Last full day here...

Have had two full days of traveling. First to Powerscourt gardens (fun but to be honest we think biltmore is just as good)  BUt with was worth it for our tour guild who sang and told dirty limericks.  He had a beautiful voice and gave us an interesting take on ireland.








Yesterday it was off to the Giants Causeway.  Didn't think about it being in Northern Ireland and that its Bristish...the one day I could have used all the pounds Marty gave me and I forgot them at the hotel room...DOH

For anyone coming over I highly recommend taking the time to see the Giants Causeway. What a magnificient creation of nature and its a lot of fun too.  Well worth the four or so hours it took to get there. Tour guildes here are truly the best they are funny, entertaining and know there stuff.

totally wind blown at Giants Causeway

Today we are out to enjoy the last of Dublin on our list then we head home tomorrow, Might see Mom and Dad in heathrow airport tomorrow too. :)

The Cliffs of Insanity aka Moher

Okay had our first true taste of Irish weather, gloomy and spinkles all through the day. But at least it was dry when we hit the Cliffs of Moher for the day. Amazing view. and for the day. Amazing view and quite worth the trip out there it was nice to see the western part of the country and get to know more about the history. Highly recommend that if you come to Ireland you take the time to go there.

Other then Dawn telling the bus driver to leave me in the the small town of Killavera it was uneventful. Thankfully the bus driver cared enough to tell what she was up too.  Threw her right under the bus he did :)

Poured when we got back to Dublin, so we found a nice out of the way place for dinner and to celebrate Dawn's Birthday.

For my Kiddies :)

I promised to take the pictures they drew for me to Ireland here I am holding the pics at the Cliffs of Moyer where they filmed the Princess Bride :)

And my mermaid came along too :)

Megan And Kates

Kirby and Piper Anne

Ana's 

Love my pictures :)

Our Mermaid as someone passing us said those mermaids get to go so many great places.

Short blog early start

Cool tree at Newgrange

Today we ventured beyond Dublin into the countryside to do the Mary Gibbons tour of Newgrange worth every penny this woman knew her stuff and others stuff too. These 'buildings' predate the Stonehenge and the pyramids.  Very cool, great weather.  Of course there was a slight incident where Dawn got lost in a hedge maze that only has one turn and that was out... I kid
you not.




Us just after we came out from inside the inner chamber of New Grange.








I can't possibly do it justice to explain what this site is and its significance for more information check out http://www.newgrange.com/








From there we went to Tara, home of the pagans and the druids. Weather made it just perfect. Again for more information best leave that to the professionals

http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/midlandseastcoast/HillofTara/

Cross on the top of the hill at Tara

After our tour we hit the National Museum of Ireland, well timed because the things we had just seen made the exhibits more interesting. We capped our day off with Afternoon Tea which was grande.  Always enjoy watching people do weird things like eating lemon curd right from ramekin with a spoon I really thought the women would be licking the sides of the glass in a second. Wonder if she thought it was lemon pudding?  But the food was all designed around the paintings in the hotel...How cool is that? Does Dawn know me or what?

Our desserts and the art work that inspired them :)

On our walk home we ran into some teenagers climbing the fence to get into the park after hours.  What the teens didn't seem to realize is that park was still open. We were of course helpful enough to tell them that the next gate was open when most were already across. TEE HEE

Day 3 and tired feet.

Day three... oh wait forgot to mention...

So somehow I forgot to mention on the flight over that I got in trouble apparently my wireless mouse is considered a hazard so i shouldn't be using it that I was using it all night and most of the flight no one mentioned it until I was putting the damned thing away just makes me giggle. Its not like I hid that I was using it.  Because I didn't know I couldn't LOL


Okay so today we decided to venture out on the Dublin city bus system which honestly doesn't seem to have any direct stops to anywhere except to go in a circle. So we made a few stops, walked to the next stop and waited. We ended up waiting for about 10 minutes in the Central hub of buses about 15 bus stops all up one street. The buses just before our stop was not in service so we just hoped that the bus when it came would see us waving like loons to stop. About a minute before our bus was due to arrive the "out of service" bus pulled up two feet and asked us if we were waiting for his number. Why yes we were. really would have throught he could have told us that 10 minutes before, he had after all waved at us and been standing there the whole time. FUNNY JOKE

So we headed out to the Kilmainham Gaol Jail. To which our bus driver kindly said for us to behave ourselves so he didn't have to come out and get us. NICE to see he knew us for ten minutes and had our number already.

View from the peep hole into a cell

Kilmainham is a must see if you are in Dublin but I have to say its about as depressing and dank a place as you could hope.  It we definitely got the feeling for what it must have been like and it was a great history lesson. Well worth the trip and time.





Back on the bus and another adventure of us having NO idea where we are going. But heck we got where we needed to be. With a little help from the bus driver. Found a cool craft fair and a few restaurants we have been looking for. And then ate lunch at Leo Burdocks. YES DAD I ate fish and no dad I still don't like it but when in Dublin...  As Dawn and I aren't fish and chips experts it was a little too greasy for our liking, we are glad we split an order.

Just as we were crossing the street to head to Dublin Castle our friendly bus driver from the morning pulls up in his double decker and yells out the window "Glad to see you two made it back"  Guess we made an impression.

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle had one of the best tour guilds I have ever listened too, funny, friendly and he knew his stuff right down to little stories behind ever portrait in the castle. Glad we did the the jail in the morning it added to the history we learned that afternoon. And made it more relevant some how. Tour took longer then expected but didn't really notice as the guide was that good, we got to see the excavation going on below the castle. Very cool indeed. In fact it was grande.

Ran from the castle over to St Patricks to get there for the last tour. Got there just in time to find out they were closed to the public today due to the appointment of the dean to St Patricks that did explain the hundred or so priests we saw on the road coming from St Patricks. But the gardens were lovely and we watched children chase birds.






St Patricks Cathedral

Had dinner at the famous Potterhouse brewing company. Listen to a great band play Irish music before heading back to the hotel via 20 blocks out of our way by the famine memorial and the river. 










Early day tomorrow so we are heading to bed like two fuddy duddies. TEE HEE

Amazing

Day 2.5

Okay I guess we should talk about the first few days now that I have a clear head.

We started at the airport breaking 3 count them 3 ticket machines. Yes that sounds like a normal vacation for us. At Dinner before boarding Dawn opened her purse and out came the flying tampon. Best she didn't realize it had flown out of her purse for a good 5 minutes so it laid there in the center of the table. Just happy it flew forward and not side wise to the man beside us though he did keep looking at it.

Code red on the plane with a call for all doctors. No idea what happened but as the woman wasn't having a baby I didn't get involved :) Had chatty Cathy next to us who complained the whole trip about the air blowing on her then about the seatbelt sign. Thank you Marty for the noise cancelling head sets although she would just poke me when she felt I needed to hear her complain.

Heathrow was a mess. I did get to yell VIVA JOSE twice though. We had 1 hour to get to our connecting flight...seems like a lot of time to me except I think our connecting flight was in the connecting city. We had to go through four check points take two buses and had a quick lesson on what is a liquid.  By the way Mousse is a liquid.  After spending five minutes behind a couple taking up the whole walk way  and knowing we had five minutes to catch our flight I finally pushing my way politely past the couple to a OH Thank you behind us. Which led to a mass of us running full speed to catch a flight. We get there with 2 minutes to spare to hear the announcement our plan had been delayed....DOH


Okay Dublin Day 1

Beautiful clear sunny day. Everyone out walking around. Parks are full and everyone is out. Best part of this City the second we pull out a map someone is there to ask us where we need to go :) Did the hop and go and got our bearings for the city as a whole.

On the way back stopped at the local pub OIL CAN HARRY's love it and will return several times before we leave, if for no other reason then the owner is totally perplexed and annoyed that I neither drink Guinness or eat enough.  He was so annoyed mumbling and shaking his head, we really didn't want to tell him that I was allergic to alcohol that might have pushed him over the edge. But he was sweet and friendly and the food was delicious.

Came home and crashed...BTW we have twinkling lights in our ceiling. :)

The food we brought with us to Ireland I think we are ready for the zombie apocalypse

Dublin Day 2

Later start then we hoped silly women over sleep. Imagine that. First stop was the Dublinia museum about the vikings and the Norman invading Ireland, great history. Wish the boys had been there they would have loved it. We then went to the Christ Church Cathedral, beautiful and always interesting to see that  someone would place a display of the mummified cat and mouse in the cafe area...appetizing.

Back on the hop and go and over to the Guiness storehouse.  Well worth the time even for a non drinker beside Dawn was always willing to drink my free beer for the team. Besides they have the best view of the city. Meet a new friend dressed as a leapracaun was sure he had lost a bet. Dawn discovered he was jsut getitng married.  ??? Kind of like loosing a bet his friends say.



Look really close you can see the shamrock she poured into the head.


Dinner was at The Church an amazing Church that has been converted in to a bar, restaurant and night club.






Got lost a few times, found a ten your old protector and meet some amazing people. 

All and all it was a  grande day. (as our irish waitress told us to say)

Watch out Dublin here we come....

Our Hotel

Our Room

Our garden :)

Now to stay awake long enough today so we get rid of this jet lag. Too tired to talk about our flight will tell all later :)