Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Ireland! A most beautiful country!

Ireland!  A trip to Ireland was never really on our radar, even though everyone who has been told us how beautiful it was.  Not until our beloved Diana said "I want to go to Ireland" did we even think of it as a destination.  With a little research, we found an incredible fare- so we booked it!  Then we researched hotels- a cheap country it is not! But we were commited so research we did, and found some incredible hotels that we loved.

The only scary part of planning this trip was getting to all the places we wanted to visit. Not known for an extensive rail system, and our aversion to buses, we were told our best option was to rent a car.  Their (affordable) cars are stick shift- which is not a problem because both Rich and I drive a stick at home.  But they drive on the other side of the road- so stress set in!  After a couple days though, we were zipping through those tiny roads like a local, often commenting that the slow drivers were beginners:-).


Me at the helm of our Jetta!  Learning to drive on the left, with steering wheel and gears on the right was scary yet fun!


The second big worry was the beer.  We are not beer drinkers, and the one time I had Guiness I thought I would croke.  But after arriving, getting settled in our room, we walked across the street and ordered a Guiness- 1/2 pint, to just say we did.  to our awe- it was delicious!!!  So we were set:-)

We took our 14 days and traveled around the entire country, using various towns as a base: Blarney- on the east coast, Kenmare- on the southern coast, and Galway on the west coast.  and of course Dublin!  I will write a post for each of the areas as they each deserve their own post.

As to Ireland itself- everything we were told was true- it is incredibly beautiful!  Every shade of green you can imagine- of course that comes from rain:-).  But we were lucky, it rained a total of 3 days, and often at night.  The rain did not hinder us at all, in in fact, our first trip to Kenmare it kept us in doors in a pub, listening to music and getting to know the locals!

I hope my blog posts do the country the justice it deserves.  After this trip, we will go back.  Don't know when, but it is now on our radar, and well worth the time for each of you to visit!








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