After a long flight over the pond (can you say that if you're not going to England?), we land in Shannon, Ireland at the crack of dawn. Dave says that he won't be able to sleep on the flight, so I'll be in charge of that days driving... I say he is under estimating the power of NiQuil. :-)
May 2-4
After we pick up our probably very small car, we will make the hour drive North West, towards Doolin, which is right near the Cliffs of Moher (www.cliffsofmoher.ie/) and the Doolin Caves (www.doolincave.ie/). We're staying at a nice little B&B called Crosswinds for two nights. For one of the nights, we're going to go to a Medieval Feast, which will be really cool! Have us some authentic Irish Mead (honey wine) and pretend that we're lords and ladies for the night (or does that just make us sound... um... like 'ladies of the night'?)
May 4 - 6
After we have seen it all in Doolin, we will head North-ish (yes, that's a technical Irish traveling term) towards County Mayo (hoping we'll be able to pick up a supply of Hellmann's Mayo - hardy har har). We're going to stay at the Ashford Castle (www.ashford.ie/) which was apparently once apart of the Guinness Family's estates.
May 7 - 10
After our sure to be wonderful stay at Ashford, we begin the 4 hour drive towards Dublin. We opted out of staying in the city of Dublin... instead we'll stay in a nice hotel on the water, about 25 minutes away from the city... we'll prob take the city bus to the city so we don't have the anxiety of trying to drive in Dublin.
We'll also be doing some day trips to the Japanese Gardens in Kildare (www.irish-national-stud.ie/tourism/) and to Powserscourt Caste in Wicklow (www.powerscourt.ie/gardens/house/). The drive through Wicklow will be beautiful... at least from the photo stalking that I have done thus far... especially around Glendalough; it seems very picturesque. The whole trip will be amazing! i'm very excited.
In Dublin, we'll do the typical touristy things like Trinity College (Book of Kells), St. James Gate, drink some Guinness, National Gallery Museum, Ha'Penny Bridge, St. Stephens Green, ... plus, we found this pretty cool GHOST bus ride, which I for one am super excited about. Dave is nervous that I will be freaked out, but I think it'll be fun. There's also a Literary Pub Crawl, where these actors pretend to be various famous Irish authors like WB Yeats and take you to various pubs, which might be kinda cool.
Some quick links... i'm sure we'll post more!
Dublin Links:
www.dublinbus.ie/
http://www.dublintourist.com/towns/temple_bar/
Hi Christy - this is funny because we've never officially met, even though I feel like we have! Gabby gave me your blog address because I studied in Ireland while I was in college and just went back in May 2008. It's the perfect time to go weather-wise - you will have such a great time!! While you are in Doolin, definitely go down to the pubs at night and listen to the live music, and if they have a "sunset" boat ride near the Cliffs of Moher, I recommend it. It is of course a little cheesy, but really gorgeous, because you get to see the cliffs from the water. Also, Ashford Castle is beeeaaauuutiful. If you guys have any interest in it, the falconry class is awesome. It's a little scary, but really fun. Hope you guys have a fantastic time!!!
ReplyDelete-Clare Studwell