Interlude Post 4 from the Ferry "Swift," in the Irish Sea

We just finished up a visit to Ireland with Kathy (mom) and Barbara, and now we're aboard our ferry for the trip back to the UK.

What a nice week - it didn't rain at all the entire visit. In fact the radio and some people we met indicated it was the best weather "in 6 years", or "since 1996", "since the 80's", "in their lifetime", etc. etc. Very lucky for us in any case.

We toured the country anti-clockwise, starting with a visit to Dublin and the city sights of Trinity College, the Guinness Factory, the Cathedral of St. Patrick.  We also saw Malahide Castle, just outside of town.

For the next few days we visited the northwest, including a stay at Ashford Castle and a chance to practice our Falconry skills with a bird-of-prey named Inca.  The castle was very scenic and it was nice to experience that side of Ireland's history, including afternoon tea.

Moving on, we headed down the coast to Killarney, and visited the great Cliffs of Moher, the Dingle peninsula, and the famed Ring-of-Kerry, all featuring amazing scenery, narrow roads, and culinary delights. One of the best was a bowl of seafood chowder in Dingle, which tasted unlike anything we could imagine, in a good way.

The Killarney area and touring was probably our favorite area, but we did have a good time as well in the southeast area of Cobh, Waterford, and Killkenny, where we stayed in a bed and breakfast on a working dairy farm - pretty neat to see the cows milked first thing in the morning and then eat cereal and toast with butter! This B&B was also in a fairly isolated town, and we visited the local pub, only to find it filled with 70+ year old locals jamming on their traditional musical instruments, including pipes, strings, squeeze boxes, and guitars, and a few a cappella ballads.  Pretty awesome sight to see.

Along the drive, we stumbled across the McCarthy Castle, which was interesting because the conversation quickly turned to inheritance rules and who would be the lucky one to get the castle passed to them. Obviously, I think it should be me.

Too quickly the visit ended, but not before we had a chance to check out Kilkenny Castle and the Rock of Cashel in central Ireland, and the Wicklow mountains and Powerscourt gardens on the northern leg.

Everyone listed their top experiences for the trip: among them were the aforementioned Chowder in Dingle, as well as the Castle experience, the mountain scenery, the Irish Stew, the individual score of 51 in the ipad game "94 seconds," the pub experience, the "trad" music, and the good company. A great way to experience Ireland.

Lest we forget the actual purpose of this blog, Navigator remains safely dry-docked in Trinidad, and we keep a close eye on the Atlantic hurricane season weather reports. But otherwise, our short term plans are to visit a bit more of Wales and England, before heading back to the mainland for the 7 day drive to Norway, which we hope to reach around the beginning of August.