Family Visit 4/17-4/25
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2011
1
24
25
Trip End
May 24, 2011
Where I stayed
Clarion Hotel Limerick
Dingle Lighthouse B&B
Imperial Hotel Galway
Dingle; Limerick; Galway; Adare; Shannnon, Munster, Ireland
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
4/18: Today we first walked to the tourist office in Limerick, then made our way over to King John's Castle. We stopped at St. Mary's Church on the way. We had a great time at King John's, and then made our way over to the bus station to go to the small town of Adare. We stopped for lunch on the way to the bus station at a traditional pub on the main street in Limerick. It was a 20 minute bus ride to Adare. Adare is a small city outside of Limerick made up of thatch roofed houses and shops. We did some shopping and exploring in the small city before heading back to Limerick. We went to a traditional pub called Dolans for dinner that has traditional music every night. We enjoeyed traditional food, music, and drinks before heading back to the hotel for the night.
4/19: This morning, our driver, Diarmuid, met us at our hotel to drive us to Dingle. He picked us up at 9am and we started our 3 hour journey to Dingle Peninsula. We drove through Connor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula, and into the city of Dingle to our B&B. We were welcomed by Mary Murphy, the owner of the B&B- she was so nice! She made us feel so welcomed for our entire stay. We took a walk into town, and got lunch at a local pub. We then made our way back up the hill to our B&B so I could register for classes at Eau Claire at my assigned time. That night, we hung out at the B&B for a while and then headed back down the hill for some dinner at a local restaurant called Danno's. We met Danno, and he happened to know Diarmuid, our driver, and told us to give him a hard time. It was really fun to get to know the locals!
4/20: Today, we had a tour with Diarmuid planned, but since the weather wasn't great and visibility was low, we ended up exploring Dingle instead. We met a few more locals and again, it was great to get to know the people of the small town. It seems that everyone knows everyone else, and the atmosphere of the city is really great. We went to the Dingle aquarium and saw the newest exhibit- penguins! They were very cute. We then walked out on the peir and enjoyed the view of the mountains and water.
4/21: Today was our last day in Dingle, and it was a beautiful day. We ended up doing the tour with Diarmuid's company, but we had a different driver, named Mossie. We saw some amazing things, it was beautiful! It was called a Slea Head tour, which is just a tour of the whole peninsula. We got to put our feet in the water at the beach where the movie "Ryan's Daugher" was filmed. It was a great day! We got some really good pictures, too.
4/22: Today, Diarmuid picked us up at our B&B to bring us to Galway. It ended up being quite the adventure, and took about 6 hours! When we finally got to Galway, we chckd into our hotel and started exploring the city. We walked down Shop Street (the main road) to the Spanish arch, and then back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. We ended up being recruited to a great restaurant for dinner called Kirby's, it was delicious!
4/23: Today, we woke up bright and early to go to the Aran Islands. We went to the big island this time, Inis Mor, which was absolutely amazing. We had a mini bus tour that brought us to this really old fort built near a 300 foot cliff into the Atlantic. So beautiful! It was a gorgeous day, too.
4/24: Easter! We got up early to go to mass at the Galway Cathedral. After mass, we were picked up by Finbarr to go to Bunratty Castle. Finbarr brought us to a Ring Fort, which was really cool. We got to Bunratty, checked into our hotel, and went to the Folk Park for lunch and to walk around. It was another beautiful day! After the folk park, we went into the castle. We climbed a LOT of stairs in the castle, but it was definitely worth it! It was really cool to see how people lived back then. We went to a very fancy restaurant for dinner, and had one last gormet meal before the family left on Monday morning.
It was such a great week!
Comments
Looks like a fun time!! Just your mom and grandma came out?
My Mom, Grandma, Aunt and Uncle came. It was very fun!