On the road in Ireland

I just got back from 10 days in Ireland!  It was a great trip filled with beautiful landscapes and lots of laughter.  I also got the chance to try out my driving skills on the other side of the road with a stick shift.  Lucky to report there were no accidents the entire trip. :)

Sandra flew over from the States and we started our 950 mile driving adventure flying into Dublin.  From there, we rented a car and headed to the West coast.  Here is our route over the trip. 

Note: I took extremely large photos on the trip, so you can double click on photos and get the full details of the photos.

Ireland is shockingly small.  We were able to drive from Dublin on the East coast to Westport on the West coast in about 3 1/2 hours and less then a 1/2 tank of gas.  Of course, we did not use a lot of gas because look at our tiny car!

On the drive to Westport, we stopped at Roscommon Castle.  It was a Anglo-Norman fortress built in 1269 by the Lord Justice of Ireland at the time.  It was destroyed and rebuilt a number of times and is now just a ruin.  Here is Sandra very excited to see her first castle in Ireland.

I assumed when we walked up to the castle that we would have to pay getting in.  However, there were just a few signs telling us to take care when in the castle grounds and that was it.

Here is Sandra walking into the castle.

Surprisingly, we were the only people there!  This became a theme of the trip as we learned we had just missed the tourist season.  The castle was just a shell and grass covered the inside grounds.

It was neat to see the window frames still standing.  You would think after a few hundred years, these would crumble to the ground.

We then headed on to Westport for our first night in the country.  As we pulled up to park, I had to laugh.  I would hate to parallel park that thing!

We stayed at a cute B&B suggested by one of our guide books. 

Before dinner, we headed out to explore the cute town.  It was situated on the Carrowbeg River.

Around town, they had these funny boards that you could stick your head into for photos.  Here is Sandra being eaten by a lion.  Too funny.

That night we hung out at a pub that Bono from U2 and other singers sometimes stop into.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anyone famous. :(

The next morning we headed out to explore Connemara.  The region is filled with mountains, bogs, and rugged coastlines.  To be honest, I was surprised to see mountains in the country.

We experienced a little bit of rain and wind on the first day, but it was not very cold.  We drove through the region and stopped at different spots to take photos.  Here is one of our first pictures of the ocean at Killary Harbour.

They must have been farming something off those rows of floats.  Maybe mussels?

Here I am taking photos.  It was rather windy!

Here is our little car against the landscape.  Again, we seemed to be the only tourists in the entire country.

Along the way, we would see areas where peat was cut from the bog land and wrapped to dry.

Here is Sandra in full photographer mode.

Along the way, we drove by Kylemore Abbey.  We braved a small bridge with some road traffic to get a photo.  It was originally built in the Gothic Revival style as a present for the wife of a Minster of Parliament. The family later sold the property and it became the home of Benedictine nuns fleeing Belgium during World War I.  The place is now a girls' boarding school.  It seems to have a bit of Hogwarts qualities!

The focus of the day was a stop at Connemara National Park, one of Ireland's six national parks.  It is over 2,000 acres.  Here is the visitor's center.  I really like the texture of the outside wall.

From there, Sandra and I did a little walk up into the park.  We got a little rain and wind, but it was worth the hike.  If you double click on the photo, you will see the Connemara ponies grazing below.

Here is a video of the landscape.  Most of the land had been used in the past for agricultural grazing land.

The lower part of the park was more swamp like.

And despite being almost winter, was still blooming flowers.

After we left the park, we continued to drive along the coast.  Here is one of our near misses.  They were everywhere!

We stopped off in Ballyconneely to look at the sea. 

 

Here I am taking in the view.  From there we drove on to Ballyvaughan for the evening.  It was a great ending to our first full day.

More to follow....