As you know, we stayed one night in Gloucester on both ends of this trip, which worked out really well for us. We got to spend some time with Uncle Tim and it felt a little bit like we were making up for not having him on the trip with us. In his defense, we were only on the ground in Ireland for a few hours before it was very clear to me what Tim's hesitations were about coming along. For one thing, we kept up a pretty good clip the entire time and he felt he would drag us down. I don't believe that to be true, but the pace was pretty consuming and I can see where that might be hard for him. We did miss him while we were there but it felt great to have some one-on-one time with him at both ends.
Frankly I was dreading the whole airport, security and flight experience but, surprisingly, it was actually very smooth and not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated. We departed around 9 PM and I did not find it difficult to sleep most of the flight time. Aer Lingus was great though and opened my eyes to the fact that air travel does NOT have to be unpleasant. We got a quick introduction to the culture of Ireland while we were waiting in the Dublin airport for our bus and there was a group of 4-5 guys drinking beer out the bottle at the check in area! The ride to Galway was about 2 hours perhaps and I was still kind of sleepy though it was 8 AM there. My body was still on EST (about 4 AM). I did take note that the scenery along the way looked nothing like I had pictured ---in fact, it looked a whole lot like home! I was feeling disappointed but that did not last long once we got to Galway.
As you may have seen in the pictures, we were greeted to Galway with a rainbow. That felt like a very appropriate welcome on Mom's birthday! We stayed in Salthill, an area of Galway city, which very much reminded me of Gloucester. Water views, huge rocks everywhere, a boulevard for walking along the water's edge--one thing missing was the distinct seaside smell I associate with such towns. We were in a bed and breakfast--a very common sight there and across Ireland. It was very comfortable there, made more so by the HUGE breakfast each morning.
We found a pub to our liking: O'Connor's. It was within easy walking distance and we went there each night we were in Galway. They burned peat in the fireplace, had a older man entertaining on the piano and had some locals at the bar. Kevin won himself a miniature shillelagh for participating in the trivia contest.
From Galway we traveled by bus to Cork which was very similar in many ways. Our B & B there was next door to University College Cork so we found ourselves walking back and forth to town with the college students. Oddly enough, we found a pub there also to our liking! Reedy's--Emmy had visited there on a previous trip and she did not steer us wrong to go there to relax on the way back for the night. While in Cork, we went to a show held in an old (OLD--built on that site by the Vikings) church. Here's one of the numbers:
From Cork we went to Dublin by train for 2 nights. Dublin was definitely very different from the other places we visited. Our hotel was smack in the center of the bar scene downtown and you felt all that city energy. We got a great deal of history explained to us here as we visited Jamesons, Guinness, the old jail, Trinity College for the Book of Kells, and Christchurch (one of the filming locations for "The Tudors"). We jammed a great deal into those couple of days.
The weather was good: "for Ireland" as we were told again and again. It was mild but we didn't see much sun. There was some drizzle and only one day did we get wet while out and about. The food was also great--much better than we'd expected. When you think if Irish food, it's not at the top of the list of "mmm-mmm-good" reactions. But we had no trouble finding good food to eat.
I found myself taking that "long view" that I mentioned earlier. I was looking over the landscape and thinking of our fishermen and our farmer ancestors. The land is a treat for the eyes. The grass is truly a different shade of green from what we are used to. But our ancestors did not have easy lives and I respect them even more now than before. Our heritage has served us all well over the years and I expect that to continue into the future.
We found ourselves making plans for a return trip --when I intend to do some serious family research. It was great to spend time with Emmy and Kevin sharing this adventure. But I did realize that my body needs liquids other than caffeine and alcohol! It was well worth it. Anyone want to join us when we return?
Here's a bit of what the average landscape looked like. Taken from our bus ride through The Ring of Kerry (the most beautiful scenery ever--made me cry!)
