Zetland Country House Cashel

... at some point and make it all the way to the peak.

When we got down we stopped at the Irish Famine Memorial which was really interesting. It is a large metal ship, but its covered with skeletons in memory of all the people who died on "the coffin ships" when they were emigrating out of Ireland. It was a pretty moving sight and I am glad that we stopped there....

Alot of these pictures have the same title, but they are different

This morning we had a wonderful breakfast of Susan Daly’s French toast and chatted with the others in our breakfast room. We met people from Connecticut, Arizona, and California and had fun sharing our travel stories. Then it was time to get into our car and drive into the Burren.

The Burren is a very rocky area--some places have an almost moon-like quality. There is beauty to be found in it, though. Our first ...

... Islands . Inisheer has a population of about 600. that's about 100 less than in our home town of Langhorne. They mostly depend on tourism since the fishing trade has dwindled due to over fishing in the Galway bay. When we disembarked we were hailed by the many pony cart drivers that were waiting to give tours of the island. Jim and I had our hearts set on biking the island so we passed by the cute carts and arrived at the bike rental shop. The very ...

... credit cards for a quick lunch.
We continued on to our castle adventure.
When we finally arrived at Ashford Castle we were amazed at the beautiful setting the approach is a long drive through a forest, you cross a bridge and there it is, the castle. The service is definitely 5 star. The entire staff was there to make us comfortable and make sure our experience was beyond our expectations. And it was beyond our ...

My bag has been packed. And re-packed. And unpacked. And squished.
I've informed the hotel of my late arrival.
I've got (some) foreign cash.
My electrical batteries are charged.
My print outs are in a waterproof folder in a waterproof bag.


Agh!

... to be worth the wait. We had a delightful Greek salad, Morrocan crab salad with apple slaw, asparagus soup, fillet with bernaise sauce, broccolini with hazelnuts and potatoes au gratin. We were so amazingly full that we couldn't even think about dessert - (which was available as a full blown sundae...yeah...like the one in the Seinfeld episode...) I read the new camera operations manual while Kip watched Madagascar II. Then...I ...

Today I left Dublin for Cashel. Before picking up the car, I went to the book of Kells, which was finally open. This and the long room of the trinity college library were really amazing. The colour and detail still present in the book of Kells (made in the 8th century) and some of the other books on display - were absolutely amazing. Even though I got there rather early - it was quite ...

There was no chance of us accidentally driving past the Rock of Cashel, seeing as it towers over everything around, although it did take us a while to find the car park. Seeing as there were so many coaches when we arrived, we decided to go for a walk around the town rather than try and fight our way through the crowds at this ancient monument. We wandered through the small town and out of one end before we realised. This bought us out near the ruined Hore Abbey and ...

This is our day back to Dublin. First stop at Cashel. Cashel is a town that lives under the protection of the Rock of Cashel, a cluster of medieval monuments dominating the landscape. Next to this historical site, there is a nice coffee shop - Granny's Kitchen - with quality soup and bakery. Recommendable.

This is a trip combining business with pleasure. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes we really hated the "business" part. Arrival at Shannon airport to a beautiful sunny morning! After defrosting the rental car windshield with our hands and trying not to look too touristy by trying to get into the wrong side of the car we are off. First challenges are the round-a-bouts after exiting the airport. Keep reminding ourselves to look right for oncoming traffic, and ...