Ireland - The Emerald Isle!

After 7 full days on the ship – and the slow torture of one-hour time changes every other night – we hit the port of Galway, Ireland with great anticipation!  It was our family’s first foray into Ireland.  And it didn’t disappoint – friendly locals, Guinness everywhere, castles, crazy driving, sheep, Guinness everywhere, lush landscapes, lumpy beds, pelting rain and yes -- Guinness everywhere.

Galway is a small port on the West Coast of Ireland.  We decided to check out the small town of Galway and explore its quaint streets for a day before driving off into the green of Ireland in search of a leprechaun.  What a good choice that was.  We had a fantastic time as part of a theatrical walking tour, complete with plenty of gory history and a lead actor who even taunted the locals, calling one random fellow the town drunk.  Turns out that our “guide” had spent six months in Colorado – in the most unlikely of places – Ward!

The first shock of driving in Ireland comes when you realize that it will be a right hand drive car with a left hand stick!  It helps to be a lefty at that point, but even that isn’t enough when you see the roads you have to drive on and the size of the tour buses that will be sharing the road with you.  Throw in the rock walls that appear in place of road shoulders and you have the recipe for a fish and chip induced heart attack.

We decided to visit Connemara to see the wilds of Ireland.  And the wilds delivered as we saw everything from how to go from sheep to sweater in four “easy” steps, to a mini gothic church built by a grieving husband for his wife on the grounds of their beautiful castle/mansion.  We managed to stay at the last minute in a great manor house right on the edge of Connemara Parklands.  And of course we did all of this in rain ranging from mist to downpour.  No surprise to the locals, but we didn’t realize this is the rainiest part of Ireland – which is saying something!

No visit to Ireland could be complete without a visit to a castle –especially one where the movie Braveheart was filmed.  The castle at Trim dates back to the Norman conquests of Ireland in the 12^th century.  Incredibly, a good part of the castle still stands (the Irish were not fans of the Normans), including the inner keep.   A highlight was watching the sunset over the castle ruins as we watched competitors jump their horses as they warmed up for a competition. 

We managed to wrap up Ireland with a few hours in Dublin and an exciting trip through some of the narrower streets we’ve ever driven on.  Our first port ended without incident and no loss of life, limb or bumper!