Last week Jess and the kids went on a 5 day holiday in Ireland, and it was quite wonderful.  It was a land of green pastures, sheep and cows, rivers and lakes, green trees and rolling hills, rugged seaside cliffs and big sky.  The flora and weather really reminded me of the Pacific Northwest, with so many green trees, water, and plants everywhere.  We got lucky with sunshine and 60/65 degrees most days, which made for pleasant walks and fun times seeing people basking in the sun in the city parks.

I’ve split our trip blog posts into three parts, because you know I like to post ALL the photos and I don’t want to overload you.

We enjoyed wonderful Bed & Breakfast accommodations, staying at a different lodging each night of our trip.  We drove several hours, hitting towns, tourist spots and walks along the way, and ended each day in a different lodging and different town.  Each morning we enjoyed lovely Irish breakfasts.

We flew into Dublin and left town the next morning.  On our first driving day, we stopped in the small town of Kilkenny to take a train ride through town and see the sites.  There are pubs EVERYWHERE in Ireland, in all the villages big and small.  There are also toilets and supermarkets everywhere that are clean, free, and aplenty (unlike here)!

We stopped to walk to Mahon Falls and enjoy the views of waterfall, hills, lots of sheep, and the ocean in the distance.  On the way we drove on the Magic Road, a magical place where, when you stop your car at the bottom of the hill and put it in neutral, it drives itself backward back up the hill!  Google it!

We stopped in Cork for the night.  It was rainy, and I wasn’t as excited about this city as I wanted to be.  The nice thing about Ireland is that there is food (and meat!) everywhere, all different kinds and at all different prices!

The next day brought us to Killarney, where there is a cute tourist town and a beautiful national park with lakes and hills.  I thought I would have time to walk in those hills, but I ended up needing to remove some things from an itinerary that was too full for the time we had.  Next time for sure!

This next photo shows that the pubs are always full, it would seem!!!

The views from the car while driving were so lovely, and sadly I couldn’t stop on those narrow roads to take photos.  Here are a couple of examples of just a little bit of the beauty I saw.

We found Inch Beach, a lovely spot at the head of the Dingle Peninsula, where we stopped to see the beach before driving along Slea Head Drive, a road that wraps around the Dingle peninsula along the coast.  After a beautiful drive with a stop to walk and play, we ended the drive in a little village called Dingle.  By the way, every town has at least one (usually more) bar called Murphy’s Pub (and it is not a chain).

Because I wasn’t very good at knowing how to stay in the middle of the lane on those narrow roads, while driving on the left side of the road AND the other side of the car, I tore my tire up and got a flat.  The tire popped right after our drive around the Dingle Peninsula, about 10 minutes from our B&B (and dinner, we were ready to eat after a big day of driving).  I was sooooooo lucky, because not only did it happen right next to Inch Beach with a restaurant (and people to help I hoped) and NOT in the middle of nowhere, but when I pulled into the parking lot, I found FIREMEN!  They were getting ready to leave the area, and I got there right in time!  I said “On my gosh, you are exactly who I need!!!  I need your help!”  I was beyond excited and even hopped and danced with joy that they were there.  I needed them, too, because it took all 4 of them about 20 minutes just to get the spare tire out from under the car, and then they got out their power tools to remove the tire bolts.  They were laughing and jolly the whole time, being silly with one another while they worked.  Their Irish-English was so heavy and thick that we couldn’t understand a single thing they said.  They got me back on the road and we made it to our B&B, called The Anvil Bar (a pub/B&B, with the rooms above the pub), with plenty of time for dinner.

The lady who owns The Anvil was so wonderful; she spent the next morning chatting with us, and I was reminded about how much I miss being around older generations of people, like my kids’ grandparents and our old neighbor, Bob.