Day 7: Ever-Moher

Today was another early day.  We woke in time to get breakfast today though, something we rarely do.  I decided to get the buffet as it would be quicker to eat and get on the bus.  I've decided that I truly do not want to sit in the back of the bus near the children.  They are a little loud and rambunctious, so I like to get on the bus early.

Today we were headed to Rathbaun Farm to make scones and see the farm.  On our way to the kitchen we passed a 250 year old thatched roof cottage.  It was adorable.  We then were taught by Francis the proper way to make a scone.  I was the designated photographer, so I watched as some of the members of our tour and The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With mixed the ingredients.  He did quite a nice job if you were wondering.

While the scones were baking we were shown around the farm.  They had a Kerry cow who had just given birth to her calf that morning.  They had two ponies and a lot of sheep.  The junior adventurers got to feed some lambs, but unfortunately 26 is not considered a junior adventurer, so I didn't get a chance to feed them.  I consoled myself with remembering the baby goats that I had the opportunity to hold a few months ago.

We also had an opportunity to see a border collie, sheepdog do his thing.  He is about a year old and was never trained, so everything we saw was instinctual.

We were then invited to eat lunch and try our scones.  The scones were pretty good.  They were a little burned, but not bad. 

Next up, we headed to the Cliffs of Moher.  I was a little annoyed because we were told that we would have a limited time at the Cliffs of Moher because people had afternoon activities back at the hotel.  So walking around I felt a little rushed.  It was gorgeous!  I liked being able to see the Atlantic Ocean from the other side.  It looks prettier here than Ocean City, haha.  At the Cliffs of Moher, there was a tower that you could climb "to get a better view".  It was a Brian Boru tower.  Ooooh.  Aaaah.  There were two spiral staircases that you climbed to go both up and down.  When you got to the top there wasn't much of a difference between the view on the ground and the view from the tower.

We had our farewell dinner tonight as well.  I'm very sad to be leaving.  There was so much more that I would have liked to do.  I think overall Disney Adventures was a great trip.  They really make you feel special and give you all kinds of goodies.  So I would certainly recommend them.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With already wants to save up points to go on the China trip.

So sadly we will be back in the states tomorrow afternoon and back at home around 7.  See you all soon!



Day 6: Limericks and Leprechauns

Ahhh today was a very relaxing day.  We had nothing planned except for dinner.  There was an optional tour of Dromoland Castle, but that's it.  We didn't really get much of a chance to sleep in though because we wanted to go on the optional tour.  However, having attended it, I wish we had slept in.  It was pretty short and we didn't learn too much.  Following the tour we came back to our marvelous room and relaxed.

We made lunch reservations at the restaurant by the golf course, where we had dinner last night.  It took us awhile to figure out how to get in there, but we made it.  I ordered a dish that I had had as an appetizer the night before, but they apparently were out of salmon and didn't tell me.  They just piled the shrimp and mayonnaise sauce on there hoping I couldn't see or wouldn't notice.  I did.  Our waiter was apparently embarrassed by this, since he suggested I get it, that he never came back.  The woman who finally helped us took it off the bill. 

Following lunch we decided to kill some time before heading to our Falconry appointment at 4, so we rented some bikes.  Of course the bike I got stuck with only had a break working for the front tire and got stuck on one gear.  I was thinking there was a lot to see, but there wasn't really much.  This terrain was also more rough, so I was pretty much dying by the time we returned the bikes.

Here is a beautiful rose that they have on the grounds here:

The coolest thing we did however was falconry.  We walked around with a guide and he discussed with us his trade.  Our guide, Jim, has only been working with the falcons for about a year, but loves it.  Apparently falconry wasn't really big in Ireland because the hawks that they have here are called Sparrow Hawks and they are difficult to train and do not really like people.  As a result the castle doesn't use them.  They import more friendly birds.  The bird that we went with was named Tonto and he was a Harris Falcon.  Tonto was four years old and came to Dromoland through many hands so Jim wasn't sure how well he was going to do, but he was marvelous. 

We walked around and Jim would put a piece of cow's tongue on our glove and Tonto would fly to it.  There were times that he would knock it off the glove and fly down to the ground and walk around a little bit.  It was soooooooooo cool!  Apparently when they were filming Jurassic Park, they studied falcons and hawks (the raptor birds) and their movements to have a better understanding of the raptor dinosaur's movements.

After hawking we had to get ready for dinner.  For dinner we travelled to another castle and participated in a "medieval" Irish dinner.  It was so ridiculous.  I'm positive polyester wasn't a common "fabric" in medieval times.  The food was good, but that's about the only nice thing I can say about it.  It was just really touristy and long.  It was no Medieval Times, haha.

Note: Dad, I think that you need to come to Ireland.  Apparently they love golf.  There are about a million golf courses here and they are all on beautiful lots.  And if you happen to do that, The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With and I would love to come back.  There are definitely places that we would like to spend more time visiting.  Just saying...

Day 5: Bring on the Blarney

As the title of this blog suggests, we were headed for Blarney this morning.  We checked out of Killarney, way too early for my tastes.  We didn't get an opportunity to really explore the national park nor take another visit to Ross Castle.  Oh well! 

Blarney was beautiful.  We also couldn't have asked for nicer weather.  We rushed right to the castle to get in line to kiss the stone.  We were unsure of the lines and how long it would take to get to the Blarney Stone.  So we climbed the miniscule stairs to the top of the castle where the Blarney Stone is located.  For those of you who are not aware in order to kiss the stone you have to lay on your back lean over the edge of the castle wall and kiss the stone.  Not only do you have to trust the man holding on to you, but you have to lean uncomfortably far over the edge in order to reach the stone.  As a result, I'm not completely sure I made the Blarney Stone, I valued my life a little more.  I mean c'mon, I'm nearly 5'7'', you'd think that would be enough height to make it.

Here is picture of Blarney Castle:

Here is a picture of the view from where the Blarney Stone is located... that way you can appreciate having to lean backwards over the edge at this height:

How uncomfortable does this look?

We walked the grounds and walked through Blarney House.  It was pretty much a waste of time, but we didn't know that going in.  In the other house tours, these were more museum-like, but this house was currently being lived in and they had accumulated some old items, but they were not all original.

After Blarney, we travelled to Adare for lunch.  It was a cute little town that was very busy because of golf traffic.  They had beautiful thatched roof houses.  We even saw a wedding party.  The bride and groom had a gorgeous Bently to drive away from the church in. 

From Adare we were off to our new home, Dromoland Castle.  This was the place that I have been most looking forward to.  Sleeping in a castle!  When we arrived we were greeted by the staff who were standing at attention outside the castle to greet us.  We were invited inside and given a little reception with drinks and a brief overview of the castle.  This castle belonged to the descendents of Brian Boru, the O'Brien's and was passed down to several others (unfortunately I cannot tell you any more because The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With stole my information sheet).  Anyways our room is phenomenal!  It's huge and luxurious and really everything I have ever dreamed of.  There is a flat screen that pulls out from the wall and turns to face wherever you are in the room.

Tonight was also the adult dinner.  It was delicious!  For an appetizer we had smoked salmon and shrimp, for a main course we had swordfish, and for dessert I had vanilla ice cream, while the other person had a pie of some sort.  During this dinner it became evident that we come from a different world than the people we are travelling with.  They are very well off and seem to travel all over the place.  They are all really nice, but just different.  It's funny, many of the people think The-Person-Who-I-Am-Travelling-With and I are newlyweds. I guess it's because we are just so happy in love!  I will write more later.  I need to go to bed! 

Day 4: Cycle of the Kings and Queens

So I realize that I haven't really discussed the little things of Ireland.  We have noticed that nearly every Irish person has blue eyes.  And not only blue eyes, but dark hair.  There are only a few genuine redheads and not many green eyes.  Also I am increasingly grateful for not having to drive.  The roads are very small and everyone drives really fast.  They LOVE Guinness.  It's not like they like it because it's Irish, they truly love it and drink a lot of it.  Also the only American beer we've seen is Budweiser.  In terms of American cars, we have seen mostly Fords.  I saw one Chevy.  Also the "th" sound is not present all the time.  For example, they say "tir-teen" instead of thirteen, "tir-ter" instead of theater.  Basically I'm taking notes because I want a sweet Irish accent.

So.... on to today.  Today was one of the days that I was most looking forward to.  Today we were slated to go to Killarney National Park to visit Muckross House and a waterfall.  But the best part is how we got to Muckross House.  We rode in a jaunting cart pulled by a horse named Robert.

It was a beautiful ride.  Killarney National Park is possibly one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen.

When we arrived at the Muckross House we learned a little about it's history.  It was at one point owned by the Guinness family (they have their hand in everything), but was eventually bought by a mother and father from California to give to their daughter as a wedding present.  She married an Irish man.  Sweet wedding gift!  When the daughter's husband died she gave the house to Ireland.

Following the Muckross Tour we got on some bicycles and rode to Torc Waterfall. It was the perfect day for a bike ride.  The overcast weather made it perfect.  The ride was mostly flat, so I didn't completely die.  I tell you I have been getting a lot of exercise on this trip, but today was pretty intense.  All good stuff though.  Torc Waterfall was amazing.  We could hear the water for about 10 minutes before we got to the falls. 

After the waterfall we had lunch, which by this time I was ravenous.  I had some salmon and different side salads.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With filled his plate with a seafood pie and dessert.  Following lunch was shopping time and then back to the bus. 

Tonight we have free time in Killarney.  I would like to look around the shops, and we will grab some dinner.  Then off to bed early because we head to Blarney tomorrow!

Day 3: Celtic Kingdoms

Yesterday was absolutely lovely.  The day started off with a bag pool at around 7:00, where they came around and took our bags and loaded them on the bus.  We loaded the bus and were off to the Rock of Cashel.  We stopped at the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel for tea and scones.  Our guide Paul convinced our other guide to treat us all.  It was spectacular.

We then arrived at the Rock of Cashel.  It was beautiful.  They were doing some conservation work on parts of the building, so my pictures have some scaffolding.  This "rock" was apparently the site of a King of Munster by St. Patrick.  The rock is actually more like a castle.  It was stunning in it's architecture.  The keep seems to be pretty well-intact, but the church has many of it's walls fallen.  There is also a round tower, which our guide claimed as an Irish building.

After the Rock of Cashel, we got on the bus to Killarney.  During the ride we watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People!  Such a great movie.  When we got to Killarney the Town Crier greeted us and posed for a picture.  We were left on our own for dinner, so we walked to a little pub and since we missed the first night we were told that we would have our dinner paid for.  I was a little conservative, but The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With got himself a nice seafood spread.  Right now Killarney is pretty busy.  There is a Summer Festival going on and the Irish Open is happening now.

At 9:00 we went on a Ghost Tour.  The tour was really cool. We got on a big charter bus that was all decked out with spooky decorations.  There were two guides on this tour who are traditional story tellers and they told us several local stories of hauntings.  They were great story tellers.  We were taken to two different sites on which they told stories.  The first place we went was Ross Castle:

Ross Castle is apparently haunted by the daughter of an Officer Brown, Emily.  Her ghost is said to be seen on the top battlements on the castle and on the turrets.  Mostly people see orbs in their pictures.  I had no orbs.  That was perfectly fine with me.  The next site we went to was a monastery in Killarney National Park.  Of course we had to walk through a creepy graveyard.  Then we walked through the monastery, which was pitch black.  He had us stand in a room that had the most activity for about 2 minutes in pitch black.  I stood across from the opening that lead out into the hall, and I could make out a dark form.  When the lights came on my suspicions were confirmed... it was the other guide.  He kept jumping out of places trying to scare people.  I didn't really get a sense of fear in either place.  However, as we were walking back to the bus I was talking to The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With about something when someone jumped out of the darkness and grabbed me.  My heart pounded for quite some time after that.  It was a great tour with some great stories.  If you find yourself around Killarney ever, it was a great trip.

Ireland at Last!

So there is much to tell about the last day or so.  I left off with us in Boston... There really wasn't a hitch about getting on the plane for Dublin.  We did board a little late because they were cleaning, but it did not mess up our scheduled arrival time at all. 

The plane was 3 rows across (2, 4 and 2).  Of course The-Person-Who-I-Am-Travelling-With and I were in the 4 in the middle.  Stranger danger for me!  As we are getting ready to take off a child starts screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs, and as a result his parents were getting several death stares, which amused me and The-Person-Who-I-Am-Traveling-With.  The plane was really neat as it had a TV in the back of the seat in front of us which allowed us to watch movies, TV shows, play games, listen to music or just see where our plane was en route.  It was pretty cool.  We each watched two movies.  I watched Green Hornet and a Elizabeth Taylor biography.  So because we were so distracted we didn't sleep.  Not a wink.  And those neck pillows we bought were not compatible with the built in pillow slider of the chair.

We made it to Dublin and there was pretty much no one there.  We breezed through customs and the baggage claim started unloading bags pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, The-Person-I-Am-Traveling-With's bags were the last ones to come off.  As it was there was no Disney greeter at the baggage claim, so I was nervous for both of those things.  Thankfully when we walked out of the baggage claim area we say one of our adventure guides Frankie holding a sign and a huge smile.  We were picked up and escorted to our hotel, the Westin. 

So, at this point, it's about 6:30 and the group is getting together at 9:15 to start the activities.  I thought I was going to take a shower and just kill time before we had to leave.  Unfortunately that bed was too soft and we decided a brief two hour nap was what we needed.  Well that didn't pan out either.  By the time the alarm went off we had only been conked out for about 45 minutes.  So at this point we knew we were in for a LOOONNNNGGGG day.

The tour began on an amphibious-vehicle viking tour.  We donned viking hats and took about an hour and a half tour learning about Dublin.  It was difficult to understand our guide at times.  He spoke pretty fast and words were often slurred together.  He threw in a couple jokes that were entertaining.  He also threw in a couple of oldies like "they used to tie a pork chop around his neck, so the dog would play with him" and the like.  The tour ended with us unboarding at Dublin Castle.

Our group (which is about 40+ people) was given a tour of the Castle.  It was stunning.  We learned that Ireland has had a female president for the past 21 years and that when the Queen visited in May she spoke Irish for possibly the first time ever.  Also strange, the guide referred to "the people in the north" which are the Northern Irelanders.  I found that a pretty strange way of referring to them, but whatever.  At the close of this tour we were headed for Guinness Storehouse and LUNCH.

We had our own private room for lunch and had a buffet style with Guinness stew, fish and chips, potatoes, veggies and an assortment of desserts.  We met some of the other people travelling with us.  It feels as if we are the minority.  The woman at lunch asked if we were newly weds and then later asked if we were in love.  It was an interesting lunch to say the least.  Following the lunch we were shown on a pretty boring tour of the Guinness Storehouse.  Our guide for this tour was pretty boring and since I don't really care about Guinness, what he was talking about was pretty boring too.  We then had about 45 minutes of free time in which we traded in our drink vouchers and ran through the gift shop.

This was the end of the day with Disney.  They offered an optional tour of the Book of Kells, but as I've seen something similar in England, I wasn't too interested.  We also missed doing a lot of things yesterday, so we decided to strike out on our own.  We were too late to go to St. Michan's Church and for The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With to touch the dead people, so we went to Jameson's Distillery.  Jameson's is his favorite whiskey.  This tour was more exciting, but after walking all over town and being awake at this point for 26 hours minus a 45 minute nap, I nearly nodded off during a short movie.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With was thrilled as he got to participate in a whiskey tasting.  I had the pleasure of watching.  I was actually encouraged to try Johnny Walker Black Label, it was revolting.

After this we walked all over Dublin again trying to find some place to eat.  We eventually settled on Gourmet Burger Kitchen because Jenny had recommended it to me.  It was pretty good.  I burned my tongue on the fries, but they were yummy.  Now I am rushing to finish this because it is bed time!  Until tomorrow!

1/2 Way There

So we made it to Boston!  The flight was on time and the fairly smooth.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With and I did not sit together.  I sat next to an Irish teenager.  JetBlue was very nice... they had DirectTV and Sirius XM Radio, none of which I could enjoy because I didn't bring earphones.  Oh well, I had my book.

The landing at Boston was very picturesque.  We came in over some gorgeous water with sailboats everywhere.  The airport itself isn't all that attractive.  We had to walk nearly a mile to get from our gate to JetBlue to the terminal we needed to be at for AerLingus.  But we made it and we are sitting together on this flight.  We are 20F and 20G, I'm afraid this means we are in middle rows, but I guess we will see.

I had some Sbarro's for lunch which was yummy.  I'm not up to my normal appetite, but that's probably good.  I ordered a pepsi with my lunch and the woman did not put ice in it.  I guess that's what happens on the International side of the airport.

Currently we are sitting at Boston Beer Works, with one of us enjoying their beer selection.  I'm sure you can't guess which one of us that is.  We have about an hour or so before we will head back up to our gate.

The sign at the Food Court... we have quite a way to go

Let's Try This Again

So we have arrived at Dulles yet again.  There is no one here today, so I'm guessing that everyone else made their flights yesterday.  So far the skies seem clear and our scheduled flight to Boston at 12:35 is on time.  However, I will be a little nervous until I actually see the plane sitting in front of our gate. 

There was another person checking in at JetBlue who is going to Boston and then to Dublin.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With thought that she must be a part of our Disney group.  I didn't see the tell tale sign of the pink Disney tags we were told to attach, so I'm skeptical.

I woke up again with some stomach pains, but the Aleve is working wonders.  I have some more ginger ale and am feeling good.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With has been taking Aleve for his ankle/heel and seems to be doing OK.  He's already called me "Grammy" on several occasions for asking if he'd taken the medicine.  We have such cute names for one another don't we? 

Well hopefully my next entry will be from Boston or Ireland.  We have about a four hour layover in Boston.  We have to get our tickets from AerLingus, which means we will have to go through security again.  Joy!

Apparently not...

So our dream vacation is not starting off very well.  We arrived pretty early to the gate and about 30 minutes before our flight was scheduled to arrive, the "gate keeper" informed us that our plane was still in New York with no knowledge of when it would be leaving.  This was very worrisome for me as we only had about 3 hours between our connecting flights and I didn't know what to expect at JFK.

The person that I am travelling with (whom no longer wants his name listed) went to speak to JetBlue and I called Disney and AerLingis, both of us trying to determine what could be done.  Apparently not much.  So currently we are waiting for our luggage and we are going back home.  We are trying again tomorrow around noon to get to Boston to get to Dublin on Wednesday morning way early.  We will miss our first day of this trip.  Not thrilled!

On the Way

We have arrived in Dulles Airport and are waiting two hours until our scheduled flight leaves for JFK.  The crowd at Dulles is much more diverse than at BWI.  I imagine this is due to the greater number of international flights.  Regardless, Josh and I have seen some very interesting characters.  We saw an unfortunate young lady who had sunburn on the backs of her legs and from the side you could see a distinct line where red met white.  At our gate there was also a man, whom I swear is dressed as a Jedi Knight.

I am feeling much better than I was yesterday, not quite as near death's door.  I think my problem today is that I'm hungry, but I'm a little nervous about eating.  Josh was a sweetheart and bought me some Ginger Ale and that is helping some.  With my tummy on the mend, I am getting more and more excited about this trip.  Josh has been cracking quite a few smiles so I can tell he's thrilled too.  Well as we haven't really gotten to anything too exciting yet, I think I will sign off here. We should reach Ireland at 9:40 local time, which is;4:40 MD time.  Anyone want a wake up call?