Great Craic* in Ireland!

*Fun!

We allowed ourselves just a few days to make a quick tour of Ireland.  We got off the ferry in Rosslare Harbour and drove to a little town near Kilkenny called Windgap for our first night.

We really enjoyed meeting Tess and Gary, our hosts.  They're originally from England but Tess is half Irish.  She took us on a tour of her art studio.

And this is the guesthouse where we stayed.  They had thought of every detail and even had fresh scones there for our breakfast.

They told us about Gunnan's Pub down the road where they play traditional Irish music on Saturday nights.  The kicker is that things don't get rolling until about 11 pm.  But Mike and I took a little catnap and headed over.  Here's the owner, Mary, pouring a "drop of Guinness"

Finally at about 11:30, the music started.  It's just a jam session where anyone can join in.  Sometimes they have more than a dozen musicians.  This night they had 5--2 guitars, accordian, harmonica, uilleann (elbow) pipes--and a couple of singers that would come and go.  Very small town and fun.

The next morning, we headed to the local church for Mass.  Arrived at 10:30 but found out mass was at 10:00 and had just finished.  Mike talked to a couple of old Irish guys and in parting, they said "Best o' luck.  If you never get to mass, at least you're trying hard!"  They suggested the neighboring parish where we made it just in time.

This one too was very efficient--in and out in a half hour!  Good experience for the girls--they weren't quite sure what to do with the kneeling benches and responses and wafers!

Before we left, Gary and Tess told us about a local store, run by two bachelor brothers, in a little nearby town called Knocktopher.  It all sounded too good to pass up, so Gary led us there because we'd never find it on our own.  He was right--lots of one lane back roads that led to an unmarked doorway.

Here's one of the brothers.  We chatted awhile, looked around the three floors of random items, and then decided to buy just a few candy items.  They gave them to us as a gift and refused to take any payment!

This is the "storefront"--no identifying signs whatsoever.

Such randomness!  This was the pants and shoes room--an odd assortment of sizes, old fashioned styles.  There were also a smattering of tools and school supplies and Christmas items.  Some things looked secondhand, some things were covered with cobwebs, some boxes were still labeled "tuppance".

After a day of entering into local life, it was time to be full blown tourists again.  Off to the Blarney Stone!

Ella receiving the gift of gab

And here's Faith, post-kiss.  See the nasty dark spot where millions of lip germs reside?  I asked for true confessions on how many really planted one and how many air kissed.  All 4 were brave enough to do the real deal.

I was pleasantly surprised with the value.  I thought we were paying admittance just to kiss the stone, but the castle was fun to walk through and had some really interesting and fun historical signs.

And there were acres and acres of gardens.  One was a poison garden that gave stories and facts about each.  The marijuana plants were securely fenced in :).  We loved these huge leafy plants, big enough for someone to sit in.  Celia said it reminded her of Thumbelina.

Our next stop was Killarney National Park.  We still had sun at this point and enjoyed some beautiful views:

The hydrangeas in this part of the world (including the Netherlands) are crazy.  Huge and thick and such bright colors.

As we began our drive around the Ring of Kerry, the clouds and drizzle rolled in.  But still a beautiful place:

This sheep was perched right on the narrow top of this rock.

We stopped and had an interesting conversation with a woodturner.  Her husband used to carve uilleann pipes (similar to bagpipes) but since his death, she turns beautiful plates and bowls.

Just north of the Ring of Kerry is another peninsula called the Dingle Peninsula.  We stayed on the upper floor of this pub in the town of Dingle.

Why has no one in the States thought of this?  Tools and beer in the same location.

This wildflower, Montbresia, was all along the roadsides

We stopped at this very interesting famine village, showing a typical landlord home and peasant home.  It gave tons of information about the Great (Potato) Famine in Ireland.  Most interesting is that there was plenty of food, but the government chose to export it rather than provide it to their own people.

The girls got free animal food with admission.

We were so excited to have the sun pop out while traveling the Dingle Peninsula.  Suddenly the hills became bright green and the water became turquoise.

Much of this drive was cliffside with very narrow roads.  Got a little tricky when two cars met.

We stopped at a beach where the girls discovered these snails all over the rocks.

From Dingle we drove north to the Cliffs of Moher, just south of Galway.

Glad I wasn't nearby when this shot was taken.  All's well that ends well.

Drove past these peat fields.  I enjoyed all the wildflowers while Mike walked around inspecting the peat.

In case you thought it was impossible to have bad fish and chips in Ireland.  Yuck, these must be produced in the McNugget factory!

In Dublin, our main order of business was a visit to the Guinness Storehouse.  Mike was interested in the history of Guinness, the man.  There wasn't a lot of info on him, but still an interesting place.

The top floor bar area was glassed in all around, giving us great views of the Dublin skyline.

The most interesting part to me was live video from long ago showing a cask maker making a barrel.

My favorite Guinness ad campaign:  "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"

Certainly has to be a pot o' gold at the end of an Irish rainbow, right?

School must go on!  Found a mall with wifi so Mike could prepare for a meeting and the girls could do a few assignments.

Our final stop in Ireland was Belfast.  This was a last minute change because someone really recommended we visit.

Our first stop was Belfast Titanic which was very worthwhile.  Floors of exhibits told about the history of industry in Belfast, the building, launching, sinking and survivors of the Titanic.

There was even an area where you could look up shipwrecks in your area or look at a shipwreck.

We also took a black taxi tour to learn more about the unrest in Belfast (they call it The Troubles).  I realized how little I knew/know about this.  It seems that most of what we heard at the time was from a Protestant/Loyalist perspective.  Our driver, Pat, was a Catholic/Republican.  Interesting to hear his thoughts on it.  He was pretty honest about pros and cons on both sides.

Throughout Northern Ireland, there are 35 miles of a "peace wall".  This stretch in Belfast is four miles long and has 5 gates that still close from 6 pm to 6 am to keep the Catholics and Protestants in their own areas.

The Catholic side of the wall is filled with murals that change about every 6 months.  They all in some way relate to the history of The Troubles or to other oppressed people or places in the world.

Each area on the Catholic side has a memorial garden, remembering those who died.  The Catholics/Republicans fly the Irish flag, but only in places like this.

This is the Protestant side of the wall.  Every so often, youth are given the freedom to graffiti this side.

The Protestants/Loyalists fly the British flag everywhere.  Once Pat told us this, it was interesting to watch for Protestant neighborhoods throughout Northern Ireland.  The minute we saw no flags, we knew we were back in a Catholic area.

And one last rainbow as we sailed away from Ireland.

Next stop:  Scotland

A little travel humor:  The girls were arguing about something in the van.  Finally Trina said, "I can do what I want to.  It's a free country!"  Then she added, "Well, I don't know if THIS is a free country, but the U.S. is a free country!"