MONDAY MAY 7, 2018 - DAY 9

Up early and had breakfast, then we headed off to the Doolin area, where we have several things planned for the day.  First we visited Corcomroe Abbey, an old abbey now ruins, with many gravesites and tombstones.  Next we tried to get to Gleninagh Castle, but although we made it to the location, we did not find the path.  We did see the castle from a distance, but did not try to get any closer.  We originally planned to visit the 2 caves in this area, then we thought we would only go to 1.  But we heard the weather today would be much nicer than tomorrow, so we moved our visit to Kilkee Cliffs from tomorrow to this afternoon and decided to skip both caves.  So we went into Doolin and caught the 12 noon Cliffs of Moher Boat Tour.  This was very exciting.  We visited the top of the cliffs on our last trip, (visitor centre, footpaths along the top and O'Brien's Tower).  Now we got to see all of this from the sea, below the cliffs, AWESOME.  You get close to the large Sea Stack, you can kind of see a cave used in one of the Harry Potter movies, and you get a better view of Hag's Head at the southern end of the cliffs.  After this we had a quick lunch of sandwiches we made at breakfast, then headed down to Kilkee to do the Cliff Walk there.  Along the way, we happened to pass right by Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland, in Doonbeg, County Clare.  The Kilkee Cliffs are, in many ways, even more impressive than the Cliffs of Moher.  The walk is free and there are more different types of formations and the ground is different as these cliff faces are mostly black.  We took many pictures.  There are far less people and the views are far more stunning and up-close.  Yes, the cliffs are actually higher at the Cliffs of Moher, but you can get much closer to the view at Kilkee.  You can actually feel the power of the waves as they crash into the shoreline.  It's absolutely breathtaking.  Then we headed off to the Ennis area and our 2 night stay at The Inn at Dromoland (on the Dromoland Castle Estate, where we stayed on our last visit).  After checking in, I searched on Google and found a family restaurant, Sherwood Inn, which it turned out was in a shopping mall in Ennis.  The food was very good, but the restaurant was a little quirky in that they did not accept credit cards, and you paid in cash, at your table, when you placed your order.  But no waiting for the check, so that was good.  Cretia had a Pork Chop and I had Shepherd's Pie, with extra mashed potatoes.  Then we headed back to our room.  Another fun and easy day, with many breath-taking views.

TUESDAY MAY 8th, 2018 - DAY 10

We were able to lie on for a bit this morning and then we had breakfast in our room, tea, coffee and chocolate muffins.   At 9:30am we went over to Dromoland Castle to do our Archery Experience.  David was our tutor for Archery and he helped us learn a lot.  Cretia had an easier time, as she was basically learning fresh.  I had a couple self-learned bad habits to break, like how I held the bow and my draw of the string.  But David was patient and got us both shooting pretty good in a short time.  After this we headed into Limerick and we toured King John's Castle.  A very impressive castle on the bank of the River Shannon.  It was a self-guided tour with a lot of audio and visual displays and information.  Next we had lunch at Katie Daly's Pub, right by the castle.  Cretia had chicken fingers and I had cottage pie.  Then we headed out of town, stopping at McCabe's Pharmacy to return the knee brace we had bought for Cretia at the start of our trip (it was too uncomfortable to wear).  After this, we continued out of Limerick and visited the gravesite of Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries, who only recently died and was buried in Caherelly Graveyard near her home town of Ballybricken, County Limerick, Ireland.  The grave marker was not there, I don't know if it was away to have her name added along with her Father's or if it had been vandalized or stolen.  But there were many mementos on the ground, including a photo of her.  I took some pictures here and then we headed back to our hotel room.  There we had a little time to catch up on a few things and then we headed out to our evening at the Bunratty Medieval Dinner Banquet.  This was quite fun, good food and much of it, along with mead and wine.  Afterwards, we returned to the hotel.  We had another fantastic day.  It is hard to believe our trip is now halfway over.   But on the positive side, we still have 10 more days, longer than many people spend in Ireland entirely.

WEDNESDAY MAY 9th, 2018 - DAY 11

Up early, a quick breakfast in our room and then we headed over to Dromoland Castle for our Falconry Experience.   Michael was our tutor for working with the birds and today we worked with Darby.  Darby (a female) is a Harris Hawk, which is actually a type of buzzard.  The American norm of considering buzzards and vultures the same thing is actually not correct.  We learned many little things like this, including the fact that many common terms we use in daily lingo come from falconry.  For example, "under my thumb" and "wrapped around my little finger" have to do with positioning the string leash tied to the bird's feet.  Anyway, we both got to have Darby fly to our hands many times and I got to just hold her "manning" and walk with her on my hand, "carriage".  After this we headed off for our stay on the Dingle Peninsula.  During the drive we had some heavy rain.  But just a little before reaching the scenic Conor Pass, the rains ended and we had clear sunny skies.  Some fantastic views as we drove through Conor Pass.  On arriving in Dingle, we arranged to take a Dolphin Boat Tour and see Fungie, the famous dolphin of Dingle Bay.  We saw Fungie several times, although obtaining a picture of him was nearly impossible.  By the time you saw him surface and trained the camera on him, he went under.  Still we had a lot of fun in a small boat.  If we'd have seen a shark I would have said "we need a bigger boat".  We also saw the lighthouse and more cliffs at the mouth of Dingle Harbor.  After this we made our way to our next stay at O'Neill's B&B in the heart of Dingle.  Our host was Stephen O'Neill.  Dingle is a small village so we walked to dinner.  We ate at the Marina Inn, Cretia had Roast Beef and I had Bacon & Cabbage with Mashed Potatoes.  Then we shared a Warm Chocolate Ganache Cake for dessert, most scrumptious.  A very enjoyable day.

THURSDAY MAY 10th, 2018 - DAY 12

Up early, had breakfast.  Then we left do the Slea Head Drive, which takes in some of the most scenic points on the western end of the Dingle Peninsula.  We saw many more awesome sights such as cliff faces, the Blasket Islands and we were even able to see Skellig Michael (a Star Wars filming location) off the Ring of Kerry Coast.  After this we stopped back in Dingle for a little souvenir shopping and some ice cream at the famous Murphy's Ice Cream of Dingle.  We shared a large serving of a very tasty butterscotch/caramel cream flavored ice cream.  Then we headed toward Killarney.  Along the way we stopped for lunch at Inch Beach.  We actually drove our car onto the beach.  They had an area where they allowed it and several other cars were there.  When we finished eating we noticed an RV that had driven down there.  It had not gotten very far onto the beach and was stuck in the sand, with a lot of folks around trying to help get them out.  I helped push when they were ready.  We pushed it about 3m back, out of the big hole the front wheels were in, but still it was not free as the heavy front end was pushing it into a rut.  Folks kept trying and eventually they were able to get it to go forward onto slightly harder sand, where he turned and drove off the beach.  NOTE TO SELF: never drive our RV onto a beach.  We continued to Killarney and visited Muckross Traditional Farms first.  They have replicas of a small, medium and large farms as they were during Ireland's early days.  Along with village staples such as a carpentry shop, saddler, blacksmith, schoolhouse, lime kiln and more.  A lot of animals to see and pet here, so Cretia was in heaven.  We also visited with Hugh in the schoolhouse, who taught us some Irish, Bi' Curamach (Be Careful) and To'g go Bog e' (Take It Easy).  Next we drove to Ladies View, a vantage point to see the Killarney lakes, made famous when Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting were taken here in 1861.  Then we went to Torc Waterfall for a look and a picture.  Very nice waterfall, but very small car park, we had a hard time finding a spot and this is "shoulder season".  Along this road we had a close call with a bus that came around a curve very quickly and was way over the line.  Luckily the bus driver and I were both looking sharp and we stopped instantly, then I worked my way over and he went by.  Right after that we encountered 2 more buses, luckily each time there was an area I could pull off most of the roadway.   They should not allow these huge, full size buses on some of these roads, as they cannot drive them and stay in their lane, even at a crawl.  They should be forced to use smaller shuttle style vans.  Next we went back into Killarney and our next lodging, Mountain Dew B&B (our hosts were Eileen & Joseph O'Carroll).  After we settled in, we walked into town centre for dinner.  We ate at Tatler Jacks, (the same place we ate on our last visit to Killarney).  I had Cottage Pie and Cretia had a Philly Steak Sandwich.  Then we walked back to the B&B, but on the way I tried to find the depot for O'Connor/Wild Kerry, (it was supposed to be up the street from our B&B).  I found where it should be, but it was just a house.  I saw a gentleman opening the gate and went to chat with him.  Well wouldn't ya know, it turned out to be the very same Barry I originally talked with over email, when I set up our excursion, so it was, and we chatted a bit before we walked off, back to our B&B.  We had another very fun day.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4

You can view all of our pictures at this OneDrive Link:   https://1drv.ms/f/s!AiMG0qi7NWL0ijWDxhENx63pbDiS

 

 

TUESDAY MAY 15th, 2018 - DAY 17

Up early, had breakfast and then left for our first stop of the day at Leap Castle in County Offaly.  It too, is supposed to be haunted and we arranged a tour with Sean Ryan, who we learned owns and lives in the castle.  On arriving we sat with Sean by a nice warm fire in the castle and talked about ourselves, our journeys to Ireland, himself and the castle.  After a while, we got up and he showed us around a bit, the views where they would watch for possible attackers back in medieval times.  Then he gave us a flashlight and let us go on our own into the upper levels to have a look around.  He said when he bought the castle it was all a shell and he has been restoring it ever since.  When we came down, we sat a bit longer and Sean played an Irish tune on the tin whistle.  Very nice visit here.  Next we went to see Castlestrange Stone.  A large boulder with carvings used for various pagan rituals dating back over 2000 years.  After this we visited the Elphin Windmill, which is a fully restored 18th-century tower mill, viewed as a rare piece of Irish industrial architectural heritage, and possibly the oldest operational windmill in Ireland.  After this, we decided to stop in Leiterra, (which we learned back on day 2, from Bryan Watton, was the birthplace of my 2nd great-grandfather, Patrick Connaughton in 1845), and see if we could find any records.  Well even though the town came up on Google Maps, it no longer exists.  We wound up in the nearest town (about 1km away), called Keadew.  We looked for a potential place to find out some info, even if only where we should go.  We saw a school and I thought we would go in and ask in the office.  Before we got in there, we saw and spoke to a man outside the school, who sent us to talk to a man named Oliver in the butcher shop, who then sent us to talk to a Mr. Doyle, who lives on the road near where Leiterra was. He said he was born in Leiterra and knew much about it, but hadn't heard the name and suggested we check with the folks at County Roscommon Council.  Oliver told us he thought Leiterra was in "crossni" parish. And Mr. Doyle told us "Ard Cren" parish.  We are not sure of either parish name or spelling.  But later in our room, we looked a few things up on the internet and came to find the parish name is most likely "Ard Carn".  We got an email address for County Roscommon Council and sent them an email with all the details to see if they can help us.  So we will wait and see.  Anyway, after the attempt at ancestry searching, we went to visit Arigna Mining Experience.  This is a coal mine that closed down in 1990.  After it closed, they set it up for touring.  We had a very interesting tour with our guide, Gerry (a retired miner who worked in this mine), nobody else was on the tour with us.  He gave us a ton of info on how the mining was done throughout the years, places their coal was used, etc.  We visited many caves over the years, but the inside of a mine was quite unique.  Then we went into Boyle and our next B&B, Abbey House, (host was Christina), which is right beside Boyle Abbey.  We walked thru the Abbey straight away.  It was an old Catholic convent and monastery in medieval times.  Then when the Protestant English took it over, they made it a castle.  It is now in ruins.  Next we went to dinner at Krimo's Café, I had spaghetti and Cretia had pizza.  Another interesting day, weather was overcast, but not much rain, but the temps dropped a lot and the wind picked up about the time we got to Boyle.

WEDNESDAY MAY 16th, 2018 - DAY 18

Up early, had breakfast.  Then we headed off to visit Cavan Burren Park.  We walked the trail and saw a few megalithic tombs and a large glacial erratic (a displaced boulder carried to this place millions of years ago, by a glacier).  Next we continued our drive, crossing back into Northern Ireland, and along the way we came across Enniskillen Castle on the banks of the River Erne, and we stopped for a picture.  I was most intrigued by the twin round tower design of the side facing the river.  After this we toured Marble Arch Caves, which had many interesting features typical of most caves.  While here, they take you on a small boat ride along the underground river in the cave.  Then we headed off to our next stay, crossing back into the Republic of Ireland, to stay at Ross Castle, County Meath.  This is a medieval Norman Tower House and we stayed in Sabina's Room, the Upper Tower Room.  This place was spectacular.  Restored enough to have modern bathrooms, newer staricases, etc.  But the walls and most of the flooring, ceiling, and such were still original.  So it was much more like staying in a castle, whereas most of the more well-known castles you can stay in, have been done up so that on the inside, they seem most like any hotel.  After checking in with our host, Jackie, she convinced us that since it was still afternoon, to drive over, (about 15km) and see Loughcrew Megalithic Tomb.  The tomb is much like any cairn tomb you'd see in Ireland, but it was atop a very high hill, so you could get some fantastic views, especially with the nice, clear, sunny day we were having.  After this, we went back to the castle and up to our room to dress for dinner in the castle.  We had Stuffed Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots.  Jackie's husband, Richard, served us and we talked a lot with him, during our meal.  On arrival, later at the tomb, and at dinner, we met another couple staying at the castle, Dominick & Rebecca who live in Perth, Australia, so we talked with them extensively.  After dinner, the 4 of us walked down to the lake, Lough Sheelin.  Back at the castle, we talked with Richard & Jackie and Dominick & Rebecca for probably another hour or so.  We had another fantastic day and great weather once again.

THURSDAY MAY 17th, 2018 - DAY 19

We lied on this morning, owing to the late night we had and the fact that breakfast was scheduled for 9am.  After we ate and said our goodbyes, we headed off to our next stops at Roche Castle and Proleek WedgeTomb, outside Dundalk.  Then we went to Old Mellifont Abbey near Ardee.  After that we checked into our B&B, Carraig Mor, (host was Sheila Magennis).  Then we went into Drogheda and saw Magdelene's Tower, St. Laurence Gate and then St. Peters Cathedral which has the head of Oliver Plunkett (who was beheaded), preserved there.  We did not find anywhere we wanted to eat dinner in Drogheda, many pubs or restaurants that looked as though we might like them, turned out to be actually closed down, or were pubs that did not serve food.  So we wound up eating at Sizzler Café in Ardee, right near our B&B.  I had Stir Fry and Cretia had Fried Shrimp & Chips.  Then back to our room to rest for the evening.

FRIDAY MAY 18th 2018 - DAY 20

Up early, we had breakfast and then left for our last day of sightseeing in Ireland.  First we went to Kells to see the Spire of Lloyd.  Interesting as it is a lighthouse, but nowhere near the sea.  You can climb it, but the times they have it open to climb are quite limited, so we just took some pictures here.  Next we toured Trim Castle, very interesting and fun with a costumed knight, (Sir Laugh-A-Lot) to greet us and take some pictures.  The tour was very interesting and our guide, Siobhan, did a wonderful job explaining the history of the castle.  After this we made our way to Swords where we visited Swords Castle, St. Columba Church and Swords Round Tower.  Then we went to our last lodging, Seamount House B&B, (host was Elaine Reilly).  We reorganized our luggage to pack all of our stuff, including souvenirs, (we had to drink the rest of our Irish Cream, more's the pity).  Then we checked in for our flights.  After we went to dinner at Old Schoolhouse Restaurant in Swords to enjoy our last night here in Ireland.  I had Corned Beef & Cabbage with Mashed Potatoes and Cretia had Fish & Chips.

SATURDAY MAY 19th, 2018 - RETURN DAY

Up early, had breakfast, then headed to the airport to turn the rental car in and head to our gate for our flight.  Everything went smooth, getting to the car rental return, returning the car with no hassles and the shuttle to the terminal.  At the terminal we went to Bag Drop, then thru Irish Airport Security, then we did our VAT Refunds and a little more shopping.  After this, we went thru US Pre-Clearance and the US Security Check.  So we arrived at the Rental Car Return a little before 8:30 and we were through all processing by 10am.  Both flights back went well, on-time.  Jordan & Ruby picked us up and we stopped for dinner with them, then home.

This next section is just some general info and observations about things on our trip, no real order.

Grape Jelly - if you like to have grape jelly on your toast at breakfast, you might want to pack a small jar in your luggage or possibly find it in a store when you get to Ireland.  Although we saw many kinds of jams and jellies in little packets at breakfast, usually strawberry, marmalade and maybe apple, we never saw any grape.

Hot Food - almost everyplace we ate dinner, they served the food piping hot, (food, plate, the whole lot).  So if being served tepid food upsets you, you should have no worries about this in Ireland.

Miles Driven - Just for curiosity I compared our mileage on our rental car and found I had driven us 3905 km (2426 miles) all around Ireland.

B&B and Credit Cards - This is mostly to serve as a warning for folks traveling to Ireland, as regards B&B's and credit cards.  On our first trip, Sept 2015, we booked the whole package through Aer Lingus Vacation Store, so our 8 nights at B&B's were all vouchers.  We never had any sort of problem with the vouchers, whatsoever.  We booked the B&B's in advance, on bandbireland.com, as instructed, the hosts accepted our vouchers and all was well.  But for this trip we had a total of 14 B&B's we stayed in.  Almost all of them asked for cash.  2 of them I booked directly with and they told me this in advance, so that was nice to know.  3 others I booked directly with, said I could pay by card.  But 8 of them I booked thru the same bandbireland.com (their website handles voucher booking and direct pay).  When you book with them, you pay a deposit, on a credit card.  Although they tell you "some B&B's may not accept credit card", in actuality it is almost all will not.  I talked with a few of the hosts about this, and how in this day and age many people (especially young adults) use CC for everything.  The most common answer as to why they don't accept them is that they are charged for the CC machine all year, even though they close down in winter.  I can understand that, but then they ought to accept CC's via Paypal.  I do this in my own business.  Now the charge is per transaction and the hosts could pass that fee along, by tacking it onto the charge.  They could tell someone, it would be 140 Euro by cash or if they want to charge it thru Paypal, then 145 Euro to cover the fee.  At least it would give people a way to charge their stay.  Also bandbireland should alert you if a specific property will not accept CC and also give you the option to prepay the whole charge on your CC.  In fact, it says in their terms, if you are a no show, they will charge the full amount to your CC.  So no show, CC is fine.  Show up and, "sorry, you can't use your CC".  Fortunately we had a lot of euros we brought along, and $500 USD we could have converted, if necessary.  But from the first night when this came up, we decided to charge everything else we possibly could and hold our cash for paying B&B's that would not accept credit cards.  So we made it thru, with still about 100 Euro left.

Small World - you know we had many experiences on this trip that remind one, in many ways it is a small world.  While waiting for the Irish Music Pub Crawl to start, we were at a high-top table, another couple came over and asked if they could share the table, we said sure.  We got to talking, they are from Weston, right next to us in west Davie.  On the Derry Wall walking tour, at the end, in the café having coffee and tea, we shared a table with 2 women who were from Atlanta, and it turns out in our conversation, they were actually on the same flight from Atlanta Saturday night that we were on.  At the B&B in Northern Ireland, Annie & Bryan are traveling to Pennsylvania for a family wedding in June.  Well when Annie rang up the restaurant, Carmichaels, Christina, the girl she spoke with, who also served us, told us she was going to Pennsylvania at the end of May.  I thought that she must be related to Annie, (daughter, niece, etc.), but no, she was not, just 2 random people in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, who happened to be going to Pennsylvania within a month of each other.  And Annie & Bryan have family in Australia, in fact we shared pictures of our Australia trip with them.

This was another fantastic trip to Ireland.  It was so nice to be able to stay here for an extended amount of time.  It makes one feel more at home and not as rushed in enjoying the planned itinerary.  This trip we did a lot of things that a normal tourist does not have a chance to do.   More of the lesser traveled sites.  Not much else to say, except that it was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it all.  I hope to be able to come back, perhaps visit the southeast extensively, an area we barely touched on these 2 trips.  Ireland truly is the land of Cead Mile Failte (one hundred thousand welcomes).

You can view all of our pictures at this OneDrive Link:   https://1drv.ms/f/s!AiMG0qi7NWL0ijWDxhENx63pbDiS

The HOLD (and it was a hold, it was not a charge and then a refund) was 3000 Euro, removed before I got to our gate and logged onto my laptop to check my CC. The trip insurance Rental Car Damage Coverage was full coverage. So I took no coverage from Dooley. And it would have paid up to $50,000 USD (which should have covered the entire car if a total loss or stolen). And the trip insurance was $142 total (my wife & I). It would have covered up to $500 each for uncancellable, unreimbursable expenses. Plus lost luggage, trip interruption, emergency return home (including body if a death), pretty much the full gambit of Trip Insurance. If you're interested I could email you the policy document.

Thank you for the wonderfully detailed report. I am glad you were finally able to get it posted despite the problems you had early on that you PMed me about. I think your wife likes fish and chips! I had excellent f&c last time at Clarkes in Bunratty. I also love being served piping hot food in Ireland. It is always a letdown when I get back to lukewarm food at home.