USVI-On-Line

Just got back from a 16 day trip to the southwest of Ireland and I do have to say I fell in love with the country. It was our first time there and I have to admit after spending one year in the UK, I did enjoy the Irish a lot more in there being not so up tight. If I get the energy up in the next few weeks I'll post some pix on pbase. Essentially the whole trip was the southwest from Cork City up to Dingle. Would be a great place to retire although the prices are a bit high with the conversion.

Paying 10.00 US for gas was a biatch but drinking Murphy's and Beamish was a sweet treat.

Welcome home.

Ireland is really nice. We have been there 6 times and the south west part is the most beautiful in my opinion. Looking forward to see the pictures.

In Sweden the gas price is more than $11 per gallon. So I think the US gas price is really good

Hey Promo welcome back to "reality"!

Isn't the emerald isle the BEST??!! I long to go back again and know that we will, just a matter of time.

Did you happen to visit the Gap of Dunloe? PLEASE do share any of your fave ventures AND photos, PLEASE!

Yes I know it's a pain getting back into the daily grind and finding time, but I'm sure there's plenty of us that would surely appreciate your time and effort

Take care!!

Kathy

Kathy, we loved it. No we didn't do the Gap of Dunloe. But did a bunch of other gaps, as there are many, and they were all fantastic. We were fortunate in that our trip over was AA miles in conjunction with Aer Lingus and good old business class thank goodness. I have a US friend who has lived in Germany for years and also has a home here in LA. He rents a house, this one. http://www.cashelfean.com/ for 12 weeks a year. The house is on the Mizen and faces Donmanus Bay, the last bay in the Southwest of Ireland.

For years he's asked us to come over but for business reasons we've declined the invitation. This year I decided to bite the bullet and we went. He also picked us up in Shannon and off we went to Killarney.

We stayed at the Behon in Killarney for a couple of nights and took in River Dance one of the nights.

One of the great things is that my friend has had many folks over and since he's been going for 18 years knows all the side roads of the tourist bus road. This was good for the Ring of Kerry, which as I now like to call it just as the Ivaragh.

The peninsulas in the southwest we visited were The Mizen, Sheepshead, Beara, Ivaragh and the Dingle. All different, but for my money the Beara was the most spectacular.

Damn Kathy, I think you made me give a small report.

It was nice that he knew folks and we made some great acquaintences.

I've looked at some of the pictures and they are somewhat affected by the weather but nonetheless beaufiful. A few folks have asked us on the return about the weather. My standard answer is "You don't go to Ireland for the weather".

And for now Sláinte

Here's a few photos that I played with last night. Still playing catchup so a few other things to do.

Off of Mizenhead


In the village of Adare


A Bay on the Ivaragh


My coffee drinking view every morning

Beautiful pictures! I'd love to go there sometime. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice! Our family comes from that area. Great-great.... Grandmother Anastasia was born there in 1840. We've had an Anastasia in every generation since, my Anastasia is 11 now. I need to get the kids over there.

Cheers, RickG

RickG wrote:Very nice! Our family comes from that area. Great-great.... Grandmother Anastasia was born there in 1840. We've had an Anastasia in every generation since, my Anastasia is 11 now. I need to get the kids over there.

Cheers, RickG

To call the 1840's a bad time in Ireland would be an understatement. I already knew that. We met a couple of guys, older when we stopped on the Ivaragh at a beautiful gap. One mentioned how during the famine folks would sleep under rocks and scavenge for food everywhere they could. He mentioned kids with who had green around their mouths from eating the grass. I had already known that the English had food in storage that they wouldn't release. He mentioned how when advisors went to Queen Victoria and talked about the food shortage, her reply was "well they have lots of grass, don't they?"

So I'm sure you great, great, great grandmother Anastasia was one of the survivors and with luck made her way to the US.

Yep, get the kids over there.

From the Dingle Peninsula and the Slea Head Drive







They say that in Ireland there are 28 shades of green. I believe it.

Great pictures!

I'm enjoying your photos. We spent a week in Ireland a couple of years ago. Flew into Shannon and headed north. Wanted to get to Donegal where my ancestors fled from, but never made it that far. Needed more time. We loved it. Next time maybe we'll head south. Dingle is at the top of the list.

Promo,

I recognize the yellow Slea Head building. We were on a tour bus a few years ago that stopped there for a break. My husband took a walk to take a few photos--luckily the driver did a head count because we almost left without him. ( I thought he was sitting with our daughter in the back ) Beautiful country! Thanks for sharing.

I can't imagine how those big tour buses could possibly ply the Slea Head Road. Not a bad place to get stranded. Soup and soda bread would have done it for me for a couple of days.

Here's a few more and hopefully the rest up on pbase in a couple of weeks.

The first two are from the top of Tim Healy Pass looking over to Co Kerry. When you died in Co Cork and were to be buried in Co Kerry, it is in that general area that your funeral party was told to pick up the body.




This is outside McRoss Castle in Killarney



Another view from the Mizenhead



The harbor of Kinsale south of Cork City.



I should add that one of the amazing things was the long days with it not getting dark until after 10.30 and I think all the way by 11.00. Quite a contrast to Los Angeles and dark by 8.30