On Saturday Aug 27 we depart for Dublin, Ireland with a short layover in Charlotte. We arrived in Dublin on Sunday morning. This was our 4th Gate1 tour. They do a great job, and we have already scheduled other tours with them next year.
Our first day in Dublin was on our own, so, we took the opportunity to walk around. Our hotel was an easy walk to downtown. We walked through St. Stephen's Green,
Grafton Street shopping and restaurant district,
down by the river through the Temple Bar restaurant and pub district,
to Guinness Storehouse. It had a great tour and great view from the Gravity Bar. Cathy still does not care for Guinness.
We passed by some other sights on our way back to our hotel. One being St Patrick's Cathedral, we missed the tour by minutes but will catch it when we return to Dublin.
The next morning we took a sightseeing tour of Dublin including a visit to Trinity College Library
home to the Book of Kells and the Long Room with more than 200,000 older books. There are so many books they had to raise the roof and put in a barrel style ceiling.
After lunch, we drove to Galway, a seafaring town steeped in tradition and a cultural center for the west of Ireland. We stopped at Galway Cathedral and then continue to walk the medieval city and colorful streets between the River Corrib and Eyre Square. The Galway Cathedral is just beautiful, with Connemara marble floors.
On Tuesday, we enjoy a full day excursion into the Irish Countryside. First stop was the Connemara Marble factory. The marble is in the Carnegie Museum Pittsburgh and Harrisburg the capital. We traveled to Kylemore Abbey in the heart of Connemara National Park. We walked the trails to the Walled Garden and Ironing Stone. Gorgeous weather, many rolling hillsides with many sheep, lakes and rock walls to keep the sheep in. The Abbey is beautiful! The short story behind it is that is now owned by Benedictine nuns who purchased the "Abbey" for $45,000, from a wealthy doctor, tycoon and pioneer who built it for his wife. They had 9 children. They family went on a trip to Egypt when she came down with dysentery and died at the age of 45. Later he built a miniature Gothic Cathedral on the property in her memory.
Zach is throwing a rock over the top of this rock for good luck!
We spent the afternoon walking the streets of Galway. Eyre Square was a very fun and busy place! We ate at the Kings Head Pub, over 800 years old!
The next day we drove south from Galway Bay through the rugged plateau known as the Burren,
to view the mighty Cliffs of Moher, an impressive wall of rock that towers some 700 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. Very windy!
That afternoon, we visited Bunratty Castle and the Folk Park, which offers insight into Irish life around the turn of the century. The Castle is a great example of a medieval castle. A lot of stairs!
We ended the day in Killarney.
That night we went to great show called
Celtic Steps. Almost as good as River Dance!
On Thursday we drove through the Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry in mist and clouds. The
"Ring of Kerry," is among the most picturesque locale in all of Ireland, but not that day. It was our only cloudy day though. Poor visibility made it impossible to view the Rock, Skellig Michael, seen at the end of Star Wars,The Force Awakens.
After our return to Killarney, we rode a Jaunting Car excursion through the Killarney National Park. Our Jaunting Car driver, Shamus was very entertaining!
The next morning we visited the 15th-century Blarney Castle and Gardens, where we kissed the Blarney Stone. The kissing of the Blarney Stone happens so fast that Cathy was on the wrong side of Zach's feet and did not get a picture of him kissing it! Beautiful grounds!
That afternoon we went to the Waterford Crystal showroom, took a factory tour and saw the collection of exquisite glassware in its city of origin. After the factory visit, we walked around the town. The factory used to employ 3,000 and closed 100 years ago. They opened a new factory that now employs 300. A glass cutter for Waterford has a 5-year apprenticeship then 3 more years after that to become a Master Cutter! Very colorful town!
Saturday we went to Kilkenny, visited the 12th-century Kilkenny Castle and walked the city streets past St Mary's Cathedral and other historic areas.
This cemetery has addresses on the monuments.
That evening we returned to Dublin. We had a farewell dinner at Three Rock and saw a good show with the funniest comedian ever, Noel Ginnity. During the show our waiter spilled a tray of Irish coffer all over our backs. We got a t-shirt and free drinks.
Our last day in Dublin we were on our own. We made the most of it by going to the Constitution Room at the Shelbourne Hotel, Grafton Street, St Patrick's Cathedral, the National Gallery of Ireland,
and the National Museum of Ireland.
GA Tech played Boston College in Dublin.
The next day we flew back to Atlanta.
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