We're here in sunny Dingle \(Au Dainegan).
Day 1
With a 1.5 hour flight delay, we finally arrived in Dublin around 10:30 am the next day after leaving Seattle 6:00 am. We then got on the bus to Galway & arrived around 4:00 pm. We stayed at the Four Seasons B&B. The host was a Civil Engineer & his son was a 2nd year Civil Engineering student. His son was so enamored with Barak Obama, that he was flying to Chicago to volunteer to work on his campaign, without any prior arrangements. Galway has a relationship with American presidents. Just a few weeks before he was assasinated, President Kennedy visited Galway. His great grandfather was from Ireland. The park in the town center is named after him. We had our first dinner of fish & chips.
Day 2
We then took off to Clifden, which is a nice little city on the coast. Ruth is doing pretty good at driving on the wrong side of the road. It's pretty tought since the roads are so narrow & the speed limit is 100 km/hr, which is about 60mph. We go a flat tire when we ran into a pot hole. The roads aren't very good since there is a lot of peat. I played golf at Connemara which is an authentic links course. The definition of a links coarse is that it is linked with the ocean. It was quite windy. On one hole I lost 3 balls, although I can't blame that all on the wind. We had Irish stew for dinner at Vaugn's pub. The guy that ran the place was very friendly & talkative, so was I. Of course I had a Guiness and an Irish Coffee.
Day 3
Our next destination was Tralee. We drove the coast route and saw the Cliffs of Mohr on the way there. This city was established in the 1200's. They had a nice museum where we learned about Irish history. The Irish Catholics have had hard times most of their existance. Starting with the occupation by the Normans, who were Vikings that occupied the north of France, the potatato famine in the mid 1850's where 1 million died and another 1 million left, and then occupation by the British and the troubles in norther Ireland. The Irish were mainly farmers who rented their land from about 5,000 people who of course were the wealthy. Ireland didn't become independent until, I belive 1939. We didn't get into Tralee until late and couldn't find a place to eat, so we ate ate the old standby, a Chinese Restaurant. The owner said there are about 100 Chinese in Tralee. He misses New Year's celebration the most. His son is in college majoring in Computer Science.
Day 4
Dingle is on a pennisula. It's a nice little old fishing turned tourist town. We stay here for 2 days. It's one of Rick Steve's favorite places. I plan to play golf tomorrow at Cenn Sinbeal. I'll check in with you later. (Ruth has't bought too much yet. Not one ball of yarn.)
Day 1
With a 1.5 hour flight delay, we finally arrived in Dublin around 10:30 am the next day after leaving Seattle 6:00 am. We then got on the bus to Galway & arrived around 4:00 pm. We stayed at the Four Seasons B&B. The host was a Civil Engineer & his son was a 2nd year Civil Engineering student. His son was so enamored with Barak Obama, that he was flying to Chicago to volunteer to work on his campaign, without any prior arrangements. Galway has a relationship with American presidents. Just a few weeks before he was assasinated, President Kennedy visited Galway. His great grandfather was from Ireland. The park in the town center is named after him. We had our first dinner of fish & chips.
Day 2
We then took off to Clifden, which is a nice little city on the coast. Ruth is doing pretty good at driving on the wrong side of the road. It's pretty tought since the roads are so narrow & the speed limit is 100 km/hr, which is about 60mph. We go a flat tire when we ran into a pot hole. The roads aren't very good since there is a lot of peat. I played golf at Connemara which is an authentic links course. The definition of a links coarse is that it is linked with the ocean. It was quite windy. On one hole I lost 3 balls, although I can't blame that all on the wind. We had Irish stew for dinner at Vaugn's pub. The guy that ran the place was very friendly & talkative, so was I. Of course I had a Guiness and an Irish Coffee.
Day 3
Our next destination was Tralee. We drove the coast route and saw the Cliffs of Mohr on the way there. This city was established in the 1200's. They had a nice museum where we learned about Irish history. The Irish Catholics have had hard times most of their existance. Starting with the occupation by the Normans, who were Vikings that occupied the north of France, the potatato famine in the mid 1850's where 1 million died and another 1 million left, and then occupation by the British and the troubles in norther Ireland. The Irish were mainly farmers who rented their land from about 5,000 people who of course were the wealthy. Ireland didn't become independent until, I belive 1939. We didn't get into Tralee until late and couldn't find a place to eat, so we ate ate the old standby, a Chinese Restaurant. The owner said there are about 100 Chinese in Tralee. He misses New Year's celebration the most. His son is in college majoring in Computer Science.
Day 4
Dingle is on a pennisula. It's a nice little old fishing turned tourist town. We stay here for 2 days. It's one of Rick Steve's favorite places. I plan to play golf tomorrow at Cenn Sinbeal. I'll check in with you later. (Ruth has't bought too much yet. Not one ball of yarn.)
