The trip continues

Cheryl and I were and still sad Randy and Jane had to head home early.  We are happy to hear Grandpa Dittmer is doing better.  I'm doing this on my phone so I hope it is successful.  Yesterday we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry- The 1,00 year old historical piece.  We encourage you to google it - Outstanding.  We also went to Arromanches and visited the Cathederal in Bayeux.  Today we went on a 9 hour D-Day tour.  Way more that I could have imagined.  I don't know how to enter photos doing this other than using Randy's laptop we previously utilized.  I will send to photos on WhatsApp

The Walking Tour

Well, we wrapped up our tenth day of our journey as the first leg has come to an end. We ate at yet another fine Fish and Chips place and had a lengthy discussion on which one of the many we had tried were in fact the best in the land. Of course, they all made the claim. The one today was a dead tie for our first venture in Glasgow, Scotland. Probably should go back to Glasgow and double check. Anyway, as we have literally walked miles, 47.25 to be exact according to my watch on steps, we start our next leg in the morning as we head to Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. Of course we made up for the walking distance in food intake. We will travel by car up to the small town of Bayeux, France in search of Winston Churchill Hotel. We will spend a couple of days searching out D-Day historical sites including a day tour as well.

Blue dot represents our location this morning and we are staying Dublin tonight

We will travel from Paris to Bayeux tomorrow

Another fine fish and chips eatery.

A bittersweet day

We've had quite a day; from a city walking tour of the rainiest city in Ireland, Galway, to walking the grounds of a 1,500 year old monastery site, Clonmacnoise, to a 2-man street fight within feet of us while walking to dinner in downtown Dublin.  Mixed in there were final farewells to our fellow travelers and wonderful bus driver / guide, Harry G. Fisher.

Clonmacnoise Monastery 

Downtown Galway

Clonmacnoise

Clonmacnoise - whispering doorway

Dinner Out

Tonight we feasted at the table of Knappogue Castle in the county of Clare, had a bit of good "Irish craic," and began the evening with a lash of Irish Meade. The castle was built in 1497 and once occupied by the infamous Oliver Cromwell and is complete with walled gardens. We had great fun of food and drink (not so much drink) and was treated to song and dance (them, not us), harp and fiddle play, and a bit of Irish Dance action (sort of like Lord of the Dance style). Earlier in the day we visited the Cliffs of Moher which were crazy high at around 700 feet to the waters surface. All in all, another great day in Ireland.

Knappogue Castle

Enlarge to see the people on the edge with no rail

Fun in County Claire

Started the day by driving the bus, and us, onto a smaller ferry for a 20 minute ride to County Claire.  A real highlight was spending extended time at The Cliffs of Maher.  Absolutely beautiful.  Finished up at the Knappogue Castle for a stroll around the walled garden and dinner, including an excellent show.  Another day and 1/2 in Ireland and we head for France on Monday.  We continue to enjoy the company of our fellow travelers whom we have gotten to know.

Cliffs of Maher

Knappogue Castle

More Ring of Kerry

As Paul mentioned we spent the day traveling around the Ring of Kerry which is a scenic route basically around the south western section of Ireland. It is about 100 km but takes an entire day as the roads are very hilly and very narrow especially for a big bus. This part of Ireland speaks the majority of the Irish language (official language of Ireland) spoken and that total for the country is around 6% actually being fluent. English is spoken in all areas as well. As we moved closer to the coast line the landscape changed drastically from rolling farm fields to mountainous woodland. The base of these mountains, hills, are some of the areas affected most by the Potato Famine of 1849. The flatter land next to the hills would have been covered with thousands of small plot farms that had been subdivided way too many times by greedy land agents for bosses who lived in England. When the blight hit the potatoes and rotted them over night poorer farmers lost their main food source other than wheat. The wheat was their rent money, so to speak, and when they ate their rent money they had to leave. Over one million starved and another million emigrated from Ireland, many to the U.S.. Their farm buildings and homes were made of mud so when they left the buildings just melted into the land with very little remaining. Now, they have many other types of potatoes and treat for the blithe all the time as the weather patterns have not changed that much. It was the damp weather and then extra warm temperatures that brings on the blithe. This part of Ireland, as most parts, is very beautiful. If you watched the movie Leap Year the two main characters traveled from Dingle to Dublin over the same roads we traveled. Of course that was a movie just like how Star Wars used the two islands in the fifth image formerly used by monks in the 12th century for some of their locations.

Rose Castle with the sun peeking through an observation opening

Fishing boats waiting near Rose Castle

Monument to Puck when his heard of goats saved the city from certain destruction at the hands of Cromwell 

Land once covered by farms victimized by the Potato Famine

Out to the Atlantic
The two small hard to see islands in the center are the ones used for Star Wars films

Just an average view of the country side leading down to the bay of the Atlantic

Ring of Kerry

This morning we left our hotel via a Jaunting Car (horse-drawn carriage) and took a ride through Killarney National Park.  The ride ended when we arrived at Ross Castle.  At this point our driver exclaimed, "Oh, ABC", and then translated for us; "Oh, Another Bloody Castle".  Following that we spent the next 8 hours driving on the bus on what's called the Ring of Kerry - A road trip around the peninsula with spectacular scenery of the countryside and waters surrounding the land mass.  Another highlight for me was a quick stop in the village of Sneem.  While in Sneem Randy and I met a new friend, Puck the goat.

Puck

Village of Sneem

Lower Lough Lean

Rose Castle

Killarney

Today we left Dublin and headed west across the island toward Killarney. We stopped in at a working sheep farm, ate scones and tea, and watched an awesome boarder collie work an entire field of sheep like he owned them. Next, we continued our journey toward the western side of Ireland and came across the Rock of Cashel. This is a huge piece of rock in the middle of nowhere with a castle on top. I should say a castle ruin.

We stopped at Blarney Castle and yes, kissed the blarney stone. The trip up to the top of the castle was very scary and very high. Finally, we arrived at Killarney and checked into our fabulous hotel and feasted.

Rock of Cashel

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle

We walked along the notches at the top of the castle to reach the Blarney Stone

Blue dot represents our current location

Short clip of working Boarder Collie "Glen."

A Day in Dublin

Today was another busy fun filled day of exploration. We started out with a native Dubliner guide on the bus and went all over the city getting our bearings. Of course, when it was all said and done, I didn't have a clue of where things were and resigned myself to following my people (Cheryl, Paul, and Jane). As Paul mentioned we spent time at Trinity College which, to our amazement, was filled with such a colorful history. The college founded well before Henry VIII came to power and was thoroughly shaken down into ruin shortly there after only to be founded a new by Queen Elizabeth in 1592. The Book of Kells provided a glimpse into monastic life and the meticulous creation of scripture presentation. The book is written on vellum which is calf skin. That was a popular source of paper like material before actual paper was readily available. We walked to and fro in the city taking in the National Museum of Ireland in search for Viking gold. We found it and the history of the ravaging Vikings that began to invade the island in 795 A.D. until the Normans conquered it in 1169. Lots of old stuff in that museum and we only looked at one floor. Next, we trucked to the other side of town in quest of Christ's Church Cathedral founded in 1028. The Gothic style building was typical of the period and we just circled it and moved on. Next stop on the tour was the Starbucks that we found as the first one not in an airport. The competition in the U.K. and Ireland is Costa. This was a full day of mostly riding in the morning and walking in the afternoon. Lastly, we boarded a barge on the central canal of the city and ate a fabulous 3 course dinner as the barge moved slowly through the locks all the while an Irish folk singer performed and humored us. The food was very good but not anything I would typically order, if you know what I mean.

This photo is a great example of the art technique of perspective

Christ's Church Cathedral

Jane is happy at Starbucks

Manchester soccer team has arrived and the fans are going wild. Not me.

Feast on a Barge 

Book of KellsNotic

Back in our hotel following a wonderful day in Dublin, the highlight of which was a tour of Trinity College Dublin, founded in 1592.  The architecture and history of the school and buildings was brought to life by a seemingly brilliant Ph.D in history student (Stephen).  His presentation of the facts, quick wit, and charming Irish accent had us hanging on every word.  What a credit to himself and his college.  None of us realized the school housed The Book of Kells which are the four books of the Gospel hand written and illustrated by a small group of Monks.  The Book of Kells gets its name from the monastery of Kells, County Meath, Ireland.  The book is believed to have been brought to Kells following a Viking raid on the monastery on the island of Iona, Scotland, in 806 A.D.  Simply fascinating.  This was followed by a visit to the National Museum of Ireland for a look at an exhibition featuring Viking artifacts from the time of their arrival in Ireland in the year 1,000 A.D.  Lots more included in today's action-packed agenda which I'm sure Randy will touch on.

Trinity Library

PHD candidate for a tour guide

Notice the Irish language on the second line