A Trip Of A Lifetime--Part 2

Part two of our wonderful trip is our journey through part of Ireland, sadly there was just not enough time to do it all. Once again I apologise for the huge amount of photos as I struggled to reduce them.
We departed the ferry after our 3.5 hr crossing. Once again we descended the stairs, boarded the bus which took us off the ferry and to the terminal for security checking.

From the port we caught the link bus into the city of Dublin.

The link bus dropped us off in the middle of town and it took us a while to get our bearings.

We spotted one of the Dublin Pedibus's peddling along the street with  it's crew laughing and drinking and  noisily interacting with  everyone on the streets.

Finally ,we decided to catch a multi seat cab to out travel lodge at Phoenix Park.

Our Taxi Driver Damien was such a character, we took an immediate liking to him.
He took us to the motel, pointing out many places of interest along the way and gave us great advice on where to eat that night. He gave us his contact number as we suggested he may be able to help us again the next day.

After booking in, we wandered down the road to one of the pubs that Damien had suggested and had our first drinks in an Irish Pub.

We then wandered down the road  for a wonderful pub dinner(and a few more drinks)

After we had eaten and drank our fill we wandered  back to the motel.

The next morning we called Damien and he picked us up and took us to the Dublin airport,

Where we were scheduled to pick up our hire van for this leg of our trip. This time we had a nine seat VW Transporter.

We headed off south along the coast road. Our first stop was a lovely pebbly beach.

Yvette was adding to her collection of shells.

The boys were wind turbine spotting.
We came across the lovely historic  town of Ferns,in county Wexford, where we wandered the ruins of Ferns Castle and  St Mary's Augustinian Abbey.

After leaving Ferns we called into the Irish National Heritage Park at Ferrycarrig, also in county Wexford. As we wandered around the exhibits we learned a lot about the early history and lives of the Irish people.

Yvette panned for gold in a small stream,

There were wonderful walks at this centre, and then a longer walk up to a hill with wonderful views.

New Ross was our next stop, where we  organised  our accommodation for the night Glenbarry B&B .We wandered down the road looking for a cafe that was recommended for dinner.

We were lost so asked a local who sent us on a wild goose chase.

We found  Anne McDonalds  cafe and had a wonderful meal and then hauled ourselves back up the long hill to the B&B.
All those full English and Irish breakfasts were  wonderful but when you eat them in a beautiful breakfast  room with views like this , it's just breath taking.

The fog  was covering the valley but as it lifted it revealed the view.

Our next  stop was at Waterford  it was Mother's Day and we decided to do the Waterford Crystal Factory Tour.

We then saw the factory in operation, which was really  interesting.

I got to hold a very beautiful piece of crystal.

There were copies of special pieces that we saw at the end.

We really loved the Waterford tour, interesting and excellent value for money, highly recommend it.
The waterfront at Dungarvon was picturesque, we had a wander around the outside of the castle,  and the shops and then all enjoyed an  ice cream.

We then  caught the  car ferry and headed to Cork and booked into the Travel Lodge.

 

 We went into the city centre looking for a place to eat ,but every eatery was jam packed with football revellers as it had been a grand final day and everyone  was out celebrating, so we headed back to our motel and ate burgers  in their  themed 50's  Diner which was  fun.

After cork we passed through some pretty country ,

We stopped at the small town of Bantry and had a look around.

We stopped and had a lovely lunch there.

Bill, my Brother In Law had been talking  for months before we left about a very  scenic mountain pass in Ireland that he wanted to take us over(he had already been to Ireland on a previous overseas trip and had done the Pass)
I was terrified of what was ahead of me as I struggle  driving  on mountain roads and even more so when they are steep and have no safety barriers.
Priests Leap has all that and more,.......But the beauty is outstanding.

When we got to this point, not quite at the summit, I practically had to unfreeze my self from the car and get out for some photos.

The scariest part for me was when we met a car traveling in the opposite direction. I got out and sat on the edge of the road while they backed our van about 100 metres down the road until they found a place where the cars could just squeeze past each other.
 I loved seeing the sheep up in the hills.
Priest's Leap was stunning, the views either was were just amazing. I found it totally terrifying while were were driving but when the car stopped and I  got out...........words cannot describe the view.!!!
When we descended down the other side we  headed to the town of Kenmare where we booked into Hallesseys  B&B.

We had dinner at the Irish pub across the road ,

We laid in bed that night and listened to wonderful Irish music and singing until around midnight.
The next morning we headed off to see some of the ring of Kerry.
We found some beautiful seaside towns and  we stopped at one area to play.

There were also some great pull off spots where we took pictures,

We continued on to Dingle, a very pretty town on the waterfront with it's streets lines with quaint colourful shops. A very busy tourist stop. We had a roam around and had a lovely lunch in a hotel.

At this point we started to realise that our time was going way to fast and if we wanted to do all the things that we wanted, we needed to head towards Limerick.
On arrival in Limerick we hit the Tescos supermarket and did a finger food dinner shop,

we headed back to Bill and Yvette's room at the Travel Lodge for a picnic dinner.

The next morning we went searching for a laundromat and were pleased to find "The Circle K " service stations . Beside the garage are these brilliant mini laundromats and car cleaning units.

The boys did a clean  and Vac of our van while we  girls  did a wash and dry of our clothes( We just loved those 18 kg machines!.
After the laundry duties were done we headed to King John's castle.

Bill had a lesson in sword fighting,

The views from the tower over Limerick and the river Shannon in either direction were lovely.

We had lunch across the road in The Katie Dalys pub, one of the oldest pubs in Ireland, lunch was delicious.

We headed to our next B&B  "Ash House" at Calverston, where we had a small unit  beside the main house to share.. It was 60 pounds for the night with full breakfast included for the 6 of us,a great deal and very comfortable.

The B&B was on a small acreage and they had a pony and this cute donkey, We all had a pat and fed him some carrots, he was very sweet.

We did a small shop at a local supermarket a few kilometres away and enjoyed  our dinner in the garden in the beautiful afternoon sun.

We headed back to Dublin and stayed at the same Travel Lodge we had stayed at before at Phoenix Park. The next morning we took the hire van back to Dublin airport and caught the bus back into the city.We decided to do the hop on hop off  bus tour of the city.

We hopped off at Dublin Castle and did a tour.

The castle chapel was gorgeous as were the  rooms inside the castle.

Kerry and Bernie posed for a photo on the stairs.

The next morning, our last day in Ireland, we called our taxi man,Damien and went back to the city to do the tour of the Guiness Storehouse.

We were all disapointed with the Guiness tour,we were expecting to actually "see" the guiness making process but instead just saw a lot of fancy lights,video footage and lots of technichal froth and bubble.
The best part was the Gravity Bar up the top where you got to  taste the Guiness and the near 360 deg view of Dublin.

After the tour we rang for our Taxi and waited outside for him(The only time we were really cold), these beautiful horse and carriages were lined up outside taking  people for rides.

Our taxi took us back to our motel to gather our luggage and then dropped us at the port to catch the ferry back to Wales.

We watched these  beautiful old cars  driving onto the ferry for the crossing.

Once again we boarded the ferry and had a meal and relaxed for the trip and once again the boys took full advantage of the down time and snoozed.

What an amazing time we had in Ireland, so much more to see and do, but time was our enemy and we had to move on.
Ireland was beautiful, stunning countryside, wonderful food and lovely people.I highly recommend a visit.
Our next destination is Scotland, so I hope you follow along with us.
Take care
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.