At the airport, enjoying a cup of coffee and a chocolate at Butlers Chocolatier at the airport. We are through USA preclearance and security.
Looking at the vat return aka duty free. Do I want to carry booze home? Did sample 2 of the 3 new Jamison flavors... Should help me sleep on the plane😎.
Have about 12 Euros to spend. Of course they conveniently have charity bins throughout the airport.
See you on the other side of the Atlantic!
Today's we were on our own in Dublin. Our tour guide, Agnes, had arranged for us to visit a yarnshop. Yes we did visit ut I left with one skein of hand dyed yarn from Ireland and an earring kit. Carrie bought 2 skeins😊
We then met Adrian and walked around Trinity college, visited the General Post Office and then met up with Ally at the Haypenny bridge. We walked through the temple bar district and had lunch at O'Neills. Yes I had a Guiness with my lunch. We then walked around the Dublin Castle. And visited the Chester Beatty Library which isn't really a library but more of a museum.
We thanked Adrian (who is so much like his Dad--in good ways) and Ally. After resting our feet a bit, we did a little shopping before the bus picked us back up for our farewell dinner and packing.
Signing off now have a 6 am wake up call.
Yesterday we started later 7 wake up call, 8 breakfast call, 9 on the bus.
We drove to Avoca Weaving Mill one of the oldest weaving mills (1723) in Ireland. We took a tour before SHOPPING and lunch. Didn't buy anything😊
We came to the hotel for our last workshop. I actually got them all finished (mostly) before I went to bed!
We walked into the village of Maynooth -- home of one of the major Universities. Had shepherd's pie with my Guinness!
One great thing about traveling this time of year and being a bit further north, it is light until at least 10.
Today we moved from Killarney to just outside of Dublin. We are on the last leg of our trip😕
We stopped the Blarney castle, gardens and stone. Most of the tine we were stopped was SLOWLY walking up the stairs of the castle much of it steep narrow spiral stairs! We were told 120 steps.
Carrie chose not to go which I think was the right decision for her. Between the standing, steep, uneven steps in close quarters, she would have hated it.
But it was something I was determined to do!
Here is the picture to prove it!
We drove to Dingle along the coast. As you can see it was VERY windy! There were kite surfers in the water. They were going really fast and it looked like with little control.
Carrie was so busy collecting little tiny shells that she did not see a wave coming. Gortex shoes are not water proof when the water goes over the tops!
We also stopped where they filmed the last Star Wars movie. I may have to watch to see if I can see it.
Dingle is a small sea town with lots of tourists. We started at either Murphs or Murphy's ice cream (They had toilets with no line -- and ICE CREAM!) We had lunch at Murphy's Pub and a Guinness with our lunch.
Trish so far all of the ketchup has come in packets and tastes the same. The tarter sauce is more tangy/vinegary.
When we got back to Killarney, we had our second class, the knot to make our necklace. Now I have to add the beads and chain...
We had dinner at....Murphy's Pub! Every town seems to have one! We then went to a "live music" venue. There were not very many people in the bar. We left ehen he started to play Johnny Cash...
Monday afternoon we went to the Abbey and Gardens. There also was a church but we ran out of time. The gardens are walled in and look like the tradtional scupled gardens they had lots of Fushias mostly the bush variety. I missed mom and dad as i looked at the flowers and then saw fushia mugs, etc.
You can tell Carrie was thinking of dad when we had our picture taken outside of the Abbey!
After the abbey, we went to the Celtic Crystal factory. We got to see one of the master craftsman create the first cuts for a vase the had the Claddagh ring on one side and the shamrock on the opposite side along with the traditional Irish rose one the bottom. You will have to wait for the photos/videos that are on my real camera! Or you can join me for a drink after I get home 🙄
We had our first crochet class on Monday. Jennifer taught us how to weave a crocheted row of single crochets into the shape of a heart.
Just like all sailors know, every other weave is under then over!
Our teacher, Jennifer Ryan (of Manchester, New Hampshire ) sang a great variation of Danny Boy about crochet!
Of course, I can't keep the tune with the regular words AND the music.
Peggy 1st wrote a poem as well and recited it for us.
With class over we had 1 hour before boarding the bus to ...
Opps! Most of the pictures from tonight are on my camera. We had a nice dinner. Carrie had the Caesar salad, turkey (sauce on the side) and Tiramesu. I had the Celery and parm ( I think) soup, chicken with the sauce😊 and vanilla cream puffs with chocolate drizzle. I also had a glass of Sauvigon Blanc wine and coffee with dessert.
The show was great several people who were former RiverDance musicians, including a compsor for Riverdance and other shows--including a song he wrote at 14. This gentleman also plays,several instruments including the Irish version of the bagpipe which is an elbow pipe. The man introducing (also a musician)said playing the Scottish bagpipe is difficult and the Irish one impossible!
Two of the dancers were national champions. All were amazing. I would say they performed approximately half of the time.
After we left the farm we drove another 1.5 hours the cliffs. Did I mention that we are in a BIG bus, the roads are narrow, there was a bicycle race going on and EVERYONE else is in BIG buses? There was one time Carrie (who was in the window seat) thought we were going to collide with a bus coming down from the cliffs.
I was reminded of the Camp Granada song when we got to the cliffs. It was raining and you could hardly see the person in front of you let alone the cliffs. We looked around the visitor center for awhile. It is built into the side of the cliff so you hardly notice it.
About an hour before we needed to board the bus, we decided we would walk out to the viewpoints even if we couldn't see anything to get in a walk. Low and behold, it was clearing up!
The as we were taking pictures, the wind, rain and Mist rolled back in but we got some good picture first. We were SOAKED by the time we got back to the visitor center.
We then got back on the bus😏
The tour has really started now. We had breakfast at the hotel. Tried everything but the mushrooms.
Well it started with the 6:30 wake up call. Breakfast at 7:30, on the bus at 8:30. We headed to the Rathbaun Farm for scone making, see a border collie round up some sheep and watch a sheep be shorn.
First, we made the scones (I bought the recipe and cutter) Now we will if I can make them without Francis.
Turns out Ireland does not raise sheep for wool. It is almost a by-product. The sheep they raise produces a course wool not suitable for cratfts. One of the women called out. "That saves me a bunch of money".
I took videos of the sheep. Not sure where I will post them. One of a little guy bleeting -- don't think it will replace the crying goat for the next youtube sensation. One of the dog, Ted, rounding up the sheep and one of a sheep being shorn.
We then came back into the house and ate our scones - yum!
Then back on the bus...
