Dublin

A quick update as we are having a difficult time getting online here in Dublin. First we heard about the Philadelphia Phillies, AWESOME!!!!

Two days ago, Lori and I ate at the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head, (I will update pictures later) I ate my first Irish meal of Guinness stew, which was very good. After that we walked through some pretty bad rainy conditions to view the book of Kells at Trinity University! The University was very impressive and old, located at the end of the book of Kells was a library of extremely old books, (we were not permitted to take photos) The old library was just an awesome site which made me feel like Indian Jones running for my life!!

Yesterday, we saw the Guinness plant/store, not that impressive but we did get some free pints of Guinness! Got to run.

More pictures of Flat Stanely later Finn, don't worry!

Today we are off for a visit to New Grange some old Tomb, afterwards we will have free time in Dublin hopefully the weather will allow us to get around?

Fore Abbey

We explored the ruins of the Seven Wonders of Fore today. It was a beautiful day and we took a lot of great pictures. Also, we saw the Children of Lir lake and Maryann's family church and land. What a magnificent countryside!

Cliffs of Moher

Unfortunatley two days ago it was really, really a rainy day here for us. This is a picture of the Cliffs of Moher, and when you click HERE you will see another picture of what the road looked like with all the flooding. It was actually quite funny- the wind was so strong that when we leaned backward it kept us from falling over. Everyone was already soaking wet from visiting the Poulnabrone Dolmen and the Corcomroe Abbey, so by the time we got to Tom Malone's Pub, we were ready for the warm fire, great music and liquid lunches. It was a long, wet day and after reaching Tullamore, we were exhausted!
The next morning we headed out to Clonmacnois, a beautiful shrine with stain glass windows, and then Tullamore Dew whiskey tour. It was a beautiful day minus a spot of rain at the church. We had an Italian dinner at DaVinci's which was quite good but took forever! (But we were rewarded with Limoncello in the end!) We heard the Eagles won and the Phillies too- hope it continues!

We met a Hooker

Annie pictured above is what the Claddagh fishermen used for fishing in the Galway Bay, she was used to take "pete" (bog used as fire wood) to the Aran Islands were they bartered for fish that the island locals caught. Then they would take the fish back to mainland and sell the fish for a nice little profit.

Click HERE for updated pictures of the trip so far.

Some observations I noticed so far here in Ireland.
1. Small cars
2. small roads (very)
3. high bath tubs (easy to misjudge and trip)
4. Guinness and lots of it.
5. Bacon is not so good, but the sausage links are!
6. Coffee and tea are great.
7. Not Cheap (pint of guinness 3.9 euros about $5, not too bad but the food seems to be more expensive 9 or 10 euros for a burger)

Lastly, we are learning a ton of History from our great bus driver Mick and each time we step foot in the bus he starts a new lesson along with some corny jokes. Tomorrow we head out of Galway and go to Tullamore for a few nights.

Day 2 (Galway)

The picture above reminds me of being in Vegas, first time there in the Venetian hotel in vegas at 3am we walked around and had a very similar view, just like this (very cool). However, this was picture was taken in Galway city Ireland. Again, we had a long day but we made it and Click HERE for some of today's pictures.

1st night

Well we had a great night out at the Bunratty Castle midevil dinner!! After words we went next store to Dirty Nelly's a very old bar (2nd oldest in Ireland) something like it was built in the 1600's and it actually just was sold for 20 million dollars!!!. Click HERE for a couple more photo's. notice in the picture of the plaque on the wall, if you read down at the bottom it says "admiral Penn" this is the father of William Penn and it was beleived that William was in the castle that we had the dinner in. For all of you who were on the trip with me in 2001 it is the same castle that we visited on the last day. Not much has changed! it is rainy hard at the moment and we are getting ready to leave, more to follow.

We made it to Ireland safe and sound!!!

Click HERE for a couple photos. Just a fast update, we made to Ireland with no problems except maybe the security line via JFK, otherwise smooth as can be. I just woke up after about a 2 hr nap as it is 4pm here Ireland time (I believe 11am back home). We did take a little tour with our driver around some very small back roads in and around Limerick to get to breakfast. After breakfast we checked out some local sites and headed to our hotel to check in and a much needed nap. Lori got a bit nauseous on the bus that lead to a little vomit but she is now feeling better with her nap. I am having a little trouble adding a picture but I will work that out sooner or later.