Celtic Moment

Preview of Peter_ginger’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Dublin, Ireland Entry Title: “Final day in Dublin and looking for Phil” Entry: “Today we started out sleeping in until 8am — or 3am USA/EST time. While a bit groggy, we pushed onward for our final day in Dublin. The first thing in order was a nice cup of coffee with some brown sugar (yes, you heard that correct). After a quick check of emails, BBC2 news and packing up the backpack, we got out the map and planned out our day. Today we singled out Trinity College/Book of Kells as well as looking for the Porterhouse pub (which I was told has many fine selections of homebrew favorites). Also, we were going to go visit Sheridan’s Cheese Shop to see Lucy — who we emailed with before we left. She is good friends with our neighbor (Tim Gaddis) and we also had a special gift for her. We were soon on our way around 9am. Out the front door and we were met with a wet street — but not rain in the air. Ginger quickly grabbed her new raincoat (to officially break it in) and off we went. Down O’Connell Street we went and soon hit some wisps of rain, but nothing major. We decided to stop into a small café called Scrumptious and grabbed an Americano espresso and small pastries — delicious! As we left the café, I could hear this huge protest going down near Dublin’s GPO (General post office which is …

Preview of Mattandnicole’sblog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Dingle Peninsula, Ireland Entry Title: “My six days as a volvo driver” Entry: “After figuring out how expensive (5 euro per person to travel 13kms) and how often buses travel between points in Ireland (not often) we decided to throw caution to the wind and hire a car for the remaining time in Ireland. After getting to the airport (as that is where all the car hire places are) we decided to upgrade to a -shudder- Volvo and a GPS unit that talks to me – cause Christina didn’t want to get lost – obviously she didn’t trust my keen travel sense. She also wanted me to get a auto but i wasnt having any of that. After giving them my credit card we were off (after a few bunny hops). I was a bit apprehensive about driving especially since i hadn’t driving for almost two years but i guess its like riding a bike and we were soon speeding down the Dublin freeway to our first destination (which we still hadn’t figured out). It was then that we drove past our first petrel station and saw that petrol was 1.30 euro a liter – thats was a little scary The general idea that we had figured out was too hug the south west coast of Ireland, drive around the Beara, Kerry and dingle peninsulas.During that time our mission was several: stop at little villages, drink the black stuff and (if there was time …

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Originally posted 2010-11-18 10:25:16.

Preview of Mattandnicole’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Dublin, Ireland Entry Title: “St Paddies Day in style” Entry: “Top of the morning too everyone and greetings from Ireland. We had decided to head for Ireland for a while to see the rolling green hills, drink Guinness and witness St Pat’s day from Dublin. Our first day included allot of time in pubs drinking Guinness and talking to the locals (sometimes trying to figure out what they were saying – many have a thick accent) and trying to see things for free as it was quickly evident that Dublin was VERY expensive. Luckily most of the touristy things were close by, and we could always stop into a pub.. In addition to the pubs we went to the art museum and saw some Celtic art, saw some bog bodies in the natural history museum and then went back to one of the millions of pub and had a good pub meal washed down with guess what… Day 2 saw as take a tour – usually i wouldn’t be caught dead in a tour bus – but as Christina was with me sacrifices had to be made – and anyway the public transport here between cities leaves allot to be desired (plus it was cheaper to go on the tour). So we headed to glendalogh, a small village made famous by brother Kev who turned up 100s of years ago and medicated allot. From just one person (Kev) 100s more turned up to join him and a monastery and a few …

Preview of Mlbalmeo’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: County Meath, Ireland Entry Title: “A whirlwind tour” Entry: “Happy Birthday, America! We celebrated not with fireworks and apple pie and baseball in the park, but with the theme from Rocky and various other songs that the local radio station seemed to feel represented America. It was definitely strange to see so many people in a country on the other side of the world care about some other country’s independence day, but I guess when you think about it, it makes sense. The Irish fought their own battle against British rule, and they seem to feel incredibly proud of their fierce struggle for independence. They also lost half their population to the States during the potato famine, so I imagine their ties to the good ol’ US of A are pretty strong. We spent the day touring County Meath, which we discovered is rich with Irish history. Our first stop of the day was in Tara where we visited the famed Hill of Tara. This was the seat of the high kings during a time when Ireland was a collection of kindgoms and townships. Unfortunately, not long after we got there, the skies opened and dumped some massive rain on us, so instead of tromping around in our usual style, we decided to watch the audio-visual, or film, instead. The site itself isn’t all that interesting. In fact, if no one told you, you …

Preview of Papes’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Doolin, Ireland Entry Title: “Golf and The Burren” Entry: “This morning we got up and had a delicious “Full Irish Breakfast” that traditionally includes a fried egg, toast, bacon (more like Canadian Bacon), light/white pudding (what we would call sausage links) served with assorted home-baked breads including the famous brown bread which is very hearty and full-grain. Wonderful! Next we drove to “Doolin Pitch and Put” where Pat got to golf. It had amazing views of the Atlantic and Cliffs of Moher in the backgroud. A pitch and put is a links style course just with all the holes fairly close together so that there are no long drives to make. What is unusual is how hilly this course was – more like huge bumps or berms all over. I think they just covered up all the rocks on the site with a bunch of dirt and planted grass over it! Mom and Dad hung out at the Doolin Pier and watched the waves roll in while we golfed. After that we took off for the Burren Perfumery. It was an all-day trip with stops all along the way. At Kilforna we stopped to see ancient Celtic crosses from the 11th and 12th centuries. A lady gave us directions to the perfumery that went something like this; “Go East until you come to the Castle ruin then turn left. Follow that road until just before the ‘Ring Fort’ where you will …

Preview of Bluebells’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Loch Rannoch, United Kingdom Entry Title: “King of the Road” Entry: “Yesterday, May 23, we took a couple of ‘walks.’ The first really was a walk. With no no-trespass laws, as we were told over and over by the Scots, we were free to go anywhere we liked, and this official walk took us along what had been an old railroad track. It is now a dirt road, and this threw me, as I was looking for actual tracks. We next went into a field full of sheep, which also wrapped around parts of Loch Tay. We took a short detour up a steep hill covered in blue bells, so thick they reached to mid-calf on me. Stinging nettles rose almost to my waist. We came back down to follow a road which led us to the abandoned ruins, deep in a copse, of one of the Campbell castles, Finlarig. It was not even visible from the track below. It felt like I imagined the four children must have felt like discovering the ruins of Cair Paravel in Prince Caspian. I don’t think Cair Paravel had a beheading pit, though. Next to Finlarig stood a mausoleum. Both were overgrown with years of vegetation, and in the clearing with them stood the celtic crosses atop the tombstones of a relatively recent Lord and Lady Campbell, buried there in 1922 and 1932. After climbing all over, we went out the other side of the wood where we saw a wider …

Preview of Kiwidel’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Galway, Ireland Entry Title: “Galway and the Aran Islands” Entry: “Flew to Galway on Monday the 28th and then took a bus and a ferry out to Inishmore, which is one of the Aran Islands about 30 kms west of Galway Bay. As it was absolutely pouring with rain – had to go and buy a cheap rain jacket – best thing I could’ve ever done as my Icebreaker that I’ve worn every day since I got here wouldn’t have survived! The Aran Islands are just about all Irish-speaking (not that you can understand their english anyways) and very very remote – almost like stepping back into time, where the pace of life is slow and fishing and farming seems to be the main source of income, but tourism seems to be creeping in now too! Once everyone arrives off the ferry, you either get a minbus to give you a guided tour around the island it you’re only on a day trip, or rent a bike if you’re staying longer, as the island’s only 9 miles long and 2 miles wide. I rented a bike – found a B&B and then off I went exploring the island. It’s very remote, bleak, stoney but very peaceful at the same time. The island’s also very famous if you’re into archaeology, which I’m not, but it was still incredible to see all these ancient celtic stone fort sites. The most spectacular of these sites was a fort called Dun Aengus, which is …

Preview of Kitkatgo’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Warwick, United Kingdom Entry Title: “Warwick Castle (World)” Entry: “”England’s Finest Medieval Castle” DH and I visited Warwick Castle as part of an all-day tour going to Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick. We had a great time exploring the castle, and honestly could have spent quite a bit more time there. This is sort of the Disneyland of British castles. They have mannequin displays of medieval scenes in one area, and scenes of another era in another area; it has been a part of British history for nine centuries. It is well done though, and we enjoyed it. They had an ice skating rink set up in the middle for those wanting more than castle exploration. The views from the castle were breathtaking. This is one part of the tour I would say do on your own if possible, because you can easily spend a lot of time here…more than what a tour allows. We had heard while we were there that a Saudi Arabian prince was going to buy Warwick Castle, and its future was questionable. It still appears to be doing business as usual though.” Read and see more at: www.travelpod.com Photos from this trip: 1. “View from Warwick Castle” 2. “Scary Pants, Warwick Dungeon” 3. “DH & I, Warwick Castle” 4. “Warwick Knight” 5. “Warwick Water” See this TripWow and more at tripwow.tripadvisor.com

Preview of Vayacondios’s blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Cahir, Ireland Entry Title: “I Do Like Castles” Entry: “Regretfully we decided we couldn’t stay with Cathleen forever, so we packed up & headed North. First stop was the Jameson’s Brewery tour in Midleton – Peter does like Jamesons. The old brewery buildings were lovely & the tour quite interesting, but the best bit for me was the comparative whisky tasting I got to take part in at the end. We compared a single malt, a bourbon & Jamesons. Since Jamesons is triple distilled it is very smooth (though smoothness is not always what you want in whisky!). Next we came to Lismore – a beautiful ancient town, with a cathedral & a castle & lovely walk along the Blackwater River. The monastery at Lismore was founded by St Carthage in 636AD! Makes everything in Australia, bar the Aboriginal sites of course, seem very, very nouveau. Unfortunately the Duke (of Devonshire) was not at home & I’m not sure he got my ATC request (must have been eaten by the Spam filter, I reckon) – so we had to carry on. My plan was that we take a narrow road through the mountains, but somehow we missed the turnoff, Peter got agitated about where we were spending the night & we headed for a main road. I was grumpy, he was rushing – so it was by the Grace of our Father, who has spoilt us rotten the whole way, that we …