Day 9 - Dublin

Yesterday we left our beautiful hotel on the hill in Cork and made our way toward Dublin.  There was really only one thing on the agenda and it was to see the Rock of Cashel.

And here are a bunch of pictures of the outside.

And here are some of the inside.

And here are some pictures of the grounds.

And here's this.

We made one more stop in Kildare for some lunch and then it was back into the city.  It was actually very sad and touching to say goodbye to Kevin.  He had driven us over 1100 miles in our 7 days together and had regaled us with stories and given us all of the information we could ever ask for.  Besides that, he handled a lot of ridiculous roads with ease and was happy every single second we spent with him.  Kevin made us rethink our general attitude toward life.  He is a truly lovely man.  Here are a few of our favorite sayings of his:

1. Tough as nuts

2. Holiday makers

3. (About a golf course built on a mountain)...You needed one long leg and one short leg to play.

4. You can tell the Irish on the beaches in Florida because they're as red as a turkey cock.

5. (I don't remember the context) They were belting the lard out of one another.

6. He's been in court more times than I've had dinners.

7. You couldn't see my heels for dust!

Think it was windy for our goodbye picture?

We had thought about doing a bit more sight seeing once back in Dublin but the Merrion was too wonderful a place to leave and so we stayed in and relaxed until our dinner at 8:00. 

It was a truly wonderful trip.  Ireland is truly, even with it's weather, a lovely, genteel, magical country.  I'm not sure we met a surly person our whole time there.  I'm not sure we heard more than one or two car horns the whole time we were there and trust me, the driving is nuts.  I would say it's just what I wanted it to be.  I feel like one could spend a lifetime driving around just to see the little towns and what is around every corner.  All one would need is a lifetime supply of Lipitor.  The food was good but it's comfort food and it's heavy and every meal comes with all manner of potatoes.  Oh, and Guiness and Guiness and more Guiness.  

Lastly, I want to thank my brother and sister-in-law who were so generous to celebrate this round number of mine with me and Rebecca.  It's not a small thing to be able to spend 16 hours a day - 6+ of which were in a car - with family and not have a moment of unhappiness or discomfort.  The whole thing couldn't have been easier.  I'll always remember it and cherish it.  

Day 8 Cork

Another excellent day in Ireland.  The weather was nice this morning literally until the moment Kevin started to put the luggage in the van at which point there was a deluge.  As soon as we all got in, the rain let up.  Kevin thought he might take the scenic route to Cork but the weather made that decision for us.  The drive was beautiful though.  It's hard to get tired of beautiful green fields with sheep dotting the landscape.  Speaking of which, Kevin's home county of Mayo is in the quarter final's match in Gaelic football and he said that if they reach the semis or finals the people in the county will go to extremes and have probably already started painting the sheep the team colors.

We made a small stop at the Jameson distillery just to look around.  We didn't do a tasting or a tour.  It was a beautiful facility as you can see.

Our lunch stop was in the town Cobh which somehow is pronounced Cove.  Cobh is where the Titanic left from as well as the Lusitania.  We walked through a museum dedicate to talking about ship travel and then had lunch at a local place.  The sun was shining and it was warm so we asked to sit outside.  No sooner had the waitress brought water out, it started to rain.  When we moved inside she told us that we had to be done by an hour and a half as they were expecting a funeral party.  Fortunately we finished up within about 50 minutes because the funeral showed up early.

After lunch we headed into town and walked up the hill to the cathedral.

Rebecca did a little confessing.

Here is the view of the entrance into our hotel.  I'll try and take some pictures of the place tomorrow.  I can say that this is the first place I've ever stay in where they sat us at a desk to check in and poured us a glass of whiskey from the region.

We freshened up for a little bit and then headed down the hill into town. Here is a church we passed along the way.

I found this little green door to find solace behind.

We spent our evening in Cork wandering around and looking for either a drink or a bathroom.  It was the sunniest day we've had since we've been in Ireland.  Here is Eydie enjoying a Guiness on a beautiful sunny August day.

Here is what a blue sky looks like in Ireland.

Eventually we found an old funky pub to have a pint in.  Eventually a few guys came in a played some traditional Irish music for us and we got to watch some olympics. 

We ended our evening at a lovely restaurant.  While waiting for a table I decided to take a small alcohol break.

Once we got to the table I rectified the situation.  My hairpiece looks particularly good.

Rebecca ended her night with a lovely cocktail as well.

It's hard to believe our last day is tomorrow.  We head back to Dublin in the morning.  Hopefully the weather will hold.

Day 7 - Killarney - The Ring Road

Another beautiful day in County Kerry Ireland.  Kevin hadn't planned on us doing the whole Ring of Kerry route but he was feeling a bit badly that we "hadn't had Dingle" and he thought if the weather held we would go as far as we could until there was no use turning back.  Below are the pictures of our trip.  I wish my camera and phone were better as the colors are hard to imagine.  By the way, for those of you who are reading this and aren't facebook friends with my brother, you can maybe look at his pictures on his page if you're interested. His camera and phone camera are better than mine.

We stopped in the town of Kenmare for our daily Guiness and fish and chips.

These next pictures are of the other side of the national park from where we walked yesterday.  As you might imagine, it's an enormous park and these views were some of the most staggeringly beautiful I've ever seen.  It looked like a made up place.  

Our last stop of the day was at Muckross which is a mid 19th century house which lies in Killarney National Park.  It has been well preserved and much of it is still decorated with things from the original owners.  It's big claim to fame is the Queen Victoria once visited there for 2 days.  Interestingly, the queen gave them seven years notice and brought 100 people with her.  The number of things in the house that were created for her two day visit is really absurd - including things like a sideboard in the dining room commissioned in Germany which took 3 years to carve.  There are large gardens and horse drawn carriages which would take you down to the lake but it had been a long day and the weather had turned cold and misty.  Kevin had encouraged us to take the tour which took an hour and I feel that was partly because he went down the road to a hotel to watch the quarter finals of a hurling match. He showed his metal by coming to get us even though there were only a few minutes left in the match and the score was tied.  We listened to the last minute in the car.  Interestingly, the match ended tied and there is no over time.  So, they're just going to play again next week.  This, in a stadium that holds 82,000 people and was sold out.  I can't imagine this sort of thing ever happening in the U.S.

After our daily rest time we had a lovely dinner.  Here are some mouth watering pictures.

Burrata, tomatoes, basil and pinenuts

Lamb rump with zucchini and ratatouille

Hake with an herb crust

Pork belly with middle eastern spices

Blueberry clafoutis with Persian spiced ice cream

Banana creme brulee

Irish coffee cheese cake

Tomorrow we're off to Cork and to see a bit of the south.