Ireland Trip - Day 3

Today, We woke up late. We were supposed to wake up around 7 AM to depart by 8 AM. We checked out of our Fitzpatrick Castle and began the drive South. Today was classified as : Castle Day.

On the way out of where we were, we stopped by the beach by Killiney.

 

We then drove West and south on Highway to Killkenny to see Castle. We didn't bother paying to go in but wandered the courtyard for awhile.

Then drove 30 minutes Southeast to Cahir, we did a tour of the Cahir castle which was pretty amazing.

  

  

 

Then 20 minutes south to Cashel Castle. We didn't go inside this one either but they had a neat courtyard that we walked around. There was a tree walking trail with different trees carved into things too. A random Excalibur rock and sword was in the middle of the courtyard. We took plenty of photos here.

 

 

We ate in Cashel at Shamrock Lounge.

From there, we drove to Blarney Castle but didnt' go in because it was a little overprices and we only had 30 minutes left of their opening hours.

So, we checked in at our 1st bed and breakfast, Pine Forest House.

We then ventured out to Cork City. Went to this place called Roundys, i think. A pub/lounge in the heart of Downtown. I ordered myself a Bailey's Hot Chocolate while the husband got a normal hot chocolate. it was getting chilly for Sara.

 

We then ventured way East of the city to find a Starbucks for our neighbor who collects their mugs. We found a Starbucks in this technology building center with EMC^2 and other techi. companies.

From here we went back to Blarney and stopped to look for snackies. Everything seemed to close early though. Was able to get some spring rolls from a Chinese place in town. Then returned to B&B to plan our next day.

Ireland - Day 2

We woke up in our Castle Hotel and took the train back to Dublin City. We had to find the Molly Malone statue as that was our designated meeting point for the tour we were set to go on for the day, Giant's Causeway & North Atlantic Tour, via Paddywaggon.

Tour:
A bus took a group of us to North Ireland, through Belfast. We made a stop right before getting to Belfast, at a gas station, where a lady was almost left behind because she didn't pay attention to the time schedule. Super annoying. Then we drove through Belfast. The guide pointed out a crane marked H&W (wolf) that apparently is from the same company that worked with the Titanic. We did just a drive by initially of Belfast to get to the Dark Hedges.

The Dark Hedges were super interesting, it's a bunch of trees that grew to be intertwined. It is also a filming location for the show, Game of Thrones, which we all know I am a fan of. This film location was used during season 2 for the King's Road that my daughter, arya, traveled to escape Kings landing. After Dark Hedges, we drove to Crek-a-ride rope bridge which was pretty amazing. We had to walk quite a way to get to this bridge that connected the mainland to an island off to the side. Awesome views throughout but we were on a time limit so we rushed down and spent a lot of time on the island

 

It was very warm after a bit with all the walking we were doing. From Crek-a-ride rope bridge we stopped to eat at Fullerton Arms. I ordered a Steak Burger and my husband got the Beef Stew. Both items were amazing. I was worried about the beef stew as I am a picky eater but it was very good and we both had half of each meal. Fullerton Arms had a Game of Thrones dedicated room and Door #6. The tree's from The Dark hedges that have fallen due to storms have been used to create handcrafted doors representing Game of Thrones. There are said to be six different one's throughout northern Ireland. Which makes me think, where are the other doors?

 

After lunch, we went to Giant's Causeway. The story there is that a giant was trash talking another giant he saw from afar (in nearby Scotland). The Giant located in Ireland began throwing rocks across the ocean to build a bridge to go meet the Scottish giant. The Irish giant saw how big the Scottish giant really was and freaked out and ran back to his house. His wife hid him and dressed her husband up as a baby. When the Scottish giant did come by, he saw how big Irish's giant baby was and imagined how big his father must be and got scared and ran back tearing up the rock bridges along his way.

So, giant's causeway is a punch of rock formations caused by Lava according to my husband, when i asked how it really happened. It was an amazing site. There were stepping stones to nowhere all over. the earth around this part also had ridges all over. It was quite a site. I can't even explain, so here are some pictures.

 

Nature is amazing. We did some souvenir shopping at the Giants Causeway Hotel Gift shop.

After leaving Giant's Causeway the tour took us to Dunlance Castle and we took some photos there.

From the castle we drove about an hour or so south to Belfast were we had an hour to wander. We stopped by a store called Carrols. After we were in route back to Dublin which was two hours south.



In Dublin, we went to a pub called Buckers which was close to the Trinity Bar Hotel. They had Live music which is what I sought. My husband got two beers while I got a fruity alcoholic drink. He got Five steps and Petroli. We shared some nachos.

 

Around 10 PM we headed back to our hotel via rail. Issue was we had problems finding the entrance to the rail. We went to Tara Station but could not find the entrance. We accidentally walked into a business center thinking that was it and then got locked in like dummies. Security had to let us out.  Then walked down to Pearce Station and began freaking out because we still couldn't find the entrance and thought it was closed. After asking a garda in a shop we found it. We got to the station and waited about 15 minutes to board train. Got off at Dillkenny station. We then walked back to hotel to sleep...