Just a little fun

So while I was in Ireland we drove through the Mountains of Mourne. Many people have heard of them through the song of the same name sung by Keith Harkin of Celtic Thunder. So I had a little bit of fun with a couple of the pictures I took there. If you are a CT fan, I'm sure you will understand the reference and they will bring a little chuckle.

Favorites and Must Sees

Interesting that when you think you are finished with something how you suddenly remember things you wanted to mention. So this is what this post is for. For anyone who is considering going to Ireland or Northern Ireland, here's my 2 cents on some of the better things you should not miss - rain or shine! And plan on rain for sure.

I'm going to do this by area rather than just a haphazard list. So let's start at the beginning which is flying into Dublin.

In Dublin - Do find the Tourist Office and sign up for the Hop-on-Hop-Off day tour. The tickets are about 15 euro and last for 24 hours. Most of the well known sites are on this tour. You can choose from the green bus or the red bus. Doesn't matter which they both go the same places. Do start early in the morning to have the most time to see all the sites. You may not want to visit the Guinness Brewery too early unless you like to drink then. The self guided tour comes with a pint of the yummy black stuff in the gravity bar on the 7th floor. Very nice view of Dublin. Caution for travelers. A few of the museums are closed on Mondays. Be aware of that. Unless you really want to spend the time standing in line and pay the fee to see one page of the Book of Kells, just visit Trinity College and the gift shop for souvenirs.
All the other sites on the tour are good, but you may have to decide which to visit and which to skip. Definitely go to St. Patrick's and Christ Church (the catacombs in the basement are amazing)

You can also take one of several day tours out of Dublin. If you want to go to Knowth or New Grange this would be the way to do it. Leaves early in the morning and also includes a visit to Monastiere Boice. Great scenery too and you don't have to drive.

Outside of Dublin:

Powerscourt Gardens - beautiful
Glendalough Monastery and ruins
Kildare Stud Farm
Kilkenny area - the ancient capital of Ireland - wonderful castle tour and artists enclave across from the castle. In the same area Jerpoint Abbey and glass factory (you really have to search to find this, but the work is beautiful. Outside of Kilkenney in Bennetsbridge is Nicholas Moss Pottery factory. You can find his stuff all over, but this is where it's made and you can watch.
Hook Head Lighthouse - south of Wexford. If you have the time to drive here. Otherwise skip it. The site is beautiful on a sunny day, and you can spend lots of time looking out over the ocean, but it takes time. If you have it, all the better.

Charles Fort in Kinsale just south of Cork
Ring of Kerry - this is a standard thing for tourists. You should do it once. But if you take the bridge across from Cahersiveen you can find Ballycarberry castle ruins and also an amazing ring fort.

Dingle to me is just as good, if not better than the Ring of Kerry. Less bus traffic and lots more to see. Ancient remains and incredible views. Dingle town is full of life day and night.

Adare - the prettiest little town with the thatched roof houses. The town is mostly one main street with about 6 thatched roof houses. Make sure to check out the church and tour the castle if you have time.

Cliffs of Moher and The Burren. Both geological phenomenons. Hope for a clear day for the Cliffs. Lots of ancient stuff around here too, like the Pulnabrone dolmen (ancient table top tomb).

In 3 trips I've never really spent much time in Galway city. Unless you have the extra time, go on to the Connemara Coast and enjoy the rough and rocky scenery. If you go all the way to Clifden you can try to drive out the Sky Road at sunset. Again hoping for a relatively clear day. There is a drive called the Connemara Loop. Nice thing to do if you have the time.

Cong - I really love the abbey ruins there and Cong Wood. Nice little town.

Westport - nice port town if you have time. The Helms restaurant and bar are supposed to be really good.

Sligo - Yeats burial place in Drumcliffe, under Ben Bulben. Great scenic drive to be had here also.

Belleek pottery factory is not as busy as it once was, but the stuff is amazing once you see how it's made.

Omagh, fun town to base yourself if you spend a few days in NI. Most of the other towns are very small and working towns. So once the day is over the towns are dead. Music at some on Thursday and Sunday. More in Omagh.

Derry - do the bus tour here. Sit on the upper deck to get the best pictures and see the murals. Lively on the weekends. But also a working town. Walk the walls if you have the time. It's a little over a mile around.

Bushmills and the Causeway - definitely worth the visit. If you are driving and can take the Antrim coast road, all the better.

Belfast - Again here take the bus tour. More informative and helps you get around. Lots of places to find music around Queen's University.

The Boyne Valley with Knowth and New Grange megalithic tombs, Monastiereboice with the High Crosses and Mellifont Abbey.

That about covers the best for me. There are other places from previous trips, but I'd never finish if I wrote about all of them. For me Ireland has a lot of the best to see and short times are so rushed. Stop and savor the moments. If you spend a month you'll be able to see most everything, but not be able to savor the best coastlines, music and people.

I do have to say that I've used Rick Steve's Ireland book now for 2 trips and been very happy. I wouldn't leave home without it.

As you may have noticed I have hyperlinked a few of the initial sites. After doing so, I realized that there were way too many to link. Searches are easy, so you can handle the rest on your own. ;)

I've traveled to Ireland 3 times and 3 different ways, organized tour, self-catering cottages (a week at at time in each), and B&Bs. Each has it's advantages, but I prefer the B&Bs, especially ones located in town, or very near town. Next time, I'm going to park myself out by the west coast, or on the coast by Donegal, and just be part of the country.

More Thoughts

July 21st

So here it is the 3rd week in July and I'm finally returning home for the remainder of the summer. I just realized that I've been gone from home for 5 weeks now. I think that's the longest I've ever been gone.

While it's great to travel as I did, it's always great to get back home. I know I'll have plenty of house cleaning and catching up to take care of, but I also want to spend time with my dog, Mickey, and get all my pictures sorted out.

I've been told my vacuum bit the dust while I've been gone, so finding out if I need to purchase a new one will probably take precedence over everything else. A cheap price to pay for being gone so long.

As for observations about the trip... I've been thinking about that lately. In fact, the last few nights my brain has been interrupting my sleep by rerunning events during the trip. While I haven't slept the best, I've had some very nice memories to recall. Even when there were some problems, as there always are when you travel with new friends, those are put to the back part of memories and the fun adventures win out. Would I do things differently next time? Maybe a few things, but not most. And yes, there will definitely be a next time. I think I'm finished with the tourist part of my Ireland travels, and will now have a different focus. Four thousand miles on a rental car in 2 weeks is more than anyone would want. I really didn't mind the driving and for the most part if was great craic as we periodically found ourselves totally lost and laughing about it.

We did get to experience some great music, but I'd like more. I was a little disappointed that a few of my favorite musicians did not have gigs scheduled at times we were in the area. Or they were out of the area.

I discovered new favorite places and some special new friends and acquaintances. It's those kind of connections that make the trip very worthwhile. Not to mention that the scenery can't be beat. ( I do have to give my son credit on his trip. His pics of the Swiss alps and countryside are pretty impressive too.) But my heart lies with Ireland.

For now we'll see what the future brings in terms of travel. I've always thought of Ireland as an every other year, but now, I'm not sure if I can wait that long. And I still have not figured how to explain to people why. For those of you who know me well enough to understand, I don't have to explain. For the rest of you, I guess you'll just have to trust me.

So ends my journey for this year.

Things to mention

There are so many topics I haven't touched on during each of the daily blogs, so I thought I might cover a few of them here. These are observations form a variety of things we saw and experienced.

First let me start with the “hen parties”. Everywhere we went we saw groups of girls and ladies as part of the hen party. This is pretty much a bachelorette party. Girls and their bridal parties and friends go from Dublin to Glasgow,or vice versa, or from outside of Dublin to the city for a weekend. At the airport when we left for Galsgow there were groups arriving and groups departing. They all had t-shirts on like – Karen's Herns, or Susie's Hen Trip 2009. Even on our Hop-on-Hop-off trip in Galsgow there were a group of hens who boarded to ride around the city.
Not so different from the groups I see going to Las Vegas for a weekend, except for the fact that these girls/women can be adorned with ribbons, or rabbit ears an the bride weaaring a decorative short veil. They definietly want it to be known they are all together. If they don't leave town they may be in a limo or celebrating in a local pub one evening.
Great craic for everyone.

The next thing I want to mention are the showers in Ireland. Or maybe I should say shower stalls. As far as getting enough hot water there is no problem. The Triton, heat as you need it power showers are great. Most of the shower stalls are very small. If you don't stand diagonal when you reach up to wash your hair, you will probably be bumping your elbows agains the walls. That should give you a good idea of the size. The hotels usually have bath tubs, so that works better, but B&Bs are the ones with the tiny showers. If I remember correctly, some of the self-catering cottages from my last trip had the same if the bathrooms were ensuite. And I do have so say I have seem some of the smallest bathrooms – sink and toilet- as can every be created. In some of the restaurants they had the Dyson hand dryer that I've seen advertised on TV. Very cool.

On to the wonderful sunny weather we had while traveling. The day we arrived in Dublin it was raining, but soon stopped. We had one very rainy day in Glasgow and a few sprinkles other days along the way. But for the most part the weather was sunny and beautiful. The reason Ibring this up is I wanted to mention about how many people we saw at the beachs around Ireland. And no wetsuits in the very cold water. Now when I say it was warm, I'm talking about 75-80 degrees, and 80 is really pushing it. So here were all these people at the beach on a sunny 75 degree day in the water. Mostly just up to their knees, but still in the water.
The one thing that really made me smile was when we checked into our B&B in Sligo. On the side of the house was a stone rock driveway that lead to an area to park and a place for the family to BBQ. No patio just all a loose rock area. When we arrived about 5PM there was the owner's daughter, home from college in her bikini on a lounge chair working on her tan! Just something I found quite unique for the weather and location.

I could definitey understand this by the beach, but here in the back driveway/bbq area just looked so out of place. Made me smile as Ireland has always surprised me in many ways.


So on to my last subject for a while. In Irland there is a known precidence when you are at a pub. If you sit at a table, or in a snug (both) you are not bothered. It's an unwritten understanding that you don't want to be disturbed. But the story is totally different if you take a stool at the bar. So one night Sarah and I ventured down to the pub that was attached to our Inn. (I should mention that while most stays were B&Bs, some were guest houses or inns to accommodate our room needs).
We took a couple of stools at the bar and after a few minutes we were engaged in conversation first with the barman, and then with a few gentlemen sitting a ways down from us. Before we knew it as we were getting ready to purchase a second round, one of the gentlemen bought us a round. Now the rule of courtesy here, is that you reciprocate with a round. But we hardly had a chance when the second gentleman bought a round. So by now I've had 3 glasses (not pints) of Guinness, and Sarah was on her 3rd whiskey. Sarah is a whiskey drinker and I love my Guinness.
We had not even had dinner yet and were due to leave. When we asked for suggestions ffor a place to go to dinner one of the gentlemen suggested we go to his place. By then Sarah and I were full of giggles, made our excuses and left to go eat. We tol the gentlemen that we “may” be back later that night, but would probably see them the next night. From what we heard, I guess they thought we'd be back for sure that evening and they went home and got all spiffed up and returned. We were tired after a long day and after dinner went to our room not realizing what had happened.
The next night, as we had planned, we stopped by the pub again to basically an empty bar. Our two new Irish friend, Paul and John were no where in site, so we “chatted it up”, as they say with Eugene the barman until closing.
We diid leave some money with Eugene to buy the 2 guys a reciprocating drink, which Eugene promised he would do. Not quite sure what would have happened had we returned that first night! LOL

Home again

July 8th

We just left Glitter City, at least thats what I call it. Funny how Las Vegas looks so different during the day time. Just a bunch of tall buildings in the middle of middle America rows and blocks of track homes. I'm sure there are some fancy places mixed in there, but from the air during the day it's just a cacaphony of little boxes spread over the desert floor up to the edge of the mountiains.

I've been on planes for way too many hours since yesterday morning and still don't know what time zone my body is using. I was wide awake at 2am (which would have been 8am for me) and now I'm working my way west to another 2 hours earlier. This will take a few days to readjust.

Hopefully by the time I head out for Sacramento on Friday morning I'll be in better shape. If not, scrapbooking is going to be a very long night.

Fist things first. I need to get out of my jeans and into some fresh, clean clothes. Not sure where I'll be doing laundry, but I do nee to visit the menace and see that she is okay. Possibly missing me. It would be a better thought if I was talking about a man, but Micky, my dog is my best friend, and I do miss her.

Eight hours yesterday, 3 ½ so far today ad now another hour and a quarter. It would be nice to get my feet on the ground for a while.

On the way home

This is Hamish the Highlands Cow, friendly, but a bit hairy I'd say. LOL

Tyrone Crystal makes the trophy for the All Ireland Champions and over the last couple of years it has been for their home team Tyrone. This is a copy of the 2008 trophy that was given to the team.

7 July

So here I am on my Aer Lingus flight back to Chicago. Tomorrow I'll be on a Southwest plane back home. I'm always a little melancholly at this point. Lots of time to think and reflect on about the last 3 weeks. It's doesn't really seem like it was that long. I really coul have found tons to do over another week or two or three.

I briefly touched on our last day with the flight delay from Glasgow and then a relaxing day for me in Dublin topped off with going to Riverdance at the Gaiety Theater. The theater was a restored older theater and just magnificient. It was small, no more than about 800 people, but it was packed this Monday. We had seats just off center in the second row. Perfect from my perspective. Seeing the show live was definitely an experience. A great end to a vacation that was way too short.

I keep thinking about next year and wondering if I can swing another trip then. I've tried every other year, but keeping find more reasons to return sooner. The B&B experience is the way to go. Small towns and small pubs. Sitting at the bar and talking to the regulars. And giving all the towns their own chance to show off their own craic.

Once I get home and life starts to run away with me again, all this will be a very special memory. I'm hoping to scap most of it, like I have my other two trips. I'm thinking this will have a little different slant. I will be putting up a selection of pictures as soon as I can sort through the 700 or so that I've taken. I may actualy have to do more than one slide show. No decisions there yet.

We arrive in Chicago in about 2 hours now. I've spent the first part of the flight catching up on some much needed sleep. I think I run on adreniline while traveling and now I'm all out of it. Sarah and I are hoping to meet up with Becky and her mom tonight or late this afternoon for a little while. We'll both be heading to the Midway Airport around 5am on Wednesday.

Three weeks, where did it go?

A

July 6th

I have so much more to post about what has gone on over the last couple of days, but it's after 11PM on Monday night and we have to leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 8am.
Today was hectic getting to the Glasgow Airport and then having an hour delay waiting for the plane.

I'll continue to post over the next week or so about some of the items I've got a list on to cover like hen parties, and our new pub friends! LOL
We all went our separate ways after we got checked in to the hotel in Dublin. I had a great day spending time out to lunch and a drive around some of the area surrounding Dublin that I had not yet seen. I will miss this place and all it's people.

We did go to see Riverdance tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it as our last night celebration.

Guess I'll have to start planning my next trip.

Night, night for now.
A

July 5th

Loch Lomond, Scotland

After breakfast this morning we caught a taxi over to the tourist office to await our tour of Loch Lomond , the Trosachs, and Stirling Castle. It was a small tour bus and not full( there were 8 o the tour) so very relaxed and just the perfect thing for this beautiful sunny day. We headed out of Glasgow crossing the Clyde River, the main shipping river in Glasgow, and into the countryside. Within about 45 minutes were were at the shores of Loch Lomond for our first look-see. It's difficult to describe all the sites we saw. The day was wonderful for siteseeing. We even fit in a one hour cruise on the Loch from a town called Balach, and could see Ben Lomond, the tallest mountain in Great Britain. Not fog, and no low clouds. Only white clouds in a blue sky followed us all day along with stories of how the song “You take the high road, and I'll take the low road” was written by soldiers who were imprisoned – one waiting to die (the high road) and one waiting to be released (the low road – walking home).

Our driver was full of information and laughs as we traveled through the highland and the lowlands, separated by a fault line. It was a full day from 9am to 6 PM with several stops, the last being at Stirling Castle, originally built by King Robert the Bruce, and torn down and rebuilt about 3-4 times since. A monument to William Wallace was just across the valley from Stirling Castle. Very impressive. And again the scenery was very impressive.

While this post is short, the day was full of sites around Glasgow. I really loved getting out of town and into the country again.

July 4th

July 4th

What an interesting day in Glasgow. After breakfast – I've cut down from the full breakfast (same in Glasgow as in NI) to just a blended coffee (they have a great automatic machine here) and some toast as my arteries were screaming at me. Georgann and I decided to hit the library again for a few emails and I was able to post the last two posts. As we left the Mitchell Library we stopped to chat with the welcome guard and he explained that I might not want to wear my gray-green sweater today as there was a Loyalist march throughout the city. It was too late to go back to the B&B so I was stuck, but we ventured to the closest stop for the Hop-on-Hop off tour.
We could hear the drums and marchers a couple of block offs. Seems that July 4th in Glasgow is the annual Loyalists march. The marchers and watchers were all over the city and causing massive tie-up with traffic and detours. Needless to say, the Hop-on-Hop-off tour was one of the things that was really delayed. The one and a half hour tour was taking almost 3 hours. We sat at the stop for about 45 minutes walked to the next stop, waited for a while (I did call the company and they appologized, and said a bus would be around eventually) and then decided to head across the street for lunch. Near the end of our Subway lunch I saw a bus pass by. We hurried out to wait at the stop and finally after about 5 minutes another bus arrived so we hopped on.
Glasgow is a fascinating city with old and new buildings all over. The Royal Concert Hall is new, and the Chamber Building in George Square is stunningly old. Their SECC (Scotland Entertainment and Concert Center is so new it looks like an armadillo with it's multilayered shape. All the current rock concerts are held there. If we hadnt' had such a late start we would have stopped at several of the locations along the way like the Kelvington Grove Art Museum and Galway University. As it was we finally arrived back at our starting location at about 3:30. At one point our bus broke down and the sent a replacement bus that took us back to the beginning of the tour to wait for a new driver. Seemed like something was telling us not to take this tour.

We ended up at a pub called O'Neill's for dinner. Good food and drink.

July 3

July 3rd

Here we are in Glasgow, Scotland arriving around noon today. It was cloudy and threatening but didn't dampen out spirits. Okay, so what is it about many of our reservations being at locations on steep hills? The maps all looked so flat to me. LOL
But this place, is at the bottom of a hill and around the corner is everything we need to be touring around Glasgow. After a little lunch at Subway ( it was our first taste of real American food since we left home) we split up. Sarah took off to venture around town, and Georgann and I were headed toward the Mitchell Library to hook up some internet time. After a few missteps in directions we figured out where we needed to be and quickly ended up at the library. It wasn't until later that I realized what an feat of architecture this building held inside. I didn't have a camera that could capture enough of it to show you how amazing it was. The spiral staircase alone, waas 3-4 stories high and the domed ceiling at the top was beyond words. We'll be going back again and I hope to take some more pictures and will post them. I asked the lady at the entry if this was a converted building, as I just couldn't imagine that it was purpose built as a library. But to my surprise it was build as a library. I don't know if there is any info online for it but you might want to check. I'd love to try and do a 360 degree video of just the upper walls in the main hall to show it off.

And then we found the internet access area. Georgann and I now have library cards that will get us in to any Glasgow library! There were about 50 computers available for free for one hour if they were busy, and an extra hour if they were not busy. The window where I sat looked out through floor to ceiling, wall to wall windows. As I worked I watche the sky get darker and darker. The next time I looked up it was pouring, not just raining, but reallly pouring. Neither Georgann nor I had brought umbrellas – actually I didn't even bring an umbrella but a plastic poncho, but it was at the B&B – and we were not prepared for the rain. We tried to wait it out, but by 4PM it was still sprinkling pretty heavy. We headed out and when we were almost back to the B&B it started pouring again. Sarah had also gotten caught in the downpour and we all retreated to our rooms to dry off and warm up for a while.

We headed to the West End for dinner and found this interesting Italian restaurant that serves almost all meal selections like tapas, small portions. As we were served the waiter we had, Jack, asked where we were all from. When he heard that I was from California he explained that his father was in Woodland, a city outside of Sacramento and one of the largest tomato growers in the area. When you talk about a small world, it's amazing how small it can be. I liveed in Sacramento for 30 plus years and we briefly chatted about familiar places to both of us. Who would have thought I would have met a Muslim Glaswegian with family in Sacramento? I asked how he ever ended up in Glasgow and he said “family politics” and a long story! LOL We did take pictures and an some point I'll get those posted too.
The ameretto ice cream with a shot of expresso was exceptional.

By the time we headed back to the B&B after dinner the sun was shining. Hoping for a clear day tomorrow for a Hop-on-Hop off tour of Glasgow.

We're staying in an area called Charring Cross. I think there was a movie with that title or something about Charring Cross. I'll have to check next time I'm on the internet.

And my final note for the day. I had finally gotten used to using the euro, and then in Northern Ireland it was the pound, and one last day with the euro and now back to the pound for 3 days. I'm really struggling with this pound and pence thing. I'm finding out that it's much easier to just hand the person a paper bill with a number and get change. When I have a bunch of change, I just hold it out and the person I'm paying takes what they need. So many of the coins look the same. I do know and remember some, but I've given up on the others. There is a 1 pence, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, and then it goes to one pound (coin) and 2 pound coin. And so many are so close to the same sized, shape and color. Two more days and I can exchange it all back for dollars!

Haven't downloaded any Glasgow pics yet, so I'll have some next time. Either from Dublin or home. I can hardly believe I'll be back in the US in 4 days and home in 5.

Looks like our friendly taxi driver Tom will be picking us up on Monday to take us back to Dublin town. He's been calling semi-regularly to make sure we are okay. Very nice guy.

July 2

Monastiere Boice

Need I say where!

Thursday, July 2

When I woke up once during the night I realized that it was pouring down rain. Eugene had said the night before it looked like a good storm was heading toward us. And he obviously knew his Ireland. We took a little time getting ready and had finally finished breakfast and were on the road by 9am.

I want to go a little off topic here for just a sec. Okay I have clogged my arteries with both the Irish full breakfast and the Ulster fry. I do have to say, the Ulster fry is closer to a “heart attack on a plate” than the Irish breakfast, but they are not far apart. Tomorrow I'm actually looking forward to the possibility of a tea and muffin at the airport.

Back to the subject at hand. Today we were moving from County Tyrone to Drogheda, just 30 minutes north of the Dublin Airport. We fly out tomorrow for Scotland and I have great hopes of uploading a few blogs and pictures. On the way we spent a portion of our day driving around and through the beautifull Mountains of Mourne. To the many people who have said that Nortthern Ireland doesn't have that much to offer in the way of sightseeing except for the Giant's Causeway, they are very wrong. Most of the landscape reminds me of driving through the farmlands of Ohio with the rolling hillsides dotted with cows and sheep. But when the divine decides to impress us with beautyin landscape, it's not difficult to find it. Between the ancient ruins and natural sites, I was so very glad I spent time in Northern Ireland and hope to go back again for a longer time.

After the Mountains of Mourne we headed for a ride along the coast seeing some of the coastal villages and inlets from the sea. Heading south on the main motorway we exited one stop short of our stop for the night and visited Monastiere Boice and it's magnificent high crosses and round tower. I've been here before, but again, this is a place that “speaks” to me with it's ancient ruins and meticulous artwork that have lasted so many years telling the story of the bible on the high crosses.

I had wished there was time to visit New Grange or Knowth, but we wanted to get checked into our B&B for the night and didn't have directions, so getting there was a bit of a trick. We made it safe and sound and will be up early tomorrow to head for the airport to Scotland.

Just a little note here. As I've written I realized that I was totally remiss in getting a picture of Eugene. Now that would have been one to discuss! LOL

Looking forward to new adventures.

July 1

Lough Swilley

July 1st

I'm really having trouble keeping track of days and dates, so I hope this is correct. I'm writing this a day late because Sarah and I were having a little craic last night. So here's a recap of yesterday's marvelous drive.

We were all set to go our own way to the Giant's Causeway when another helpful Irish gentleman answered a question as I was leaving the breakfast area. I found it quite interesting that in the Republic the mileage is listed as kilometers and in the North it's listed as miles. I was wondering why, and were the miles the same as what we consider a mile. It seems that England uses the same mileage as we do while all the rest of the EU uses the metric system with kilometers. Leave it to England to be contrary. Works for me!

Anyway this friendly Irishman, as they all are, I'm finding out, asked where we were off to and how we were getting there. Sarah has been the navigator as late and happened along at that time. After some discussion with him, she hopped in the car and announced we'd be taking a diversion to our planned route that would make us all very happy. Needless to say, thanks to that gentleman we were directed to the Antrim Coast Drive. Very narrow at some times and very 'bendy', as the Irish say here, it was incredibly beautiful. The wild and rugged coastline of County Antrim I'm sure has very few rivals. I still have to sort through those pictures and will post one, but it will hardly be representative of the view we saw.

Our first site after a while on the drive was the Carrik-a-rede Rope Bridge. It's a rope bridge high above the ocean below. Sort of a dare devil type thing that none of us wanted to try. Better for another day.

I should mention that when we left in the morning it was a typical Irish sprinkle, but by the time we were along the coast drive the weather had cleared except for some normal Antrim fog.

After the rope bridge we arrived at Giant's Causway. Again, posting a picture is hardly representative of this amazing site. The basalt columns are “giant” to say the least. If it had been drier we might have climbed out further, but I'll leave that for when any of you visit the Causeway. Truly a geological phenomenum.

The Causeway was followed up by a visit to Bushmill's Distillery. The oldest licensed distillery in the world – 1608 – and they celebrated their 400th birthday last year with a new blend – 1608 – that I had the opportunity to taste. I'm not a big whiskey drinker, but this stuff was definitely smooth and carmelly tasting. The unique thing about all Irish whiskey is that they are distilled 3 times. By the 3rd time the alcohol content is about 85%. They mix that with special still water to bring it to 60% and that is called spirit. After years in oak casks it becomes the whiskey that we know today. The process was fascinating.

We did a quick stop by Dunluce castle that is falling into the ocean – the first mishap when the Dunluce family was living there was when the kitchen fell off when the edge of the cliff crumbled and 14 servants fell to their death along with it. Still the remains are a site to behold.

We then headed “home” to our B&B and stopped in the pub for a quick drink before dinner and a chat with one of the regulars. Our friendly guys from the night before were no where to be seen. (There's another story to these friendly guys about the night before that will have to wait for another post, but it seems that Sarah and I had made quite an impression on these lonely guys).

After dinner Sarah and I decided it was too early – or actually too light out (it was 8:30pm) to stay cooped up in our room, so we headed out and ended up in our favorite pub occupied only by, Eugene the cute young bartender, and had a few and a really nice chat with Eugene covering a whole spectrum of topics, until we dragged ourselves away and up to bed.

So ends our Wednesday.

June 30

I wanted to upload this the other day when we toured Derry. It's one of many mural depicting the time of the troubles. This is of a girl who was caught in the crossfire on her way to school.

Just a little Guinness!

Today we actually took it a little easy so I wasn't driving for hours at a time and went to see some local sights. We finally made it to the Tyrone Crystal factory and took the tour and did a little shopping in their showroom. Really beautiful stuff and I did treat myself to an amazing vase with a Celtic design on it. I was so tempted to purchase more, but restrained myself wisely.

We did attempt to see the Wellbrook Beetling Mill (the area is know for its linens), but tours don't open until tomorrow and the same for a place called The Argory – a neoclassical mansion. Tomorrow has other plans and we won't be able to make it back at this time.

After the crystal factory we did make a stop at the library in Dungannon to get internet access. We're finding it unusually difficult to find internet cafes here in Northern Ireland and if the B&B doesn't have wireless (which we don't for the next 2 nights) it will take longer to get posts up. I'm hopeful for access on Thursday night when we are back in the Republic before we leave for Scotland.

Okay, so now back to the title of my post. After our touring today Georgann decided to check out the local library while Sarah and I decided to check in at the pub connected with our B&B. As a good tourist should, we took a seat at the bar and ordered our drinks – Sarah a Jameson on the rocks, and a half pint of Guinness for me. I've found that the half pint works really well. Not too much, and just enough for a happy hour before dinner.

So sitting at the bar first the bartender started a conversation with us and before we knew it we had made 3 new friends with the gentlemen sitting at the bar – Seamas, Paul, and John. I should mention that we also met Martin, but he made a quick stop by and didn't stay. The next thing we know there is a fresh drink place in front of us, courtesy of Paul (he was the most talkative of the group). We continued chatting about where we had been and what we had seen, among other random topics and suddenly another round appeared to replace the one we had finished. This one courtesty of John. Seems these pub fixtures (regulars) have adopted us and are hoping we return tomorrow after touring. That remains to be seen!

I do know that ordering a half pint to start with was a very wise decision, or I would have had to drink 3 pints and been 3 sheets to the wind before we even had dinner. As it was Sarah and I returned to our room giggling all the way up the 3 flights of stairs! After a quick freshening up, we headed to dinner, with me driving relatively sober, but still in great spirit.

Unfortunately we didn't know that our new pub friends would be back all spiffed up later that night for more craic. We didn't know and after dinner we headed to our rooms. For that I feel very sad.

Love these Irish men! ROFLOL

Checking in

Just a quick post here for those of you who are following along. We just arrived in Scotland - Glasgow to be exact - this afternoon and since we had not accessed email for a few days wanted to spend a little time catching up this afternoon.
I have two blogs to post from the last couple of days in Ireland and hope to get back to the library tomorrow to get them posted. As it is I only have about 10 minutes left on my time here and wanted to catch everyone up a little.

Time has been flying by and I can hardly believe we only have 4 more days over here. They will be jam packed for sure. The weather the last couple of days has been a little iffy with some sprinkles and some downpours. In fact as I look out the window it looks like it could pour down any minute. Hope it holds off until we get back to our B&B.

Just wanted to say HI to all and wish you all a very Happy 4th of July. More to come later.