Some photos from our trip

In the posts below, we've added some of our favorite photos from our trip. Angela took 650 pictures and videos on the trip, but we've only included a sampling. Hope you enjoy - be sure to comment...

(Double-click on any image to view full-screen.)

(keep scrolling, there's more...)

Beautiful Kilarney National Park

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28:17)

Guinness

No trip to Ireland would be complete without a tour of the Guinness Storehouse and a little sample taste of the good stuff. (Note the shamrock on the top of the beer!)



Although she sampled it, Angela doesn't see what all the fuss is about.

Some "artistic" photography...

We had some fun playing with the freedom of a digital camera to try some cool shots. Here are a few of them:


(It's a cow looking through a hole in the stone wall.)

Here's an unintentional self-portrait by Angela:

The Cliffs of Moher

Despite sharing the view with 1000 other tourists, the Cliffs of Moher were spectacular. It was a bit hazy the day we visited, but still beautiful.

Just like everyone else, we didn't follow the posted directions very well:

Some signs, however, were far less subtle:

Driving on narrow Irish roads

Although kind of scary on the first day, driving on the country roads of Ireland is kind of fun - fun like a video game where you're not sure you'll survive the next corner! Speed limits tend to be self-enforcing:

(Click on any image to view full-screen)

When two vehicles meet, its like a game of chicken, especially when the other vehicle is a truck or bus. This road has an 80 kilometre limit...

Parking rules are simple - you can do anything, so long as there is no sign saying you can't:

One road sign I had not seen before has a "Z" on it and means, obviously, the road has a crazy curve in it (still 80 km limit, mind you!). This beautiful stone wall with the stream running through is actually the road surface on one of those z-curves:

Road signs are easy to read and directions to various locations are always given, making finding your way simple:

Several times we were struck by the wisdom of road markings. After saying "SLOW" several times around some tight corners, we then came across this 'idiot-proof' sign...

Irish drivers in our experience tended to go under the posted limit, tended to be generous in letting others go first, and were patient when another driver was going slower than they wanted. When the road narrowed, there was no fighting for position, and they just worked together to get around the problem. We could learn a few lessons from them!

Now that we're home...

Angela took 650 pictures and videos during our 11 days in Ireland. Once we get them onto the computer and edit them down, we plan to post a bunch of them here to share with you. Please check back soon.

We had no trouble getting out of Shannon and through Toronto to Montreal. Just as we were getting onto the plane in Shannon, there was a big rainstorm coming into western Ireland, so we knew it was time to leave. We felt as if we were blessed with perfect weather the whole time we were there. There almost always seemed to be blue sky overhead. Temperature ranged from 16C at night to no more than 23C during the day. Not too humid either.

When we got to our car at the airport in Dorval, Dad realized that instead of dropping off the hotel key that morning in Shannon, he had dropped off his car keys and kept the hotel key. After checking every single pocket of our luggage, we called Grandma and Grandpa in Pointe-Claire to have them pick us up instead. When they arrived, they handed us a spare key to our car, which Jennifer had happened to leave with them two years ago, unknown to us. God is good!

Angela slept the whole way to Lennoxville, but we made it home safe and sound (and tired).

Last day in Ireland!

Today should be our last full day in Ireland. There was nothing to see in Cork (we were quite disappointed about this, but it was the first 'downer' of the trip) so we left early this morning. Dad and Angela were both up by 6. We're getting used to the time change, just in time to come home!






On our way to Limerick, we stopped in Adare and Lough Gur. Adare was a beautiful little town with a few thatched-roof cottages and lovely streets. We visited a few ruins just outside the city then walked around the city for a bit. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) most of the shops were closed because we got there so early. We decided to have coffee and then move on.






Our next stop was Lough Gur. "Lough" means Lake in Irish and is pronounced 'lock' with a guttural 'ck' at the end - similar to the Scottish 'Loch'. There's not much there, just a few ruins around a small lake. We hiked a bit, took pictures of cows and visited a few of the ruins.

When we got to Limerick, it was only one o'clock and we didn't know what to do since we've already been here. After lunch, we drove into town to check out a magic store we had seen last time we were in Limerick. It turned out to be more of a costume shop than a magic store. We packed our bags for tomorrow, wrote a few postcards, and so we're basically ready to go tomorrow.


We've really appreciated receiving comments from our readers! When we get back home to Lennoxville to more compatible technology, we'll upload some of our own photos and share some more stories about them - so keep visiting!

If it's Tuesday, Part II

This morning, we left Kenmare and drove partway around the Ring of Kerry, stopping as often as possible to look around and take pictures. After driving through Killarney National park quickly yesterday we decided to go back again today, this time, going slower and stopping more. The park is beautiful and mountainous. The roads can be narrow at times but, for the most part, there are no hedges, trees or walls blocking the view. There are tons of rocky hills and green valleys that make it awesome to drive through. We stopped a few times to explore trails. We bought lunch before leaving this morning and stopped to eat it by an old castle by the road. After walking through waist high grass, we found a rock to sit on and eat where we could not hear or see the road.

Last night, we saw the sun streaming through misty clouds over the Killarney lakes valley - it was beautiful. It is kind of hard to describe the "wow" we experienced around every second corner of the the park road (and believe me there were plenty of corners!).

Then it was time to move on to Cork. That took most of the rest of the afternoon. We only got lost twice. Eventually we found the hostel we had a reservation at, in the old quarter under the Bells of Shandon. Unfortunately, our first impression of Cork isn't that great, except that they have internet access! We'll have supper and sleep, then try again tomorrow. If we've had enough, we'll leave earlier. Our plan is to spend tomorrow night back in Limerick, and then fly out on Thursday morning. We can always change our minds, but the car is due back at Shannon at 10 am that morning.

Talk to you all again soon!

If it's Tuesday, this must be Cork

We stayed at a hostel in Kenmare last night, on the "Ring of Kerry." The internet at the hostel wasn't working and we couldn't find another one, so we didn't get a chance to post an update about Monday.


We took the "scenic route" along the Shannon river to Tralee and learned that, unless you're on the top level of a tour bus, "scenic route" is mostly a "potentially scenic route." We often could not see much of the surrounding countryside because of the hedges, walls, trees and other prolific greenery. But none-the-less, what we could see was beautiful. Once past Tralee, we headed for Dingle, and that was a great experience - with better visibility for the most part. Dad, however, kept his eyes on the road rather than on the scenery as the driving was incredible. They paint lines dwn the centre of the roads and on each side when there is "officially" room for two vehicles to pass. Sometimes the two side lines disappear and that means that the road is not quite as wide as you'd like. And then when the lines all disappear, you know that it is not really possible for two cars to pass each other without one wheel in the ditch (there are no ditches in Ireland, only walls). But the whole Dingle penninsula was amazing, and we stopped at every possible lookout or small patch of gravel at the side of the road to take a better look and take some photos.



The town of Dingle was quaint and we had lunch there. (And shopped.) Then we drove around the ring road at the end of the penninsula, which was awesome! Standing at the end, we squinted towards the west, but we couldn't quite see Canada on the horizon. We climbed on some cliffs we stumbled upon. We had a wonderful afternoon - we both agreed it was our best to date.


We passed through Kilarney and Kilarney National Park to get to Kenmare for the night, and enjoyed some impromptu entertainment at the hostel from some of the other, musically talented guests. Angela will tell you about the park in the next entry for today.

Sunday in Ireland

Stores actually close on Sundays in Ireland. But not tourist attractions...

This morning we decided to try to find a church we could attend, and found Limerick Baptist Church listed in the phone book. With help for directions from the friendly people at the hostel, we set out with a rather loose objective - if we can find the church, we'll go, if not we'll drive around and visit whatever we find. We found it without much trouble - even arrived a half-hour early. It was a small church, the usual friendly people we expected, and good music - including a kid on drums not much older than Benjamin! The songs were all familiar Green Ridge music, and we felt right at home. We stayed afterwards for "tea and biscuits" and got suggestions from the locals on what we could do for the afternoon.

We decided to drive to Killaloe, which is farther inland up the Shannon River. It is a quaint little town, with a beautiful 800 year old stone bridge across the Shannon (only half of it is visible in the photo). We had lunch there, and walked around and across the bridge to the 400 year old church you see behind the bridge in the photo above. The church yard had many beautiful celtic high crosses, with ivy growing around them. Angela took lots of photos, but says she still has about 600 left on her camera. (that means she's taken about 400 to date!) We got a bit of a shower while there, but mostly it was sunny again.

This evening we participated in a medival banquet at Bunratty Castle, a restored 12th-century castle, where we were the guests of the the Earl Himself. Following a reception with mead (honey wine), we feasted, without forks or spoons, on a pureed vegetable soup, spare ribs, roast chicken, potatoes, veggies, and lots of wine. In case we weren't stuffed yet, there was dessert followed by coffee or tea and live entertainment. It was quite an experience to say the least!

We didn't spend much time or money shopping today (it was Sunday after all!) but we blew the wad on the banquet instead. Both of us really enjoyed it.

We're moving on tomorrow, probably staying in Kilarney and visiting Dingle penninsula and Kerry.

Saturday, I think...

What a beautiful day it was today. Angela says today was the highlight of her trip so far. Dad, on the other hand was stressed for much of the day trying to remember "stay on the left" and "yeild to traffic in the traffic circle". No accidents to report, and only once did the car stray into the "right" lane of its own volition.

The forcast for today was bad, but we took the bus to the airport and rented the car and headed for the Cliffs of Moher anyway. We were in sunshine the whole time, while all around the horizon there were storm clouds. The clerk at our hostel in Limerick said that it poured here while we were gone. We feel blessed!

At the airport, the car reserved for us (a Ford Focus) was given to someone else and unfortunately they had to give us a VW Passat instead - quite an upgrade and a very nice car to drive.

The only problem with an even slightly bigger car is the size of the roads in Ireland. It hard to believe the signs when they say 'limit 80' and the road before you is narrower than Speid Street and not nearly as straight. The hedges/trees/stone walls often hug the edges of the road to boot. Then there is the stress which comes when the oncoming vehicle is a bus or truck, and he's not even stressed by the space available for us to share.

The Cliffs of Moher were awesome and we shared the view with about 1000 other tourists, but none-the-less it was cool to see for ourselves. Perhaps more so, we enjoyed meandering the roads and fields and shops of some of the little towns like Ennistimon and Lehinch and Kilnamona. We did a fairly good job of keeping our wallets in our pockets, but we did contribute to the local economy here and there. Angela was the navigator, and had some trouble pronouncing the names of the some of the directions such that Dad could identify them on a road sign. We finally got to see some local craft and artwork rather than manufactured goods like in Dublin. We've booked another night here in Limerick and plan to go to the Medival Banquet at Bunratty Castle tomorrow evening. All things being equal, we will then move down to Kilarney or Cork and tour some more of the west coast's sights.

Limerick and the west

We are now in Limerick, a "large" town in the west of Ireland (it is smaller than the old Sherbrooke). We took a bus from Dublin and will be renting a car tomorow. We are now thinking we will stay in Limerick for the remainder of the trip (because we've found good, cheap accomodation in a college dorm with breakfast included and cooking facilities - cheaper than B&Bs). We would take day trips to the sights which are generaly between one and two hours drive from here. We didn't do much today as the bus only got to town at about 1:10 and hiked around to find the tourist info place and find a room. We took a taxi to our hotel then, freed from our gear, we walked back into town and shopped and ate supper.

A few things we have noticed about Ireland to date:

-The pedestrian crosslights, they emit a continuous beep when the little dude is red. When the little green dude turns on, there is a sound that resembles a laser gun shooting and the beeping gets faster. When the yellow dude turns on, the beeping sound slows down again.

-The garbage cans, here they say "litter" and back home they say "please don't litter"!

-The roads, they are tiny here. At several occasions during our bus tour yesterday, the bus had to pull over to let another vehicle pass. Most have almost a wall of trees right at the edge, or a stone wall. On many of the roads, the trees grow over the road and are kept trimmed by the double-decker buses which whack off the branches as they pass so close to the shoulder. Sometimes it looks tunnel-like, especially on smaller routes like near Glendalough.

During the next week, Dad and Angela would like to visit the Cliffs of Moher, eat at a castle, tour the Ring of Kerry and possibly visit Cork.

It was pouring today (Dad wishes he had worn his socks that dry fast). We didn't manage to outrun the rain coming to Limerick. It was torrential this morning in Dublin but this afternoon, in Limerick, it was off and on. Tomorow, there is a weather warning for extreme thunder showers. Parts of England are flooded and the storms that caused the flooding are coming our way. Luckily, our hotel room is on the second floor!

We should warn you all, Dad and Angela have found a nice little cottage in the outskirts of Limerick and are thinking about staying in Ireland for, say, a few decades longer than previously planned, or until we run out of money (which will probably be next Friday). Hey, we could always sing odd songs while standing in the middle of the street and hope people will throw money at us!

Anyway, we are having tons of fun! Feel free to drop by our cottage!

A few web photos of what we've seen

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin

The Millenium Spire (120 m tall)

(The best part is this spire is right near our hotel and therefore we can always find our way home no matter how turned around we get!)

"The Cultural Centre of Dublin's Tourist Industry"

Some thoughts...

Today, our third full day in Dublin, we went on a tour of Glendalough. We took an hour-long bus ride to Glendalough to see the remains of the settlement set up in about 500 AD by St-Kevin. There were tons of tombstones surrounding the different remains, some so old the writing had worn off, others dating as recently as 2005. Dad and Angela walked around the two lakes and took tons of pictures. Probably the coolest building was the "Refert Church" It was off the regular trail and there were very few signs but we managed to find it. It's about 1100 years old. The roof is long gone but the walls and windows holes remain. All around the church are toumbstones that are falling apart. We suspect most of them used to be crosses but they are now, for the most part rectangular.

Our second stop on the tour was Avoca handweavers. We got to see how they weave the cloth they sell. Most of it was done by machine but it was neat to see. Dad and Angela shopped and took pictures while we waited to return to Dublin. Angela fell asleep on the bus ride home and now has a stiff neck. We are both tired but having a lot of fun.

For supper, we had a nice hot meal at Pizza Hut (That typically Irish restaurant!). We even had desert!

Today, the weather was great! They had predicted torrential rain but we had sun all day (We were told never to trust the weatherman).

Tomorow, we will be taking a bus to Limerick (near Shannon) where we will pick up a car. Our plan is to see the Cliffs of Moher Saturday then to stay in Killarny for a few nights and tour the three penninsulas.

We've decided to stop shopping now, as our carry-on bags were full when we started and are now too full. We're enjoying each others company and are looking forward to spending some time out of the city and near the ocean. Dad's a bit scared about the whole driving on the left thing, and Angela says she is a bit scared about that too. But we'll probably survive. Angela learned today that she will be in charge of navigating while Dad drives, and that probably stresses her as much as driving does Dad!

Keep praying for us!

Wednesday in Dublin

They say that it sometimes rains in Ireland. And sometimes it doesn't. That's how the weather seems to go - warm, cool, wet, dry, sunny, cloud... Just wait a few minutes and it will change. Although we have had some showers (even while on the open top of the city tour bus), the weather has been great for touring - as long as we keep our jacket and umbrella nearby.

This morning we got up earlier (like 8:30 local time) and slept better. Had breakfast at a little place on our street where they serve bacon between two pancakes and wrap it up like a sub. Angela had half for breakfast, Dad had the other half for lunch.

We went on an historical walking tour starting from Trinity College gates. The tour guide was a history post-grad student and was passionate about the history of Ireland. Two hours of interesting stories and perspectives. Saw some great archetecture and learned lots (which we'll probably forget soon).

As we were on the south side of the river, we walked down to St. Patrick's Cathedral and toured this 800 year old church. Visited the gift shop, of course...

It is a beautiful afternoon, and we sat at a riverside cafe to rest our tired feet (we shared a coke to cover the rent on the table and chairs). Don't know what we'll do this evening - maybe visit Temple Bar area to see if there is a free concert happening.

Last night we had dinner at the Arlington hotel pub and looked forward to the live music to follow - but it was a little disappointing (and we were tired).

By the way, Angela and Dad are sharing in the writing of this blog and entries may be written by either of us...

Getting Here (or there, depending when you read this...)

Day one and two (they kind of melded into one because of the time change):

Dad and I are finally in Ireland. We left on the fifteenth from Montreal towards Ireland with a transfer in Toronto. On the Montreal-Toronto flight, we got first class! The seats were so cool!!! I slept on the six-hour flight from Toronto to Dublin but dad didn't (he held my head up as I drifted in and out of sleep because the seats didn't go back). After dropping our bags off at our hotel, dad and I walked around and shopped.

Day three:

Today we woke up late (9 o'clock) then took a tour of Dublin on a "hop on hop off" tour bus. We could get on or off at any stop and the busses came every ten minutes. We stopped at the Guiness Storehouse and walked through a museum describing the stout and how it was made. Afterwards, dad got a complimentery pint of Guiness (I got coke because I am underaged). I tried dad's Guiness, yuck! After lunch dad and I got back on the bus and went to Trinity College. There we saw the Book of Kells and the huge library. It is raining now but we are told that this is normal. We did get sun yesterday and this morning. The tourbus guide said there would be sun for ten minutes on Friday morning.