American Family Travels

15 June 2016: The Jewel of Ireland

We arrived at our final destination of the day in the early evening after an adventurous drive through the rural back roads to see with our own eyes where the ocean meets land in a most spectacular way at The Cliffs of Moher. We hiked the trails along the edge of the cliffs and enjoyed the expansive vistas of the mighty sea being held back by an impressive wall of rock. My pictures cannot capture the true feeling of being there but neither can my words. This could likely be the highlight of our entire trip and something I will never forget.

15 June 2016: County Limerick

Today was full of adventure. The first half of the day was spent in County Limerick. We travelled north from Killarney to Limerick City where we walked about the city and visited King John’s Castle. Both were nice to see but neither could compare to some of our favorites to date.

Further down the road, we arrived at Bunratty Castle. First we had lunch at Durty Nelly’s directly adjacent to Bunratty. The castle itself was not as impressive as Blarney however this one was for the most part intact and furnished. The grounds had several examples of village buildings and few small goats. The castle allowed the kids to better understand how they lived and how it functioned. They were excited to investigate every nook and cranny and could leave no space unexplored; Mom and Dad on the other hand had seen enough in the first 30 minutes. With the threat of rain, we scampered up the road toward the Cliffs of Moher.

 Limerick City including King John’s Castle

Bunratty Castle

14 – 15 June 2016: The Start and End

After completing the Ring we checked into our hotel, The Lake Hotel, which as you might have guessed overlooks a lake, Lough Leane. With a brief rest, we walked into downtown Killarney, about 1 ½ miles, and had dinner, ice cream, shopped and grabbed a few supplies on the way back. We enjoyed Killarney and might have enjoyed spending another day in the area. The Ring of Kerry was certainly a highlight of the trip, maybe the best so far, but tomorrow we will visit the famous Cliffs of Moher that are advertised as the best site in all of Ireland.

14 June 2016: Scenic Ireland in a Day

Today we tackled the renowned Ring of Kerry, a scenic drive in Southwestern Ireland. First we travelled west from Cork to Killarney with a few stops along the way including Macroom. From Killarney we drove the Ring counter clockwise, as suggested by most to avoid swimming upstream of the tour buses. If you ever take a tour bus around the Ring, my only advice is, sit on the right side.

The Ring of Kerry has sections that are amazing and others that are nice, but less amazing. The local tourism website suggests 3 to 6 days to complete the Ring. It can easily be done in a single day; in fact I’m not sure how you would spend that much time. We completed the Ring heading through the Killarney National Park, just south of town, and stopped for a hike near Torc Waterfall.

Macroom Castle

Ring of Kerry – Kells to Waterville

Ring of Kerry – Waterville to Killarney NP

Killarney National Park

13 June 2016: Kissing the Blarney Stone

Today was our best so far. After breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we took the short drive to the Blarney Castle and Gardens. We hiked to the top of the castle to beat the crowds in line to kiss the Blarney Stone. I’m not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. The Blarney Stone is part of the castle and you have to lay on your back with the help of an assistant, as not to plunge to your death,… ok, a little dramatic… and kiss the stone. It was a little weird.

Once we got past the obligatory smooching of the stone, we took our time touring the castle. As with any of the structures this old, passageways and openings are quite small. The stairs up and down the tower are extremely tight, reminiscent of our climb to the Statue of Liberty crown, especially wearing a backpack. Frankly, I’m not sure how some of the heavier and elderly visitors made it. The best part of the castle was not even the castle itself. We spent most of our time exploring the grounds, gardens, caves and walking paths.

Next up was Charles Fort in Kinsale, only about 48 km (30 miles) to the south but took over an hour to drive. The drive was pleasant but some of the roads were extremely tight, especially up and down from the fort itself. Charles Fort sits up on a hill above the town of Kinsale and overlooks the earlier James Fort. Charles Fort is a large and impressive set of structures. Cara and I enjoyed the views of the bay but the kids enjoyed roaming around the complex more. We learned some of the history of James Fort at Charles so we decided not to visit it as I had originally planned. We were all forted out. Kinsale would have been a lovely place to grab a bite but the streets are so narrow, we didn’t want to deal with trying to navigate the any further and find parking, so we headed back to Cork City.

We ate an early dinner at The Oliver Plunkett Pub in the heart of the English Market, a short walk from our hotel. The city was preparing for Ireland’s first game in the EuroCup and it felt a bit like the Super Bowl. When Ireland scored their lone goal, we could hear a rumble throughout the area. With our fill of Irish cuisine, we walked the streets of Cork City. We made a long loop down the English Market to University College of Cork and back along the Lee River. With a stop at a grocery store along the way, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and ready for tomorrow.

Blarney Castle

Charles Fort

 University College of Cork

Cork City

12 June 2016: The Road Less Travelled

Our first day of the actual road trip was quite pleasant. The weather cleared up and sunshine lit the fields and hills, this was the Ireland we were hoping to see.

We started by travelling south of Dublin with a stop in the coastal town of Wickalow. It was a quaint village with rocky cliffs against the sea. We thought this was an appropriate place to spread Cara’s Mother’s ashes. From there we drove into the interior to see the Irish countryside and rural towns. Every-so-often we would find remains of a castle, an old church or some other roadside attraction. One stop we made was in Fern to see their castle. Another stop was in Leighlinbridge which had a scenic… yes, you guessed it… bridge. With several unplanned stops, we found ourselves running behind schedule on our way to Kilkenny Castle.

Wickalow

Fern to Leighlinbridge

9 – 11 June 2016: Our First Taste of Ireland

After our red flight, we arrived at the Dublin Airport at 8 AM, 3 AM our time. The first day was all about getting oriented, equipped and rested. As I said in a previous post, this did not all go as well as it should but we persevered and are ready for our road trip.

We spent two days walking the streets of Dublin taking in the sights and local flavor.  We ended our first night drying out in a pub watching the EuroCup, felt like the authentic Irish experience.

Jameson Distillery

Guinness Storehouse

St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Steven’s Green

Trinity College

Dublin Castle

Downtown Dublin

Dublin Bridges

9 – 11 June 2016: Ireland is Green because it Rains, a Lot

Most everyone knows that the source of Ireland’s lushness is its rainfall. We were prepared for the most part but planning to be wet is important. Unless you have the luxury of waiting around to tour the sites when it is dry, finding a way to keep somewhat dry is your only option. Besides the obvious rain gear, we found plastic ziplock bags to be helpful in protecting items in our backpacks. The first day we suffered some water damage from drenched backpacks that didn’t always stay protected under the umbrellas.

9 – 11 June 2016: Learning to Drive on the Left

As first timers in Europe, we had to conquer a few basics before we left Dublin on our road trip around Ireland and beyond. How do you drive on the left side of the road? Hey kids, you’re learning the Metric System right? What is the Walmart of Ireland? They call this a what?

I’d like to say our first few days went off without a hitch, but that would be a lie. We had some of that Irish luck and a few days in Dublin to work out all the kinks. Like I said in a previous post, we arrived a day earlier than we had planned; therefore we had to find a place to stay and quick. In the end it worked out well for us. The place we found was in a better location so we extended the reservation and stayed all three nights.

Adjusting to driving on the left side of the road was difficult at first but is getting easier with experience. We did go back and buy the full insurance though; we’ve never done that before, if that tells you something. Part of the problem is we rented a minivan, quite large by Ireland standards. The roads and parking spaces are narrow and that in combination with driving in the rain and on the opposite side of the road can be tough. We needed a larger vehicle because there are four of us and we are traveling for almost four weeks. If you were only here for a week, I’d strongly suggest a smaller car. One advantage though is their extensive use of traffic circles, or roundabouts. If at first you don’t succeed go around and try it again. Sure, we might have unintentionally agitated a few locals by taking an extra lap or two, but hey I’m a NASCAR fan driving a fully insured rental… you’re move buddy.

One item that helped a lot was the GPS. It took us awhile to figure out where to buy one. We got ours at Argos but Curry seems to be their equivalent to Best Buy. We could have downloaded the maps to our GPS at home for $75 but a new one with them preloaded was only 69 Euros plus tax. I tried going down that path during my trip to Alaska and decided I wasn’t going to make that mistake twice. Being able to fully concentrate on the road and have lane guidance the entire way is extremely helpful.

We also had a list of basic consumables we needed to purchase. Groceries were easy enough to find but we had some difficulty finding a Walmart or Target type store. As it turns out, Tesco seems to be the closest thing locally; this was easy enough to determine with a Google search. What threw us off the trail was that they have several different types of Tesco stores. We kept finding Tesco after Tesco convenience stores but it wasn’t till we realized they have Superstores, Extra Stores, Metro Stores, Express Stores, Grocery Stores and Gas Stations that we finally got everything we needed. Well almost everything.

The last piece to our road trip puzzle was a cooler; seemed simple enough. Just something cheap and disposable we could keep drinks and fruit for the road. Ultimately we looked in at least 6 stores before we found one, ironically, within walking distance of our hotel. In the Information Age, how could finding anything be difficult? While it wasn’t that bad, there are two things you need to know. One, we jumped from free Wifi to free Wifi to avoid using our international data plans whenever possible – it ain’t cheap! – and while we all speak English, we are not all speaking the same language. Google searches are only useful when you know what to search, Navi not GPS, cool box not cooler, etc.