Roadtrip in Ireland
I went on a dream trip with my mom and sister. We spent a week in Ireland driving around the culture. We kissed the Blarney Stone, drank Guinness, visited the church where our ancestors were married and saw the prettiest sunset of my life. We had to accommodate my mom who only had limited mobility and my sister's celiac disease. We had an amazing time.
Day 1: St. John's Castle and Heritage Town of Adare
We arrived at Shannon, Ireland early in the morning. We picked up our car from Dooley's and took off. My mom jumped straight into driving on the left side like a trooper. Luckily, we had brought our Garmin from home. This made the driving so much easier!
We navigated straight to McDonald's and had our breakfast. Then we drove to the Bed and Breakfast, Ballingowan House B & B in Newcastle West Limerick. The owners gave us a warm, friendly welcome and took us up to the room.
We wanted to get started on our adventure so we decided to drive to visit King John's Castle in Limerick. Ireland is full of castles. King John's Castle is small, but incredibly quaint. King John was made famous as the villain in the story of Robin Hood, but he never actually lived in the castle. They had great displays and characters who acted out stories from the Irish Rebellion.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by a cute town, Adare. We loved Adare. It had it's own castle, a Friary and a beautiful church. My mom loved the cute thatched roofs.
Day 2: Cliffs of Moher
After an amazing breakfast at our B & B, we decided to head to the Cliffs of Moher.
We got incredibly lucky with the weather on our second day. It was only about an hour drive.
On the drive down, we stopped for lunch at the picturesque, Lahinch Beach. We ate our sandwiches, walked around and took in the view. There were a lot of cute gift shops, ice-cream places and even a golf course.
My mom had visited the Cliffs of Moher 15 years ago when she had come on a trip with her mom. 15 years ago, my mom had gotten horrible weather so the views hadn't lived up to her expectations. We ended up having a beautiful day with clear views all around. My mom sat and rested her knees and my sister and I walked around and took in the sights. There's a very nice walking path with a visitor center.
There's a coffee shop above the visitor center where you can sip on coffee or eat snacks while enjoying the view.
On the drive back to the Bed and Breakfast, we stopped in Adare for a second time.
We had dinner and then went for a pint of Guinness. The bar had local Irish music playing and we made friends with a group of goofy men from Ohio.
Day 3: National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts and History in Dublin
After an amazing Full Irish Breakfast at the hotel, we took off for Dublin. We had a bit of a late start because we wanted to sleep in and enjoy our vacation. It took about 2 1/2 hours of driving to get there. We checked into the hotel Sheldon Park Hotel quickly and then took off immediately for sightseeing. We drove to the National Museum of Ireland. We were only to see the section on the 1916 Easter Rising because we arrived late. My sister had written an essay for school on the Rising so she really enjoyed getting to see some of the history in person. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel. I had another pint and we listened to the live music. Many of the guests at our hotel were a bit on the older side, but they still knew how to enjoy themselves.
Day 4: Book of Kells
Since it was Sunday, we woke up early and went to Mass down the street at "Church of Our Lady of the Assumption." Then, we headed down to Trinity College. Since my mom has trouble walking, we booked advanced tickets so that we didn't have to wait in line. Trinity College has a beautiful campus and it'd be easy to spend all day here. The Book of Kells and some of the other books in their collection come along with an amazing history. I have a masters degree in library science so I really appreciated learning about the book binding process and the language.
After finishing at Trinity College, we walked around the city center. We briefly visited the General Post Office of Ireland, the starting place of the Easter Rising. It has a very informative museum and other exhibits.
We had dinner at the famous, Beshoff's. They had a gluten free option so my sister was able to eat fish and chips!
We were pretty tired by this point, but we wanted to make a final stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got turned around and ended up going the wrong way down a one way street. One incredibly nice taxi driver took the time to drive us all of the way to the Cathedral. Dublin's streets are very conf using and driving around the city was an adventure of its own.
Clara and I walked around the Cathedral. Christ Church Cathedral was close by so we also walked over there.
Day 5: Kilkenny Castle and Cork
After two dreary days in Dublin, we got a bit of good weather. We drove to Kilkenny to visit the castle there. We backed a lunch and walked around. We didn't go inside the castle, but the surrounding castle and town was beautiful. There's an amazing rose garden and lots of nice flowers. At the front of the castle, there was a large lawn where other tourists were trying to get their vacation pics of handstands, cartwheels and other stereotypical shots. We got a kick out of watching them.
We drove the rest of the way to Cork. Cork is a very sweet seaside town. We drove into the town center to visit Saint Fin Barr Cathedral. This church is a reconstruction, but my Great, Great, Great Grandmother was born and baptized in this church before emigrating to the United States. Walking around the church and reflecting on the past was incredibly moving and I was so grateful to share the experience with my mom and sister.
After our visit at the Cathedral, we checked into the Bed and Breakfast, Woodview House B & B. This B & B ended up being our favorite place to stay because of the nice beds, filling breakfast and accommodating hosts. We took our host's recommendation and ate dinner at Barry's. I ate my favorite meal here, Beef and Guinness Casserole. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Day 6: Coph, Blarney Stone and the Ring of Kerry.
We only had one night in Cork so we didn't have time for it, but if we had had time then we would've visited the English Market. This spot was made famous after the queen visited it. The English Market offers lots of local food including the famous, Black and White Pudding.
Our first stop was the small town of Coph. Coph was the last stop of the Titantic before heading to America. It was also the port from which many Irish emigrants left for America. There's a statue commenerating Annie Moore, the first emigrant to enter America through Ellis Island. There's also a beautiful Cathedral overlooking the harbor.
After our visit to Coph, we retraced our steps and went to visit the Blarney Castle. The Blarney Castle was very special. We spend a few hours walking around all of the gardens and walking paths. Clara and I both climbed to the top and kissed the stone.
The Ring of Kerry takes about 4 hours to totally complete. We were able to drive along it for about an hour. On our way to Dingle, we pulled over to the side of the road to watch the most beautiful sunset that I've ever seen.
Day 7: Dingle
We spent the day driving in a circle around Dingle and let me tell you, it's the most beautiful place that I've ever seen. We made several tourist stops along our way around the loop. First we stopped to look at the Beehive Huts. Some of the huts were constructed as early as 2000 BC. None of the huts use any kind of concrete or mortar. All of the stones are simply stacked on top of each other. Our mom had a hard time walking up the steep steps but the view was beautiful.
Next, we pulled aside to put the baby lambs. It was just too cute to pass up. Clara and I had a lot of fun playing with the sheep and pretending we were shepherdesses.
We saw some of the most beautiful coasts that I've ever seen. We stayed in the car most of the time because of my mom's walking problems, but there is a beautiful trail called, The Dingle Way.
Day 8: Galway
We left the beautiful Dingle and started making our trek back around so that we could make our early flight.
On our drive to the B & B, we made a quick stop at Kilarney National Park. There were some pretty gardens that my mom enjoyed. My sister and I did a quick 1 mile hike up to a waterfall. The park was lovely and a refreshing stop on our drive.
We stayed in a quaint Bed and Breakfast, Parkhouse B & B. The B & B is within walking distance to the Bunratty Castle. By this point, the castles had lost a bit of their excitement so we didn't spend too much time there. Instead, we opted to take a quick trip to Galway. To be totally honest, we mostly went because of the song "Galway Girl." We listened to the song and walked around some of the streets. We had our final dinner in a local pub before heading back to the hotel.
Day 9: Flight back home
All of us were amazed by how quickly our trip had gone. We spent a magical week making memories together and we were sad to see it come to an end. During the trip, we met some of the nicest people in the world and had some seriously delicious breakfasts. Ireland is a very special country and I'd highly recommend it to anyone.
