Final Post From Ireland

Wow, since the last post we have done it all. After two months living out of suitcases we will soon fly back to Washington, then in a little over a month we will start our trek back home to Mazatlan. Hopefully the pictures will help describe some of the places we have been.

We enjoyed The Ulster American Folk Museum in Northern Ireland. This is a great interactive village with good representation of how life was and then for all the immigrated to the US, and other countries.

Joel always had his book with him so when Janice saw a great place to "shop stop" Joel just leaned against a wall, read a little until Janice walked out and we kept going until the next "shop stop" came up.

For all you beer drinkers, there were more "taps" then most US beer drinkers have ever heard of.

Yes, more beer on tap!

Shown here is the case of many different hard ciders of which Janice says, Bulmer's is the best.

Most of our time in Ireland was spent independently except for our time on the Shamrocker tour. We met some great young people and enjoyed their company and befriended several. A perky young Irish woman named Lynn was our guide and kept us informed on the country, history, and fun times to be had. We stayed in hostels on the tour and also in hostels five other nights so learned a lot about them. The accommodations are basic. We had private rooms, but most stay in small dorms of from four to twelve people with the luck of the draw for roommates with often mixed gender. The kids seem to thrive on this and meet a lot of new people and form groups to cook meals or scout out their towns. From the young people we saw we would recommend this for any young person as a way to see the world and meet people from all over the world. I would encourage our grandkids when they get old enough to see the world this way. We enjoyed a four night/five day tour with Shamrocker Tours. There were 32 of us, most were young people, 30 and below except for a couple my age originally from the US but who moved to Israel in 1987.

Lynn, our spunky young tour guide from Shamrocker tours.

The young people were mostly from Australia and New Zealand. There were also three American girls and a pair of sisters 19 and 17 from Germany. We stayed in hostels and visited a lot of interesting places. We visited the Cliffs of Mohr,
Burren Park, Aran Island, a surfing town, and many other interesting places. Our last two nights were spent in Galway during Galway Race week. The town was packed and it was a fashionistas dream. All the Irish women were trying to outdo themselves as woman with the best hat or best dressed.

                                 

We took a horse and buggy ride all around the Aran Island with Kevin McDounach and his horse Charlie.

We will take the liberty of making some observations on Ireland and the people. The Irish are probably the friendliest, most helpful people that we have met in our travels. It seems like conversations start easily. The people of Ireland are very vocal about their government and voted out a left leaning government in April and now have a centerist government. We listen to their complaints, but know to keep our mouths shut as we know that in each nation the people complain about their government, but it is theirs and rightly would become defensive if an outsider criticized it. Ireland is the most expensive country in Europe, so if you visit, expect to spend premium prices for lodging, food, and drink. An average lunch before beverage is around 10 Euros, ($14.50), a pint of beer is 4-5 Euros, ($5.60-$7.00), a glass of wine 5 euros,( $7), if you smoke, cigarettes are 8.55 Euros a pack,($12.75). Groceries are very high and a dinner meal, not fancy will be 20 Euros, ($29-$30) and up. This is just the main course. Fast food won’t save you, Chicken sandwich, $6.00, Quarter Pounder Meal $13.00! We had to set our daily budget much higher than we did in Spain. Driving was interesting as in Ireland you drive on the left side of the road and the driver is in the right side of the front seat. Getting between cities and towns is well signed, but once you get into many of the towns, the nightmare begins. Street names often don't match maps and many don't have street signs or house numbers. One ways start and stop and many of the roads and street are extremely narrow. Parking is at a premium in many of the cities and often will cost $30 a day, Parking laws are strongly enforced and if you are just a few minutes past your time your car will be "clamped" and it costs 80 Euros to get the clamp off.

In parts of Ireland there are literally miles of stone fences and as you go north their are miles of hedge rows for dividing property. When they rock fences where erected [some a few hundred years ago] was also a way to keep some people employed. Often the rock fences would go nowhere in particular. Everything is green. All shades of green.

During this trip to both Spain and Ireland Janice spent as much time on the beach as she could scouring the rocks/pebbles for Sea Glass. Most beaches had very little but there were two areas where she hit the jack pot. North of Dublin by about 30 minutes and right in Galway on one of the beaches. In Galway, she needed to just stop as there were too many to take back.  Here is her blog going through her experiences finding and making jewelry out of the special finds. http://tearsofmermaids.blogspot.com/

The Irish young people seem to identify with the US much more than the young people of other countries. They listen to mostly American music, contemporary and 60’s and 70’s, travel to the US, and seem least critical. Ireland has an interesting unemployment system. If a young person is unemployed he/she is immediately placed on unemployment of 207 Euros, $300 a week. There is no expiration, no job hunting or training requirement. A significant number choose to stay on unemployment and live at home. With the Irish Government in dire financial straits this system is being reconsidered.

I have a feeling the Whitakers will relax and attempt very little in our month we spend in Washington State besides enjoy family and friends. Until next time, La Vida es Buena".

Coastal Causeway of Northern Ireland

We decided to drive the beautiful coastal causeway that hugs the shores of the coast of Northern Ireland. Both Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to this part of Ireland known also as Ulster.

On Wednesday we drove North and East until we hit the town of Bushmill. This is the home of the Old Bushmills Distillery. As an old friend from the MCA, (Probation Officer's Association), had recommended this as a not miss we took the tour. We learned a lot about distilling alcohol and probably could now make our own moonshine. Old Bushmills is 400 years old and still going strong. We heard about the whiskey being distilled three times until it is 85% alcohol. It is then aged from 5 to 21 years in different types of casks (formally been wine barrels) depending on the flavor desired. At the end of the tour we got to taste one of the flavors. I tried the Old Bushmills Private Reserve as my friend had recommended it. Janice had a hot toddie out of their 10 year old blend only because she does not favor the taste of whiskey. We bought a fifth of the Private Reserve to bring back to our friend as she had requested it and was willing to pay the price, which was just short of liquid gold. She said her last bottle she nursed two years and this one will get the same treatment. After the distillery we stopped at Dulcemore Castle which overlooks the sea. It is in ruins, but is still impressive. We then drove through Portrush and drove by their country club. There was heavy traffic and crowds as it was the same time, hometown boy Darren Clarke was returning to a hero's welcome. He had just won the British Open PGA Golf Tournament. We enjoyed a good meal in Portrush and returned to Derry.

Dulcemore Castle

Darren Clarke is in there somewhere. His "homecoming".

On Thursday we again drove the Coastal Causeway but went further to The Giant's Causeway. This was an awesome walk besides the ocean. The rock formations were awesome. After we regain computer strength to post the pictures all can see what I am talking about. We also stopped on several long, white sandy beaches where families were swimming, picnicking, and having a good time. The water was so cold most were swimming in wet suits.



Miles and miles of beach that you can actually drive on.

There were also awesome rock formations on these beaches. Janice was disappointed as there was no beach glass to be found, but we were grateful as the weather was the best it had been all week in Northern Ireland. We were gone for nine hours and were ready to crash when we returned.

These 6-sided rocks all jett out of the ground.

We were walking on these 6-sided mounds of rock formations.

And one last picture for this post.  For those of you that know of Janice's dad, in his younger work years in Redlands and San Diego, both in California; he was known as Big John. He was 6'4" and a very strong man and his name was John. Thus, Big John.  Of course we had to take this picture in front of the pub we drove by.

One full day left in Northern Ireland (Ulster) and we return to Dublin for a couple nights before we set out with Shamrocker Tours for the following 5 days. This is with a group of about 15 from all over the world and we believe we will be the grandpa and grandma of this group. This should be lots of fun. Next report will be about that tour. Stay tune!  9 days and we’ll be back in the U.S.

Travels in Northern Ireland

On Saturday July 16th we drove from Kilkenny to Derry, (Londonderry) in North Ireland, (Ulster). This part of Ireland is actually part of The United Kingdom rather than The Republic of Ireland. The money is in Pounds Sterling rather than Euros. Prices in Northern Ireland are about 1/3 less than in The Republic. This area has a history of political troubles. The Unionists, (those that wish to remain part of UK) are descendants of people England had planted in Ireland many years ago hoping to make Ireland a New England. The Nationalists, (people that want to become part of the Republic of Ireland), are mostly of Irish decent. These two sides, although technically at peace, still have a long way to go at becoming one people. An interesting thing is out of Ireland Newspapers call the sides Catholic and Protestant, but religion is not the issue, this is not a religious dispute, it is a political one.

Derry, (Londonderry), is an old city. It is known as the Walled City. The English changed the name from Derry to Londonderry in the 1600's, in 1984 the name was officially changed back to Derry, but unionists still use Londonderry. The city has a city wall that is still complete. There are a lot of businesses inside the wall and we have walked the entire wall. There are many cannons still mounted on the walls.

We learned of the Siege of 1689 where the people of Derry held out against the Roman Catholic king of England, James) who was trying to regain his throne after a protestant king and queen, (William and Mary) had been put on the throne by parliament. Enough history, suffice it to say that two days before food ran out the siege was broken. The walls had held. We also learned of the famine of the 1840's that drove many to emigrate. The potato crop was destroyed by blight. The interesting thing is that all other crops were okay, but the powerful English Lords chose not to help the Irish peasants who were starving in spite of having plenty of food. The population of Ireland before the famine was 8 million, it still has not recovered in the current population is under 5 million. There is a suggestion that allowing the Irish to starve was an English ethnic cleansing.

Inside the walls we went to the Tower Museum. This gave us an interactive history of Derry right through "The Troubles" of the 1960's through the 1990's. Also the had things recovered from a ship of the Spanish Armada that had sank off the nearby coast in the Irish Sea. We also toured the Bogside Free Derry Murals that chronicled the Nationalists side of the troubles and monuments to those that died in the troubles.

On Monday, July 18 we decided to visit the seacoast. We drove to the Donegal coast which is back in The Republic of Ireland. There we drove some narrow roads and went by a pub called "The Drunken Duck". As Joel's Mazatlan handle is Jus Ducky this was of interest. We found a secluded beach where Janice found some more sea glass. This was on the far north coast of Ireland. It was a cool, rainy, windy day. While we were hunting sea glass we heard some laughter. There were two women swimming in the choppy, cold Irish Sea. The outside temperature was probably 50 degree F and we doubt the water was any warmer.

We enjoyed a good pub meal in the town of Moville in Donegal. Again as it was in The Republic, the cost of the meal was probably 35-40% higher than a comparable meal in Northern Ireland. We have asked people about the disparity, as Ireland is also much more expensive than Spain. Everyone seems to feel that the government of Ireland has extremely high taxes on everything and this affects the costs. It seems to be a self-defeating taxation as we can tell tourism is really down in Ireland and their economy is in the tank. We have not had to fight crowds anywhere. As Americans we have enough worries, so we will leave Ireland to sort out their own problems. The one thing both Irelands have in common is warm, friendly, and very helpful people.

The rest of this week will be spent in visiting the Northern Irish coast. We have a small apartment in Derry as our headquarters. So far the little car we rented has been faithful.

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Flash Mob in Kilkenny Ireland and another Human Interest Story

Today we will skip the travelogue and cover another chapter in the life of a person that has really never left his first childhood.

At noon on July 14th there was a "Flash Mob" happening on Kiernan Street Kilkenny, Ireland. Kiernan Street is in the heart of the medieval section of Kilkenny. It is lined with pubs, outdoors cafes and other shops. Some of the pubs and shops are over 700 years old. Seven “twentyish” Irish kids and 64 year old Joel formed the flash mob. A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment and/or satire. Janice filmed it and we hoped to add it to our blog, but it is not uploading for some reason so we will just put a few pictures here of those he did this with.

Joel played the air guitar with his cane and the kids all danced to the Beatles, "All Together Now" and all the “kids” joined in dancing and having fun inviting the crowd to join them. The idea was to promote hostels as a way to go around Ireland with a fun place to stay. A crowd gathered and seemed to enjoy our performance. Afterwards a few pints were called for and enjoyed.

Part of our group was two young women, Claire and Sive, pictured here.



They had stayed at the hostel for a couple nights. They are from a suburb of Dublin and are traveling for a week around Ireland to promote Hostels.



They are not supposed to spend any money and are being put up at various hostels around the country for free. Their next stop is at a place where they will have parts in a play and the next stop after they will be deckhands on a boat. They also earlier this week were part of a flash mob at the Dublin Airport. They are wonderful young women and look fragile for this type of adventure. We encouraged them as this is the time of life to do this before they become encumbered with life's responsibilities. Hopefully, we also encouraged them with the example that later in life you can be irresponsible and have adventures. 


Kilkenny has been a fun stop on our grand tour. Saturday we head for the north of Ireland for another set of adventures. Stay tuned.  As always, we invite you to leave comments here below. It's just fun to see what you think, and to know people are reading our blog. Thanks friends!

More Travel Experiences Through Ireland

We have now been in Ireland 12 days and are starting to roll with the flow. Driving on the left side of the road with the wheel on the right side of the car is now becoming second nature. Janice is now able to nap while Joel is driving and has become adept at navigating all of our turns in the round-abouts. (I, Janice white-knuckled it several times and also felt like I put a few holes in the floor thinking I had a break.  Poor Joel, he really is doing better now and was trying his best. I needed to be more patient.)

On Thursday the 7th we decided to take a scenic drive in North Galway. We enjoyed two different castles and a beautiful old abbey from 1120 AD in Cong, Ireland. We have seen a lot of castles and they all have long names, so won't bore everyone with names, but hopefully Janice's pictures will tell the story. The last few days in Galway were rainy and cool so we were glad to get on the road on Saturday and head for Killarney.  (I Janice, have taken a lot of pictures of different angles hoping I can paint one of these at some point.)

We've seen more sheep on this island then we've seen in a life time.

A castle is behind all this ivy.

Saturday we arrived at Ashville Bed and Breakfast guest house. This was a beautiful B & B and we enjoyed our two nights there. The staff was helpful, the showers were great, and the breakfast was awesome. Saturday afternoon we went to Muckross House just outside of Killarny. This was a large Victorian Mansion where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had stayed. On Sunday we decided to drive the Ring of Kerry. We left around 9:30 A.M. and didn't return until 5:15 P.M. We took our time and stopped many places to view the scenery and walk beaches. We also visited the ring forts which were interesting and out in the middle of nowhere. We also saw another castle. We stopped at a place that had a sand beach where loads of people were camping and kids were swimming in the very cool water. We ate at a beachside restaurant and had a nice conversation with a couple from Limerick, Ireland. They had their dog Jack with them. Janice made friends with Jack.

A protected harbor for boats coming in.

One car at a time and a solid rock.

Every where we look, it is as green as this. Very pastoral and a real sense of peace.

On Monday the 11th we drove to Kilkenny, Ireland. We are in an old hostel which is a new experience for Janice. (I, Janice think this could be a step up from a crash house, course I've never been in a crash house so don't know for sure. I was told this is not the usual by a person who set down beside us a few minutes ago.) We share a bathroom and showers, the room is Spartan with a bunk bed. All the furniture looks to be from the 50's or so and maybe not cleaned since then. We will be at the hostel until Saturday morning. Monday evening we walked the town and ate at a pub that had existed since 1263 A.D. They had an Irish story teller and an Irish singer. It was a fun evening. The plans for upcoming is to tour the Kilkenny Castle and do some power loafing. Wednesday will be the Rock of Cashel. We will play it by ear after, Saturday we are due to drive to Derry, (Londonderry) Northern Ireland. We will spend a week there exploring Ulster and Donegal.

Both of us are healthy and in good spirits and hope this finds all the same.

Ireland Adventures, Week 1

After arriving in Ireland we decided to let our mishap in Paris behind us and go forward in a positive frame of mind. We found a taxi right away from the Dublin Airport to our "Guest House". Our driver was a talkative man from Greece who had moved to Ireland 15 years ago. He took us straight to our guest house, the Charleville.Lodge. This is a small boutique hotel in a remodeled old Georgian house. It is out of the downtown Dublin area, but is within walking distance, perhaps a one half hour walk or you can take the bus to

O'Connell Street

which is the start of downtown Dublin. Our room was comfortable and the staff was helpful. They recommended a pub to eat where we had our first Irish meal and a pint of Guinness. As the day had been stressful we decided that was the extent of our first day in Ireland.

On Saturday we woke up with a sense of adventure. We started with an Irish breakfast at our guest house which was huge, including Irish Bacon, sausage, black and white pudding, beans, eggs, toast, juice and much more. We had prepaid for the breakfasts. We will stay there twice more during this trip, so will definitely not have to worry about getting enough to eat. After breakfast we hopped a bus to

O'Connell Street

to catch the On and Off Tour bus. For 14 Euros, senior rate it gives you a guided tour of historic Dublin with 23 stops. There are many busses running the route so you can jump off at a stop and jump on another bus with your ticket. We had jumped off the bus and were about to return when I realized I had lost our ticket. Luckily, a kindly bus company supervisor believed we had paid and issued us another ticket. The tour took us to Trinity College and the book of Kells. Trinity, a very old college was having a graduation.

We also went to Irish National Gallery and saw some great art. We walked through the Temple Bar neighborhood, a place of pubs, and loads of street life. Our bus took us by the home of Guinness, Irelands signature beer, (stout), Dublin Castle,

Kilmainham Gaol, the jail where many of the Irish rebels had been held and many had been executed. We also enjoyed a good pub lunch while in downtown Dublin. Although we enjoyed our tour, Dublin is such a busy, crowded city, we were glad to head back to our guest house. Before we reached our guest house we needed to relax, so stopped at a neighborhood pub. They made Janice a "Gaelic Coffee" that helped her to relax.

On Saturday July 2nd after another huge breakfast, Joel walked to our car rental agency and picked up our rental car. As Joel had never driven on the left side of the road in a car that the driver is on the right, there was a learning curve. Right turns are especially tricky in a busy place like Dublin, so did many left turns to get the same result. Also, the car is a manual shift with the shift on the driver's left. As Joel is left handed, this didn't take to long to master. After picking up Janice and the luggage we started out for Galway. Luckily, the rental agency had given simple directions for getting out of Dublin and on to the freeway and then to the road to Galway. The road to Galway was a Toll road, but there were only two tolls, totaling 4.5 Euros, about $6.60 U.S. Things went smoothly until we reached Galway. We found where the person that rented us our apartment told us to meet him. He showed up and asked us to follow him. We drove through clogged narrow streets and Joel did several maneuvers that cause Janice's life to flash before her eyes. We finally made it to our apartment. Our apartment is up two flights of stairs, but as our adrenaline was pumping after the traffic scares, we were able to get the luggage upstairs. The apartment is basic and we still haven't figured out how to get a hot shower. There is a beautiful, old church across the street and it is in walking distance to the "Latin Quarter", the old town where all the action is. We walked to the old town and enjoyed the ambiance and had another pub meal.

Sunday was a recovery day. We again walked the old town and it's many pubs, shops, and street musicians, (buskers). We then went to the waterfront where Janice did some sketching and Joel caught up on his reading in the sun. In the evening we found a great pub where Janice had a great lamb dish and Joel had a great steak with fried onions and mushrooms. Also included was an appetizer of hot wings.

Monday the 4th, Janice's birthday was a day of driving and sight seeing. We took a scenic drive from Galway to Clifden, the capitol of the Connemara. This is the area where many of the residence speak the traditional Irish language, (Gaelic). This was a slow moving drive on many narrow winding roads, often besides inlets of the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped at several beaches for Janice to look for sea glass, but the pickings were slim. We stopped at one small stop in the road for a "potty break". The only place available was a roadside pub. Although it was 11:15 A.M. we ordered an Irish Coffee for Janice and a pint for Joel. Another couple with their two young daughters came in soon after us. They were from Stockholm, Sweden and dropped in for some coffee and juice for the girls. In Ireland, pubs are a family place and kids are welcome. We enjoyed talking with the pub owner and enjoyed the pub dog, Monte. The pub owner spoke both English and the traditional Irish language so would shift from one to another. After he found out it was Janice's birthday he said her Irish Coffee was on the house. We continued on our drive and stopped in a town called Roundhouse. We walked around and also stopped at the site of an old monastery. One impressive feature were the many stone wall fences.

Traditional Thatched Roof

 From all the rocks in the fields we saw, it looked like life was hard if you wanted to farm in this area. We continued on our slow trip and finally arrived in our destination, Clifden around 2:30. We were both hungry so saw Mitchell's Seafood house and decided to eat there. Two of our grandkids last name is Mitchell, so we pretended it was Jordyn and Javin's place. The food was delicious. After that we stopped at a bakery and enjoyed a desert. We started our drive back to Galway on a more direct route, but ended up on a road heading north, rather than East back to Galway. We found a road that would reconnect us to our route and this was part of our adventure. It was a narrow country road. Over the course of driving this road we had lots of sheep on the road, plus some cattle.

Walking along the side of the road.

Walking along the side of the road, grazing.

It took us through beautiful country that looked similar to Washington's Cascades. We then got back to our route back to Galway and arrived back in Galway around 6:00 P.M. We got sidetracked, (lost) in Galway, but eventually figured out our way and made it back to our apartment. As we had left before 8:00 in the morning we were ready t relax. Joel walked to a nearby market and picked up chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream to celebrate Janice's birthday.

So far, we enjoy Galway, Dublin is interesting, but both very expensive and very intense, Galway is more relaxed, and while expensive, it is less than Dublin. Galway is a college town and the youthful feel is fun.

We are still unsure of what will happen the rest of the week. On Saturday morning we will leave our Galway apartment and drive slowly to Killarney where we will stay for two days at a B & B and drive "The Ring of Kerry". Ireland is cooler and our first few days were rain free, but the forecast calls for rain and we are told this is the usual state of affairs. More to come later.

Nightmare at Charles De Gaulle

Dear Friends,
Most of our posts on this blog have been positive. This is different. This is about a bad airport experience on June 30th. It started out okay, we got on our plane in Malaga, Spain and it took off on schedule. We had only 50 minutes between flights so thought as along as things were on schedule we should be okay. We then arrive at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, also on schedule so felt okay as our landing gate was 2-D and flight to Dublin took off from 2-E.

Alas, here is where things started to go south. Instead of pulling up to a gate, we were unloaded off some stairway onto a bus. The bus sat on the tarmack for over 10 minutes. We finally got to the gate about 15 minutes after arrival. Okay, we still have 35 minutes to connect. Alas, 2-E in not next to 2-D, but a long walk, about 1 1/2 miles and on top of that you leave the secured area. We arrived at 2-E with 15 minutes to go. We then had to check in through security. The lines stopped processing anyone for about 10 minutes. We finally got through with five minutes until the flight. By the time we got to the gate boarding had finished and the plane was backing out. The gate people sent us to Air France customer service. There things started to improve as finally one thing was set up for the convienience of the customer. The woman at customer service got us on a flight for Dublin leaving in a little over two hours. We finally arrived in Dublin 2 1/2 hours after our original schedule.

Our advice to all is to avoid Charles De Gaulle airport at all costs. Ask your airline to send you through another airport if you have a connection to make. It is not user friendly. Also, we booked through Expedia; challenge their schedule if they book your flights this close in a major airport.  A good part was that City Air, the Air France partner that we flew to Dublin, was as good as Air Europa that had flown us between Paris and Malaga was bad. Instead of nickel and diming us, they gave us our drink and a sandwich on our short flight to Dublin, where Air Europa was even charging for water. So much for our negative adventure. As we travel often, this isn't the first, but hope it will be our last. Lucily, both of us roll with the punches, but sill we really don't need the stress. Well, we are safely in Galway, Ireland and enjoying ourselves again, so this will soon be behind us. A few pints of Guiness has now caused frayed nerves to recover.