Ireland's "All-County" Team - County Clare

After a whirlwind tour of County Kerry we headed up to the town of Doolin in County Clare. This was a small town right on the coast. From there we made trips to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren.

Driving through the countryside you run across really neat church ruins and cemeteries all over.

There were tons of walls separating who knows what, but they were awesome. Look at that! Someone had to carry all those stones.

Poulnabrone Portal Tomb - this was an awesome "stonehenge"-looking tomb in the middle of the Burren (explained below). Ireland is loaded with prehistoric rock formations that were used for ceremonies, burials and who knows what else.

The Burren and one of Marisa's best National Geographic shots.

This was a science teacher's dream.

The Burren is a geological phenomenon that was formed millions of years ago when the area was covered by an ocean. Over time the plants and animals deposited their remains over the sea floor which eventually formed the limestone ground that is present today. The result is a rough, rocky surface that is anything but uniform. Erosion has formed cracks and crevices that have allowed for the accumulation of soil and the emergence of a diverse range of flora and fauna. It's basically like walking on a bunch of little flower pots and it's incredible to think that people actually lived in this area, since it's impossible to grow anything and treacherous to lead animals across the landscape. (Exit teacher mode)

Lisdoon is a wee little town that is world famous (apparently) for hooking people up! It was even the setting for a film a few years back - I think it was called "The Matchmaker", how original.

I shouldn't even put words here and let the scene speak for itself. The Cliffs of Moher is without a doubt the biggest highlight of County Clare. These sheer cliffs host families of puffins and have been known to claim dozens of lives even recently (both accidental and intentional). The winds are unbelievably strong coming up over the cliffs and they try to keep people a safe distance away from the edges. However, signs and easily scalable walls don't keep everyone out of harm's way.

This is as close as I felt comfortable.

Cliffs of Moher, pronounced "More"

Cliffs of Moher

We celebrated Susan and Terry's 10th wedding anniversary with a nice dinner at our B&B's restaurant.

The years have been kind!

No trip to Ireland is complete without spending some time at a local pub to listen to traditional music. The town of Doolin supposedly has some of the country's best.

This was our last stop on our Ireland adventure. It was so good to see my mom and take a trip that we will talk about the rest of our lives. My mom had not been back to Europe since her college graduation trip with her friend, Mary, 37 years ago. I am so glad her and Terry crossed the big blue and got to experience the wonderful culture and people of Ireland. 

--Marisa (with captions by Justin)

Ireland's "All County" Team- County Kerry

After our lovely time in Kinsale we headed to a town south of Killarney called Kenmare. Kenmare is a cute town, but really this was our jumping off point for other places.

Ring of Kerry

Staying in Kenmare put us right on the Ring of Kerry without the craziness of Killarney tourism. Join us along the drive and see what the hype is all about. If you want to do it for yourself just pick up the trusty Rick Steve's Ireland guidebook and it is in there.

The small town of Sneem. What a beautiful country!

We visited many prehistoric sites when we were in Scotland and Ireland. This is the ring fort, Staigue Fort.

We visited the home of Daniel O'Connell called Derrynane House which looked out over this coastline

I wouldn't mind walking this path everyday

Along the drive we saw wonderful views like this one

and this one (but we had to pay 4 euros for this one)

and this one and no this isnt the Cliffs of Moher those come later

The drive around the Ring of Kerry is an all day or at least 5-6 hours. Driving this ring provided all the landscape I dreamed of Ireland looking like. Beautiful landscape and fabulous views. Definitely worth the drive if you are in County Kerry.

Muckross House and Traditional Farm

The Muckross House is a historical house owned by rich families in Ireland over the centuries. This was the surprise of the trip. I have been to many historical homes, but this one was awesome. It really felt like someone could still be living there. Full of artwork from around the world. The farms were my favorite part. They showed you what farms were like in the 1920's to 30's.

Justin's getting his pet on

A demonstration of how they cooked bread for a family.

There was wildlife everywhere which made it such a real life experience.

This is considered a medium farm house. Ireland is famous for thatch roofs like this one.

My mom and Terry along the farm trails

This was in the baby petting area. I loved the piglets!

And the baby sheep loved Justin.

Here is the inside of a large farmhouse

The view from the house, not bad huh?

The Muckross house and it's garden, Quite lovely the whole thing

Tralee

We made a quick stop in Tralee to trace our heritage, well not really, but we had to say we had been there. Truth be told, my great-great-great grandfather (or my grandpa's grandfather) did come to America from Tralee in 1897. We stopped at the Museum of Kerry.

They had a great photography exhibit of the life in Kerry in the 1950's

Dingle Peninsula

We were up for one more drive and this was around the small peninsula of Dingle. This one can be done in 2 hours and is well worth it for some of the prehistoric sites.

Here is the Dunbeg Fort. It literally looked like it was about to fall into the ocean

I was so impressed by the stonework and how much work must of gone into these things

Have you ever seen a rock igloo? Me neither until now! They were very tall inside I could extend my arms all the way up and still not touch the top

Check out the fog we enjoyed on our drive around the Dingle Penisula. I guess you assume this is what it looks like in Ireland

More views around the peninsula 

This is the Gallarus Oratory built about 1,300 years ago...crazy! This is Ireland's best preserved early Christian church. This is a unique design that is waterproof. 

12th century Irish Romanesque church

County Kerry is Irish through and through and I loved all the amazing scenery; I feel like I am saying that a lot, but it was just beautiful. We majored to jam as much as we could into 3 days in Kerry and I am glad we did. I feel like we got to see so much of what Ireland is famous for.

--Marisa

Ireland's "All-County" Team - County Kilkenny and Cork

With the limited time that we're in Europe and all of the places that we have yet to see, why would we visit Ireland for a third time in two years? The answer, quite simply, is that we hadn't seen the best part yet. This series of blog posts fill feature our week-long excursion to the Southwest and West regions of Ireland covering four Counties that I will dub the "All-County" Team: County Kilkenny, County Cork, County Kerry, and County Clare.

We began this adventure when we flew into Dublin from Edinburgh and met up with Marisa's mom, Susan. We had four days with the three of us before we would be meeting up with Susan's husband, Terry, and there was much to see before then. Pictures are below, but we basically drove down to the Rock of Cashel, then over to Kinsale for a few days with side-trips to Cobh, Midleton, and Cork.

Rock of Cashel, County Kilkenny - en route to Kinsale; unfortunately we didn't get any full shots of the former castle and church since there were so much scaffolding in place.

Rock of Cashel, County Kilkenny. There's no shortage of moss-covered celtic crosses and really cool-looking cemeteries.

Kinsale, County Cork - I love these cartoony ads for Guinness all over the country.

Kinsale, County Cork - We were blessed with arriving into town when the annual Kinsale Regatta was getting kicked off with live music each night. As a bonus we got this blonde haired kid doing some riverdance stuff.

Kinsale, County Cork. It's a great alternative to saying in Cork city.

Kinsale, County Cork - Mother/Daughter shot.

Kinsale, County Cork - nice little fishing town with tons of great restaurants

Bulman Pub - Kinsale, County Cork. We spied a couple taking wedding photos here earlier, then we dove in to take a break and a sample of the Irish trifecta: Guiness, Bulmers cider, and Jameson whisky.

Kinsale, County Cork

Cobh, County Cork - pronounced "Cove", it was a huge leaving point for many of the immigrants to the U.S. and Australia. There was a well-done exhibit here dedicated to the immigration and shipping industry of Cobh. We especially liked learning about the brief period in time where people traveled by large ocean liners for vacation - not like Carnival cruise line, more like the Titanic which also had its last port of call here before setting out for its ill-fated maiden voyage. The Irish always claim that "it was fine when it left here."

Cobh, County Cork - posing in front of Annie Moore, the first Irish immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island, along with her two younger brothers. It was crazy to think that many of these immigrants left family with the expectation that they may not ever seem them again, but that it was a better option than staying during certain periods of time.

Lusitania Memorial - Cobh, County Cork - The Lusitania was a passenger ship that was sunk by a German submarine just off the coast of Ireland near Cobh during the First World War. Many of the survivors were cared for in hotels in Cobh.

Cobh, County Cork

JFK Park - Cobh, County Cork

Old Midleton Distillery - Midleton, County Cork. John Jameson came here from Scotland, of all places, and used existing distilleries to make his trademarked brand using his own special methods and turned out to be fairly successful.

Although we're not huge whisky people, we did the Jameson tour at the Old Midleton Distillery and learned plenty about whisky making. The Irish triple-distill their whisky and it is clear when it is first barreled (as shown on the left). After three years the whisky is not yet matured, but has a yellowish color (2nd barrel). After five years the whisky is ready to be sold as a normal bottle of Jameson (3rd barrel). After 7-8 years it looks like the 4th barrel as it has taken the darker color from the barrel. I think the last barrel was a 12 year whisky. Also notice how evaporation and absorption affects the barrels over time - the Irish and Scottish both call this the "Angel's Share".

I was driving, but Susan and Marisa were up for the whisky taste-test, pitting three whiskies against each other: Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker (Scotland), and Jameson. Both agreed that Jameson was actually smoother, Jack Daniels is sweeter, and Johnny Walker is smokier.

Outside our B&B in Kinsale. Both B's were on point! We loved the proprietor here, Jimmy, and his Irish hospitality. The only hang-up was on our last night where we forgot to lock our door and a man in the room next to us stumbled out in the hallway and mistook our room for a bathroom!! No, he didn't actually relieve himself in our room, but it was a tense moment until he realized his mistake.

So, we had all of this fun before we met up with Terry in our next stop..........Kenmare, County Kerry. We also spent the better half of a day in the city of Cork, but the weather wasn't great and we didn't come away with any great pictures.

--Justin