Ireland

We (I) decided to interact with the wildlife at the castle before we headed on to our next destination.  There was a small electrified fence between me and the donkeys and I decided I jump over it.  Ok...not really...there was one low spot that I was able to step over.  Can you imagine me trying to run and jump over a fence.  HA...that may have been the end of the vacation. 

The Donkeys were very nice and friendly.  The let me come right up to them and pet them.  I think they really liked the guests of the castle.  Look...Gretchen also joined in on the animal fun.

But...this was my object.  I really really really wanted to touch the miniature house and the baby miniature horse.  Aren't they adorable? At first I concentrated all my efforts becoming a Ninja and using stealth to creep up on the little horses.  Um...the were not fooled.  Then I tried to pretend I was walking to the end of the pasture to "inspect" the fence.  Again...I wasn't fooling the horses.

Then I tried an all out run in their direction.  I am pretty sure I heard them laughing at my pathetic attempt to catch them.  I think they even taunted me..."Hey Lady...we have 4 legs and you only have two.  Give it up as it is never going to happen."  They were right.  They never let me get close enough to pet them and I was very disappointed.

This is me walking back to the Donkeys after I admitted defeat.  I was pretty annoyed.

Gretchen and I wanted to make sure to properly photograph the entire grounds of the castle so here I am with the lion statue.

We spent the next few hours driving to Killarney and then we drove through their National Park.  It was super awesome.  The park was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  It was green and beautiful and gigantic.  We decided to take a little horse cart ride in the park and the guy driving our horse provided us with some of the best insight on the locals.  The guy we met worked as an orderly at a local psychiatric hospital and he and Gretchen had a great discussion on the Irish health care system.  He also told us a bit about the countries economy from his perspective.  Apparently, there was a large boom in their economy a few years ago and the Irish opened their borders and allowed mass immigration. It is difficult to get locals to work in the service industry and most service workers come from Eastern Europe.  But he was very clear to say that they only allowed "white" immigrants.  I had no idea that the country was so racist.  Shortly after the immigration boom the economy took a horrible turn for the worse and jobs and money dried up. But the Irish constitution allows for all immigrants to partake in the generous social welfare system.  So part of the problem in turning their country back around is having too many unemployed people draining the governmental funds. 

Gretchen and I being silly as we walked up to the local waterfall.

Beautiful!

The driver told me that the water was very pure and I could drink it if I wanted to.  So I did.  Yea...it was a bit awkward to climb around on the rocks so I could take a sip of water.  And...it tasted like water.

Finally, I was done driving and I could enjoy several beers with dinner.

Beer #2  I believe my eyes were getting a bit glazed over.

And Beer #3

We were hanging out in a pub listing to some traditional Irish music.

The music was good and the beer was even better.  Another great day in Ireland.

Ireland

We were sad but we had to leave Galway and move on to our next destination, Tralee.  We took the expressway and drove South for a couple of hours and we decided to drive through the Dingle peninsula on our way to Tralee.  It was cold and desolate but beautiful.  

 At one point I decided that I just needed to see the beach so I pulled over on an access road and headed in the direction of the shore.  I found a trailer park, I wish we had taken a few pictures because it was weird, and I parked the car.  We walked over a few small sand dunes and found this great beach.

 As usual, there was always time for action shots.

 These are the times when we missed our friend NE.  He was always a great photographer.  I guess we did ok on our own.

 After our afternoon drive we found our lodging for the night.  A REAL CASTLE!!!!!

 Our room was located in the bottom floor of the hotel and it was kind of underground.

 This was our room.  Gallagher.  Awesome.  I have never stayed in a named room.  Very cool.

 It was Gretchen's job to remember where we parked the car.  I know you would think it would be my job since I was the driver but I decided that was the navigators job.  We parked "somewhere"  near this street.

Finally, we found a pub with some traditional Irish music.

I promise I only had 1/2 a beer as it was my job to stay sober for the drive home.  This was our table friend.  His name was Richard (Ok...I really couldn't remember his name...I just made that up) but I do remember that he was from Leeds in the UK.  He and his wife were retired and they were touring Ireland in their motor home that they brought over via a boat.

Finally, we made a friend to take our picture together.

Um...so we couldn't find the car when we left the bar.  It was probably due to the fact that I insisted we exit the bar from a different door than we entered.  Something about me being stubborn and refusing to walk through the crowd.  Anyway on our search for the car I found this in a window and I knew a photo was necessary.

We made it back to the castle.

We took this time to take "action" shots throughout the castle since most of the guests were in bed.

The Kings chair.

I may have been a bit too friendly with the knight.

Gretchen had the same idea.

There were two dogs that lived in the castle and roamed free.  We found this big guy trying to sleep and Gretchen was missing her dogs so she tried to cuddle with the castle dog.  I don't think he was interested.

Ireland

Ashford Castle near Cong Village and Abbey

This was our second castle sighting while in Ireland.  However, it was much more impressive than the first one.  It was truly beautiful and something you cannot see in the US.  Plus we found it by accident.  I turned up a long road and their it was.  It is currently in use as a fancy hotel.

 There was a little town next to the hotel/castle called Cong.  They had a little Abbey you could tour and Gretchen and I took a few minutes to pose for silly pictures.  I think I am "singing in the rain" in the one below.

 There was a little woods off of the Abbey and I enjoyed acting like a monkey.

 We held up a family taking a walk while we were taking this picture.

 We were driving to our next destination when we encountered this road.  FYI it is for two way traffic.  Luckily, I never encountered another car while I was driving on it.

 This is a typical example of what the countryside looks like in Ireland.  I felt that the look and feel of their countryside was so different than any other place I have visited.  It was natural and rural but not backwards.  It just had its own vibe.

 We stopped at this little deserted pub for lunch.  We were the only guests but they served me a delicious beef stew with brown bread.  Plus the owner got bonus points for giving me three chocolate digestives (fyi chocolate cookies).  Gretchen wanted to come back to this pub on Saturday night for a authentic local pub experience but it just wasn't practical.  It was to far from our final destination.

 Our next stop was the Kylemore Abbey.  Our first view of it was breathtaking.  The castle was originally built by man for his wife who died suddenly after it was completed.  It was eventually taken over by a Benedictine Order of Nuns who still live there today.  It used to be a school but the nuns have gotten to old to run it.  BTW...I asked a few questions of the nun sitting in the lobby and she was quite sassy.  She asked me where I was from and I replied the US.  She said, "Duh, I knew you were from the US as soon as you opened your mouth."  She was sassy and I loved it.  We got to tour several rooms inside the castle as well as the grounds.

 This was a waterfall on the Abbey grounds.

 Gretchen took some time to smell the flowers.

 The Gardens!  I have never seen anything like it.  They were restored to the original Victorian design.  I loved the precise geometry and the placement of each flower bed.

 After we left the Abbey we stopped by the Connemara National Park.  It was just a few KM from the Abbey and worth the stop.  There was three paths to choose from, red, yellow and something else;)  The yellow was 1.5km long and since we were both tired at this point we chose the shorter option.  Except...I was leading us and I refused to look at the map.  And I didn't see any signs so I forged ahead.  After we completed the large circle we found the sign...going the other direction.  I accidentally took us on the right path, just in the wrong direction. 

As a side note we stopped by the cafe before the walk and had a small snack.  When we started the walk I forgot a very important item in the cafe.  My purse.  Gasp.  I would have been royally screwed without it.  However, I am forever grateful to the employee who came chasing us down the path to return it.  Wow!  What great luck.

 I really don't know why I am a diva in all of these photos.

 Gretchen was revolting.  I guess there was too much activity for one day.  She was ready for a break.

 I loved the little sheep.  We were driving back to our B&B when we saw several of them loose on the road.  I decided this was the perfect time to try and pet one.  I parked the car and took off down the road with a reluctant Gretchen in tow.  Every time I would get close to the baby sheep they would run away.  It was quite humorous to see me trying to chase them with Gretchen taking photos.  They eluded me this time.

Finally, the day was about to end.  I had Gretchen take this photo because every time I saw it I cracked up.  I know it means watch for children crossing the road but every time I saw it I kept thinking "watch for stupid children".  I don't know why...but this picture makes me think the children are dumb.