A friend of mine, who lives in Memphis, TN, and her cousin Dottie, recently visited Ireland. Dottie lives in Savannah, TN, a small town where trips are organized by banks. She has traveled with Peoples Bank for years. The trip started with a bus picking them up in Savannah and after a couple of other stops in Middle Tennessee, they flew out of Nashville to Newark and then to Dublin. This is their story.
When the pilot announced our approach to Dublin, he said it was going to be a rough landing due to the 40 mph winds. That was their first introduction to Irish weather. Fortunately, it was also our only extremely windy day, but we had days of rain and fog. We were prepared with our rain gear and waterproof tennis shoes.
Our tour guide/bus driver met us at the airport. We drove around sightseeing in Dublin for a few hours. It is the largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the capital, thus densely populated. We saw buildings with bullet holes left from the revolution. After a tour of the Guinness Store/Museum, we were dropped off at our hotel. Dottie and I immediately set off to Grafton Street where there are many shops and restaurants. The city has marked their street crossings to indicate to visitors to look in the opposite direction to the one we are used to looking since the drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road! That took practice. (The next day a car pulled out in front of our bus and almost caused us to have a wreck. Our driver said that was quite common.) We ate that night at Bailey’s bar, outside in the wind. There were blankets in the chairs, which we used. The average age in Dublin is 37, so there are young people everywhere. We “people watched” as we ate our food and drank our Bailey’s coffee.
The famous Blarney Castle.
There are many monastic sites in Ireland. We visited one in County Wicklow that was founded by St. Kevin in the sixth century. As we walked through the grounds, we were amazed by the primitive church and tombstones. There was a legend that if you could hug a certain Celtic Cross and your fingers met on the other side, your wish would come true. Unfortunately, my fingers did not meet. The Celtic cross was part of St. Patrick’s efforts to Christianize the pagan populous. The cross contains a circle representing the sun, a symbol the pagan religion worshiped. Later that afternoon, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It is a 1,200-year-old version of the four gospels which was elaborately and meticulously illustrated by faithful monks. We were able to view huge enlargements of the pages and one of the four remaining books which was under glass. Some of these monks lost their eyesight while working on these pages.
We stayed 2 nights in Dublin and then off we went to explore the rest of The Republic of Ireland. We stopped for lunch at a charming roadside pub. The food was interesting. You might even say it was “fast food” as it was waiting for us as soon as we got there. There was vegetable soup, pureed. We soon discovered that all the soup in Ireland was pureed, except seafood chowder. I got a chicken salad sandwich. It had sliced chicken on one side and a tossed salad on the other slice of bread. Maybe we have been getting the chicken salad sandwich wrong all these year?? Generally, the food was very good. There was a good fish called the hake. It is delicious, much better than cod. Back to the pub…when we finished eating the owner pulled out his guitar and sang to us. He even had a gold record. He then asked our bus driver, Sean Fetter, to play for us which he did. I could just imagine all the people in the area gathering there to eat, drink, and sing.
Next Waterford. We stayed in a country manor house – Faithlegg. It had a golf course around it and was beautiful. The next day we went to the Waterford factory. We learned that another company had bought Waterford. Seventy percent of Waterford Crystal is made elsewhere, but the finest glass craftsmen still live and work here. They produce the “prestige pieces for special order customers.” These pieces include the SEC championship, the ball they drop in NYC at New Year’s Eve, several golf tournaments, etc. They destroy the pieces that are not perfect and recycle the glass. The tour guide asked Dottie to drop a bowl and break it in a container. They also offer very good Shopping.
Blarney Castle – The grounds were beautiful. I made it to the top of the castle which means you have to go up winding stairs and hold on to ropes. Kissing the Blarney Stone was not that much fun. However, shopping in the cute shops was. I decided that I was only going to be in Ireland once in my life so I needed to buy what I wanted. I found some clothes for my grandchildren.
Speaking of shopping, there are opportunities to shop EVERYWHERE. Another friend on the trip kept buying sweaters for her daughter. She kept trying to find the perfect one. It became a joke. There are beautiful woolen scarves, hats, and blankets everywhere. The Irish jewelry was also beautiful.
We spent 3 nights in Killarney with day trips to various sites. We toured the Muckross House which was built in 1843. Six years before Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were to visit, the owners were told of the impending visit. They wanted to impress the Royalty so they could receive a title, so they almost went bankrupt decorating the huge house. Unfortunately, Prince Albert died soon after returning to England and the Queen was so grieved she never gave them the titles.
Later that day we were treated to a jaunty ride (buggy). The driver told us we were on an ABC ride, Another Bloody Castle. The day we went to the Ring of Kerry was marred with the bad Irish weather of fog and rain. The following day we went to Dingle Peninsula. The weather was so beautiful that we could see the Ring of Kerry across the water.
Leaving Killarney, we drove north through Tralee which is known for the song, The Rose of Tralee which is about a beautiful woman who was bestowed the song title. In Lahinch we saw the golf course where the Irish Open will be played next year. I don’t know how anyone could play golf when the fairway is nothing but a series of small hills. Our hotel, the Dromoland, was a castle that had been converted into a 5-star hotel. At one time Dromoland was the residence of eight generations of the O’Brien family. Dinner that night was spectacular served under silver domes with Waterford chandeliers above.
The next day we drove along the coastline and saw the majestic Cliffs of Moher rising 600 feet over the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. We drove through the Burren which are fields of limestone. Some of the roads in this area are very narrow. At one point we passed another bus. I couldn’t even look. Some of our group said there wasn’t an inch between the two buses. Hats off to Sean, again.
The Irish scenery was just as beautiful as all the pictures. Fields were divided by rock walls and shrubs. White sheep grazed in the fields up the side of the hills and mountains. We saw a demonstration of the sheepdogs gathering the sheep. We saw some cows, but no pigs. All the houses in the country looked similar. We went to a Bog Village where we saw houses with thatched roofs from 100 years ago.
I cannot tell you how kind and courteous the people were. They were always willing to help and had a great sense of humor. Their accents were interesting. Our driver was a great example of the Irish people’s brogue. He would say be back in turdy (thirty) minutes. He was also knowledgeable, talented, and best of all, patient.
We saw lots of castles. Some like the one in Kilkenny, Dromoland, and Muckross have been restored. Blarney and many others have empty rooms. There are castles along the road which are deserted.
Taking a 10-day trip on a bus is not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. On the day you are changing hotels, you have to have your luggage outside your room at 7 a.m., but I like someone taking my luggage for me. You have to go where the tour takes you and be there on time. We had a couple of people who were slow, but for the most part, everyone was on time. We tended to sit in the same seats every day, but there were opportunities for us to get to know the people while we ate or toured. Most of all, I was glad I didn’t have to drive on the opposite side of the road.
It was a great trip that I highly recommend.
As mentioned in the story, many sites may not be handicap accessible. Check the itinerary should this be an issue you want to avoid.
