Final Comments with Helpful Hints

Now that we’ve landed back in the US we have time to reflect on our time in Ireland.  We thought we would give you helpful hints in case we have inspired you to travel to that beautiful land or maybe we’ve scared you to death and you may never leave the US.  DO TRAVEL.  People are amazing all over the world.  When God said he loved the World I believe he wants us to go out into it and love it in His Name.

Opps, I’m now writing this at home.  Hallelujah!!  The wi-fi got disconnected when I had to move to our gate.  It is so nice to be on W I D E streets again.  I only yelled twice when I thought Rod was on the wrong side of the road coming home J

Suzan and Rita’s Hints:

1.    Bus, train, car or walk.  Rita thinks driving was fun.  She was NOT driving.  I think walking is the safest way to go or maybe the bus. Public transportation and Tour busses sound better and better.
 

2.    GPS vs. Map.  It makes no difference since there are no street signs.  We talked to others who drove and they said the exact same thing.  Most were lost to the point that they thought they would have to call in the search helicopters.
 

3.    YES, get insurance if you are driving.  You will need it!!  Perhaps practicing driving on the left side of the street will help you before you leave if don't confuse yourself here.

4.    Remember that One Euro is worth $1.35 (at this writing) so if something is 5 euro it’s really costing you $6.75.  Eating out is not cheap.  Petrol is sold by the liter.  Once we figured out the cost conversion it comes out to approx. $8.00 a gallon, so quit complaining about our high gas prices

5.    When someone tells you it’s “a wee way down the road”, add another 1 hour to your drive time.

6.    Do stay and Bed and Breakfasts.  You will meet the sweetest people and have the best food and conversation that will keep you going all day or you may meet the Bickers who were a scream as they bickered in the kitchen and were all smiles when they talked with us.

7.    God still sends guardian angels.  Just ask anyone who drives through the back roads.

8.    Do drink the milk and eat the butter and ice cream.  It will be the best you’ve ever had.

9.  Do learn to love tea.  It will be served at every meal.  If you are coffee lover then you are going to the wrong country.......instant Nescafe - YUK!

10.  Don’t eat at McDonalds or Burger King, but always have an Irish Breakfast.

11.  Always choose a “joint” to eat in.  "Pub Grub" is the best and the surroundings & people are great.

12.  Take a good friend with you to enjoy each day and pray you will still be friends when you get home.  Also, it would be good if that friend could read a map.  Plus a little green friend can be fun and will always make people smile when they see him in the oddest places.



13.  Take lots and lots of pictures so you can enjoy your time in Ireland over and over.

Irish Cows.  I think Irish Cows have it over California Cows.  They seem to have endless supply of green lush grass, they don't have to worry about earthquakes and have lots of sheep friends, They give the sweetest milk for drinking, butter, ice cream and don't have to worry about their weight.  And when you drive past an Irish dairy there is NO smell,  I'm convinced that the farmers give them a bath each day and wipe their bottoms with  Charmin.

Just a few little pictures to end this blog.  Then it's your turn to go somewhere you've always wanted to go and bring back memories.

Street singers in Galway - they had a crowd gathered round.

Two Irish Gentleman that were more Rita's speed

A sweet little country church overlooking the Atlantic

Some of the little gems you see along the side streets while you are lost.

A rose in bloom at Kilkenny Castle

One of the dozens of doors I took pictures of all painted in different colors along the old streets of Dublin

WANT TO SEE MORE - VISIT RITA.  She has a book full and stories for each one.  Thanks for following our blog.  We enjoyed sharing each day with you.


 

 

Rita's Last Day in Ireland

We started out our last day with a cup of tea and biscotti in hand.  Our first thoughts were to get off at every stop, but realizing that it would take us at least 24 hours to get in each stop we opted for our top 4 choices and that took all day.  

First stop was Rita’s #1 choice at Trinity College.  She has talked about wanting to see the Book Of Kells since we started planning this trip.  The tour was supposed to take 30 minutes, but 2 hours later she finally exited the Long Room (library) that contains the Book of Kells.  Again, don’t believe anything you are told about time.  The Book of Kells is the first four gospels transcribed by Monks in Latin onto calf skin parchment.  All the drawings are in natural lead colors of red, yellow, green, black and white with those being mixed into other colors with the writings in black.  Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any pictures so we had to buy cards to remember it by.  Rita said it gave her chills to just look at the writings knowing that they were the Word of God.  You only get to see one open page of the books as they open one page each day.  The rest of what you see are paintings of the pages.  The library is not open to the public unless you pay for the tour, but the students are allowed to use the library at any time and can view the Book of Kells as they want.

Rita just as you enter Trinity College.  You could hardly move because of the students moving from class to class.

This is the Long Room (library).  Notice the shelves that go up 80 ft. or more full of old books arranged by height.

We hopped back on the bus and decided our next stop was the National Gallery of Ireland.  It was just the opposite in architecture, but very impressive.  We walked through each exhibit and you are taken by the different styles and subject of artists.  Again, another two hours of walking through exhibit to exhibit.  I had a bit of a hard time of controlling Finnegan as he kept going off viewing paintings and sculptures that were not appropriate for his age.

Finnegan admiring fine art.

This one is of a grandfather and his granddaughter.  I had to laugh because it reminds me my granddaughters putting the "touch" on grandpa.  She's probably saying "Grandpa, it's only $20 and that's a deal for that shirt"

 

Both of us were excited about getting to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral of Dublin.  Again, we took a tour and you cannot believe the ornate designs and windows in these cathedrals.  The existing church was rebuilt in the early 13^th century.  St. Patrick is said to have baptized converts to Christianity at a well that once existed in the park alongside the church.  Our tour guide was more interested in telling us about Jonathan Swift who was the dean at the school from 1713-45.  She told us about his life and showed where he was buried and I finally had to ask where the monument to St. Patrick is.  She pointed to a stain glass picture of him so high I could barely see it.

The stain glass in the center is of St. Patrick, but it was way at the top next to the ceiling.

Some of the beautiful architecture

Finnegan trying to get directions out of the cathedral.  

We were starting to wind down but wanted to go to a well-known Irish restaurant and Pub to hear and see Irish dancers.  We were told that it would be in the afternoon and found out it would not be till about 9:00 pm tonight.  There was no way.  In fact, as I’m writing this it is 8:45 pm and Rita is sound asleep on the bed. 

We don’t even want to think about going home tomorrow.  Rita has had such a wonderful time.  We both agreed that if she had waited any longer for this trip it probably would not have happened.  As crazy as some of our experiences have been it was well worth the trip to see this beautiful country. 

FYI - Yes there are slugs in Ireland too.  I told you it's a lot like Oregon here.

Don’t stop reading this.  Tomorrow we will give helpful hints on  how to travel to and around Ireland.

Keep on walking
 

               The End of a long day.......and I took a ton of pictures of all the colorful doors in Dublin.

 

1700 Kilometers

I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a Hertz rental sign in my whole life.  It was with GREAT pleasure that I handed the keys over to the clerk.  Can you believe it, we put 1,700 kilometers on that little Suzuki in 10 days.  That’s. 1,056 miles, an average of over 100 miles a day.  So much for leisurely traveling through Ireland.  I just did some high level figuring with liters vs. gals and kilometers vs. miles and I came up with 32 miles to the gal.  That’s OK, still doesn’t match the mileage of my Prius J  It was a good little car, but I did return it with a little Boo-Boo.  In fact, everyone returning their cars while we were there had Boo-Boos.  We noticed most cars in Ireland have Boo-Boos.

Our little car's BIG Boo-Boo.  Rod don't panic

My Boo-Boo.  I couldn't take a picture of the back side at the same time, but it's blue all the way around.

 

Now we can relax and just enjoy the bus. There would have been no way we could have found our hotel with it tucked away off an alley.  They put hotels in the oddest places. The days of stopping and asking directions are over.  Rita and I are still laughing over our last little incident going into Dundalk.  As usual, we took the wrong turn-off so I immediately stopped at a little Pub and asked the proprietor.  He was very excited to help.  He got a piece of paper and drew out every traffic light and roundabout.  I was to go left, then right, and down the slip and when I came to a Y in the road there would be a big yellow house and then go left.  Cross the highway and turn left and go to the Garden Center.  Then I was to get out and ask Paddy O’Grady how to get the rest of the way to the B&B.  Rita thought I was kidding, but we really did stop and ask Paddy the rest of the directions.  I made sure I had very clear directions before talking off for Dublin this morning.

After we got onto the bus we congratulated ourselves on being so wise to decide to turn in the car and not even attempt this town.  Gee!  It’s like Galway, Cork and your worst nightmare on steroids.  I will say it’s a pretty city with lots of history and charm.  Rita hasn’t been too impressed so far, but that’s because she ran into a brawl while looking for a restaurant while I was still at another location.  I can’t leave her alone for a moment.  Now she’s holding up in the hotel room watching TV.  We do plan to continue tomorrow to go on the Dublin Sightseeing Bus Tour and get off at the spots that we are interested, our last day in Ireland.

The Dublin tour bus

                                             One of the side streets of Dublin

  

In giving the bus tour a trial run today to see what we really wanted to see I couldn’t resist getting off at the Guinness Storehouse Brewery Tour.  Rita decided to go on without me and that when she encountered the brawl.  Anyway, the tour took 1-1/2 hours and that was pushing it.  The whole structure was jaw dropping.  It’s in a restored 1904 building.  You started at the ground floor and worked your way up 7 floors to a room that over looked the city (similar to the Space Needle in Seattle, but not so tall).  A little fact:  Guinness Beer is now produced around the world (started in Dublin) at the rate of 10 million glasses EACH day.  I had my first glass of Guinness that I poured myself and got an award that I had “crafted The Perfect Pint of Guinness”.  I have the signed
certificate to prove it.

There really is an art to pouring a Guinness.  You have to let it sit 2 min. before topping it off.

    We found a Subway about 2 blocks from the hotel.  It was stuck in a Convenience Store and you just order, grab and run.  All Rita wanted to do was get the sandwich and go back to the hotel and eat without some of the craziness.  This is the first city that we actually started to see rubbish.

Sadly, tomorrow is our last day and we are going to try to fit as much as we can into it.




 

Armagh OR Amuck!!

 

When Rita was planning this trip she wanted to go west of Belfast and see some of the inland countryside.  In fact, one of the little towns she wanted to see was Armagh.  After a brain splitting experience getting in and out of Belfast I thought we should head straight for the M1 and get the heck out of Dodge and head south for Dundalk.  I don't know what kind of connections she has with God but I took the M1 West rather than South and you'll never guess what town we ended up in about 1 hour later.  You've got it!! ARMAGH. She kept saying; "thank you God", but my prayer to make it to Dundalk WITHOUT incident was not answered.  After we got into the town I realized how beautiful it was. It kind of made me smile since there are two HUGE churches right in the center of town both named St. Patrick's.  One is Roman Catholic and the other is Church of Ireland.  As far as beauty is concerned, the Roman Catholic church won hands down, but I loved the secret garden at the Church of Ireland.

St. Patrick's Church - Roman Catholic Style

                             Interior Sanctuary - There is no way a picture can do it justice.

                                                 St. Patrick's Church - Church of Ireland

I discovered this little passageway into a manicured garden.  There were arches that led into arbors and other gardens with trees and flowers.

 

Breakdowns and Angels

Just a little side note to let you know that in the midst of this trip it hasn't always been easy maneuvering around especially in the cities.  We like to joke about it, but it can be extremely stressful.  Today was one of those days.  The young man at the Park Inn Hotel gave directions to go get my car.  It was about a 3 block walk.  He told me I could drive the exact same route back to the hotel so I could pick up Rita with the suitcases.  As I walked to the Car Park I realized that the route I was walking was a one way street going in the opposite direction of the hotel which meant I could NOT drive the same route and would have to make several detours and probably end up lost.  I was sitting in the car crying and asking God for help because I was scared to venture out.  A wonderful older gentleman came up to me and asked if he could help.  He showed me an alternate route and walked me down to the pay station for the Car Park.  If he had not shown me how to get the car out I would still be sitting in there.  I did make it back to the hotel as he instructed.  I wanted to kiss his sweet little head.  Thank you God. 

The next incident was in Armagh.  It was NOT a small town and like so many of these towns you can drive in circles forever.  By this time we needed to use the bathroom and we stopped at a little shopping area and NO TOILETS.  A beautiful young woman overheard me ask and she came up and said she would show us to one.  All we had to do is follow her in the car as she guided us through town.  She took us to a private business, waited for us and then drove another 5 miles guiding us to the highway to Dundalk.  Again, thank you God.

Not only are the people here unbelievably kind and will go out of their way to help you, but I do believe God put each of these people in our path to save my sanity.

Tomorrow we return the car to Hertz - THANK YOU!

We will spend he last two days in Dublin on FOOT - the only way to travel

 

The Heritage B&B - our last stay in a B&B.  So far the hosts have been delightful

 

This one is for you Rod.  I now know what I have been suspecting all along.  People do mow the grass along the road.  I wouldn't be surprised if they mow their little farm plots too.  This is the gentleman from the B&B mowing across the street.  He's retired and loves mowing grass too.

Mowing the side of the road.

 

 

Rita's Castle

Cerrickfergus (Rock of Fergus) Castle

This castle is the reason we drove into Northern Island to brave the 5 lanes of traffic through Belfast. We actually got through the city OK except for the stop at the Petrol station to find out we had taken the wrong exit -again.  As I was coming out I slipped on a step that was well hidden and went into a full body fall.  I was a bit dazed for a few moments, but got back in the car and took off.  I now have a huge bruise on my arm and a slight limp.  Just add that to many of the embarrassments I've performed which I will keep secret and so will Rita.

 

Back to the Castle visit.  Carrickfergus is right on the Irish Sea and it's a fantastic setting with the bay and you can see Scotland on a clear day.  But it wasn't a clear day so we couldn't see it :-)  It's very impressive and really enjoyed our tour around it.  They did a great job of setting it up to give you a feel of what it was like from it's beginning days.  Rita came with the idea that she was going to take it over, but thought it had too many stairs.  She can fill you in on all the historical background since my little brochure is in the car parked 3 blocks away from the hotel.  That's a whole other story to be spoken of another day.

 

So happy to see HER castle - In the late 1400's her ancestors had inhabited the castle.  Thus comes the name Ferguson

The entrance of the castle.

 

Can you guess which room this is?  Notice the trousers around his feet and relieved look on his face.

 

In the meantime, Finnegan was trying to escape from the dungeon. 

 

 We did start out our day with a laugh while we were having breakfast at the B&B in Navan.  While I was sitting at the table, the hostess came up and asked if I was a NUN.  I wanted to say "Why yes, I'm Sister Mary Margaret Suzanne of St. Albanie", but decided to say "no".  Of course, Rita pops in and says; "Oh, she's a missionary and I'm her servant."  Guess I won't be wearing my cross around Northern Ireland. 

Northern Ireland is Protestant and we saw many evangelical churches.  In fact, while we were at the castle, three people started to sing a hymn and then the older gentleman started to preach on Psalm 51.  The sad thing was that there was no one there to hear him.

After we checked into our room we decided to go out and get some food after a very grueling search for the hotel.  We walked about two blocks and found the Crown Saloon & Restaurant.  It was so nice on the inside and the food and servicewas wonderful.  That's one thing I can say about all our meals here in Ireland is that it has all been so well cooked and served.  The Irish do take pride in their food. Oh, Rita had vanilla ice cream that was to kill for.

 It really was a beautiful place inside once you got past all the partiers. 

This is lamb shank pie with mashed potatoes and fresh green beans.  Unbelievable!  You can see the bone shank.

FISH and chips the Irish way.

Our room at the Park Inn Hotel - Good night and I am ready for bed.
 

FLEXIBILITY !!!!!!

Those of you that have gone on mission trips have heard me preach “Flexibility”.  Oh, I did not know how much that word could mean till I got into Ireland.  I don’t care what you plan, there is another meaning of what is being told to you.  Example:

“It will only take 20 minutes” – means: Actually 1-1/2 hours since you will encounter road blocks, sheep in the road and roundabouts with signs that do not have the destination you are looking for.

“There is good signage” - means if you know where to look for them you will find a sign, but since there are NO road names on any post signs anywhere it’s hard to read the sign.  Oh yes, every once in a while you see an antique street sign attached to a building if you have the time to look for it. 

“It’s a good road”: - means its two lanes without sheep and bicycles or one lane bridges.

This may not look too bad, but we had just passed a bunch wandering into the road.

“Lots of parking” (I still can’t stop laughing at that one) means – Drive around the town three times while you pass cars with their rear-ends out into your narrow lane and then just park on the sidewalk or any driveway.  There doesn’t seem to be any rules.

“It costs E12 to get in that Castle” – means that don’t know and they are just making up the price. When you check it out its E3 (about $4.00)

“Take the 2^nd turn on the roundabout” – means it’s actually the 4^th turn and you are already ½ way down the road of the 2^nd turn before you know it.

“Just relax and enjoy the road” – means; ARE THEY INSANE!!!!!!Or just had a few Guinness.

Suzan’s hint of the day:   Tea makes you pee.  Do not drink a pot of tea before going off on these country roads.  Also, having to pee makes you wet your pants when someone is making you laugh because they think it’s funny to be lost and keep asking you to look at the pretty scenery.  Scenery-Shimerary – WHERE’S the D _ _ _ TOILET!  Thank God for Petro stations.

Rita's Famous Words:  "It won't take too long to get there".  I won't even comment on that one.

We had a good night stay in Carlow at a little B&B called Burrow House.  It was very simple, clean and run by a sweet Irish lady named Mary.  She was a delight and a wonderful cook.  Our room was at the top of steep staircase so once Rita was up that was where she stayed.  The house was right next to the Burrow River and the entrance into the older part of town.  In trying to find it they kept telling us to take the “tunnel” and finally after 3 trips around the town we figured out they meant take “Tullow Street”.  I’ve got to figure out the accent.

Our sweet little room up a very steep flight of stairs.  Rita had the bed over in the corner.

Our host, Mary was so sweet and helpful.  The dining room is behind Rita.

 

I thought we were heading for Belfast today, but it was actually Navan.  Another hour trip that took 4 hours since we decided to take the side roads.  We did find Trim castle, but couldn’t get out to see it since there was absolutely NO parking within miles.  I wonder what it’s like during the summer tourist season.  We were told to go to a Silver Factory off onto another town about 6 miles away.  An hour later as we went past a race track, sheep out feeding, and totally lost, we came across a horse farm to ask a gentleman directions.  Just as we were about to back out in came a huge truck with a trailer on it wanting to go into the SAME driveway.  How that truck got down that same road is beyond me and how we got out is still a mystery.

This is just one little portion of Trim Castle, but it was as close as we could get with no parking.

 

We finally found Navan about 4:00 pm (planned to be there at 12 Noon) and for the first time found our B&B before dark.  It is beautiful.  She served us tea right off and it was so good to be sitting still.   In fact, Rita is still downstairs on the sofa.

Meadow View B&B.  This place has the most beautiful garden.  Rod would kill to mow their lawn.



Our lovely little room.  It's mint green with pink flowers.  Makes me think of my days of wanting a little girl.

Lily – this for you.  We tried to go to the Curaigue Racetrack but it was closed for the day.  We made two trips up and down the road till we saw this race horse being worked out.

 

For Heather and Joy – I don’t understand Rita’s complaint about me not finding things or knowing where I put them.  I just don’t get it!!!

 

Joint or Nice Place?

After a day of Castle Hopping from Cork to Carlow we finally decided to eat Linner - (you know, a cross between lunch and dinner) about 5:00 pm in Carlow and then attempt to find our B&B.  We decided to take the first parking place we could find and look for whatever we could find.  We ran into a cute couple and he asked us if we wanted to eat at a "joint or a nice place".  Well, you should know which one we choose.  What's your opinion?

 

Actually, the food was very good and affordable.  Rita had a wonderful plate of roast (carvey) with gravy, vegetables, croquette, and FOUR boiled potatoes.  I guess potatoes are cheap in Ireland. For me I had roast beef on a "floury bap".  What's a floury bap?  It's a "bap", you know, so I ordered it.  Kind of like an Arby's roast beef but healthy.  After our usual driving around the town lost for 60 minutes we finally found our B&B.  You  have to work off all those calories with something and I guess road rage is one good way.

Back to the Castle Hopping -
Once we got to Cahir we stopped at smaller castle with moot and swans.  It's always interesting to hear the back stories on the original owners and what everyone went through just to stay alive.  Ladies - be glad that you live in the 21st century.  You have no idea what our sisters went through back in the medieval times.

Finnegan thinks he can find a better way to travel

Inside Cahir Castle

Now by contrast we have the Kilkenny Castle.  It about takes your breath away.  You can see all the money that went into restoring it back to it's original grandeur.  The interesting thing is that the Englishman that built it ended up giving the Butler his own grand home with lots of "perks".  Well, you can't trust those butlers because he ended up buying the castle and ruling over the area for 500 years.  Till today, the Butler name is well known throughout Ireland.

Kilkenny Castle from the back where the carriages entered - I couldn't get it all in the picture

View from the rose garden.  The first floor terrace is the Dining Room the upper rooms the guest bedrooms.  Our room is in the upper turret to the left.


For those who keep asking about where we are staying here's a few pics, but mostly we are living out of the car.  You should see the empty sacks of cookies, M&M's, nuts, buscotti, gum drops and whatever other snacks we pick up along the way along with crumpled maps & directions.  
 

The Montenotte Adult Care Center - This is where the guests from the Montenotte Hotel go after they have spent hours driving the one lane road with stone walls while passing cars coming from the other direction.



Montenotte Hotel -  Below is our room - it was nice.

 

Lastly, but very much most important, here is a sweet smile for all of Rita's grandkids that she talks about and misses very much.

 

Tomorrow we head for Belfast. PLEASE PRAY for us.  If I can't get through these little towns what is it going to be like going on a 5 lane highway, but Rita wants to see her castle.