Ireland Day 8-10

Last post....still long, though.

Day 8 - we woke up on Killarney early and headed out on these jaunting carts for a ride around the city.  Beautiful!  Again, Killarney is my favorite.

Those are deer hanging out in that field

We rode over to this castle and walked around it for a bit

Nell channeling her inner Rapunzel

My store

On the way out to see the Ring of Kerry, our tour guide, Gary, took us to this coffee/gift shop place and treated us all to Irish Coffee :)  yum!

The ride to Kilkenny included a tour of the Ring of Kerry.  Beauty everywhere

We stopped off at this point with a beach...it was lovely

Dad

Dad picked me this clover....so I took a picture

I love this picture of these two. 

It was windy

That little white house on the edge is Charlie Chaplin's house.  His family still owns it

Nell and Dad skipped some rocks

Next we stopped higher up on a mountain top.  Breathtaking...sadly, pictures really can't capture the beauty in its entirety.

This!

It was a tad windy

still windy

Gary also arranged this lunch stop at this bed and breakfast in Sneem.  The best sandwiches and scones.  And the people there were precious.  I want to go back to Sneem and stay here.  Soon.  This is SO my kind of place

After lunch we walked around Sneem for a bit

Nell and Dad went to find a memory card for dad's camera which ran out of memory.  I love these little pharmacy shops.  They have everything - their version of our Walgreens except smaller

Another store of mine

After lunch we finished the Ring of Kerry tour with more scenic stops and photo ops

The worst selfie EVER but hey....no one was around to take my picture

Back in Killarney, that afternoon we visited the Friary.  A stop dad was super pumped about since, you know, it IS our family name

Here it is...

It was quite beautiful

Day 9 - we left Killarney headed towards Kilkenny....

On the way to Kilkenny we stopped to see the Blarney Castle.

Nell claimed a room in each castle we saw.  Here is her room at the Blarney castle

We walked up to kiss the Blarney stone (of course).  It was actually a crazy climb up - long, narrow and dark

Looking down

Nell got tired of waiting in line and tried to kiss this stone.  Wrong one

View from the top of the castle

And here we all are kissing it.  It was actually quite a stretch back.  You were definitely thankful for the bars that were there.

Nell was up first

Then me

And, then Dad

Now all three of us have the gift of gab.....not that we needed it, especially Nell.  Ha! :)

We stopped at famine graveyard for those that died in the potato famine.   That was very touching.  This was one of those little known places you can go that is off the beaten path.  I was glad to be able to see this.  So sad what happened during these times.

Next stop...Waterford Crystal factory.  We got to see how Waterford Crystal is made

BCS trophy - Nell with her Heisman pose

I was afraid to drop it so no pose for me

This was a 911 Memorial made at the Waterford Crystal place.  This is 1 of 2 made.  The other one is in a firehouse in New York City.  It was beautiful

My new favorite beer, also made in Ireland.  I didn't know they  made more than just Guinness.

Day 10 - Our last day...spent in Kilkenny for the morning.  We got to see the Kilkenny castle and walk around Kilkenny for a bit.

My new favorite word.  This word is part of the daily vocabulary over there rather than saying garbage or trash.  Rubbish is a much cooler word!

Like all Irish cities, they had a St. Mary's Cathedral

This one also had a school.  Nell and I went to a St. Mary's school so Nell wanted a pose in front of the school

This church was really beautiful

A couple more shots in front of the Kilkenny castle before we left

Next thing that day was a stop in New Ross to see the Dunbody famine ship.  This was super interesting.  It was a replica of the Irish famine ship that Irish immigrants took to America to escape the hardships in Ireland that existed during the potato famine.  The conditions of the ship and what those families went through to get to a better life was really unbelievable and and in some cases sad.  I really enjoyed seeing this ship.

This is an eternal flame that was lit from the same flame of the eternal flame at John F. Kennedy's grave.  JFK ancestors are from New Ross and traveled on this ship to America. 

After this tour, we traveled back to Dublin for our farewell dinner with our tour group and guide.  It was a delicious meal (like all the meals we had there).

The next morning we packed up and headed to the airport to head home....

Thanks for enduring through all my pictures.  It was an amazing, unforgettable time.  I am so thankful that I got to go and so glad I got that time with my Dad and Nell.  I missed Erik and Elaina but through the magic of Facetime, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, which made my trip even more enjoyable.

A shout out to Erik for taking care of the homestead and our kiddo which allowed me the freedom to go.  And to my mom for pitching in and helping him out as well. Without those two, the trip would not have been possible.

I will go back one day.....with Erik and Elaina.  It's that great of a place to go.