Day Ten - Guinness and Dublin Tour

Sure, Guinness is good for you, but at 10:30 AM? Oh well, at the end of the tour they make you an offer you can't refuse, a nice pint of the "black stuff"! Actually the tour was pretty informative and interesting. We learned about the different types of Guinness and why it tastes best when you get it in Ireland. It seems that pouring a Guinness is a little like making coffee at Starbucks. You have to practice, practice, practice. Well I volunteered to clean up the rejects but it was no go. Oh well, off to the gift shop then.

Arthur Guinness' 9000 year lease

After the Guinness brewery tour we broke for lunch and then reconvened for a walking tour of Dublin. We had a nice Austrian lady as our tour guide and while she seemed pretty knowledgable, she was much too soft spoken to compete with the noise of the street. The tour ended at Trinity College where we were able to view the Book of Kells, a magnificent hand printed and artistically decorated copy of the four gospels. It was created by monks around the year 800 and is one of Ireland's most valuable treasures.

Our very enthusiastic tour guide at Guinness.

Oh, it's a beautiful thing!

Dinner tonight was at the castle, and then we set to the task of packing for the trip home.

Getting ready for an upcoming holiday?

 

Example of a Georgian door.

 

Entering the campus of Trinity College

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seamus (blue sweater) wouldn't let us forget how the US team clutched in the Ryder Cup.

 

Day Nine - New Grange & Dublin

This morning we were able to "sleep in" a bit before departing for our tour of Newgrange, the approximately 5000 year old "tomb" / "solar observatory". The tour started with an excellently video and museum at the visitor's center, then a short ride aboard the site's own buses to the archeological site itself. An excellent pre-entry presentation by our enthusiastic tour guide gave us some insight into the various theories as to the purpose and uses of the tunnel and chamber comprising the ancient sacred site. Unfortunately photography inside the tomb is prohibited. But once our group and guide were inside the tiny central chamber there would have been scant space wield a camera anyway. This tour is not for the claustrophobic! Since we were not there for the winter solstice, an electric lamp was used to demonstrate what it would look like being in the chamber on December 21st when the sun would hit the "roof box" above the entry door and illuminate the sacred chamber. First all the illumination inside was switched off, a rather exciting event in itself if you have never witnessed total darkness before. The the "sun" was switched on and a sliver of light crept across the chamber floor and up the far wall. Apparently the actual sun does a much more dramatic job a baths the chamber in golden light for a few brief moments as it's aligned with the aperture above the door. The engineering and construction of the site by ancient people whose life span was much shorter than the estimated time to construct the site is mind boggling!

The motley crew in front of Newgrange entry.

Mind your head, Jim!

After Newgrange we returned to downtown Dublin and found ourselves in the middle of a pro-choice protest march. Extricating ourselves from the fray we hit some of the shops on the pedestrian part of Graffton Street. Then walked down to the Temple Bar area looking for a lunch spot. Seamus took a group of us back to the hotel for an hour or so to freshen up. Then it was back to THE Temple Bar which was the agreed upon meeting place. From there we split up and went out looking for dinner and/or entertainment. And did we ever find that!

 

THE Temple Bar -a crowded place!

They were partying at Thunder Road!

 

And we were groovin' along with them!

 

Day Eight - Travel to Dublin

This morning we departed Lyrath Estates for our final castle stay outside Dublin at Clontarf Castle. En route we stopped at two "must see" Irish attractions. The first was Glendalough, site of a former monastic order established in the 6th century by Saint Kevin. Besides the historic buildings which date back as far as the 8th century the area is a beautifully tranquil nature preserve. This "valley of the two lakes" is a great place to relax and contemplate/commune with nature.

Next stop was Powerscourt. After a delicious lunch in the cafeteria, we explored the magnificent formal gardens associated with the former estate. This is one of the largest gardens of its kind in the world. In addition to the extensive and well laid out plantings of flowers, shrubs and trees, there are numerous fountains and man-made ponds that contribute to the beautiful landscape.

From here we took a short city tour of Dublin, just on the coach as Seamus pointed out some of the major sights of the city. Then it was off to check into Clontarf Castle and dinner.

Left- double arch entry into the monastery at Glendalough.

 

 

 

Below right - upper lake at Glendalough.

 

 

 

 

Below - Saint Kevin's "kitchen" .

Mansion at Powerscourt.

 

Garden at Powerscourt.

 

 

 

A view of Clontarf.

 

Day Seven - Kilkenny

This morning we departed the hotel at 9:00 for a guided tour of The Rock of Cashel. This ancient fortress, sitting high up on a craggy outcropping of rock, dates back to the 12th century. The site itself figures into Irish history much further back. Tradition has it that is the site where Saint Patrick converted Aengus, King of Munster (southern provence of Ireland) to Christianity back in the 5th century. In reality, the fortified structures that stand today were creations of the Catholic church built after the strategic site was given to the church by the then reining King of Munster in 1101 AD. The tour started with one of the most interesting artifacts, the Saint Patrick's Cross, which is holloway at its base, suggesting it had once been a hiding place for some great tresure or relic.

Later, we returned to explore the medieval town of Kilkenny, find lunch and do some shopping. There was a street fair or market going on. One of the more unusual stalls was the Truffle Fairy, which had some delicious and I might say even unusual home made chocolate confections, such as chocolate truffles containing some chilli peppers. At three we all assembled for a tour of Kilkenny Castle. Here we learned of its history back to the original wooden fort erected by Strongbow after the Norman's successful invasion of Ireland in 1172. The structure we visited had been converted from a fortress to an elegant Victorian mansion in later years by the wealthy and powerful Butler family.

After the castle tour we spent some time across the street at the Kilkenny Design Center, a grouping of original art and craft shops located in what was the castle's former stables. At the rear of this was a beautiful garden complex leading to the Butler House. Not sure of the connection to the former inhabitants of the castle. At five PM some of us went back to our hotel to freshen up while some stayed in town. Some stayed at the hotel for the evening while a few returned to Kilkenny for drinks and dinner. Being it was "Arthur Guinness Day" we got free drinks and snacks at Matt the Miller's Pub. We even got to meet Arthur himself, who looked pretty good for someone who died over 200 years ago!

Saint Patrick's Cross.

Interior of the Rock of Cashel.

 

Street Market.

Matt the Miller's Pub

Kilkenny Castle

Butler House and Gardens

 

Celebrating Arthur's Day!

Yum! Free food!!

 

Day Six - Kilkenny

Our first stop today was at the Waterford Crystal Factory. This was a very interesting tour which demonstrated the entire process of the making of some of he most exquisite crystal in the world, including the globe that descends in Times Square to mark the New Year. From the initial "blowing" of a piece of molten crystal to the laborious hand cutting and shaping, this is a very labor intensive process, which accounts for the high prices Waterford crystal commands. Unfortunately, according to our driver,Seamus, little of this is performed in Ireland anymore. Most of the work was farmed out to the Chech Republic when Waterford was bought out by a foreign corporation, resulting in the loss of thousands of highly skilled jobs in Ireland.

We had lunch in the town of Waterford at a delightful "carvery" that Seamus recommended. They were even so nice as to clear a special area for our group to able to be seated together.

Next stop, Jerpoint Abbey. This Cistercian ruins dates back to 1160 and remained active up until Henry VIII dissolved all of the Monasteries. We had a guided tour presented by a very enthusiastic and knowledgable guide named Margaret. She made the tour both interesting and very informative, giving us a wonderfully vivid look at life as a Cistercian monk.

Checking into the Lyrath Estates Hotel, we had sufficient time before dinner to relax and explore the hotel grounds. A few of us took a walk around he extensive grounds and eventually came upon what we assume is the owners home. At the end of a long driveway was a gated residence with three beautiful white retrievers (referred to as Snow Angel Retrievers) playing out front. Dinner at the hotel was elegant and delicious, though the service to one of our two tables was more than just a bit slow. I think someone "dropped the ball". In compensation drinks at that table were made complimentary.

 

 

 

Day Five - Blarney & Kinsale

This morning we departed Ballyseede Castle for Blarney Castle and Blarney Woolen Mills. After a brief stop for coffee (just the regular stuff this time!) we arrived at Blarney Woolen Mills, parked the coach and headed over in the rain to the castle to climb up and kiss the famous stone. This requires one to climb 110 stone steps up a narrow circular staircase to the castle's ramparts. Once here a nice local gentleman will hold on to you as lie on your back and lean out a hole in the castle wall and kiss the Blarney Stone located, now, above your head. Not everyone was willing to exchange bodily fluids with perfect strangers, so some chickened out. Then it was off to shop at the mills. This place had everything Irish from soup to nuts! Well, not literally!! Lots of nice stuff for the kids and the ladies. Even a men's section. Lou gave a whole new meaning to the term "clothes horse"! See below. They had a beautiful pub at the mills and most folks took advantage of that for lunch. After a couple of hours of shopping everyone was back on the bus and we headed off to Jamesons to learn about Irish whiskey.

The video that introduced our tour was a bit over-hyped but the tour itself was quite informative. At the end everyone got to sample some Jamesons and then hit the gift shop. Boarding the coach again we were off to our hotel, The Trident, in Kinsale. The hotel was right on the water front in this quaint little town.

Supper was at the hotel, and an unexpected treat was a live performance of the Irish sitcom, Father Ted. Fortunately Seamus has shown a few episodes of the show on the bus en route to the hotel. Otherwise, we might not have understood what was going on. The show was not as good as the sitcom, but it certainly made the evening pass more quickly. There was an introductory cocktail party before the show so we were able to interact with a few of the characters beforehand.

Blarney castle to the left. Below people queued up to kiss the stone.

Preston did it!

What a guy!,

Chuck meets Father Ted!

Father Jack laid out.

 

One of the favorite terms of the characters in the show.

River dance performers

 

Day Four - The Ring of Kerry

After a wonderful breakfast at the castle we boarded our motor coach to begin our trip around the ring of Kerry, an expanse of gorgeous coastline and hillside villages. First stop, a pub, of course! Well, you can't start a proper day without Irish Coffee!

Our next stop was to see a demonstration of how the Border Collie is used to herd sheep Even when they are a long distance from the shepherd. These amazing dogs instinctively crouch like a predator as they approach the sheep, causing them to move away in fear. Through careful training, the dogs respond expertly to verbal and whistle signals given by their master and manage to make the sheep go where ever the shepherd wants. They are even able to separate out individual sheep from the herd.

A bit further along we stopped to admire the beautiful coastal views, and take a group picture on a windy hilltop. The weather cooperated pretty well with just occasional quick showers that provided an opportunity to photograph some rainbows. We stopped for lunch in Waterville, namesake of at least some of our traveling companion's home ck in the States. Here we learned of the town's connection to Charlie Chaplin. We ended the tour back at our castle hotel to freshen up before heading out to dinner in Tralee.

 

 

Various breeds of sheep.

 

 

 

 

The shepherd / dog trainer.

 

Moving the sheep..

 

Waterville.