The girls’ fall break found us in Ireland this year. We are
so glad we chose this destination, we all really enjoyed exploring a little of
the Emerald Isle.
We started in Dublin doing the usual city things. We walked
through the Temple Bar area. When I
first heard of Temple Bar I assumed it was a bar. But no, it’s the walking
district in Dublin filled with restaurants and shops. Then we walked over to
the shopping area known as Grafton Street, similar to many big cities and
always fun to explore.
We used the Hop On Hop Off bus to seem the wide expanse of the city which was a
good way to see many of the sites. We also toured the Kilmainham Gaol. The tour was quite
informative and definitely peaked our interested to learn more about Irish
history and independence.
Last on our top things to do in Dublin was visiting the
Guiness Storehouse, this is a museum dedicated to all things Guinness. Steve
especially enjoyed this stop. Steve and I took a short class to learn how to pour the perfect Guinness - perfect on the first try! We had a
great lunch at Gilroy’s and then all enjoyed a bit of Guinness in the Gravity
Bar at the top. The 360 view of Dublin was really amazing and a nice place to
have a drink.
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| Apparently the most famous gate in Ireland |
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| Steve perfecting the "perfect pour" |
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| Missy & Steve |
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| Rachel & Stefanie in the Gravity Bar |
Steve and I managed to squeeze a whiskey in at the Brazenhead too. It is the oldest pub in Dublin. It is a
crowded maze of rooms one leading into another. There were dollar bills with
comments on them all over the walls. Of course the first one I saw was a “Go
Blue”! Seriously, in Dublin, but have no fear, I quickly spotted a Go Bucks one
over Steve’s head!
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| O-H-I-O! |
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| Whatever |
After two days we were ready to explore the countryside.
Steve was brave and was our left hand side of the road driver. We
drove to Kilkenney for the medieval St Canis Cathedral and Smithwicks brewery.
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| Kilkenney - why is it so quiet? Turns out it was a bank holiday! |
St Canis was a different sort of church for us but the sheer age of everything was fascinating.
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| St Canis |
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| St Canis |
The tour at Smithwicks was a good one that we all enjoyed. Afterwards we had lunch at a fabulous Italian restaurant, - Restaurant Rinucci - possibly the best spaghetti we have ever had.
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| Smithwicks Brewery |
Next was a drive to the Rock of Cashel. Every guidebook, website, Ireland travel information source recommended visiting these ruins. They are quite impressive situated high atop a hill. It is supposedly the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick. The weather had been horrible all day but thankfully it stopped raining just long enough for us to explore.
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| The girls were super excited by the informational video! |
Next was Cobh for the evening, I had picked this town to
stay in specifically for a picture I wanted Steve to take but it turned out to
be a great place to stop. And we got this amazing photo, and I’m not wrong to
say it was totally worth it.
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| Not to be missed |
We also went on a ghost tour since that was something Rachel
really wanted to do. And while the guide
shared plenty of spooky stories we also learned a bit about the history of the
town too. Including it is the second largest natural harbor (Sydney is the
first), this was the last stop of the Titanic (of course it has a museum), the
Luisitania sunk near here and the first person registered at Ellis Island –
Annie Moore was from Cobh.
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| Annie Moore |
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| Steve & Rachel |
Next on our list was Jameson Distillery. This was the best
of the three brewery/distillery places we visited. It was a fantastic and super
informative tour. Our guide was very enthusiastic and you really get to see a
lot of what was actually used to make the whiskey. Plus now I have a new
favorite cocktail – Jameson’s and Ginger!
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| Rachel & Stefanie |
Afterwards we drove to Dingle Pennisula. As we drove the
scenery just continued to get more and more beautiful. When we came around a
corner and were greeted by crashing waves we knew we had to stop for a photo.
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| Rachel & Stefanie |
Steve wanted us to go put our feet in the water but we were too cold that
night! Driving around the Pennisula the next day was breathtaking.
We stopped to explore quite a bit including coastlines, medieval forts and even
found ourselves climbing a rocky area – this was actually our favorite part, we
really enjoyed the climb and the views!
We could have spent much more time driving around and stopping to see
things, I see now why the guidebooks allow so many days for exploring Ireland!
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| Stefanie Irish dancing at the beach |
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| Rachel |
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| Rachel |
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| Stefanie |
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| The photographer at work |
We ended our stay at with a fun splurge Drumoland Castle, a
spa hotel in of course a castle. It was
a beautiful place and while the girls had facials and manicures there was even
clay pigeon shooting for Steve.
While here we also visited the famous Cliffs of Moher. It was a little foggy but the sheerness of the cliffs is absolutely breathtaking AND scary! People were making us a little nervous getting too close to the edge!
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| Rachel & Stefanie |
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| Steve & Missy |
