We heard the rain pounding all night.  We weren’t sure what we would wake up to.  It was sunny, then raining again.  A basic breakfast was provided here, toast, cereal, yogurt, tea and instant coffee.  Coffee not as bad as some other coffee we have had this trip :).  We pick up lunch fixings at the grocery store across the parking lot.  Load up our car and off we go.  This is our route today.

The sun came out and we had great day!  Stu is continuing with his sheep theme.  It is Saturday and there are a number of cycling events happening along our route.  Going west it was interesting to see all of the cyclists.  However, when we turned to go back we had to manoeuvre around them.  At times they rode 3 abreast, with oncoming traffic on the windy narrow roads, it was at times a bit frightening.

Stu’s sheep

The sun shining on a patch in the middle

More amazing roads

This is Moll’s Gap

Such amazing greens!!

The view from Molly Galivan’s

The lichen covered rock, the valley below, the hills behind

And again the roads

At Molly Gallivan’s we stop to buy Stu a “flat cap”.  An Irish Cap that he has named “Irish Stu”  🙂  and I find a geocache!

Irish Stu

The geoache

We reach the sea again.  The sun is still shinning.

This is near Whiddy Island. Some aqua culture happening in the inlet

The ocean and the green countryside

A small bridge over a river emptying into the ocean.

We arrive in Kinsale, where we have booked at B&B over the phone.  The address is just a street.  Google maps initially takes us a funny way, where we end up in a place we are sure isn’t our B&B, The Golden Garden.  We decide to find a pub, use their wifi and figure out where we need to go.  Once we get closer to the town, the Google maps girl, who Stu now has a love hate relationship with, decides to start telling us where to go.  We think she might be right, so we follow her new directions and low and behold we arrive “at our destination”!!  Our hostess Bernie, shows us our room and gives us the low down on the town of Kinsale.  We head into the town which is about 5 to 10 minutes downhill.  This means it is 15 to minutes back up hill when we are done.  We find a pub called “Oscar Madison’s”  It is a sports bar and filled with locals watching Manchester United playing some other team that I forget.  I suspect the other team is the one the locals are all cheering for.  We finish our beer and stroll around to choose our place for dinner.  It is a very charming town!!

Narrow streets lined with shops

It looks like a movie set

More quaintness

We are invited to use the living room to watch TV and Bernie sits and chats with us.  She is in her 80’s I would guess, but is incredibly spry and lively.  This is our room for tonight.   Stu will likely take outside photos of it tomorrow.  We are paying 80 euros which includes breakfast.  Probably not instant coffee  🙂

As we were in the living room enjoying our wine, a man arrives.  He asks if he can watch the news.  Of course we tell him.  It turns out that he is a retired teacher from Dublin who is what he termed a “chauffeur tour guide”.  He is contracted by an Irish company who sells tours to people.  He says the customers contact his company and say we want to tour Ireland for a week, his company says sure, give us $10,000 and they say OK.  He drives them around giving them general Irish history and knowledge.  When they get to the sites/cities that they request there is a local guide that fills in the specific details for that particular place.  He is quite entertaining, so I’m sure he is good at his job.  He says he gets his teachers pension, a per diem from the travel company and a tip at the end!!  Quite fun.

Our plans for tomorrow are a bit undecided.  We’ll see how the day plays out  🙂

After a rainy day yesterday, we woke up to sunny skies.. 🙂  Our host Bernadette said the outlook was not good though.  She made us the best breakfast we have had so far  She was very helpful with recommendations for our next stops and routes.  Really wished we had discussed things with her before we booked Tralee.  Oh well. Stu took some exterior photos of Keldun House this morning.

We are continuing the Wild Atlantic Way once more.  As we reach the Dingle Peninsula, the sun is still shining at times.  Stu gets some crazy sunny/cloudy shots.

I am obsessed with these roads!!  They are fun and frightening to drive at the same time.  The Conor Pass is the highest mountain pass in Ireland, and provides the most dramatic and scenic way of entering or leaving Dingle.  We are advised to drive the Conor Pass first since the day is starting out sunny.  Chances are that later in the day it may be socked in and visibility down to zero.  So that is what we do.

Here are some other shots of the road.

We arrive in Dingle.  A very cute little town.  We are hearing that the tourist season is winding down, but we see many many people and buses in Dingle today.

We manage to make this route last 7 hours!!

As we drive the loop we come to a lovely beach.  Out for a bit of a walk.  The weather is ever changeable.

We arrive in Tralee where we have accommodation booked.  We are paying 65 euro per night and it includes breakfast.  Not bad.  The room is small and basic, but it is near many restaurants and other amenities.  For one night it is great.

Here is a photo of the outside of our accommodation last night.  We were very pleased with our choice.

This is the route we planned for today.  From Oranmore to Dingle.

We get on the road about 9:30 this morning and not long after come to this Castle.  It is named Dunguaire Castle.

As yesterday, the road ahead is narrow and winding.  The speed limits blow me away.  Most of the time it is 80km but at times it is 100km.  These roads are absolutely not freeways!!!  We keep taking photos of them as it is very hard for us to believe the size and speed limits.

We come to a nice large parking lot near the ocean.  Stu takes some photos of some people on the beach.  As we are bundled up with 4 layers on top and jeans on the bottom, we see people actually in the ocean.  As we are leaving one fellow is strolling back to the building with the toilets.  He is wet from his swim, swim suit is all he is wearing.  We chat with him and he says this is warmer than some parts of the Main Coast (I think he means England).  He is definitely not Irish.  We ask where he is from he tells us that he was brought up in Massachusetts and now lives in Washington DC.  He asks where we are from and tells us that he has also lived in Victoria for a while.  I say “You aren’t a crazy Irishman, but a crazy American”.  He says he is a crazy Irishman a few generations later 🙂

We arrive at the Cliffs of Moher.  The many tour buses we have seen are here too!!

We pull into the parking lot and are charged entry to the site.  The seniors rate is. 4.50 euro each.  There is a large Visitor Center here with many displays and some films of the area.  We head out to the cliffs.  As the many tour buses and lots of cars indicate there are a lot of people here.

We don’t have any accommodation booked for tonight.  We had planned to get to Dingle tonight, but that was quite an aggressive itinerary.  It is 4:30 when we start to look for a place to stay.  We end up in a town called Tarbert.  We see a B&B, pull over, half on the side walk as it common here  🙂 and ring the bell to see if there is a room.  There is!!  70 Euros per night including breakfast, parking and wifi!!  There is also a pub a couple doors away called the “Swanky Bar”.  We bring in our bags and head to the Swanky Bar for dinner.

This is the route we actually did today.

We will get to Dingle tomorrow 🙂

In Ireland there are toll roads.  In Dublin there is just one small section of the “Ring Road” that is tolled via an unmanned system.  There is an app that you can download and use to pay your toll, which you need to do by 8pm the day following incurring the toll.  After we picked up the car on Monday morning we went through the toll section and expected to pay the 3.10 GBP toll.  When we used the app and keyed in our plate # it indicated that we had 2 tolls amounting to 6.20 GBP.  I didn’t see a way to only select one toll, so I paid the 6.20.  I think that the previous renter of the car we got went through the toll section and hadn’t yet paid their toll, so we were assigned all tolls for this licence plate.  🙁   There is an option to pre-pay.  This would be a smart thing to do as it should be time related.

These 3 guys hang around outside of the breakfast room at our B&B.   They probably supply all of our eggs!

We are driving a section of the “Wild Atlantic Way”.  It is a tourism trail on the west coast, and on parts of the north and south coasts, of the Republic of Ireland.   It is very good that we have a small car!!  The road is very narrow and has speed limits of 100 kmph in many places!!  Very WILD indeed.

We would have more photos if there were more places to pull over.  We find a few places.  This is Killary Harbour.   Killary Harbour is Ireland’s only true fjord and extends 16km (10 miles) in from the Atlantic.

We stop at another spot and find Stu’s pals the Sheep again!

We come to Kylemore Abbey.  It is undergoing some restoration at the moment, but it is evident  that this is an impressive building.  It was originally built as a Castle in 1867 as a romantic gift.

We pass a town called Clifden and come to a large white beach with a parking lot.  We pull over and find that many people are also checking this spot out.  A number of smaller tour buses as well.  Here are some photos we took here.

We continue on to Galway initially intending to find a B&B here.  Here are a few photos from along the way.

We have not booked anything for tonight.  We arrive in what we feel is rush hour about 4:30pm.  We had heard that Galway is a smaller city than Dublin with a very different vibe.  So we thought we would stay here tonight.  We found it very busy and not what we were looking for in a place to stay.   We set Google maps to a town just to the south and found a smaller town called Oranmore.  We park and find a pub for a beer and some accommodation research.  We find a place about a km away, but then decide to check out the place right next door.  They have 1 double room left at 67 euros!!  Pretty good.  We grab it.  This is what we find.  🙂

Quite pleased!!

There is an Italian Bistro downstairs so we go there for dinner.  Great meal.  We share spaghetti bolognese and a prawn pesto pizza along with a couple of Galway Hooker beers.

Off to Dingle tomorrow!!

We have a breakfast menu at this B&B as we had in Inverness.  We filll out the form, what we want and when we want it, and drop the form in  the designated spot.  After having the “Mini Irish” for breakfast we head into the little town of Westport.

We are a little bit out of the main town so as we walk we see this “sold sign”.  There are many many duplexes that are called semi detached homes here.  The left side looks pretty well cared for while the right side is boarded up and dilapidated.  I bet the left door neighbours are happy that right side is sold and perhaps will be more cared for soon.

Carrying on into the town we see these varying scenes along the way.

Here is a shrine to someone named John O’Grady…..   Anyone know him??

Is it just me or does this seem WEIRD!!!

We find that people park almost anywhere they want.  We see this BMW and wonder what this person is thinking????

We walk back down to the quay and see that the tide is out.  There are many boats in precarious positions.

We drive south west to a spot that foot ferries leave from to Inishturk and Clare Island.  Some nice scenery here.  The wind is really blowing.

We head back towards our B&B.  There is a hike up Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s Holy Mountain.  It is on our way back so we stop to check it out.  From what I have read St. Patrick climbed this mountain to pray and fast for 60 days.  It has since become a pilgrimage for thousands of people each year.  St. Patrick’s Day is a very significant day for this pilgrimage.  The hike goes  up 764 meters.  It has beautiful vistas of the North Atlantic Coast

Back in Westport we drive to Westport House.  This is now a museum and amusement type park dedicated to the Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley.  There is a statue dedicated to her here.

Westport house is a very beautiful building.  Here are a couple shots of it.

We walk back down to the Quay for dinner.  We decide on The Towers again, (breaking Greg Ross’s rule AGAIN).  But it was good, we could walk, AND it was good!!  🙂  Some nice setting sun shot as we go.

We move again tomorrow.  Not sure where as we are winging it  🙂

We have had some interesting showers in the past few weeks.  This is the third time we have seen this arrangement.  A switch outside the room and a control box thing inside the shower.

We have reserved a car for the next 8 days.  After we pack up we walk down to the Budget office that is about a kilometer away from the B&B.  We arrive at the office and find a line up with about 10 people ahead of us.  This line does not move quickly, they appear very short staffed.  There are many people picking up and lots of other people dropping off.  There doesn’t seem to be a very good system here.  We wait for at least an hour before it is our turn.

We booked the car through carrentals.com.  In Scotland we paid $140 CAD for the six days.  Nothing else, no other charges, except for 200 GBP deposit!!  Here we booked and paid about $140 CAD for 8 days, but also here we pay 8 Euros for Road Tax, 25 Euros for paperwork because we decline the Collision Damage Waiver, 25 Euros for a Preferred location pickup????, a fuel deposit of 93 Euros AND a 5,000 Euro ($7,500 CAD) deposit (also because we declined the Collision Damage Waiver) on a Nissan Micra with  scratches, scrapes and 92,000 km.  We should get the 5,093 Euros in deposits back at the end of the rental, but YIKES!!!!

We have insurance coverage with our credit card.  We tell the guy this and he asks if we are sure that the credit card does not exclude Ireland.  I read the very boring conditions, but didn’t notice that exclusion.  As we were planning on renting a car in Ireland, I think I would have noticed that.  However, he plants a seed of doubt!  I ask that if we decide now, not to buy the CDW if we can add it later if we find that our credit card excludes Ireland.  He assures us that we can call and add the coverage.  We get the car back to our B&B to collect our bags and double check the conditions on our card and also Google “credit card car rental exclude Ireland”.  A Rick Steves post comes up where he says that some cards have exclusions for Ireland and Italy.  CRAP!!  It is 3AM in the Centre of the Universe (Toronto) so if we call now to confirm, no one will be there.  We decide to believe the document we found for our credit card and just get out of Dublin.  We will check with our Credit Card when we arrive at our destination for tonight, Westport.  This is our route to the West Coast.

We didn’t have any photo op stops today.  I am getting more comfortable driving.  I was up to 120 kmph today and Stu is getting better at using the phone for navigation.  We make it to our next B&B without a problem.  We didn’t post any photos of the Dublin accommodation as it was nothing very special and quite cramped.  We found Dublin to be a very expensive city.  We are happy to move on.   This is what we get for 23 Euros per night less than in Dublin.  We paid 98 Euros per night in Dublin and 75 Euros for this!

We head out for a walk as we have been in the car most of the day.  We have logged a lot of kilometers recently and we need to get out and walk a bit.  Heading down to the port to explore.

We stop into a place called “The Towers” for bite to eat.  We share a pot of mussels and each have a different “Red” beer.  Stu has Smithwicks and I try a local Westport Red.  We both agree that we prefer Smithwicks 🙂

Tomorrow we explore the Wild West Coast!!

We start out for our walk back to the city center.  We walk down a street that we have walked a few times already, Drumcondra Road, which turns into Dorset Road.  Well today is the All Ireland final in Hurling!!  It is just after 10am, big game starts @ 3:30.  Already the streets are teeming with people wearing either blue and white or burgundy and white.  Street vendors are selling flags, headbands and other items that show your support for you team.  As we walk along I think about this:

Could’ve been the whiskey
Might’ve been the gin
Could’ve been the three or four six-packs
I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in

You know the rest!!  I am feeling that this is going to be one party of a day!!  This is why.

From Dorset Street we make our way to the city center and notice that it is even busier than yesterday.  We are ready for a smaller town, definitely!!  We stop in a couple of shops.  One we see this very cool art.  The artist uses small pebbles and stones.  So creative.  This isn’t a great shot of it, but it might give you an idea 🙂  the feet are stones and each little toe are tiny ones,

Stu takes some pub shots along the way.  This is a very very large subject in Dublin!!

We wander back to Trinity and find a section that we missed yesterday.  Check out this guy.

He is sitting here and this is his story according to Wikipedia.

George Salmon was a distinguished and influential Irish mathematician and Anglican theologian. After working in algebraic geometry for two decades, Salmon devoted the last forty years of his life to theology.

hmmm.  Definitely an ancestor of Stu!!  He loves math and theology!!  Ha ha ha  🙂

After wandering the streets we decide to escape the crowds and head back to St. Stephens Green and find a park bench by a pond.  We sit and watch “unstill life”.

We leave to find a place for a bite to eat.  We want to find a place to watch the Hurling match somewhere closer to our B&B, but would like some lunch first.

We find a pub that has tv’s so we can have a bite to eat and watch a bit of the preliminary Hurling match (kids between 16 & 18).  It is Sinnott’s Bar   .  We head downstairs and find a very large room with just a few people.  We pick a table near a very large screen.  We order beer and messy chicken wings.  The game is very exciting.  It is played on a large grass field.  The stadium holds more than 83,000 people and it is FULL.  They use the same stadium for soccer, so I assume it is the same size as a soccer field.  They have a goalie, 6 defencemen, 2 mid fielders and 6 offensive players.  We see similarities to hockey, lacrosse and at times golf and baseball.  It is very fast paced.  They play 2 35 minute halves and have extra time for injuries, very similar to soccer.  They have sticks that they call the “hurley”.  They flip the ball from the ground with the hurley.  They can catch the ball with their hands and can run a few steps with the ball in their hands.  They toss the ball to other players or toss it up and whack it with the hurley and it travels a long long way!!  There are 2 ways to get points.  One is to get the ball between the posts but above the goal crossbar, this is worth 1 point and these guys can hit that from mid field!  The other way is to get the ball between the posts but below the crossbar where the goalie may be able to stop it, this is worth 3 points.

Our plans to leave and head towards our B&B are dashed.  A young couple has joined us.  The young woman’s sister is cycling across Canada at the moment.  She gets a message from her while here.  She is in Chilliwack and will head to Port Coquitlam today.  Small world!!  The bar is now FULL.  The atmosphere is amazing!  After all it is like the Super Bowl!  We have a few pints and learn more about this game from our tablemates.  The lead goes back and forth.  In the end Galway wins and Waterford are disappointed.  We are now hurling fans!

Off we go back to our B&B.  This is what we see in the streets along the way.  Again

Again I hear these lyrics in my head  🙂

Could’ve been the whiskey
Might’ve been the gin
Could’ve been the three or four six-packs
I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in

Tomorrow we have a car reserved and we will leave Dublin for quieter places.  Back to “low adventure tours”  Woo hoo.

After our breakfast we decide to walk into town about 5 km.  The sun is shinning again.  I take this brilliant shot of the morning sun with a church spire 🙂 RIGHT????

We get back on the Hop On Hop Off and ride towards Trinity College.  Along the way we see some good examples of Georgian Architecture.  The windows go from larger to smaller near the top.  We are told it is to give the impression of height.

Here is the windowless Bank of Ireland.  When it was being built in the 1730’s there was a “Window Tax” in Britain and Ireland.  They filled in the windows with the intention to add them later.  But as you can see that never happend.  Our guide then adds that people often say “once you put your money in the Bank of Ireland, it never sees the light of day”.

Off we hop at Trinity College where in the quad the sun is shinning.  Lots of people in line to see the Book of Kells.  We soak in some sun and decide too move on.  It is a beautiful day today, but there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow.  An indoor activity might be something we will do then  🙂

We do decide to go inside a bit later as this is a free museum, The National Museum of Ireland.  We find that in a large city like Dublin you can be “10 Euro”ed times 2,  at every turn.  This is an amazing museum.  So nice that they open it for free!  It takes us back to the Viking days that is a very predominant theme here!  We leave with more to see tomorrow if it rains.

It is Saturday and the city is very very busy.  There are many street performers busking along our route.  We decide to escape the throngs by going to St. Stephens Green.

As we are looking for a place for lunch we pass some photograph able sights.

Our lunch choice is near the Temple Bar area, but not crazy.  They have some nice nibbles on the menu.  We are finding full meals are just too much food.  We order the flat bread and Mac & Cheese stacks, which are really sticks.  Not sure how they did that, but they were both excellent.  We are finding Dublin very expensive.  We are using our patented Beer Scale.  In Edinburgh we paid 1.90 GBP ($3.05 CAD) for a half pint of beer.  In Belfast 2.50 GBP ($4.00 CAD)  Here we are paying 4 EUR ($5.90 CAD) in the Temple Bar area or 3 EUR ($4.40 CAD) outside of the Temple Bar.  It will be interesting to see what the smaller cities will charge.

We have walked 15km today.  Feeling tired we head back to the B&B for a bit of chill time before we go looking for food.  We turn in a different direction that we have gone before and find an area with a few restaurants and a pub.  We choose one of the restaurants and are shown to a nice window seat.  We chat with the couple next to us.  They are from Waterford which is south of Dublin.  They are in town for a HUGE Hurling match that is happening tomorrow.  We have noticed all over town flags and balloons, blue and white or burgundy and white.  These are the colours of the opposing teams that are playing for the Irish Championship.  The blue and white are Waterfords colours and the burgundy and white are Galways colours.  This is a very big deal.  Waterford has not won this    championship for about 60 years.  Nice people.  They give us a recommendation for our trip west.

We head back and on our way meet this guy.  He sees us and rolls over in the street.

Back at the B&B my fitbit registers 17.2km for today.  I am pooped, so will finish the blog in the morning.

We walked and walked today so I am pooped. I will catch up tomorrow. 😉

We  met a couple from Utah at breakfast today.  They are doing a 1 week blitz of Ireland.  One night in Dublin then off to Killkenny.  We are very lucky to have so much time, even though we feel we are missing a lot.

We take our hosts instructions for the city bus and head into town.  We buy a 48 hour Hop On Hop Off ticket from a woman in the office who is clearly tired of tourist season.  Not helpful or friendly on top of a bad lip job.  🙁   We leave the shop and hop on our first bus.  We are on the “Blue Line”  as opposed to the “Red Line”.  There are a few variations in route, but the most distinguishing feature is that it has a Live Guide.  We are on the upper level with the live guide.  He is pretty funny.  Probably a frustrated stand up history buff.  He tells us that we are on the Blue Line, but don’t worry all lines lead to Guinness!!  Sooo true.  Not many people hopped off the bus until the Guinness stop, us included.

We purchase our tickets (22 Euro each, seniors rate, 3 euro discount!!!  Almost a half pint in a bar  🙂 )  This is a self paced tour with lots of interesting Guinness history.  We learn how they roast the barley, add the hops and the yeast.  How important the water is.  We see an old video on how the coopers make the casks, all by hand without automation.  Scary looking woodworking tools!  I’m sure many fingers were sacrificed in the making of these casks.

We hop back on the bus and as it is just after 3 pm, to get of near the Temple Bar area.  As we walk across the bridge over the River Liffey we hear loud cheering.  We think there must be a game of some sort going on a the good guys scored.  Minutes later we see this vehicle driving by while cheering loudly.  Damn Vikings!!!

Here are a few Dublin city photos.

I have heard of Temple Bar, but I thought it was the name of bar.  Not so.  It is a large area that is full of bars and restaurants.  It is quite amazing.  We walk down one of the streets and here are some of the sight we see.

We wander around Temple Bar for a while and decide to go into a bar called the “Auld Dubliner”.  There is a young man performing here and we are fortunate to get a seat near the door and the stage.  It isn’t long before seats are at a premium.  The young performer has the bar a rockin’.  He is singing songs that I am not familiar with, but everyone else seems to know all the lyrics and all sign along.  The atmosphere is amazing.  It is between 4 and 5 pm, Friday night and many people are in good form already.  Can’t imagine what 9pm will look like  🙂

We leave looking to have a bit of dinner.  We find another place with live music, the Merchants Arch.  We share a Beef and Guinness pie with seasonal veggies.  A bit different style of music here.  More Dublin Fun.  This is the awesome staircase in the Merchants Arch,

Fun day in Dublin!!  We’ll see what tomorrow holds  🙂 !