressive.
Day 2 started with a drive from Trim to Belvedere House just south of Mullingar. My overall impressions of Trim were, besides the castle, "meh". An ok town with little to recommend it from our very limited time there. The castle is worth a look though. Anyway, on to Belvedere House and we arrived about 20 minutes after opening time. No one was at the front desk so we wandered into the cafe area asking if we could pay someone...nope, they told us to walk right in.
Anyway, the grounds at Belvedere House are outstanding. The Walled Garden is beautiful and there is a little mini garden in the far back corner that is geared towards children a bit (lots of hidden faeries and the like). The rest of the grounds are heavily utilized by locals for walking, jogging and the like as there are miles of trails to meander across. The house itself is interesting and it has an ok tour (we did the "self" tour since no one was around!) but the view the entrance is stunning. The house is at the top of a small hill and the view extends outward to the lake and the surrounding area. Gorgeous stuff. There are several "follies" on the grounds as well as the original owner was a bit of a nutter and there is some connection the the Narnia books as there were displays all over the place. Finally, there is a small petting zoo and playground for smaller children. Well worth a visit overall.
After spending a couple of hours there, we piled back into the car and meandered over the countryside towards Clonmacnoise. We didn't see much of interest in between Mullingar and Clonmacnoise and managed to miss Athlone altogether. Clonmacnoise itself is pretty awesome, a sprawling ruined settlement with several towers, churches and other structures in a setting right by the Shannon. A nice tour was highlighted by the Whispering Arch which, if you don't know, actually works! Very odd and interesting.
Back into the car and on to Ballyvaughan. Since we were taking a lot of back roads we managed numerous wrong turns and confirmed that the general road insanity is pretty constant across Ireland. Off the N66 towards Kinvarna we stumbled on Kilmacnough, a largish ruin in the middle of nowhere that had a small parking lot and a sign stating "If you want into the church, come get the key across the road". The sad looking little house didn't seem to be occupied but we wandered around for 15 minutes or so. Pretty typical ruin but neat if you like that sort of thing (like me).
Finally, we arrived in Ballyvaughan around 7pm and made our way to Cappabhaile House about 1 mile south of the village. Cappabhaile House is a different sort of B&B, more like an inn as it was clearly purpose built and has comparatively huge rooms and bathrooms as well as a spacious dining area and a gaming room with a pool table. Friendly folks there in a gorgeous setting. I woke up at dawn the next day and walked outside to see the sun rise in the Burren surrounded by cows. Very surreal experience.
We ate in Logue's Lodge, which is also a B&B apparently. The food was excellent and reasonably priced (got a 10% discount as we were staying at Cappabhaile House) and I would recommend it worth a try for those in Ballyvaughan.
It was an exceedingly long and tiring day, 2 major and 1 minor attraction combined with a lot of driving.
I love the history of Belvedere House. It is like a soap opera! You were lost. Kilmacduagh is off the beaten path. Sounds like a long but interesting and fulfilling day.
Hi Zstep, I just read your first post and it's hysterical! Yes, the Guinness is quite different...love it in Ireland. I laughed so hard at your driving details...I myself drove my mom and dad over 1100 miles in Ireland and only crashed up the car twice...Once was the ROK when a tour bus came flying down the road, twist and turns, blind spots galore...my only option was hugging the rock wall to my left, which took off the passenger side mirror!!! CRUSHED!!! Thanks for the laughs and I can't wait to finish reading!!!
Anyway, we left Cappabhaile House and made the very short journey (1 km or so) to Ailwee Cave. Being in Central Texas, we have a couple of different cave systems within an hour of our house but we always are up for a trip underground. We found it to be well worth a visit, relatively easy to take the tour and a bonus was the spectacular views from the parking lot. Its also an access point into the Burren I believe (don't quote me on that).
Adjacent to the Caves is the Wild Birds of Prey Center. As Junior is a huge animal fan and a joint ticket to both attractions saved some money we decided to take a look. There is a wide variety of birds on the premises and we got to watch a feeding or two. It was highlighted by an entertaining 30 minute show where the handlers demonstrated some of the training they do for different kinds of birds (I never realized owls were THAT useless!).
By now it was close to midday and we had a long drive in front of us. Next stop...The Cliffs! It's about an hour drive from Ballyvaughan and we arrived in the early afternoon. We bypassed the Visitor Center and just paid for the parking (which I understand is changing going forward). All I have to say is that is a surreal, absolutely magnificent place. About an hour after we arrived, the fog started to roll in which only managed to heighten the overall atmosphere. I really enjoyed the setting despite the crowds so well worth a look if you've never been.
By 3:30 or so we were back on the road for the long stretch to Castlegregory in the Dingle Peninsula. It ended up being about a 3 hour drive if I remember right and we took the ferry rather than struggle through Limerick. We were staying at The Shores outside Castlegregory but I managed to take a wrong tun and go into town instead of staying on the main road. After "exploring" the village I decided to start all over, got back on the main road and eventually found Annette's place a couple of kilometers down the road.
Michelle highly recommends The Shores and with very good reason. Its in a nice setting and the house is really nice. Annette is an absolute gem and a brilliant cook, by far the best food we had the entire trip were her breakfasts. She proved a little too helpful though as she produced an extremely long list of clothing stores for my wife and daughter to visit while in Dublin after I asked for a few suggestions (Doh!). We split into a single room for my Mother in law and an apartment they added onto the end of the house which had its own entry point for the rest of us. Really, really, really liked the place.
After we regrouped, Annette sent us to Spillane's to eat. Definitely worth a stop if you are needing sustenance in the Castlegregory area. Good food and reasonable prices.
Glad you enjoyed the Shores. It is a fab B&B. Did you know that Annette is a self-taught cook? She is just amazing. One thing you should never ask her is where to go shopping. She could be Ireland's shopping guru. You would not believe how cute she decorated her daughter's room. She even found a shocking pink desk chair...in Ireland!
I agree that the Cliffs of Moher are impressive. It is just that I remember them when there was nothing there but nature. The new facilities spoil it a bit for me now.
Since the weather continued to be awesome (despite our lack of warm weather clothes! Average high temp of 63 degrees my a**!), the fam wanted to walk on the beach a bit. Annette from The Shores directed us to Fremoyle Strand, about 1 km from her place which was isolated and gorgeous. It was odd in that I was reminded of Maui while on this beach because the mountains were almost directly off the beach, much like the terrain in NW Maui.
Anyway, off to Dingle we went via the Conor Pass. Absolutely spectacular! Especially since it was a clear day, we could see forever. As I mentioned in another post, there were plenty of sheep around and a baby lamb seemed to think I was friendly so while my Mother in Law and wife sat in the car (terrified of heights- haha), I got my fill of the view with the lamb in tow.
We continued on to Dingle and stopped at the Oceanworld Aquarium. Because we had a 6 year old with us, we tried to orient some of our activities towards his interests and animals are high on his list. I found the place a bit "meh", it was ok for what it was and wasn't too expensive (certainly cheaper than acquariums in the States) but it was small and somewhat limited. In and out in an hour.
From here we did the Slea Head drive. All I can say is "wow". Also stunning. Breathtaking. Awesome. Gorgeous. This is an absolute must for anyone in the area. There are plenty of stops along the way (well detailed in Rick Steve's book- someone gave it to me, I found the rest of his book useless BTW) and we made stops at the beehive huts, Dunquin and the Blasket Center along the way.
The Blasket center was very interesting although the rest of the family got pretty restless. For those interested in Irish history and the preservation of the Gaelic language, this is a must stop. Pretty poor cafeteria though... This is also where we had our 10 minutes of light sprinkling rain, the only rain we experienced in our 10 days in Ireland.
Anyway, we eventually got back to Dingle. I packed the family off to do some shopping while I consumed a couple of pints and watched the USA-Slovenia World Cup soccer match. It was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday so the bar I found was almost deserted but I was eventually joined by a couple from England, a creepy German guy (possible serial killer????) and a very drunk local who kept trying to compare Ireland to Texas. High comedy. Anyway, after the match we toured a bit more around Dingle before heading back to The Shores to regroup.
That night we ate at the Seven Hogs restaurant, a couple of miles back down the main road towards Tralee from The Shores. Food was quite good and reasonably priced.
Overall, I'd say the Dingle Peninsula was my favorite part of the trip and definitely worth another look in the future. I didn't spend nearly enough time in Dingle town although the wife was generally unimpressed with the shopping on offer. "Too touristy" was her verdict.
I look forward to your next post! I'm going to Ireland in October and staying just on the north side of Connor Pass. Your comments make me even more excited. I can't wait! Please, finish your story.
We departed the Dingle Peninsula with heavy hearts to head to Killarney. Absolutely loved the entire area but we had high hopes for the next leg of our trip. We drove to Killarney and took the R road in Curraduff to cut across the hills and skip Tralee. I don't remember the number and it was not well marked but proved an interesting trip over the top. A steep, winding road with the requisite one car width of space, its not for the faint of heart but I loved it.
Anyway, we rolled into Killarney at 10am or so and set out for Ross Castle on the south side of town. As I mentioned previously, I found the content of most castle tours in Ireland to be very similar to other every other castle tour with just a bit of local history being the primary difference. I enjoyed the setting though and the grounds are beautiful. There are also a lot of opportunities for boating or walking trails around the castle as well.
From there we made the quick hop to Muckross House. It was a Saturday with brilliant sunshine so the grounds were very crowded with both tourists and locals but the grounds themselves are absolutely beautiful with gardens, walking trails by the lake and plenty of picnicing areas. There's also a model farm on the property which we didn't get too.
We took a tour of the house and it was the best Victorian House tour we had on the whole trip. Nice setting, plenty to see and a rich history. In addition, there is a wool goods shop at the end of the tour where they make their own scarfs, hats, sweaters etc and my wife emerged with several purchases because the prices were decent and the quality was just as good as what we had looked at in Clare. Anyway, Muckross House is well worth a look.
After that we went into town for some shopping (blech!). My crew was mostly disappointed with what we found as the shops were very touristy and highly priced. I can't remember if we emerged with anything that day, actually.
We stayed at Crystal Springs B&B, a decent enough place right on a river so the setting was nice. Our hostess was very friendly and her food was reasonably good. Overall, a good stay but nothing spectacular.
There was plenty more to do in Killarney but we didn't budget enough time for it. Another place worth an additional look in the future.
There is a ton more to see around Killarney. That is why tourists are drawn to it like a magnet. Some travel writers dismiss it as being too touristy but I think it is a fine town for what it is. It makes a great base for much of the SW.
Why do I get the impression that you don't like shopping? That's why the Irish invented pubs. So the gentlemen can settle down with a pint and the ladies can meet up with them later.
So, we left Killarney for Kilkenny with stops in Cahir and Cashel, a day full of "Cuh" stops apparently. The first (long) leg was Killarney to Cahir. One of the interesting things I noticed about the many places we visited or drove through were the topographical features in Ireland that reminded me of places in the US. In the Dingle Peninsula it was a marked similarity to the NE part of Maui (Ocean with steep hills practically rising from the water). On this drive, I was struck by how similar this part of Ireland was to the Central Valley in northen California, flat with lots of agriculture and a vista view of hills in the distance. A nice, pleasant area.
We arrived in Cahir for stops at Cahir Castle and the Swiss Cottage. I really enjoyed the castle, it was probably my favorite one that we visited for whatever reason. They allowed a self tour so we avoided the usual tour and wandered about exploring as we went. The setting was beautiful and the exhibits struck me as being a step above the other castles we had visited to that point.
Swiss Cottage was also worth a stop. A gorgeous walk to get to the structure from the car park was followed by a short, informative tour about the house. It was worth an hour of our time for sure.
On our way out of town we stopped to eat at The Galileo restairant, about a block off the main tourist road. We went there by accident because we had to park a little away from the road, saw the place and decided to go there. Really, really good. Highly recommend to any folks stopping in Cahir.
On to Cashel and the "Rock". Despite the heavy scaffolding, it was just an awesome place. We decided on taking the tour and had an excellent guide who pointed out many of the more interesting features of the structure. One thing though, he kept insisting that the Rock of Cashel was usually a miserable spot for weather which was hard to believe since it was 80 degrees and sunny that day (and just about every day we were in Ireland- locals kept telling us it was the best weather they'd had in 6 years).
Finally, on to Kilkenny where we stayed at the Pinecrest B&B. This B&B is slightly north of the medieval portion of the city and is quite small, I believe there are only 3 or 4 rooms added on to the house but I found the hosts to be extremely helpful and friendly. We were their only guests (taking 2 of their rooms) so got plenty of attention and the price was decidedly low. Excellent value all told for our days in Kilkenny.
I liked Kilkenny a lot, especially the medieval feel of the central part of town. Also, my wife informed me that the shopping was significantly better than the other "tourist towns" we had visited on the trip so far (Dingle and Killarney). Ultimately, I didn't get to spend as much time here as I would've liked (a common refrain on this trip) for a couple of reasons. First, we were starting to get really tired dashing from place to place. Second, my idiot uncle in law almost killed himself in a motorcycle accident back in Texas and this proved a big distraction. We hadn't checked our e-mail in a few days and once we were able to, my mother in law started freaking out. Apparently the Idiot (as he shall be henceforth known as) decided to take a quick ride to the store wearing a wife beater, shorts and flip flops. He clipped a curb and crashed, managing to break 2 toes, 4 ribs, 3 vertabrae in his back, 2 more in his neck and crushing his orbital bone on his right eye (not to mention the road rash). Dumba**. Anyway, this put a major damper on our arrival in Kilkenny and there was some thought I would need to drive my mother in law to Dublin for an early flight back (she essentially raised him after their mother died when he was 2). He's fine now and he should be very, very thankful his girlfriend is a nurse who was willing to take care of him 24-7 for a while.
Anyway, like I said, I liked the town. Kilkenny Castle was an interesting place but certainly is not a castle, more of a huge Victorian/Georgian mansion. It also had a huge outdoor setting which is essentially a park. Very good park for the kids too (Junior gave it a huge thumbs up).
We had meals at the Kyteller Inn (a bit campy but amusing and decent food), Marble City (Yummmmmmmmmmm) and Little Italy (overpriced and mediocre).
Driving from Kilkenny, we decided to take a slight detour for some scenery. The Nore Valley is absolutely stunning. The stretch from Bennetsbridge to Thomastown to Inistige to New Ross was just gorgeous, especially around Inistioge. Well worth a look.
From there we progressed to Wicklow National Park and Glendalough. Coming into the park from the West, the stark mountains were very beautiful and somewhat reminded me of portions of the Rockies at very high altitude. Fascinating stuff. The entrance into Glendalough is a bit startling as there isn't much warning that a settlement is ahead until you're right on it. Once there though, it is easy to see why it was settled. One of the most beautiful and peaceful settings I've ever been in. We spent a comfortable couple of hours exploring the near environs and happily packed up for the final leg of the trip to Dublin.
No matter what anyone says to you about traffic and driving in Dublin, it does nothing to prepare you for the reality. The complete lack of street signs, pardon me, visible street signs, made the experience completely bewildering. Only by chance did we see a street name that corresponded with a spot close to our destination so we managed to get to Amberley House after only 2 or 3 missed turns.
Amberley House is a cheaper B&B just off the City Centre. Its in a slightly less desirable part of town (Lower Gardiner and Talbot) but we found it perfect for our needs. I had to park around the corner in a garage but the customer service was outstanding and the rooms were reasonable enough. The one negative was the shower was extremely cramped but considering we got 2 rooms for 109 Euro (they had a mix up so gave us too small a room. Ended up giving us an extra room for 20 Euro) I wasn't complaining, especially considering the exhorbitant prices I found in Dublin.
I'm glad to hear you uncle survived his quick ride. Now you can see why Kilkenny is my favorite city in Ireland. Plus it makes a good base as it is surrounded by beautiful scenery and interesting things to see and do.
Ok, I think this is my last entry into this thread to complete the trip my family took in June. (!!!!) We spent our final couple of days in Dublin. We were located just off the City Centre so spent most of our time walking around. On our first day, the girls went off shopping (blast you Annette for all of your suggestions!) in the morning before heading off to their concert in Marlay Park in the evening. Junior and I meandered about, first stopping at a silly live motion dinosaur exhibit (Junior is dinosaur mad so insisted on going in and seeing it. Waste of 20 Euro that was) before we took the light rail to the zoo located in Phoenix Park. It turned out to be quite a walk from the rail stop but we finally arrived for a looksee. My family are zoo afficionados since Junior is so animal mad but I was extremely impressed by Dublin's version. It was surprisingly large and had excellent flow (there is a man made lake in the middle with exhibits all around the perimeter) and had a large variety of animals, some of which we had never seen before. Excellent zoo.
We returned to our B&B where I deposited Junior with my Mother in Law and I went in search of a pub to try to watch the US/Algeria World Cup match. Sadly, they only showed one match at a time in Ireland and so I got stuck watching England versus Slovenia with a bunch of Irish guys. It proved to be extremely entertaining as the entire crowd was passionately anti-England and I spent the afternoon talking to a Northern Irish guy named Dennis who seemed to believe every possible stereotype about Americans that could possibly exist. High comedy.
Anyway, the wife and daughter loved their concert and came home happy campers about midnight. The next day (our final full day), we walked to Trinity College (nice but I expected more for some reason) and I did the Book of Kells detour. They have an excellent exhibit leading up to the Book of Kells and I found that more interesting than the book itself which is under glass with only 2 pages visible. Exiting from there leads you to the Library which is absolutely awesome. Huge room, millions of books as far as the eye can see, that was worth the price of admission as well.
Leaving Trinity, we meandered about the area, stopping at a couple of museums. Natural History Museum was good- Junior loved the endless stuffed animals but I really enjoyed the National Archaeology museum which had Bog mummies, Vikings, Gold treasure, Egyptians, etc etc. Really great museum, highly recommended for those of you who like that sort of thing.
We made our way back to the City Centre via St Stephens Green (gorgeous and very relaxing) and Grafton St (shopping insanity). Whomever suggested the Celtic Whiskey Shop is a genius, really neat place. I picked up a bottle of Green Spot whiskey there (yummmmmmmmmmm) before we trudged back. Early the next morning, we flew back to the States.
So what did I learn? I learned that: *Dublin is ok but a lot like other big cities I have been to. The real charm is in the countryside. People were friendlier in the country too. *Spending one night a stop is maddening and you don't see 1/30th of what you want to. Must spend multiple nights in one location (duh) *I need to see more of: The Nore Valley, Kilkenny, Killarney area in total, The Burren, the SE part of the country in general *I want to spend more time in: The Dingle Peninsula- absolute favorite part so far *I've seen enough of: Dublin, Trim *I didn't see but want to: Galway, the Northwest, Kilmare, Roscrea (Meagher fatherland!!!!) *People lied to me about the weather. It was 80+ degrees the entire time we were there and it rained a total of 5 minutes in 10 days. *The roads are increasingly horrible the farther west you get. *The food was generally underwhelming. I'm a picky guy and I'm sure some of it was the locations we ate at but definitely not a strong point. *Dan Dooley was incredibly easy to work with from a rental car stand point. I bought some scratch remover the day before I returned the rental and rubbed out all the scratches the car got during our rambles in the west. No charges upon return. Also, there is a gas station half a block from Dan Dooley's pick-up/drop off point. Ridiculously easy to fill up right before I dropped the car off to avoid the full tank charge. *Confirm that pulling money daily was easiest once my initial store of cash was spent. *If you're looking for tourist trinkets and that kind of junk for people back home, Dublin is by far the best place to acquire that sort of thing.
I'm sure I'm leaving out loads of other tidbits but I'm think I've recorded most of them in the many entries on this thread. I want to thank Michelle again for all the assistance she provided me, this site was a real lifesaver. Everyone else deserves a thank you too, this place is a real font of knowledge about Ireland and its goings on and I wouldn't have as good a trip as I did without it.
I enjoyed reading about your trip. It's interesting that so many people seem to have trouble getting lost on the roads. My Ireland trips have all been by bicycle, and (to my memory) I've never been lost. I wonder if it's because I'm traveling so much more slowly and see signage more easily, or maybe just have less exposure to being lost because not so many miles covered.
Really enjoyed your report, especially the summary of things you learned. I agree about Dublin. While much to see there, that is not why I leave the United States to come to Ireland. If I want to be with large numbers of Irish in a metropolitan setting, I'll go to Chicago!
Thanks for the great trip report. I liked the way you summarized everything. And I was delighted to help with your trip!!
A note about the food. You can find some very good restaurants in Ireland if you know where they are. Next time get my book or ask me. If you don't like potatoes you are in trouble!
I read in many reports that Dingle is the place many would spend more time. 2 questions... 1- Is it a huge tourist area? I try to avoid high traffic areas..and 2- would a cottage in dingle be best for 4 friends traveling or other recommendations?
Dingle is a very small town. It is a tourist area, in that many tourists visit Dingle. I don't think there would be high traffic unless there was an event going on during the high season.
As for self-catering in Dingle, depends on how much time you have. Most self-catering is for a week Sat to Sat. See my self-catering page for more info. Using Dingle as a base for the SW you would have to take into consideration the fact that it is out on a peninsula. You would be doing lots of back-tracking and spend time driving off the peninsula and back again.