Ireland: Dublin to Cork

June 20-22
We decided to go to Ireland some time last month. Aaron knew he had a 3-day weekend and it was right after his birthday so we decided to squeeze it in. I say squeeze because between now and the baby's due date, we have plenty to fill the calendar! I recently returned from the States and had really just unpacked from that trip when I found myself re-packing the suitcase for this trip. We found tickets to Dublin pretty cheaply through Ryanair. We flew out of a tiny airport in East Midlands early in the morning on Friday. We were able to park right next to the terminal and walk right there, so that was nice and a big difference from the London airports where you have to catch a shuttle and plan for a lot more extra time actually getting to the terminal. Our flight left around 645am or so but we couldn’t help noticing that the airport bar was full of people drinking at 530am. I suppose it was 5 o’clock one way or the other. Things were quite crowded and it was obvious that holiday/vacation season has begun. We noticed several groups of women and men taking trips for their bachelor/bachelorette parties. Except here, they call them hen parties for women and stag do’s for men. The women all had pretty pink sashes on that said, “Hen party”. And we flew with a group of men that had green polos made for the occasion that read, “Ben’s stag do”. Fairly comical.

Once landing in Dublin, we had a car rental through Hertz. Aaron just turned 25 on Thursday, so he is officially able to rent a car these days! Although he has been waived from that restriction with the military so it wasn’t really a huge celebration of privileges for him. We were given a Ford Ka, which is very similar to the Fiesta. It was red and had hippy flowered seats. It was also stick shift! I asked Aaron if he was ready for stick shift to be back in his life and he said he thought he could handle it. It was weird for him to drive on the right and have the shift to his left but things went fairly smooth. We headed into Dublin and found a place to park near Trinity College. We ate at a little cafe I found through a blog that supposedly has the best muffins. Aaron got a breakfast sandwich and I tried a peach glazed muffin. It was good, but definitely nothing spectacular. 

We walked the grounds of Trinity College and glimpsed some graduates and also noted the length of the line for the Book of Kells and decided to skip it. 

We headed for the Guinness Storehouse. We took the brewery tour and ended it with a complimentary pint of Guinness which I was able to exchange for a glass of Sprite at their rooftop bar. 

The views of Dublin were amazing! We ate lunch at one of the restaurants located within the storehouse. I ordered Irish beef stew and it was pretty good! I wasn’t a big fan of the shredded cabbage but the rest of it was delicious. From the Guinness storehouse, we started driving toward Galway, where we would be staying that night. There wasn’t really anything along the way and I was to keep Aaron company during the drive. You can view our travel route here:

Having recently returned from a trip to the States, I was suffering the effects of jet lag big time. I quickly fell asleep and told Aaron to wake me up if he needed me. We ended up making several stops between me falling asleep and arriving in Galway. I can remember in my tired state catching several glimpses of people strolling down the sidewalk eating soft serve ice cream and thinking, that sounds so good. Where does one find this ice cream everyone is carrying? I quickly figured out that it was gas stations that sold this delicious looking treat and all you had to look for was an ice cream cone statue outside of the station and they sold it! 

We checked into our hotel which was located specifically in Kinvara. It was a bed and breakfast but on a larger, more impersonal scale. When we went to check-in, the front desk was unable to find our reservation but thankfully I always print out our confirmations and was able to prove that we had booked the room almost a month prior. We decided to eat dinner at a local pub and left our hotel to realize it was just a walk across the street. The atmosphere was great and the food was pretty good too. We really wanted to experience the traditional Irish music that featured at many pubs in Ireland but most places advertised the music starting between 9-10 and seeing that I’ve turned into quite the senior citizen since pregnancy, we turned in early for the night. But we did find ice cream first and it was just as delicious as it looked on our drive. The next morning we discovered that there wasn’t much of a difference between an English breakfast and an Irish breakfast. Most bed and breakfasts will have a continental option where you can help yourself to cereal, fruit, oatmeal and juices. We checked out of our hotel and explored the castle nearby before heading to Cliffs of Moher. 

We’ve seen a lot of old properties and castles since joining English Heritage so I don’t think the castle had as much of an affect on us as it does on most visitors to Ireland. Our next stop was the Cliffs of Moher, something we were both looking forward to. 

Upon arrival, we explored the visitor center and headed to the cliffs which I quickly realized involved a lot of walking and stair climbing. I quickly became overwhelming tired, emotional and unable to continue. I ended up sitting down on the stairs and sending Aaron on without me. I was able to enjoy a harp player strumming her melodies but I was definitely feeling sad that I couldn’t partake in the views. I’m thankful Aaron took plenty of pictures and wasn’t afraid to ask total strangers to take his picture because we seem to struggle with that as a couple.

I also got to people watch which is probably one of my all time favorite things to do. It’s amazing how many people act like they’ve never seen a cow before and the things they try to do to get its attention! 

From the cliffs we drove on towards our final destination for the night in Castlegregory near Dingle. This was a true B&B experience. The owner/hostess was just lovely and the house was located in a breathtaking location where you could see the bay from the house, it was amazing. We decided to take her advice on making the drive around the peninsula of Dingle that evening. 

We found a small cafe to eat dinner at in Dingle and started the Slea Head Drive. The views were absolutely amazing.

We made the loop just around sunset, so that made things even better. 

You could easily take a lot longer to explore the views and loop of the Dingle peninsula and we were quickly realizing everything we were told about the beauty of this area to be 100% true. 

The next morning, breakfast was able to be had inside or outside on the front patio. The weather was perfect so we took it outside and were the only guests to do so, so we had things to ourselves. We were served delicious french toast and waffles with fresh fruit, juice and breads. 

Staying at a bed and breakfast really completes the local experience because you are often given the opportunity to get advice from someone that knows the area very well and we have yet to have a bad experience with the breakfast part of things! We had all day Sunday to do things, but eventually needed to get to Cork to catch our flight home that evening. We had a tough time deciding if we could fit everything into the day that we wanted to. We decided to start driving the ring of Kerry and go from there. We ended up just doing a portion of it, but we were able to make the most of what we saw and talk about going back just to experience the rest of the drive! On our drive there, we traveled a pretty rural road and got to experience Ireland firsthand. There were sheep everywhere and at times they were just crossing the road without a care in the world. We would drive right up to them and beep the horn and gently attempt to nudge them off the road, but they were doing things on their own terms. It was hilarious but I’m sure annoying if having to deal with it every day. 

We were able to see several of the Lakes of Killarney, Torc Waterfall, Ladies View and Moll’s Gap.

We entered the ring around Killorglin and exited around Kenmare driving toward Cork. We went to Cobh and went straight to the Heritage Centre. Housed in a Victorian railway station, The Queenstown Story focuses on several exhibits highlighting Irish emigration, transportation of convicts and the town being the last port of call prior to the Titanic attempting to sail towards New York. We enjoyed the heritage center but knew we had to move on to make it to Blarney Castle before closing time. We were under the impression that Blarney Castle closed at 7pm but when we arrived at 515, we were informed that they closed at 6 on Sundays. We got discounted admission and decided to make a run for the top of the castle to make sure Aaron got the opportunity to kiss the famous Blarney Stone! 

I was hesitant to climb the 100 steps to the top but decided to go for it and I am so glad that I did because the views were amazing and the photographer was gone for the day so I was responsible for getting Aaron’s photo of him kissing the stone! Kissing the Blarney stone is a long-standing tradition where the visitor is grasped by the feet and suspended backwards to get to the stone and kiss it. Those who kiss the stone are given the “gift of gab”. We were told by the ankle grasper that it was given to a politician as a gift and it cured his speech impediment after kissing it. 

So after Blarney castle we had an extra hour to spare so we decided to travel into Cork and find a place to eat dinner. We took our time eating and walking some of Cork and then headed to the airport to catch our flight back home. It was a beyond wonderful trip and Ireland is definitely a place that we want to return to!