Ireland - October 2012

Vicki and I were lucky to get away for a week or so to visit Ireland. My parents offered to watch Kyra so it was very nice for us to spend some time together and experience a place we have both wanted to visit for some time. We mostly ate, drank, hiked and drove around; not necessarily in that order. The weather was quite good we were told, which meant we saw some sun everyday. It was actually quite pleasant and although it rained every day as well, the climate was very tolerable. We both found Ireland to be very rich in beauty, history and culture. The people were very welcoming and merry. The beer did not disappoint and to my surprise, the food was excellent. Please enjoy the following pictures, they speak for themselves but I'll add a little bit of commentary anyway. Enjoy!

Hope you can read fast, intersections like this one above are the norm. A few hours south of Shannon is the quaint little town of Kenmare. As it is widely knows as the culinary and artistic capital of the country, it had to be our first destination. View from the window of our B and B below.

There are more sheep in Ireland than people. Here is one of them.

To fight off jet lag, on our first day we took a little drive around part of the Beara Peninsula. We found a nice little coastal hike with this cool seaside cave.

We were rewarded with some great sunshine on our first day throughout our hike along these cliffs.

I felt compelled to share this one with all the "Soaring-Shu Shu" followers.

View of Kenmare River on our drive around the Ring of Kerry.

Stone pyramids in a random coastal town.

This fort was built in 400 AD and is still standing.

The beaches were actually quite nice. The water is relatively warm due to the gulf stream that brings warm currents all the way up from the Caribbean.

Vicki on her favorite beach

Cemetary on cliff overlooking beach. I'd not have a problem being buried here.

Vicki on Ring of Kerry road with farms in background.

Big cliffs, Ireland has lots of cliffs.

Ireland also has lots of beers. They are really good about matching the beer with the glass. Makes it hard to hide what you're drinking. We mostly only drank Irish beers, but we were surprised in the abundant availability of Budweiser and Coors. Found it a bit disappointing that they would allow such grog adjacent to great stouts like Guinness and Beamish.

We took many wrong turns and many "roads to nowhere". This one paid off with some cool lakes and nice views.

One of our favorite places in Ireland was here at The Gap of Dunloe. We almost didn't take the time to see it and that truly would have been a travesty.

Vicki really liked this valley. It was quiet and pretty.

Our B and B in Kenmare was awesome. The lady, Hanna, who ran the place was very welcoming and sweet. Her meals were outstanding and kept us going the whole day strong. Vic and her really hit it off and she is a great lady that we will always think of when we reflect upon our time in Kenmare.

View of Killarney National Park from a hike we took

It rains a lot so lots of stuff is green, like these trees.

Muckross House-the main estate in Killarney National Park

We spent some time in Kilkeney. They have a castle there. This is it.

They also have this tall thing, which we climbed.

In Dublin this prison housed all sorts of important Irish prisoners, but also petty theives. Many of them were fighting for a free and independent Ireland. The tour there was almost over informative. Mind blowing to hear such tales in their history. I cannot do it justice. If you are interested please research the Kilmainham Jail.

We had some good times soaking up Irish culture in many different pubs. This is one of them.

And this is one too.

We went to several drinking establishments. One of our favorites was The Long Hall.

Last Guinness in Ireland, things tend to get a bit blurry after that.