IRELAND

After a nice flight we arrived in Dublin and settled into our hotel. The next morning we met up with Mavis for breakfast then met Marsha and Robert who were the only others in our group. We will be totally spoiled by having a 16 passenger coach shared by only 5 people. We set off for Galway and our first stop was the Rock of Dunamase on which sits the remains of a medieval castle. We climbed up to explore the ruins and take in the beautiful, green scenery for which Ireland is so famous.

We stopped along the way to Ashford Castle which is now a very expensive, fancy hotel that boasts of a gazillion luninaries that have stayed there. There is a footpath along the river that takes you to the village of Cong where part of the "Quiet Man" was filmed and the pub where a famous brawl occured. Most of the cast stayed in Ashford Castle. We really liked this village and would have enjoyed spending more time there but we had to get on our way.

We visited Birr Castle which is inhabited so we were going to see their gardens and famous telescope but it was raining fairly heavily so we decided to forego the gardens and just see the giant telescope. Little did we know that this would be Ireland's rainiest August in recorded history - so much for my boasting that we always have good weather when we travel.

Day 2 takes us to Connemara National Park and to Kylemore Abbey which is now used by the Irish Benedictine Order of Nuns which we toured.

Day 3 we wend our way to the Cliffs of Moher which we understand are magnificent. However, even though we clumb 75,000 steps to the top, in the rain, in the fog, we couldn't appreciate the beauty. That being said, what we did see was spectacular.

Next the Burren which is a most unusual rocky landscape and we went into Aillwee Cave and visited the Poulnabrone Neolithic tomb in which the remains of 30 bodies were found.

Day 4 we arrived at the walled town of Athenry where we visited the castle that dates back to 1235. The interior has been restored and we were lucky to have a private guide take us around and tell us all about it.

We then went for a tour by train across a bog to see how peat is gathered - more rain . . . boring . . . we didn't like this at all. From there we visited Athlone Castle which has a museum showing the military history of the town.

Today we go to Newgrange which is a fascinating Stone Age tomb that date back to 3200 BC which is older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt. It was built so well that, 5,000 years later, the roof is still totally waterproof. You enter through a very narrow passageway into a small chamber (it was crowded with 16 people inside). Above the entry is an opening and, on the first day of winter the people would gather in the chamber and at dawn, the rising sun reaches the opening above the door and floods the chamber with light. They turned off all the lights and we were in total darkness. All of the huge stones surrounding the tomb are standing as they were when it was built as is the interior. How these people could move the stones and have the ability to construct such a place is totally beyond me.

From here we visited the Hills of Tara which was the spiritual and political center of Ireland until the coming of St. Patrick.

Day six takes us to Northern Ireland and the walled city of Londonderry. In Southern Ireland, all the signs have Gaelic first, then English. Also, the currency is the Euro. Once we went over the border, the signs were only in English and the currency was Irish Sterling.

We drove to the Giant's Causeway. It's hard to describ but consists of over 35,000 (I counted all of them) basalt columns that stretch all the way to Scotland.

One of the highlights was the Ulster-American Folk Park which is an open air museum that tells the story of the emigration from Ulster to North America in the 18th century. We started in a typical Irish village and there were about 15 authentic buildings that had been moved there from places throughout the country. At the end of the village you enter Ulster Street, a recreation of 19th century shops using storefronts brought in from local villages. The street leads you to the docks where you board an exact replica of a 19th century sailing ship. When you leave the ship, you're in Pennsylvania where you enter an American street. This museum really shows the hardships the people went through to come to our great country.

Day 8 - our trip to Blarney should have taken about an hour but, because of flooded roads, we had to turn around at least 4 times to find one that wasn't under water - the trip took over two hours. We went to the Rock of Cashel on which is the ruins of a cathedral. We also visited the Cathedral of St. Candice.

Day nine takes us to Bantry House, a stately home which I didn't care for that much but the gardens were very nice. Later in the day we went to Mizen Head, one of the highlights of the trip for me. We walked down a loooong path that took us to a suspension bridge over a very deep chasm then to the end and an old lighthouse station. The scenery was beautiful. Sadly, we had to walk up that looooong path but I enjoyed having some exercise after sitting so much in the coach.

Next was the 19th century village of Kinsale where we had a very interesting guided tour.

On our last day we visited Waterford but didn't go through the factory and our last stop was the very interesting Glendalough (the glen of the two lakes) which is an ancient monastic settlement which has the ruins of seven churches and a 6th century round tower.

From here we came back to Dublin where we, sadly, had to say goodbye to everyone and prepare for our long trip home.

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