Thursday, August 30th: Arriving in Upperchurch

Today was checkout day at Spencer Docks. We got everything packed and then checked the weights of our bags at this point to see how we're doing. All looks like we'll be OK for the flight back home next Friday.

We headed southwest out of the city along the same route taken on our Kilkenny trip. We stopped near
New Inn along the M7 at the Gannon Inn for lunch. Also filled the car's fuel tank with diesel, our first fill up since we arrived. 75 euro at $1.59 euro per liter. Quick estimate of cost: about 3.8 liters in a gallon, so 6.04 euro per gallon. 1 euro = $1.25 so about $ 7.55 per gallon.  And diesel is about 0.10 euro per liter cheaper than gasoline. Gasoline is about $8.07 per gallon!!

On the road again, we took the M8 now onto Thurles. Pretty big "city", large shopping plaza located
there. We drove through Thurles and quite a few turns few turns and 20 km later we're in Upperchurch and headed up the "road" to our cottage. I say road with a laugh because at home this would be a farm path at best. One lane, twisting, bumpy, no shoulders (well, there's a hedge!), and the speed limit is
80 kph (50 mph). Most everyone tries to go that fast, too.

We found the cottage - looked just like it did in the Google Earth view! Our booking agent soon showed up with the keys and gave us a quick tour. The owners have everything labelled as to what it is and how it works. The agent left us to unpack a bit and returned with a big box full of milk, eggs, juice, cereal, etc.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Upperchurch. Next, a phone call....

We were meeting up with another person we know from Celtic Woman, Maggie Ryan. She is Irish through and through. She now lives in Orlando, but all her family is in Tipperary. We drove back into Thurles and parked. As we walked down the street she came running up and gave Kasey a big hug and then Cindy and then me and Eric. It was like we all knew her our whole lives.

Then off we went on a short road tour of her hometown, Loughmore. It just happens to be the hometown of
a fiddler named Mairead Nesbitt, from Celtic Woman, too. We drove around the town and Maggie provided us with its history. We stopped at The Cottage for a quick snack. Cindy had carrot cake and I had chocolate cake and ice cream. Delicious. Then the owner asked us to come out back to the patio - we were
greeted with one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. There, through the trees, was
Loughmore Castle. Stunning doen't do it justice. It is on private property and is not open to any tours. So, all one can do is admire it from a dstance. Pictures were taken and we headed up to the Abbey Cemetery for some more history and pictures. We ended our tour of Loughmore at the local pub, Stapleton's.
What else would expect us to do?

Next, we headed off to Maggie's relatives in town, the Maher's, Tony, Siobhan (pronounced sha-vonne), and daughter Caiohme (pronounced kwee-va).  We had a nice conservation over some tea (the other what else??).

Time now to get ready to go to THE highlight of this part of the trip, Jim O'Mills. Every Thursday Jim opens his home/pub to anyone and everyone interested in listening to, singing, or playing music. Tony offered to pick us up before and drop us off afterwards! A very nice gesture on his part. We've  heard the sessions can go until 2 to 3 in the morning, but Tony said it would be earlier since his daughter had school.

Jim's gets very crowded! We got there about 9:30 and found some of the last seats in the main room, a space about 16 x 16 feet. There were probably 30 people in there! Guitars, fiddles, pipes, drums,
banjos, harmonicas, to name some of the instruments people had. Someone would start, and the others
would join in. When the music stopped, anyone with something to offer could start. Many sang without instrumental help and many times multiple people played their instruments. Tony sang a couple songs - he sounded to me like the stereotypical Irish singer. Very nice. His daughter, the youngest one there at 15, played a beautiful fiddle and sang with her guitar. Talented young lady.

Lots of beer poured all night long. It became VERY crowded over time as many people showed up,
many more than usual. We found out that some had traveled from Dublin (2 hours) to come to Jim's.
They were Notre Dame fans here for the weekend football game vs. Navy. Even the lineman who played
for Notre Dame and threw the block that allowed Rudy (of movie fame) to score was there. Very cool.

About 1:30 a.m., Tony decided he needed to get his daughter home so offered us a ride first. Cindy and I were ready, not sure about Kasey and Eric. But they came along because there would be no other way for them to get the mile or so back to our cottage.  Tony's daughter, Caiohme, is to the right in the last picture playing her fiddle.

We had turned the heat on in the cottage to take some of the chill and dampness out. We fell asleep
pretty quickly.

The pictures below show some of the things I mentioned above. I'm finding this blog software to be a pain at placing images within the area of the text, so I'm placing them all at the bottom.

Wednesday, August 29 at the Brazen Head

Today ended up being a rest day and "finish up any Dublin details" day.  Cindy and I had a quiet morning walking around the Spencer Docks area and then headed off to the Brazen Head where we would be meeting up with Kasey and Eric (after their shopping trip to Guinness) and Maggie Ryan. She was coming in from the airport via bus. It ended up that Maggie and we didn't quite connect on what was going on so she missed seeing us at Brazen Head. We instead would meet up with her in Loughmore tomorrow afternoon.

The only pictures today are from the Brazen Head.  The sign out front and plaque inside give the history of the Pub, and then there's a couple shots of the courtyard before entering the actual building. It had sprinkled a bit so they had extended the canopy.

The walls inside were covered with tons of dollar bills all with something different written on them. We found this Yankee-Red Sox one. And Cindy found a couple badges from NY police agencies!

Then back to the apartment for final packing before heading off to Tipperary in the morning.

Tuesday, Aug. 28 at Kilkenny Castle and Waterford

Another road trip today with Eric at the wheel. We used his phone GPS to get us out of the city as fast as we could. First stop was Kilkenny, about an hour or so southwest of Dublin. All "M" interstate highway until we exited for Kilkenny.

First stop was for lunch.
Great restaurant/pub with some very good food.



This is a road through the city of Kilkenny.






Kilkenny Castle






Next, off to Waterford and Waterford Crystal.  Quite an interesting tour. Very hand labor intensive for many pieces. Below are some pictures from the tour. The cheapest item for sale was about $50 US, and that was for a simple bowl. Most expensive item we saw? ~$30,000 US for the Irish Harp, used in the seal of Ireland and reversed by Guinness as their logo.


A form used to create a specific shape, in this case an American football.

Using a lathe to create a new form.

The finished football.

Copy of 9/11 piece donated to the NYC Fire Department.

On the way home, we decided to take a trip along the east coast of Ireland.  After Waterford, we headed northeast up to Enniscorthy and then on to Arklow. There we caught R750 (remember what I said about "R" roads??) for a 10 mile trip along a "scenic" route (according to our map) right on the east coast of Ireland. The road went from being narrow to very narrow. We had to laugh at the signs indicating the road would narrow ahead when it was just about wide enough for one car now! We came upon a parking area along the beach and pulled in. Several guys were pulling gear out of their cars (including 12' fishing poles) to do some sea bass fishing in the surf. I asked one guy to show me where we were on our map and he jokingly tried to tell me were along the coast way to the southwest of Waterford! We had a good laugh over that one.  A couple pictures and on the way again.  One more stop along the coast at Brittas Bay. On a nice day, this is supposed to be one of Ireland's best beaches. Today it was raw and windy.

Next up, a stop in Wicklow for dinner. We asked a guy at our first stop where we might get a good dinner and he told us a place just after getting into Wicklow. Nice steakhouse but I think we were a bit underdressed! Ha! Good dinner though.

Finally on the road to the apartment.  We got in about 10 pm, tired and ready for sleep.

Wednesday should be an easier day as we can get up later. We meet up with a friend flying over from England as she heads to Tipperary and family. We plan on having lunch at the Brazen Head pub together.  We will probably get a few things washed as well.  We have to leave by 11 am on Thursday to a place we don't have yet! Seems Kasey forgot that August actually has 31 days and didn't book the cottage until Sept. 1st. So, unless we can contact the cottage people, we may be looking for a B&B for a night or two.

The first beach we stopped at, looking north from the south beach location.

 A look offshore at the large windmills in the distance.

A look at the road along the coast. This is one of the wider sections.

 A map to show our coast locations.

A view to the south from the northern beach location. 

Here we are at our first stop. Very blustery. The water

temperature was about like early season Seneca Lake.



Monday, Aug. 27 at Powerscourt Garden

Today was the second road trip, this one off to the south and Powerscourt Garden.  It was also my day to drive!  Driver on the right, 5-speed stick shift on your left hand, and driving on the left! Not something I was looking forward to. Our favorite saying during every turn is to "stay left!".  Traffic lights are a bit odd and road signs have so much on them that you barely have time to read them before you have to make a decision. Many intersections have round-a-bouts which is pretty neat for saving fuel and time. The most you have to do is yield to someone already in the loop. But then you have to be looking for signs to know which exit in the loop you need! Luckily, I had Kasey as my navigator and, having been here before, he had a good idea of where we needed to go.

Ireland isn't all that large and even though the distances on maps looks large, you can get to places pretty quickly.  Our first stop was Powerscourt Gardens, site of the taping of the Celtic Woman DVD "Songs from the Heart".  I was also encouraged by Lisa Kelly to visit the Avoca shop located there. Cindy was only too happy to oblige!  We had a misty day to begin, with the sun making an appearance later on. Typical Irish day!  Below are several pictures to give you some idea of what is there. Even with the rain, many of the flowers were in bloom. Really quite nice.

Then, off to Powerscourt Waterfall. This is often not seen by visiters. It's the highest waterfall in Ireland, 398 feet.  Pretty impressive.



Finally, an Irish "road" and off to Johnnie Fox's, the highest (altitude-wise!), pub in Ireland.

Many of the roads look just like this, especially if it's off the beaten path. The "M" and "N" roads are highways, with "M" being divided highways like an interstate, and "N" roads being like state highways.

"R" roads are somewhere between "N" roads and the road shown here. On roads like the one below, if you meet another car, you slow down, move over as far as you can, and pass. No room to pass? Look for a place where the road widens just enough - you might have to back up!!



After dinner here, we headed back to Dublin arriving just before dark.  And yes, I did drive all day!

Sunday, Aug. 26: Guinness and Trinity College

Sorry this post is late.  We've been pretty busy as you might imagine. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the pictures we take are downloaded into a Dated folder, I don't think I would remember where we've been on what day! LOL

Sunday we went to the Guinness factory for a tour and tasting and then off to Trinity College.  At Guinness you start off with an introduction in a large atrium - almost impossible to hear anything with all the noise around. Then off to a self-guided tour of how Guinness makes their beer. Interesting enough if you want to see the details of how beer is made.  After the tour, they give you a small glass of beer to taste. Even though Cindy and I don't drink beer much at all, it was very good. Then off to some more exhibits before we found our way up to the Gravity Bar, high on top of the company building. There you get a full pint of Guinness and a wonderful view of Dublin. Plus, it was a sunny day!  Sorry to disappoint our beer-drinking friends, but we ended up leaving about a half glass (each!) of Guinness behind. Such a waste, I know.

The beer is first poured in to this level and the bubbles are allowed to rise to create a head.

Then they top the beer off and add the shamrock logo. Mine happened to have a nice bubble right in the middle.

We met a couple, on their honeymoon, from Washington, D.C. but that had friends from the Rochester area. They took our picture.

The Wicklow Hills from the Gravity Bar.

Then off to Trinity College and a nice tour offered by one of the students there. 700 rooms available on campus for a student body of over 16,000! Very competitive to get a room! 

Four Oregon Maples were brought over after a trip to the USA back in the 1800's and planted in the main courtyard. One was hit by lightning and had to be removed. To maintain symmetry, they took down the tree next to it. So, now they have just the 2 trees. The only Oregon Maples in Europe!

The story of this picture is that the building on the left (and its twin across the courtyard) was added later and the architect decided he didn't need to be on campus to oversee the construction project.  So, the buildings were constructed as noted in the plans without regard for what was already there. Seems the alignment wasn't quite right as the eave ended up at the same level as the windows of the previous building.

Saturday, Aug. 25: St. Patricks, Dublin Castle, Jamesons

Sorry this post is late. I've had a little lack of time. Nice problem to have!  I will try to get Sunday and Monday done after returning back to our apartment on Monday afternoon!

Saturday we headed off to the Tall Ships Festival again to see what was going on. Lots of people and lots of activities around the river. We caught a cab downtown to begin the 2-day Hop On, Hop Off Tour. We decided to go through the entire loop (about an hour) to see where we wanted to go on this first day. We chose to do St. Patrick's Cathedral first. Beautiful building, inside and out.

 

Then, breakfast at a local coffee shop. The coffee is very strong and offered in smaller cups. Cindy and I both agree it needs to be treated with cream and sugar!

Next up, Dublin Castle. Before the Tour started, we had a chance to look over the sand sculptures that were in the courtyard. One especially caught my eye.  It was based on the discovery of an equation by an Irish astronomer that is still used today in 3-D graphics creation. One side shows various 3-D figures while the other side shows the story of how the equation was first recorded.

Here's a picture from inside the Castle. Shown here is the huge ballroom where almost every head of state you can think of has dined.

One of things that happened at the Castle in historic times was to keep records of all family names in Ireland. I've told many of you that a DNA test I did through Ancestry.com showed my ancestry to be 100% British Isles; England, Scotland, and Ireland. So, we checked through the book of names and found Timerson, Freelove, and Schussler. We had been told that the extra "s" had been removed from Schusler when used in the U.S.  Here's one of the images we got.

Last, we decided to go to Jameson's to see how whiskey is made. The Tour is fine, but the highlight was being selected to "taste test" 3 different whiskeys; Jamison's from Ireland, Johnny Walker Black Label from Scotland, and Jack Daniel's from the U.S.  There is absolutely no comparsion. The Johnny Walker and Jack Daniel's were so harsh tasting with a taste that stayed around way too long. The Jameson's was, on the other hand, very smooth with no lingering, unpleasant aftertaste.  I, along with our 2 trip friends, were joined by Cindy for this picture. We were "awarded" certificates to show our tasting abilities. Cindy even said she enjoyed it! She had hers combined with cranberry juice.