Saturday & Sunday, Aug 17 & 18 - Goodbye Dublin, Hello Kinsale & County Cork!

Saturday, Aug 17

Goodbye Dublin, Hello Kinsale! - Post by Carl

Today we left Dublin and drove down to Kinsale (County Cork)  It was my first time driving on the left side of the road, and sitting on the right side of a car to drive...While I was anxious at first, after a couple of hours I had it down....need to look right when turning left, etc., and focus being closer to the middle of the road...

We rented two cars (3 people in each for most driving) as this allowed us to pack all of our luggage both trunks and one side of the back seat of each car.

 This worked as planned, and we have two cars to make separate day trips if desired.

As we made our trip to Kinsale (approximately 2 1/2 - 3 in total length), we made a few stops...one of them was Kilkenny.  We ate a nice lunch at the Nostalgia Cafe and visited the Anglo-Norman Kilkenny Castle built in 1195 which stands on a strategic height over the River Nore.

Our next stop was the Viking city of Waterford where we toured the House of Waterford, home of the world famous crystal established in 1783.

We made it to Kinsale and stayed for the next few days at a cottaged called "The Church Cottage".  We unpacked the cars, drew lots for rooms, then  walked to the local SuperValu for groceries.  We enjoyed an app style dinner of cheese and wine.

Later that night, Vic, Carl and Dan sampled Kinsale's night life with live music at The White House and Oscar Madison's.  The ladies stayed back with the white wine and had a good time of their own.

Sunday, Aug 18

On Sunday, we enjoyed going to mass at "St. John's Baptist" which was only a couple of blocks away, and enjoyed the local priest give homily and get the feel of a true local irish parish.

We spent the remainder of the day touring Kinsale...some of us went on a walking tour of Kinsale where we learned that it was a very significant stratgegic port for the English Empire in the 1700s and early 1800s, and learned how the town was expanded from a local shale quarry to accommodate the amount of shipping required.  

Kinsale is also known as a cuisine city with good restaurants, and one we tried for lunch, Fishy Fishy, did not disappoint.  We enjoyed great oysters, salmon, fish pie, hake (a north Atlantic fish), and other tasty items.  

We also got a little visit from the local wasps, but the restaurant burns coffee grounds in sea shells to "smoke" them away...surprisingly it actually works...on the left is a little pic to show you...

 Later in the afternoon, Vic, Dan, and I hopped into a local pub named "The White House" and enjoyed watching "The Sunday Game", which was a semi final game Hurling Game of Limerick and Clare...Clare won (to some disappointment to some locals that were rooting for Limerick).

After the game, all of us went out to "Old Head" and saw some famous coastline and an amazing golf course..it would be great the play there, but with 200 Euro greens fees ($270 each) it will need to wait ;)

We enjoyed the remainder of the evening making "Toasteds" - baked/toasted sandwiches normally served in pubs in Ireland, and then we ventured to another recommended pub, "The Spanierd" where we hoped to catch some local music, but it was already done when we got there...

We then made plans for the next day, with a trip to Cork and the Blarney Castle "Home of the Blarney Stone"...our post to keep on catching up is forthcoming!

Thanks for being patient with us as we blog the trip...we've have been having mixed success finding places with wifi and strong enough mobile data to upload pics and update the blog.

Thursday and Friday, August 15 & 16 - Big Dublin Days!

Thursday, Aug 15

Our day started with daily Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin at St. Mary's Pro Cathedral.  It was interesting to see a variety of folks gather for a morning mass in the middle of the city.

The ladies visited Trinity College, with a tour of the grounds by a scholar, or present student there.  While at Trinity, they also toured the Book of Kells exhibit.  The Book of Kells is a 9th century gospel manuscript famous throughout the world.  They also visited the Long Room in the Old Library.  Built between 1712 and 1732, the Long Room holds the collections 200,000 oldest books.

Pics of this to come...

 It was raining when they left the shop and when one of their bags broke outside a gorgeous Georgian door housing Louise Kennedy, they stopped in to look inside and ask for a new bag.  Louise Kennedy is a designer and the place was beautiful.  Sarah was working there and took the opportunity to tour us around and show us many of Louise's gorgeous fashions, including inviting us into the bridal room, which was breathtaking!  

The ladies then found their way to The Cellar pub at the Merrion Hotel and had a wonderful mushroom soup and pints.  

The Gents toured CrokePark, the 4th largest stadium in Europe and home of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association).    The All-Ireland (Gailic Football) and Hurling Finals are hosted here along with numerous concerts.  The guys learned that the GAA is a big part of Irish culture now, as it's mission is to preserve and continue Ireland's strong sports culture in leiu of pressure from Great Britain in the 1800s and before independence in the 1920s.

Here are some great pics and links from their trip:

They guys also stopped by the Celtic Whiskey Shoppe and enjoyed a lovely late lunch at Sinnott's across from the Gaiety Theater, home of Riverdance.  Next stop was O'Donoghue's Pub, made famous by Irish session music and frequented by the Dubliner.  The guys ended up staying there for the remainder of the day (and evening) where we met a variety of people, including some from the Twin Cities like Scott Libby and sons from Edina.

Later that evening, the ladies joined the guys guys for an evening at O'Donoghue's Pub which consisted a lot of chatting with locals and having Liz try and get our entire room to sing "Whiskey In The Jar".

Friday, Aug 16

Dan, Michelle, Kelly and Carl took a shuttle bus (about 45 minutes each way) out to Newgrange and Knowth.  Newgrange is burial passageway with earthen mounds that are over 3000 years old...older than the Pyramids in Egypt.

We even met Michelle's Doppelganger (twin) who was our guide @ Knowth.

Newgrange

Vic and Liz stayed in Dublin (they saw New Grange in their last visit to Ireland in the late 90s) and shopped.

Later that day, we made a quick run back to Jameson to pick up a few things, and then everyone met up for our last night in Dublin.  We ate dinner at ONeils, and then later Vic and Dan visited Brazen Head (one of the oldest Pubs in Ireland).

Wednesday, Aug 14 - 2nd Day - First Full Day after a full day!

Post by Dan and Carl

Wow, Dublin has been a blast (so far!)...even though it's already Friday night and we are finally making our next set of posts...we will start recapping our time in Dublin...it's been go, go, go, with a lot of good night life, so we are catching up with the blog and recapping some highlights....

Wednesday, Aug 14 - 

Our day started in Dublin's Fair City with a photo op with sweet Molly Malone, the "Tart with the Cart".

The group enjoyed a light breakfast and coffee at Bewley's near Trinity College. 

Our first historic stop was at Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) where we learned the historical significance the jail played in Irish history.

  Many early patriots who fought and died for Ireland's independence from Great Britain passed through the gates.

We had a lovely lunch of the world famous fish-n-chips from Leo Burdocks, and ate it on the lawn near Christ's Church, with other visitors.

Afterwards, and after a dry morning, we explored the centuries old Christ Church and Saint Patrick's Cathedral's.

After working up a mighty thirst, we decided to tour the Guinness Brewery & storehouse.  We enjoyed a great venue and tour, and even managed to enjoy some of the black stuff at the 360 degree glass Gravity Bar high a top the brewery with breathtaking views of Dublin!

We also met another great couple, Louie and Linda from Scotland, who recently retired and are sailing their boat on the east cost Ireland..  We had a great time talking with them and they even invited us to visit Scotland and sail with them. 

That night we had a nice meal at The Bank, and then visited some some great local pubs like, The Stage Head (Est. 1770), and at Kehoes.  We even found a local ice cream shop called, "Murphy's".  What are the chances? ;)

We also met some some other great folks and enjoyed the remainder of the evening with Kevin and Mark from Wasthington, D.C.

We had another wonderful day in Dublin...and the craic was mighty!

Slainte!

The start of the adventure!

Post by Kelly Jaeschke

We began our trip with a toast in the Sky Lounge at the airport, toasting good friends, an amazing adventure, and Vic and Liz's 19th wedding anniversary.  After all of the dreaming and planning, we were finally getting underway.  Our flight from the Twin Cities to Atlanta was short and uneventful. We had enough time to get something to eat and drink and then we boarded the plane for Dublin.  Unfortunately, due to some storms in the area, we were #30-40 to take off with a one hour delay.  The pilot and flight staff were very friendly (I know, hard to believe, right?) and so were cool about people moving about the cabin while we were just in a holding pattern on the runway.

The flight to Dublin was approximately 6-6.5 hours long and no one got much sleep.  The very amorous couple with the husband who felt the need to talk CONSTANTLY and very loudly throughout the entire flight made it quite difficult to sleep, even when the flight staff lowered all of the lights in the cabin.  Friendly traveling tip: when you're on an international flight overnight and the lights are turned off, that's a signal that you and your fellow passengers should try and get some sleep to help you adjust to the time change and that you should not be talking above the sound of the plane engines and keep everyone else up.  Needless to say, we were all very tired when we landed (approximately 7:45 a.m.) but were so excited to finally be in Dublin that we got a second wind.

After getting our luggage and catching the Air Coach to Dublin City Center, we dropped our bags off at our hotel which is right off of O'Connell Street.  We couldn't check in until later in the afternoon so we set our on our first mission to switch over our sim cards in our cell phones for phone calls/data internationally.  After going to the first Tesco (a store kind of like Aldi), we were informed that they didn't have the sim cards we needed so we were directed to another Tesco at a mall kiosk.  On the way there, we passed by a Starbucks for some refueling.  We got the phones all set after monopolizing the Tesco kiosk staff for quite some time, but mission accomplished.

Oh, and travel tip #2:  if you're traveling internationally and when you land you turn your phone back on, but don't turn off your data services, you may end up with a $50 charge for receiving data and forgetting you didn't yet have international data and sending  Kik messages to your daughters to let them know you arrived safely.  Yes, that was me.  Oops!

We explored some of the shops in the mall and got some delicious croissants and a lovely serrano ham sandwich at a French bakery among an outdoor market.  Some member of our travel group who shall remain nameless, did not like that we started our culinary experience with a French bakery.  As it turns out, it was a homage to Michelle's French heritage.

We decided to start our sight seeing on the Hop On/Hop Off bus.  This is a great service.  There are numerous stops and buses throughout Dublin and as the name says, you hop on and hop off as needed as different attractions around the city.  We decided to ride on the upper deck of the bus and listen to the commentary about the different sights.  However, after heading started nodding and leaning against windows,  we decided we needed to get off and walk.  We decided to hop off at the Jameson Distillery.  Jameson distilled whiskey at this facility for over 200 years, but stopped in 1971.  They still have the structure with a great tour.  The tour lasted about an hour and we had the best guide, Claire, with a very dry sense of humor. She asked for volunteers to participate in a tasting of three types of whiskey at the end of the tour, and as luck would have it, Dan, Carl and Vic were all chosen.  Everyone at the end of the tour gets a glass of straight Jameson whiskey or  Jameson and Ginger.  Michelle, Liz and I enjoyed a very generous and delicious Jameson and Ginger.  The boys taste tested and compared Jameson whiskey, Johnny Walker Black, and Jack Daniels.  Guess which one was picked as the favorite?

After the tour, we decided to hoof it back to the hotel to get some more fresh air and exercise, and (haha) sun to help with jet lag.  We enjoyed the walk back along the River Liffey with a quick stop back at the Tesco for provisions (water and snacks for the hotel room), before checking in to our room and having some time to nap before enjoying the evening.

And a great evening it was!  The short rest rejuvenated us and we began our evening with drinks at the Parnell Heritage Pub.  Thank you to the Kenny's for buying us our first round in absentia!

Drinks, round #2 were at a fabulous place called The Living Room, which is adjacent to a restaurant called Murray's.  They had a very lively Irish band playing in the restaurant and a great beer garden.  It was a beautiful evening so we ate in the beer garden.  The food, as well as the beer, was fantastic!

After dinner we walked down to the lively Temple Bar area (known as the cultural, artistic area with many bars, restaurants and night life) where we enjoyed a pint at The Temple Bar.

Good Night from Kelly.  More to come tomorrow!

The journey has begun.

Happy 19th Anniversary Liz!!! We almost on our way.

3 Days and Counting!!!

3 more days...hard to believe.  Lots of to-do's to take care of before Monday morning.  Looking forward to Irish Fair this weekend and then it's on to Ireland.  Should be a grand time!!!
Thinking about all the sights we will see...hope to post some of our own pictures by Tuesday evening.