The second part of our Irish adventure began with picking up a rental car in Dublin and making our way out of the city. As we made our way into the countryside, we turned off the highway and immediately saw what we had heard from others – the roads are VERY narrow. Like “come to a stop when someone wants to pass you and hope your side mirrors don’t meet” narrow. We made our way over to Killarney, mostly on backroads with gorgeous scenery. The pictures don’t lie – it’s extremely green and lush with all the rain they get!

The next day we drove the Ring of Kerry. This famous route takes you along a narrow road on cliffs high above the Atlantic Ocean, with beautiful views and cute little fishing towns. It’s very nearly the westernmost point of Europe. We chose to take the route counterclockwise – same as the tour buses cause we didn’t want to meet them face to face on those narrow roads! We took a car ferry over to Valentia Island to see the Cliffs of Kerry. One of the islands just off the cliffs is called Michael Skellig, and that’s where they filmed some of the scenes in the latest Star Wars movie (it’s where Luke has been living all these years). I dropped my phone on the rocks on the steep climb and gouged my screen … a not-so-great souvenir of the trip.

The next day we drove to Blarney and walked around the grounds of the Blarney Castle. Yep, we kissed the stone. Andy had bought a lotto ticket the night before and he kissed the lotto ticket against the stone, hoping for good luck. Alas, he did not win. In case you are unaware, the Blarney Stone is actually at the very top of about a 5-story building. When you get up there, you lay down on your back and grab a couple of handrails and scoot yourself backwards and down into a small cutout in the roofline – then kiss the stone from there. You can see the ground 5 stories below you. Kinda scary! In the middle pic below, you can see the tower, and if you zoom in to the very top, you’ll see a small slice of the sky showing through – that’s where you bend backward over the 5-story drop!!

The hotel we stayed in that night – the Blarney Castle Hotel – was awesome and had a great pub where all of the locals hung out after work. We joined them for dinner and had a wonderful time. Some lady told Andy he looked like Tom Hanks (needs her eyes checked?!?).

We drove into Cork and returned our rental car, then took a taxi to St Finbarr’s Church. The taxi driver took us instead to St. Finbarr’s Cathedral, which was lovely … but once inside we realized it was not the church we were looking for. We walked to our intended destination, hopeful that we could speak with someone about seeing their books. My 5th great grandfather, James Sullivan, was baptized at this church in 1775. And while the church was wide open for visitors, there was nobody around. Their office posted a note that they have one hour of office hours a week – on Tuesdays – so we were out of luck. I had emailed them about a month ago inquiring about meeting with them, but no reply. I’m guessing they just don’t have the bandwidth to deal with such requests, given that this is the oldest church in the southern part of Ireland, so many ancestry fans may ask to visit.

This was the trip mom always wanted to take, and Andy and I were so happy to step into the church where her ancestors walked. Truly a wonderful experience.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Cork, and at one point while we were sitting outside at a pub, a group of naked bicyclists pedaled past. Totally naked – some with body paint and some just in all their glory. The pub owner told us this happens every Saturday!

We woke the next morning to texts from American that our flight to DFW had been cancelled and that we were rebooked for Monday. So, after a few minutes of frustration, we decided to make lemonade from our lemons and look at it as a surprise extra day in London! Neither of us had been there in many years – and never for fun – always a quick business trip. We had a great time, wandering some of the sights and hanging out in a couple of pubs. A wonderful extra ending to a wonderful trip!

Our first impression of Dublin was that it was not as appealing as Edinburgh – it’s dirtier and not laid out as well, feels a little more crowded, and generally we didn’t feel as safe walking some of the streets. However …. we still had a ton of fun!

Our favorite things:

• Kilmainham Gaol: This former prison (gaol is the Irish word for jail) housed many political prisoners and lots of children. The youngest was three years old and spent two days there for begging. This jail closed in the 1920s and was really nicely refurbished by a bunch of volunteers in the 1960s as a tourist spot to tell the story of the 1916 Easter Uprising. (also a photo of us in front of Ha’Penny Bridge below).
• Jameson Distillery: We had already done the distillery tour in Edinburgh, so we opted for a cocktail making class. A ton of fun! We made a whiskey sour, an old fashioned and a whiskey punch. All very good!
• Trinity College Long Room Library & Book of Kells: Book of Kells is interesting, but not what I really wanted to see. The Long Room Library is the star – holding over 200,000 books on two stories. It’s very Harry Potter-esque. Super cool to see it, although I thought the floating earth – an “art installation” in there right now – cheapened the view.
• Phoenix Park: There was an unusually sunny afternoon in Dublin (rains here literally every day), so we decided to take a walk in this park that is twice as big as Central Park. We happened upon the zoo and decided to wander through it for a while. There were animals … and small children .. it was a zoo (a nice one).
• Guinness Storehouse: This 7-story celebration of all things Guinness is wonderful. Sure, there’s a tasting. And yes, you wander through a lot of exhibits that explain how they make Guinness taste so great (check out the water video below – super cool – sound on!). But the real beauty of this place is the sheer size of it and your ability to wander at your own leisure. And the 7th floor circular bar with your free pint of Guinness – “free” being a relative concept here since you pay for it with your entry fee – but the wonderful 360-degree view of Dublin is quite nice while you’re sipping your pint. A couple of fun facts about Guinness:
  • They claim each pint has more than 300 million bubbles. I was like, how do they know, did they count them???!
  • When they pour a pint, you can see the bubbles at the bottom of the glass flowing downward. They say those bubbles are then going up the middle and forming the head on the top of the glass, which is supposed to be 12-18 mm thick.
  • There is a group of professional tasters who meet each morning at 10 a.m. to make sure all is well in Guinness land.
• Temple Bar: This neighborhood is famous for a ton of pubs with live music. We visited a few, including the namesake Temple Bar.

Overall a good time, and we kept up our nightly gelato habit. Got to have priorities! 😉

On to the two day trips out of Edinburgh – first to St. Andrews, the “home of golf,” and then on to Stirling, the home of the Scottish Highland Games. Both were amazing!

St. Andrews was as billed – cold, blustery, and off and on rainy. But we still had a great time! We did a tour of the Old Course, Andy saw the 17th hole – billed as the most famous hole in golf – and he was excited that we got our picture taken by the Swilcan bridge. In case you didn’t know (I certainly didn’t), there are 7 golf courses at St. Andrews. The Old Course is the most famous – the one the British Open is played on when at St. Andrews. While taking the tour, we were told that 125 people were currently waiting for an open spot that day to play on any of the seven courses, so playing was not likely at all. However, we could get a tee time for what they call the Blue Course … also known as the ladies putting course, also known as the Himalayas. So we did! We trolled a few people via text and said we got a tee time at St. Andrews. I mean, we did, but not any of the courses that really count. But, we played all 18 holes on the Himalayas and had a blast. Also ate at the famous Old Tom’s Bar & Grill and bought a few souvenirs at the pro shop. A really great day!

Stirling is a very nice little city with all the usual Scottish fare – a castle, pubs, great transportation, very walkable, and nice people. It’s a more upscale residential area, with beautiful stone work on the houses. We stayed in a bed and breakfast and had great meals with the lovely people who worked there. We did the hop on hop off bus, per usual, and got a private tour cause we were the only people on the final round of the day. We saw the William Wallace monument – he’s the Mel Gibson character in Braveheart (which we have not seen but now plan to watch), and he played a huge role in Scottish history.

The next day we made our way to the Scottish Highland Games. Think county fair meets local track meet, with a few strongman competitions thrown in. There were bagpipes, Scottish dancing competitions, a track and bicycle meet that lasted the whole day, and big burly men in kilts throwing shot putts, hammers, long sticks with bowling balls on the end, and logs (called cabers). All with a little arts and crafts fair and food trucks with usual county fair food – burgers, hot dogs, pizza, etc. Oh, and plenty of beer and whisky. Of course. It was a fascinating day of people watching and cheering on the competitors. Super fun – if you ever have the chance, definitely worth a day of your time!

We’re at the airport, headed to Dublin!

Edinburgh is a beautiful old city – the oldest continuously inhabited city in the British Isles. Like most of Europe, it’s very walkable. We had a wonderful time exploring the history, food and whisky.

As we do in most cities, we started off on the ‘hop on hop off’ bus, which we find to be a great way to get the lay of the land and take a moment to collect ourselves after an overnight flight, usually with very little sleep. This bus was particularly wonderful because it had a live narrator.

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that we happened to be in town during the Fringe Festival, a time for local artists to show off their skills, so we saw countless street performers playing music, doing comedy or dramatic sketches, juggling, and just any kind of performance.

We also did a few tours – the best was of Edinburgh Castle, which has been on “castle rock” since 1103 AD. We learned the dramatic story of Mary Queen of Scots – who became queen at 6 days old, was promised for marriage at 6 years old and sent to France where her future husband lived, married at 16 and widowed at 18. She returned to Scotland during tense times and married again a few years later; that husband is believed to have stabbed her private secretary 57 times in Holyrood Palace, and Mary could never stand to live there again (although to this day it is where King Charles stays when he goes to Edinburgh). Following an uprising, she was imprisoned at age 25 and then fled to England to live with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was jealous of her and had her beheaded at the age of 44. A short and rough life, for sure.

We greatly enjoyed the food and drinks in Edinburgh. Andy had a great time trying local foods like a BAP, haggis, a pasty, haddock, and brown sauce (tastes like vinegar-based BBQ sauce). We also tried the local drinks – beer and whisky. The whisky is plentiful and quite good. We learned about how whisky is made and did a tasting at the Scotch Whisky Experience, and also had some good whisky at the Johnny Walker rooftop bar (which had a great view of the castle).

There were three basic areas where we spent time while in Edinburgh, all worth a visit! First is the Royal Mile – a milelong street that runs from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace (the one where Queen Mary’s husband stabbed her secretary); this street is full of shops and pubs and is where most of the street performers could be found. The second place we enjoyed was Haymarket – a small area that reminded us of an Italian piazza – again, more pubs and lots of great people watching. Third, we wandered along the street that is said to have inspired Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and saw the bar where J.K. Rowling is said to have penned most of the first book.

On to St. Andrews and Stirling!