“At’ll be Turteen Turty Tree”. My son looked at me in terror, having no idea what the cashier meant. I said to him, “it’s Thirteen Thirty Three”. He seemed relieved to count out his money.
The Emerald Isle.
Ireland is a fascinating place. Not just because both of us have roots there. But rather that there are so many historic places and geologic marvels to take in.
We’ve been fortunate to have been to Ireland twice. Once as a family trip we traveled with friends who were born in the UK along with their children. Our youngest then was 16 years old. When we went back years later for a Penn State Football game held in a stadium in Dublin, 4 of our 5 kids joined us. Or as they were the ones who attended Penn State, we should say we really were joining them.
The first time
The first time we only went for a few days. After spending a few days in Wales, we took the car ferry into Dublin and worked our way down the coast to Waterford.
We stayed in a quaint bed and breakfast that used to be a castle in days gone by. The hosts were very nice. They would ask you what you wanted for breakfast at night, and again in the morning. And if there was one piece of toast missing out of the rack of 8 pieces on the table, they bring a whole new rack with 8 more pieces.
Waterford is home to the famous Waterford Crystal Factory where they hand make the pieces that sell all over the world. Even though they were closed for the season (see pour advice on Timing trips), we were able to take a tour, and ended up with some very nice pieces.
One of the days, we made our way to Cork, Ireland and did some shopping. This is where the opening statement came from when our son couldn’t understand the cashier.
Even though we were close, we did not make it to the Blarney Stone. Rumor has it Gary doesn’t need to kiss it.
The second time
The second time we went for 11 days. This trip we rented a car as well. We flew the red eye into Shannon Airport and drove 3.5 hours straight to Dublin. Later that night 4 of our kids and us met up at a bar in Dublin to celebrate. It was that very night we discovered it really is a Small World.
We stayed in a flat that we booked from AirBnB. On the site, the guy who rented our room offered to cook guests an authentic Irish stew upon request. We requested. When we took our first bite of the stew, we looked at each other and smiled. It tasted just like Dianne’s stew. The only thing different was that our host’s had turnips.
After spending time with our children and the football game, we headed up to Northern Ireland.
What we did
This is where we discovered the world of castles. Driving out of Dublin we hit up Carrickfergus Castle on the way to Belfast. We had seen the write up for it, and thought it would be fun to explore.
From Belfast we checked out the Giant’s Causeway.
Later that night we found ourselves once again Finding Accommodations on the fly. Our BnB host politely and casually told us they’d been diagnosed with cancer that morning and they weren’t up to hosting that night. Of course we completely understood, even though that meant we had to find a new place to stay at 9pm at night in a remote area. With virtually no cell service to look for alternate accommodations.
And we did just fine. In fact, it was second of four international trips where we found ourselves Finding Accommodations “on the fly”.
There are so many historic castles and churches that sometimes we would stop on the side of the road and explore.
Once we got to Galway, we had our second finding accommodations on the fly for this trip. The place we’d booked was nothing like the pictures. When we ended up switching, we opted for something closer to town so we could walk. This is where we did our famous Cliffs of Moher – Aran Islands tour.
Even having been to Ireland twice, we feel like there’s still a lot more to see!