Yes, that is a one-lane track. No, there is no shoulder.

It carries two-way traffic. Just so you know, 80 km/h equals 50 miles per hour. And yet, we made it back alive. Must be the luck of the Irish.

One of my favorite parts of this trip have been my early morning bird walks. I get up before Gary and head off with my binoculars down a country lane. Along with the birds, I’ve seen some beautiful countryside I would otherwise have missed, and had some quiet time to think about where I was, and to be grateful at the beginning of the day that we’d been able to make a long-time dream come true.

This is along the Blue Pool Trail in Killarney National Park.

Heading toward our last night, at a B&B in County Kildare, we took in the sight of the Rock of Cashel. Originially built by ancient Irish kings, it was given to the Catholic Church in the 400′s. Chapels, cathedrals, and a defensive tower house were later added. Legend has it that St. Patrick converted the Irish king to Christianity at this site.

That’s all folks!

Tomorrow we fly out of Dublin to London, where we’re scheduled for a whirlwind tour of the city, and the next day a 10 1/2 hour flight back to San Francisco.

Thank you so much for letting us share our journey with you; it gave me such a strong connection to home while we were away!

Love,

Diane and Gary

We started by touring the inside of Muckross House, a big 17th-century manor house that once belonged to an American family. It was later donated to the Irish government along with its huge mountain and lake estate, and became the beginning of Killarney National Park. Made me proud!

By then the rain had become an on-and-off drizzle, so we took a shorter ride in a jaunting car, up through the lakes and into the mountains.

This is a very cheesy picture, taken by the driver. The Oregonian prints a photo in each Sunday’s travel section of someone with a copy of it, taken somewhere in the world. So maybe we’ll be in the paper!

It was a bouncy, jiggly, shaking ride through incredible country.

Later, we walked through Ross’s Castle.

And this is Torc Waterfall:

It was gray and drizzly all day, but everytime we started to actually get wet, it would stop long enough to sort of dry out. We had come too far to let rain stop us, and we learned over and over on this trip what keeps Ireland so green. As the Irish often say, “No worries!”

The bus actually had to back up a few times to get around this turn. I could have done better than that!

This area of Ireland is known as the Gaeltacht, where Irish (they don’t call it Gaelic) is the primary spoken language.

Translation: Welcome to Slea Head.

We returned through the tiny town of Dingle, a beautiful Irish-speaking village that looks like a tourist town in the summertime.

Notice the parking. Irish villages, being very old, have narrow streets; just wide enough for two cars, but its a squeeze. Then they park on both sides of it! This leaves a lane almost big enough for a car, but the traffic is two-way!! We found this all over Ireland. Ask Gary about the scrapes on our mirror and my wonderful language. (. . .no, it wasn’t Irish)

As always, I love that music! The young man in the red shirt is playing the Uilleann (or Irish) pipes; pumped with the arm rather than blowing into them.

This area has many fascinating historical sities, such as these beehive huts, built by early Christian monks in the 6th century. Amazingly, these were on private property and used as storage sheds!! When the bus stopped, a young man came out to watch, so he could charge 3 Euro to take a picture! A zoom lens from the road worked fine for me.

One of the things I really hoped to do in Ireland was be more than just a tourist, looking in from the outside. I wanted to know Ireland and to experience Irish people and customs. In County Clare we stayed for three days with Mary and Michael Hoey on their working dairy farm. She fixed us big, delicious breakfasts and one or both of them would sit and talk with us. We discussed American politics, farming, raising a family, the recession, the weather, and Ireland. When we left, they both hugged and kissed us and it was almost like leaving family.
They are standing in front of a stone side of a farm shed that Michael’s dad built himself as a young man.

Here are the Cliffs of Moher. Spectacular. I bought a CD from a woman playing a harp in the wind!

An area of western Ireland, called the Burren, (from an Irish word for “Rocky Place”) is covered with slabs of limestone. In some areas, there is enough soil to farm, and farmers raise sheep and potatoes. In much of it, only wildflowers can find enough soil to grow.

In spite of this, the place is amazingly rich in history.

This ruin was built by the O’Brien clan in 1480. When George Cromwell’s British forces invaded in the 1700′s, Conor O’Brien was killed, and his wife stood to have all her land confiscated. She cleverly averted this by marrying a Cromwelian officer. The story goes that she just as cleverly disposed of him. Way to go, Maire!

This amazing Burren site is a recently excavated Iron Age ring fort. We tried to imagine the people who once occupied it, walking just where we were!

For something truly old, check out this Portal Dolmen (a tomb) from the year 3600 BC!!

One of the most fun things we have done is a visit to Bunratty Castle.

Gary and I attended an evening banquet in the old grand hall up in the keep of the castle, with old Irish entertainment. We had a blast!! (and I even sipped the mead!)

I love Ireland!!!

But . . . I could never live here, because their broadband is terrible. We hardly ever have it, and when we do, it doesn’t always work.
I’m on line here in Killarney, so we’ll see what happens with this long overdue update!

We spent two nights in Sligo, where Pulitzer Prize winning W.B. Yeats lived, wrote, and is now buried, in the shadow of Benbulben, this mountain:

The tallest mountain in all of Ireland is only just over 4,000 feet, and this one is not even 2,000. Not a mountain by U.S. standards, but beautiful!

One of the most amazing things about traveling in Ireland is that ancient ruins are everywhere. You might turn a corner, and there in a field stand the ruins of a medieval castle, or an ivy-covered wall that is all that remains of a 4th century monastery. I found this on a walk at Sligo Bay, and I have no idea what it even is!

We visited the beautifully restored Parke’s Castle on Lough Gill, built by the O’Rourke clan in the 1500′s. It was later partly destroyed and seized by the British, and the Irish chieftan O’Rourke was executed in London for treason. Treason?? Against a country that was not his own, and which stole his ancestral land and filled his family home with foreign soldiers?
Sorry . . . I think I am becoming a little bit Irish.
But I do love this photo of it. We see the Mute Swans everywhere there’s water!

We drove over very twisty, astoundingly (is that a word, Karen?) beautiful coastal roads to Cushendall in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, where we spent our next two nights.

The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge is built by salmon fishermen in the spring and becomes a tourist attraction in summer. Gary would not walk on it, but I did, and wow! I found myself looking into hundreds of nesting seabird colonies. The bridge was a bit of an anti-climax, but I was blown away by the birds!
These are Razorbills.

Here’s the bridge,

and here’s PROOF that I walked on it:

The Giant’s Causeway is a weird area of cooled basalt columns that, according to Irish mythology, was built by the giant Finn McCool so he could walk to Scotland to visit his true love.

Dunluce Castle was built in the 13th century on a cliff overlooking the Irish Sea. In 1639 the kitchen fell into the sea during a storm!

Our final night in Cushendall provided one of the best experiences we have had in Ireland. We went to a pub in an old house, and ended up sitting in the back room with a group of local musicians who gather there on Saturday nights to jam. It was amazing. At one point, an old man sitting next to us just started singing “When you and I Were Young”. Very poignant; everyone stopped what they were doing to listen. I had hoped to become part of Ireland on this trip, in some small way, and on this night, we did. Various people in the room sang, told stories, and recited poems. They asked us if “their visitors” wanted to do something, and we declined, but sadly. It felt as if members of their community were offering a gift to the others.

How I wish I had a picture of the musicians and the others in that pub, but since I don’t, here’s next best:

Signing off . . . and hoping we have wireless tomorrow in County Clare.

Newgrange is a passage tomb built by stone age people before the pyramids were begun at Giza! We walked inside, where cremated remains of people were found, and where the sun shines in a perfect beam all the way down the burial chamber at the winter solstice. What a creepy, amazing place to stand!

We spent two nights at a bed and breakfast on a lake in County Cavan in Central Ireland. I took wonderful early morning walks, and we visited a medieval castle and a 1600′s country manor house in Eniskillen.

Eniskillen is in Northern Ireland, politically part of the UK, so tour guides give a certain slant to their talks that tend to get my hackles up!

And finally, a bit of Irish weather. We were to see very little sunshine for several days, although there have been many breaks in the rain.

We have seen so much in a week, but I’ll just give you the highlights, so I can get to bed soon. It’s after 2pm in Oregon as I write, but after 10pm in Ireland.

June 16
Our 30th anniversary!
We walked and rode buses around the city of Dublin in beautiful warm sunshine. On this kind of day, Irish people all greet you with, “Lovely day”. On a rainy day, they just say hello.

Old Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin is an important monument in Irish freedom. In the courtyard, the British government executed the leaders of the 1916 “Easter Rising”, causing an uproar that eventually led to Irish home rule.

AND….they found our suitcases today and brought them to our hotel! The best anniversary present ever; no more washing underwear in the sink at night.

Stephen’s Green is a beautiful Dublin city park, shown here next morning in the rain.

When we called a taxi to take us to our car rental at the airport, we got the same driver who had brought us into the city four days ago. He said there are more than 4700 taxis in Dublin. What are the chances?

This is the largest breeding colony of Roseate Terns in Western Europe. You’d never know by this picture that they are endangered.

And finally, these mind-blowing places are tucked everywhere as you drive down the road. Notice the arrow slits in the castle ruins!

We are off to explore Dublin by foot and bus.
I hope you’re having a great beginning to the summer. I am LOVING your comments; thanks!