I waited until the end of the Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie and there was nothing. I guess it needs to be only a Jackie Chan movie for him to include out-takes and stunts gone awry.

Dublin

We flew to Dublin on June 20, but arrived on the 21 at 7 AM. We weren’t able to get to sleep on the plane, so we were really dragging that whole day. I still remember not being able to immediately tell the customs officer why I had travelled there before blurting out “on holiday”. Normally I wouldn’t use “holiday”, but I watch a lot of British TV (Top Gear is the best show on TV by far). We got the “super duper” bus from the airport down to the center of town at O’Connell Street. Not that we would know what street it was, because there were never any street signs and it was a nightmare trying to figure out where we were going. We got a hotel and seriously thought about sleeping awhile, but decided to press on.

Our first tourist stop was at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The manuscripts were very impressive, and the library where you end up at is pretty amazing. Photography was forbidden, so I didn’t take any pictures there, but I did take some of the college grounds. It rains almost every day, so I bought a hat at the college.

I had reserved free tickets to go see the Codex Leicester at the Chester Beatty Library. These are the collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci that were purchased by Bill Gates for $30.8M. It is only on display once per year, so I figured we should go see them. It was interesting to see da Vinci’s “backwards” writing, but we didn’t stay very long. We also went to Christ Church Cathedral and the National Museum. Plus we quickly discovered how terrible the food in Ireland is, so don’t expect anything great if you go.

Galway
The next day we hopped a bus to the train station to travel to Galway on the west coast of Ireland. We arrived in the morning and spent the day seeing the sights. It seems to be a city in the same vein as Gatlinburg or Estes Park – mainly shopping. The main street is pretty cool though. When we got here, I went to the Vodafone store to get a SIM card so the unlocked phone I borrowed would work. A tour book recommended eating fish and chips at a local shop, so we went there for lunch. We sat down and a short time later, a man walked up besides us and all the workers and owner came rushing over and asked him if the food was good. Then they started taking pictures. His back was to me, so I told Chris this fellow must be a local celebrity. I was watching the scene and he briefly turned his head toward me and I said “Oh! That’s the guy from Lost… John Locke.” Chris had never seen the show; however he did get a good picture of him, while I only got the side of his face. When we left, nobody took our picture… see if I ever go there again!

After eating we went to St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church and looked around. Then we decided to go walk the coast. It was a very nice day and we thought we spotted a lighthouse. We walked for about 30 minutes and then found out that passing a certain point on the pier was illegal. Sort of frustrating, especially since we were still carrying our backpacks that were growing heavy, but I did find out after coming back home that it was a waste water plant with a lighthouse. Then we made a reservation to get a rental car for our drive around the southern coast.

The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher
The next day we took a taxi to the airport to get our rental car. Chris said he would drive, since from his trips to England he was more familiar with driving on the left side of the road. It was very disconcerting, especially since you are in the habit of looking certain ways. For example, if I was turning right normally I’d look left first, but that would be wrong over there. Also, they don’t believe in stop lights at intersections, so there are a lot of roundabouts.

We made our way on the little roads toward the Cliffs of Moher through the area known as The Burren. We stopped in a little town called Doolin where the food at the pub wasn’t too bad. They also have this ice cream that is fantastic – newsagents and petrol stations have ice cream cones outside signaling a good place to stop and get some (I recommend doing this a few times). They’ll want to sell you one with “a flake” of chocolate but we agreed that it’s not worth the extra money since it didn’t taste like much of anything.

From Doolin, it was only a short way until the Cliffs. The government has decided to capitalize on their popularity and constructed a visitor’s center and parking area. They also have a ticket counter, but just breeze on by that and walk out to the Cliffs. They are pretty amazing, but they’ve built this wall around the edge so you don’t fall in. That’s a good idea, but they try to block off one of the traditional paths with a big warning sign. I suggest ignoring that sign (like everyone does) and continue walking south, where the view gets much better.

Dingle Peninsula
From the Cliffs we drove towards the Dingle Peninsula. It was too late to see the peninsula, so we stayed the night in Tralee at our first bed and breakfast. After having our usual horrible breakfast, we filled up with petrol (it cost the equivalent of $6.92/gallon) and were off to see the Peninsula. It was amazing. The best way to go is to take the Conor pass, which is a one lane road over the main mountain… at least if the weather is nice. We got out at the top and climbed up the nearest hill where we found a big pile of rocks where, presumably, the farmer has moved them. We proceeded into town and then drove clockwise around the peninsula. There are quite a few promontories on the coast so we stopped at one and walked out to see it. The weather was perfect for a hike. It took a day to view the peninsula, and after that we drove to Killarney.

Killarney
The tourist guide said to avoid Killarney because it is crowded with tourists and overrated. It’s a good thing we disregarded this because, in my opinion, it was the nicest town there. The best feature was the National Park located next to the town. I should note that since Ireland is so far north, it doesn’t get dark until about 10 PM, so we had plenty of time to go walking. Right next to the park is St. Mary’s Cathedral, so we stopped by before heading into the park. We followed the signs to Ross Castle, since we hadn’t seen any up close yet. After walking 2.5 km, we arrived at the castle only to find that it was closed. At least we got to walk around it and I took some pretty good photos of the area.

Ring of Kerry
The following day we did the Ring of Kerry. Like the Dingle, it is also a peninsula, only larger and really it wasn’t as scenic. We agreed that if you wanted to be impressed, visit the Ring first, and then visit the Dingle. The scenery on the Ring is nice, just not as amazing as Dingle. It rained pretty much all day on the Ring and was fairly windy as well. We did stop at Ballycarbery Castle, but since it was in a farmer’s field, we only went up to the gate. We also visited Staigue stone fort, a round fort dating from 300 to 400 AD. This, too, was in a sheep farmer’s field. They had a donation box so I put in a few Euros, but nobody was watching this box, so I hope the farmer collected my money! After the Ring we drove straight to tour our first castle – Blarney.

Blarney Castle
We arrived in the afternoon at 4 PM, so we had a couple hours before it closed. Blarney Castle is located, unsurprisingly, in the town of Blarney which is located just to the north of Cork, one of the larger cities. Kissing the Blarney Stone is supposed to grant eloquence, but I don’t think it has worked. I had always imagined a rock on the ground somewhere before seeing it on a travel show. You climb to the top of the castle, lie on your back, and hold on to the metal rails. There is a fellow who grabs your clothes and lowers you down. At first you think it is just in front of your face, but no! He lowers you down to where it feels like you may plummet to your death if he lets go. It was disappointing to see the amount of graffiti on the castle walls though. After seeing the castle, we decided to go to see some sights up north: Cahir, Cashel, and Kilkenny.

Cahir
About an hour and half north of Blarney is Cahir. We were headed there to see another castle, Cahir Castle. It is one of the best preserved castles in Ireland and there was no graffiti like Blarney Castle. It was definitely worth visiting to see such a nicely restored castle. We didn’t look at the town, since by now they were all looking alike. We jumped in the car and headed for Cashel.

Cashel
In Cashel, the main tourist attraction is the Rock of Cashel. The Rock was a place of ancient kings, worship, and study before being destroyed by the English in 1647. It reminded me of a city one may find in fantasy books or movies, like the Lord of the Rings. We toured the ruins and from the top of the Rock, you have a fantastic view of the surrounding area. Down below we spotted another ruin, so we walked down the path and, yet again, through a farmer’s field. We had arrived at Hore Abbey, thought to be named after the word for yew tree. The abbey has fallen into ruin, but at least that makes for more interesting pictures, right? After seeing this, we walked back to the car and drove to Kilkenny.

Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a fairly large town located to the east of Cashel. It has a lot of local artisans plying their wares. It was my mother’s birthday the day we were in Kilkenny, so I did visit a few shoppes to find something for her, but came up empty. It also has a castle, but we did not go visit it, since we were “castled out”. We did go have a look at the St. Mary’s Cathedral. Then we decided to go eat somewhere where the food was something foreign, and only ended up finding a pub that served “Tex-Mex” food called, appropriately, Paris Texas. We both ordered “fajitas” since that would certainly have some taste, right? Well you’d be wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever had Mexican food with spaghetti sauce for salsa. They also put a green “guacamole” sauce that tasted more like salsa than the salsa did. All we could do was laugh at how ridiculous it was. Oh, and our fajitas came with “chips” (French fries) just like everything else you eat. You can get chips at the Chinese restaurants too. One menu item we saw was a stuffed, baked potato with a side order of chips. The cuisine is really weird. We stayed the night by the river and drove down towards Waterford the following day.

Jerpoint Abbey
On the way to Waterford, we stopped at Jerpoint Abbey. We weren’t actually planning on going to this abbey or to Waterford, but we were trying to think of places to go. We stopped at the visitor’s center and talked to the lady working the desk. She gave us suggestions on what to do. She said to go to Waterford and then drive around the coast. There is also a beach where they filmed the D-Day landings in Saving Private Ryan. The abbey is in good condition and there is a lot of nice stonework carving. We spent about 30 minutes there and then were off to Waterford.

Waterford

We made it to Waterford and parked the car. We were indifferent about going to the Waterford Crystal factory, but we did go since that would be something to do. We didn’t go on the factory tour, since it was like $20 to go and we weren’t THAT interested. However, the gift shop alone was spectacular. On display were various trophies for professional golf tournaments like the Ryder Cup. They also had crystal chandeliers that were immense, like as big as my kitchen at home. It was here that I found Mom her birthday gift, a crystal vase. She loved it when I gave it to her and she made me sopapillas (her recipe is still on the front page of Google)! We drove along the eastern coast after leaving Waterford.

Curracloe Beach
We had forgotten the advice we were given by the lady at the Jerpoint Abbey. As we were driving along, we thought we’d take the next road just to see where it went. Amazingly, it went to Curracloe Beach, where they filmed that D-Day landing. There were no signs for the beach and we had stumbled on it by accident. So we got out and walked up the beach. For being almost July, we had to have our coats on since it was probably 50 degrees outside. There were only a handful of people there and we walked a few miles. We walked back to the car and continued on to Glendalough.

Glendalough
Our last tourist stop was at Glendalough (pronounced “Glen da Lock”) just south of Dublin. It was founded in the 6^th century by St. Kevin, a hermit priest. The only real remains are a large tower and a few churches. There are two lakes and we walked to see both of them. We commented on how unbelievably green it was here, almost neon in appearance. We spent a few hours here and then decided to drive back to Dublin, turn in the car, and get a hotel. We flew back home the following morning.

Conclusions
If I was going to recommend a trip to Ireland, I would skip Dublin altogether. Instead, fly into Shannon on the west coast and rent a car. Tour the Cliffs of Moher, Dingle Peninsula, and Killarney. We did not venture into Northern Ireland, so I cannot comment on that. Also, I’d buy some supplies for making sandwiches and eat those most of the time, since it will be better than 90% of the food you’ll find there. We would have liked to take a tour of some of the islands off the coast, but we didn’t have any idea how much time we had. We had no problems finding B&B’s to stay at, so I wouldn’t recommend making any reservations anywhere, especially since you never know where you may end up.

My photos

Stir until blended. Makes 2.5 dozen (4″-6″ diameter) or 1 dozen (6″-7″ diameter)

Crumb crust:

3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs
3 T. melted butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 T. packed brown sugar
3 T. chopped nuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all crust ingredients. Press
into the bottom and a few inches up the sides of a 9″ Spring-form
pan. Tightly wrap outside of pan with heavy-duty foil to prevent
leakage when baking in water bath later. Bake crust 10 minutes.
Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Pumpkin Filling:

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 can (16 oz) solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 c. sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
4 large eggs

Directions:

In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese until
smooth; slowly beat in sugar until blended, about 1 minute, scraping
bowl often with rubber spatula. With mixer at low speed, beat in
pumpkin, sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. Add
eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Pour pumpkin mixture into crust and place in large roasting pan.
Place pan on oven rack. Carefully pour enough boiling water into
pan to come 1 inch up side of Spring-form pan. Bake cheesecake 1
hour 10 minutes or until center barely jiggles.

Cream together
Add: 1 c. milk
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
3 c. flour
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts (I have used chocolate chips or a combination of the two)
Beat for 3 minutes

Directions:

Pour into 2 large greased and floured loaf pans or 4 small pans.
Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees – or until test done.

Tip: Grease pans and line with waxed or parchment paper. Loaves will come right out.

May the views be evermore majestic.

Now you know the rest of the story. And knowing is power. And power is the amount of work done in a specific amount of time.