Road Trip, Ireland

In order to get a little bit off the beaten path and into the countryside, we hired a car in Dublin to drive around the countryside for a week. Here what our route looked like:

We were impressed with how friendly the locals were, for example, in Dungarvan we stumbled across a pitch a putt with a beautiful course, but there wasn’t anyone in the clubhouse when we arrived. Luckily a nice lady was just finishing up her round, offered us her clubs to use, and said she would be back in 2 hours or so. So she gave us tees, balls, clubs, and a scorecard and we were on our way. . .

We absolutely lucked out and got to experience the only 7 days of summer that Ireland seemed to get this year. The countryside is very similar to that of England and Wales with the green pastures and of course, Barley fields for the Guinness brewery and for the Jameson Distillery. But what makes the Irish countryside a little more unique is the enormous amount of castles and gothic churches they seem to be everywhere. We visited a few of them including the famous Kilkenny Castle and St. Canice's Cathedral.

We couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone (one of the Discovery Channel’s top 99 things to do before you die). So we can now say that we are blessed with “the gift of gab” which apparently means that we can speak Blarney and NOT baloney.

We enjoyed all of Ireland’s beauty by exploring endless fields of rocks in Burren National Park, trekking on the highest mountain in Ireland (Carrauntoohil - 1,038 meters) and visiting the infamous Cliff of Moher (commonly known to those who have seen the movie Princess Bride as “The Cliffs of Insanity!”)

We also enjoyed all of Ireland’s whisky and stouts by visiting the 18th century Jameson Distillery in Middleton and popping into pubs for Irish Folk music and taste tests of the finest Irish beverages in little country villages with only a few buildings scattered around the focal point of the town… the pub.