Ring of Kerry

The next morning started with a drive to Cork to see the Cork Butter Museum.  Yes, you read that right.  I (Jenn) thought it would be a different thing to go to - seriously, when was the last time you saw a museum dedicated to butter?  I sorta expected it to be more interactive where you could churn butter or milk a cow, but it was more educational and the history of the butter industry in Ireland.  It was still worth going to, but, unfortunately, no free samples ;)

From Cork we drove to Killarney to visit Ross Castle on the shores of the Lakes of Killarney.  When we pulled in this was the sign in front of our car:

The Irish take their dog poo seriously

We explored the castle a little bit, but we took a boat ride off Lough Leane to see the scenic shoreline and ruins of monasteries.

 Ross Castle

 One of the few times it was overcast and drizzly on us.  Luckily, we were on a boat the whole time with a cover!

Innisfallen Monastery is on an island in the middle of the lake.  You have to canoe to dock there.  We were planning on taking the canoe, but it was pretty cold and rainy so I made the executive decision to ride in the covered boat.  I would've been miserable on the canoe on the way (which means Matt would've been miserable) back because it was raining pretty good.  We were happy with the narrated boat cruise.

After we docked back at the castle we got in the car to ride around the lake and stopped at Torc Waterfall.  By this time it had stopped raining so we went off to see what we could find.  It was definitely worth the hike.

 Torc Waterfall

 Creek at the bottom of the waterfall

Our last stop on the way out of Killarney was Muckross Abbey.  This was an ancient monastery, but it remains in pretty good shape.  The most interesting feature (which probably wasn't original to the building) was that it had a giant tree growing in the middle of it.

 This was the huge tree

The monastery was pretty neat because you could go on multiple floors and there were all sorts of fireplaces.  There was also a cemetery in the back that had a lot of wooden crosses by the grave markers.  I thought that was pretty unusual because I suspect they don't weather well, but we saw them at many cemetaries in Ireland.

From here we headed to our Bed and Breakfast and had dinner nearby.  What was the best part of dinner, might you ask?  THEY SERVED US TWO FORMS OF POTATOES!  This was when I knew I could be happy in Ireland.  I can get on board with any country that serves two forms of potatoes in one meal.  Now we know the real cause of the potato famine.

Surprise Ending

We started day two with a big Irish breakfast at the bed and breakfast.  Seriously, it's a lot of food: eggs, sausage, tomato, toast and bacon.  BUT IT'S NOT REALLY BACON!  IT'S HAM!  And I was tricked every time I saw the word bacon.  Those Irish are tricksters.  Anyways...

From there we went to Waterford to see the crystal factory.  It was pretty cool to actually watch them blow the glass and etch it by hand.  The gift shop was cool to walk through, too, just to see all the dinnerware, glasses, decorative items and other items they had there not for sale, but just to look at.

 Grandfather clock made of crystal

 Taking the crystal out of the oven.  They said it had to be 35% lead to be considered crystal.

 Etching the vase

 My knight with his sword

You hear the sound of cash registers when you walk up.  Just kidding!

From there we drove to the Rock of Cashel.  The Rock of Cashel is a historic church complex on top of a mountain.  Some of the buildings date from the 10th Century, but the carvings look like they were made yesterday because they're still very recognizable.

 This is the main cathedral.  The tower is the oldest building standing on the property.  To the left, they are working on a section of the church.

A view from a portion of the cemetery overlooking farmland.

Our last major stop of the day was to Cahir Castle.  There was been a castle there since the 12th century right beside the river.  It was more typical of what you think a castle would look like - it didn't have a moat, but had the river on one side of it.

 Ducks swimming along the river.  There is no way these ducks will ever go hungry - there was not a shortage of kids wanting to feed them.

 Pretty people in front of pretty flowers.

The backside of the castle - there's not bad side to it.

After we left the castle, we ate the best caesar salad bagel you could ever imagine.  The bagel was so soft and the dressing was amazing.  It makes me hungry just thinking about it.  After lunch we drove to Cobh to check into our bed and breakfast.  Cobh was the last stop of the Titanic to America.  It was probably also where Matt's great-grandfather left Ireland for America (not on the Titanic).  There is also a beautiful cathedral there named St. Colman's Cathedral overlooking the harbor.  While walking around the town we got some pretty good pictures of it - the best taken from the Bishop's residence.  I don't think it was private property, but I'm not sure if it is public property, either.  Oh, well...

 St. Colman's Cathedral from the harbor

St. Colman's Cathedral from the bishop's residence

When we got back to the Bed and Breakfast, guess what?!  OUR LUGGAGE WAS THERE!  We were soooo happy!  It was kinda ironic because we had just gotten back from buying some shirts and other necessities, but we had our own things again, so we didn't care.  Besides, the shirt I bought as a replacement is super cute, so I'm glad that I had a reason to buy it :)

First Impressions

Our first stop from the airport was Glendalough in County Wicklow.  Glendalough is a monastery from around the 10th century that survived Viking raids, but was abandoned in the 1500s.

 Seriously, this was the first picture I took in Ireland.  Dang.  This is probably my favorite one of the entire trip. 

There were sheep.  They didn't like me.  They immediately ran away when I went up to the fence.

From there we headed to Kilkenny and our first castle.  Kilkenny castle is furnished like it would've been in the 1800s when it was home to local nobility.

While we were in Kilkenny we ate lunch at a tavern that opened in the 1300s.  A woman ran it as a tavern and a brothel.  She is said to have killed four husbands and escaped from being burned as a witch.  She's my role model.

We were getting tired by this point - duh - but we decided to visit Jerpoint Abbey as planned.  We happened to get there about the time they were starting a tour which was super informative.  We learned that in the summer the monks would get up at 3 a.m. to begin work and continued until sun down around 10 p.m.  Being a monk was tough.  

After the tour was over we decided to head off and find our first Bed and Breakfast.  When we got there and the host let us into the house she asked if we were from England.  We said no and shared we were from America.  Disappointed, she replied, "Oh, I was hoping you were from England and related to Nigel Lawson"!  BWAHAHAHAHA!  I told her we had a dog named Nigel, but that probably wasn't who she was talking about.  When we got up to our room we basically crashed and literally slept 13 hours.  We. Were. Exhausted.

Our first Bed and Breakfast

Chickens at our first Bed and Breakfast

We Have Take-Off!

We left for Ireland two weeks ago from today.  That seems a little crazy to me - it seems like a lot longer than that.  It was such a full trip that it seems like it happened a month ago. I thought we better recap our trip sooner rather than later so we don't forget anything (which we inevitably will).

We stayed with our friend Yara the night before our flight because she was taking us to the airport so we could leave our car at her house instead of parking at the airport.  We also got to see her boyfriend, Daniel, and dog, Charlie, so that was a bonus.  As soon as we got to the airport and tried to check-in we hit our first snafu of the trip - they said we weren't booked to leave until the following day.  I thought Matt was going to have a coronary.  We showed them our confirmation number and flight information, but since we booked through Aer Lingus and the first flight was through United, they said that Aer Lingus booked a non-existent United flight so we had no way of getting to D.C. to make our flight to Dublin.  We gave them our last name again and tried to start over when the lady then said, "Oh, yes, here you are, we have you booked for a flight to Kuwait".  When she handed over the boarding pass I saw that it wasn't our name on it so I wasn't worried, but Matt panicked and was like, "WHAT???!"  I was amused.  Matt was not.  Long story short, I got on the phone with Aer Lingus, United figured out what was wrong, and we were set to head to our gate.

While we were getting lunch at the airport we found out our flight was delayed, but since we had a two hour layover in D.C., we weren't that worried.  But once we got to the gate the delay turned from 30 minutes, to and hour, to two hours.  When we finally took off from Atlanta our arrival in D.C. was scheduled to be after the departure of our next flight so we were halfway prepared to miss our flight.  I was mildly hopeful knowing that at least 6 other people on this flight were on our Dublin flight so I thought that perhaps they might hold the plane so they wouldn't have to reroute 6 passengers and pay for all that extra hotel rooms.  We de-boarded the plane and ran to our next gate - we made it!  Apparently, that flight was delayed an hour as well so while we were heading to the gate we heard our names on the overhead speaker saying it was the final boarding call for that flight, but we made it!

We got settled on the plane, watched Taken 3 - how cool is it to watch Liam Neeson on the way to Ireland?! - had dinner, played some games and tried to get some sleep.  We weren't very successful at sleeping, but it was an easy flight and we arrived in Dublin at 6:00 a.m. ready to go!

When we landed we went to baggage claim, and lo, and behold, our baggage wasn't there.  I think if we had been in the U.S. and went to the claims office we would've been ticked and annoyed about losing our luggage.  But we were in Ireland and the workers were just so nice and accommodating - when it wasn't even them who lost it! - that all was good and we were happy just to be in Ireland and on vacation.  We picked up our car and took off!