Tremor Update

I had an appointment with Dr. Carnes today. He informed me that the blood and urine tests ordered by Dr. Robottom were normal, meaning that we had ruled out Wilson's Disease as a cause of my tremor. Dr. Carnes could see an improvement from 2 months ago and seemed to discount that it could be caused by BIG exercises. He advised stopping taking 2mg of Artane daily to see what happens with the BIGs alone. He also advised staying at only 1mg or 1/2 an Artane daily if I decide to go back on it later. He said he believes that we have established now that I am hypersensitive in my reactions to chemicals in drugs. I think we established that a while ago, but evidently he is now a believer. Dr. Carnes says it may take a month or so to completely get Artane out of my system and ending the bad side effects. Specifically that the blurred vision will be the last to go. Let's hope and while we're at it, I'll hope that all the positive effects I've been experiencing are from the BIG exercises. I have been a little bummed out that the bad side effects were not wearing out and yet the positive effects are wearing out. The tremor in my right hand has resurfaced during the last week and my left thigh started feeling weird on Sunday. That is how the right side tremor began years ago. I will be off the Artane by Thursday and I'll see how that goes. It was probably a bad idea to start a new drug and exercise therapy at the same time. I'll split them up and try to determine which one made me better for a while and hope for the best.

May 21 Back Home

We were up before 6am. We were leaving the Belgravia B+B at 6am. It took us about 2 hours to get to Heathrow. We took an Underground train from Victoria to Hammersmith and then just walked across the platform to the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow’s Terminal 3. That way we only had stairs to carry luggage down at Victoria. It is amazing the number of Tube stops without elevators or escalators. They don’t advertise that fact either.

We were through security and bags checked etc. within 15 minutes. It was faster than RDU and much faster than Edinburgh. We had breakfast at Bridge Restaurant past security. We did some duty free shopping and waited for our gate to be announced at 9:40am. It was closer to 9:50am before they posted Gate 30 which was about as far away as you could get. We used the restrooms one last time.

When you get to the gate, you go through another security check and then you are held in an area without restrooms or other amenities, although there was a Coke machine and a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream dispensing machine. Go figure.

Now we are flying home to RDU. The 767 seems pretty full. Our little extra room section is filled up. It is nice. It is 3 rows of 2 3 2. We are in the last row of 2 so we have plenty of room. We have the stewardesses’ luggage behind us and a coat rack of hangars.

They are going to serve lunch and show the movies Parental Guidance and Amazing SpiderMan. We had seen the SpiderMan movie. They woke me up to serve pizza and I watched the end of it. I had a lunch of pasta about 3 hours earlier. This flight is about an hour longer than the overnight flight which seemed to go by much quicker. I guess it is a combination of the earth rotating, jet stream and daylight hours.Take off and flight so far all smooth. We took off into a cloud, so no views like when we arrived for our aerial tour of London over the River Thames.

It was hot and humid when we landed in Raleigh. It took us over an hour to claim luggage and clear all the CBP screens and checkpoints. This meant we had almost an hour to kill getting $2 in bills for the bus fare for one of us and using the restrooms and waiting for the 3:41pm TTA bus to Raleigh. There was a wreck on I-40 with a lane closure and it was thunderstorming in Raleigh. It stopped just before we got off the bus at Moore Square Station, so we walked home together with our luggage. I must have looked too pooped because Clay took my luggage from me at about the halfway point and pulled both our rolling duffels most of the rest of the way home. I did about the last block. Our irises were in bloom when we got home and the grass was very tall. The pond wasn’t running. It turned out there was no electricity in our bathroom either and the circuit breaker that controlled both had switched off. No idea why. But, it flipped right back on so everything was fine at home while we were gone.

We got home about 5pm, unpacked and went to bed by 8pm. It was good to be back in our own bed, in our own room, in our own house, in our own town, in our own country. It was a hard trip for me. I felt taxed to the limit and overstressed too much of the time for too many days running. We’d both have liked it much better with better weather, but the weather is the weather everywhere and you don’t know what you’ll get. We’re glad to have done it and seen all we’ve seen, but it is good to be home.

May 20 Back to London

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We had breakfast at 7am and the CIE transfer bus departs for the airport at 8am. We are back handling our own bags now. We were up early again and took a walk down to the marina area. We both just ate from the buffet this morning. We shared the bus to the airport for about 45 minutes with only one other couple from our tour. They were flying back to the US today, but we were both on Aer Lingus from Terminal 2 Dublin Airport.

Our flight is at 11:30am so we were here hours early. We cleared security and tax/duty/VAT refund processing 2 times for 2 different procedures and still had an hour to kill before our gate would be announced at 10:40am. We bought me some Butler’s hot chocolate that is like Argentine Submarinos. Well, the gate should be announced in about the next 5 minutes and then it will be time to move on. I’ll sign off here and be back later from London for a final entry from Europe.

Our flight was alright. It only lasted an hour. It was 2 rows of 3 on each side. We were in 7 window and middle, but no one was in our aisle seat so Clay moved over. Aer Lingus doesn’t even give a free little cup of water on their flights. We remembered that and had filled my bottle with ice water at Burger King after security.

The line to enter UK was quick and all they did was collect our boarding passes to let us enter. They did not warn us of this on the flight so of course there were people who had not kept theirs and I don’t know what they did about them later but they were standing them aside there and telling them they could not enter the UK without a boarding pass.

We bought tickets on the Gatwick Express and it cost almost as much as the flight from Dublin and took half as long. I don’t know why you can’t use an Oyster Card like for coming to and from Heathrow. It’s very inconvenient.

We had no stops between Gatwick and Victoria Station. We are staying at B+B Belgravia about a 4 minute walk from Victoria Station. It is £135  a night for the 2 of us. We are in room 4 which is very near the front door and lobby, but down 4 steps. It is hotter than a fart in here. In the lobby and in the room. Clay opened the window over the bed and now we can’t close it but we are still broiling in here. It is crazy. This is the smallest room yet with the largest closet and smallest bathroom. It is in all white with one big bed. There is a towel warmer in the already close, hot bathroom. The bathroom only has a shower stall, but it is not the smallest one we’ve had.

We had great weather today. Overcast and about 65 to 60F. We walked to Westminster Cathedral and ate a Cornish Pasty on the way for lunch. Then we went to the Royal Mews and took a guided tour. It cost £7.75 for Clay as a senior and £8.50 for me as an adult. Then we walked on around to Buckingham Palace and got there in time to watch a changing of guards. Then we started back and ate at an Indian restaurant again. This time it was Buckingham Balti House. It was good.

We have had a long and tiring day and will go to bed early since we have an early start tomorrow. They include breakfast here but it doesn’t start until7:30am, so we’ll miss it. Our flight leaves at 11am, but we need to get to Heathrow 3 hrs early and we have to take 2 Tube lines to get there so Clay says we need to leave here at 7am.

That’s it tomorrow we fly home direct LHR to RDU.

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May 19 Last day in Ireland

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Today is our last day and the best weather of our trip. It was warm and sunny all day long. We were up early and ready to go out and walk around Waterford without rain. Unfortunately, we were locked inside! We waited around in the lobby about 5 minutes when a couple of people appeared by the reception desk and one unlocked the door and removed the sign.

Breakfast at the Granville Hotel was the very best of the CIE trip and maybe the whole trip. I had Blaa Eggs Benedict and it was really special. Richard, the Granville Hotel Manager and workingest man in Ireland stopped us as we left the restaurant and asked us how our breakfast was. I told him I loved the Blaa and he asked if I got a brochure. I said no, you have a Blaa brochure? He walked us back into the restaurant and to the cold buffet which I had not visited. There were loose Blaa to have with butter and jam as well as a display of brochures. I was very disappointed I had had toast and jam after my Blaa eggs.

Anyway, it is a Waterford bakeries' specialty best served warm in the morning. It is a light floury biscuit or scone-looking bread roll. It has a crispy outside and a light fluffy interior. It was really special with the Eggs Benedict.

We started our last day by touring what is left in Ireland and Waterford of Waterford Crystal. It was interesting. Then we had a comfort stop at the Hibernian Gifts shop and tea shop.

We had a midday hour or so long stop in the medieval city of Kilkenny where we wandered around the castle. We had a pain au chocolate across the street that was delicious. Then back on the bus for our final stop of the tour.

We drove inland and north to the Irish National Stud facility on the limestone plains south of Dublin on the east coast. It is in Tully, County Kildare. We had a couple of hours there with a comfort stop, lunch and a guided tour. It was interesting and scenic. They had a lot of young colts and foals and they were cute and frisky.

We have now been in 20 or 21 of the 32 counties of Ireland. I think we were in every coastal county and only skipped landlocked ones. There is no point in Ireland that is more than 70 miles from the sea in any case. Martin, our bus driver, says we have traveled over 2000 miles! It did seem like we were spending a lot of time on the coach and I guess we were. But, we also did plenty of walking on this trip, if not on the CIE portion, because I have almost completely worn off the tread on a pair of Merrell Jungle Mocs. Just let me make a product endorsement here. These were some great shoes for this trip. They slide on and off with ease for security screening and to relieve my cramping toes. They are comfortable and supportive and heavy enough to ease walking on cobblestones, etc.  But, most importantly for this trip, they are waterproof! Now I just need to find a new pair on sale.

I’d like to say a few words about CIE Tours. I picked them for our trip to Ireland because I heard lots of good things about them and they had been in business for a long time. The longer you are in business, the harder it is to only have good word of mouth. They have been in business a long time and I couldn’t find much negative about them. Tommy told us that CIE are the initials of the Gaelic name of the company, Coras Iompair Éireann, which translates to the Irish National Transport System. Since the company’s inception, it has run all the trains and buses within Ireland. That may explain a lot about how they are able to do such a good job at such reasonable prices. While we saw lots of other tours and tour buses all over Ireland, CIE certainly predominated.

We were in The Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced done leery) on the far outskirts of Dublin from the airport. It was near the ferry terminal for Holyhead Wales, UK. That was the only thing it was convenient to, but it was a nice big old hotel. At 6pm or about 30 minutes after we got our bags, it was time to load the bus for an inordinately long drive in traffic to Taylor’s Three Rock pub for dinner and a traditional show. We were I think the 6^th or 8^th large tour bus. Certainly we were the final bus to arrive. We got seated along the wall by the bathrooms on the far side of the auditorium-like room. We got the last food delivered after the 5 minute all call for lights out and use the bathrooms now. It was not nice. The food was not good. They charged extra for all drinks other than water and an Irish Coffee at the end. I don’t like mixing dinner and entertainment. The comedian was funny. The show was not as good as Celtic Steps in Killarney. This was not a good finish to the tour. The Royal Marine Hotel is OK, but it is too remote from everything. This was especially true for those people who had extended their stay in Dublin at the end of the tour. They were a long commute from anything people wanted to do or see in Dublin. It was inconvenient to Taylor’s Three Rock for dinner and a show. It was inconvenient for those of going to the airport to fly out of Ireland. The show was not a nice group farewell dinner. The tour had us out from 6pm to 11pm and most of us had to get up and going early the next morning and needed to pack for flying. It was just not well thought out or well done. This was the only really big misstep by CIE in the whole tour so that is good. It was unfortunate that it was the last thing on a 12-day tour and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

I fell into bed. I forgot to put DiVertigo behind my ears and I could hear Clay just banging away in the bathroom. I thought I’d just sneak an arm in and get my bottle. I opened the door and stuck my head in and didn’t see Clay in the shower stall. I was mystified. I went further in because I could still hear him banging around. I saw him in the mirror over the sink. He was standing in the bathtub that had no shower curtain holding a handheld shower and spraying water all over the bathroom floor. I asked him what in the world? He told me he was holding an IQ test in the morning to see if I could figure out this shower. I was speechless. I pointed to the shower stall on the opposite wall and when his mouth fell open I told him he was unqualified to issue any IQ tests on showering. He acted like I had just magically conjured up a corner glass-walled shower stall and said he just literally had not seen it until I pointed to it. We both lapsed into coughing fits we were laughing so hard. I had to pee! Clay got in the shower stall and I sat on the toilet and then I mopped up the bathroom floor behind him. I was still laughing so hard I had a hard time falling asleep and it was well past our bedtime when we went to sleep!

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May 18 Blarney to Waterford

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We had an early start on our first complete day without any rain since London! Breakfast must have been unremarkable because I have no notes or photos about it. We started our drive out of Killarney by skirting the city of Limerick. Then later we drove along the south coast of Ireland. 

By 9:30am we were at Blarney Castle and Blarney Woolen Mills. We were there until 11:30am. We went up over 100 stone steps in tiny circular stairways to get to the top of the tower and the Blarney Stone. You have to lie on your back and stick out over a hole from the waist up to get your lips to the stone to kiss it for the gift of eloquence. Clay and I decided to let Bob be our proxy and I gave Bob to the old guy whose job it is to hold on to people while they do this. He held Bob in front of the stone and I said no Bob has to kiss it. So, he turned Bob upside down and put his nose to the stone without actually touching. Close enough, mission accomplished.

Back down and a little tour through the grounds back to the coach parking lot at Blarney Woolen Mills which was a hotel/restaurant/shopping center. It was a 3 story mini-mall basically. We only wandered the 1^st floor and found mostly stuff we had seen elsewhere and mostly at lower prices. We went to one of the restaurants and had drinks while waiting for 11:30am.

We were back on the road for our next stop in Cobh, County Cork. We went to the Cobh Heritage Center. This is the last port for the Lusitania and the Titanic. It was the main port of emigration from Ireland with over 2.5 million departing from here. It was a small interesting museum in an old train depot on the waterfront. Our busload had to split up and half were asked to eat lunch at the little counter service while the other half went through the exhibit and then switch. We had lunch first with 2 toasties. I had cheese and Clay had ham and cheese. They were good, but we prefer lunch to offer more selection of places to eat.

I had a broken thread on the front seam of my black blazer and it finally all came apart here. I knew the blazer was on its last legs when I brought it, but, well now it is in the trash. I couldn’t fix it. I got my money’s worth out of it. It replaced the 2000 blazer Clay left in an overhead bin on a flight from Milan. So, I figure I used it well from 2001 to now. It’s been around the world a couple of times and that it earned a final resting place in Waterford, Ireland instead of the thrift shop. It’s a good thing it’s finally warming up some here!

In the afternoon we had a stop at a place on the highway seemingly in the middle of nowhere called the Marine Bar.  There we had Irish coffee or whatever other drink you wanted and a ½ hour of live music by some almost famous musician/singer, a man named Christy. People loved it.

Then we drove on into Waterford for a walking tour with a local historian/guide. We learned that it is a very historic place, with the oldest continuously occupied building in Ireland, Reginald's Tower built by a Viking. It is the birthplace of Thomas Francis Meagher, who gave Ireland their tri-color flag and later was Governor of Montana. We met our local guide at a coffee shop/gift shop, Hibernian Gifts and then walked to the Granville Hotel right at the center of the waterfront. It is a very nice and very, very busy hotel. They were having first communion celebrations here when we arrived and the place was a madhouse of screaming children. Our guide had informed us that he had strict guidelines to get us to dinner by 6pm at the hotel because a famous Irish sports figure had died and they were holding funeral events here for him and we had to be in and out on time. Hopefully, we were.

We are in room 327. It is on the 3^rd floor, but then we had to go up and down stairs, ramps through doors and around corners. It is almost like we are in another building. Our view tonight is the roofs and walls of other parts of the hotel. We are in a large pretty room with one double bed and one single, 2 chairs and a table, a desk and chair, 2 nightstands and a large closet. No pants press. A small bathroom with a shower over tub and a towel warmer.

Clay had been after a meal of traditional Irish stew since it was recommended in Dublin by the 2 guys at the Kildare Street Hotel and he finally got it at dinner. He started with salmon and prawn salad and finished with a trio of ice cream. I had pureed vegetable soup (not), roast pork and mashed potatoes followed by profiteroles.

Clay went for a walk after dinner. We went to bed early since we had a long day and a late night yesterday followed by an early start this morning. We have another early morning tomorrow, our last touring day.

Bags out at 6:50am, breakfast at 7am and bus leaves at 8am. We are to start by touring the Waterford Crystal Center. Waterford Crystal evidently shut down its manufacturing here very badly about 5-6 years ago. Our bus driver, Martin, was a cutter for them for a decade. Anyway, they are still selling crystal here but it is all made in Eastern Europe now. In the afternoon, we are to visit some horse stud center and then a last night in Dublin before a ride to the airport.

Honestly we’re ready. We are on charming overload. Everything is so picture perfect it is hard to believe it can all be real. It is like some kind of Disney World overload at this point. I keep thinking that the Scottish Highlands would have been similarly scenic but since in 5 days we had next to zero visibility, we’ll never know. The Irish though have been overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming and it is a beautiful country in a period of peace that has been unprecedented in their long history. So, come on over!

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May 17 Killarney

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Breakfast really was at 7:45am today and not a minute sooner. This is a huge beautiful hotel with the largest and prettiest dining room we’ve had, but they had breakfast police on duty at the door and you weren’t having breakfast early here.

It was 41° F and sunny this morning and we couldn’t go to breakfast early so we went out and across the street and took a short wander into the Killarney National Park.  There were tulips and azaleas in bloom. Cherry trees and bluebells and rhododendron were in bloom. Kudos to their gardeners.  It was a refreshing little walk.

Breakfast was a bit more variety than we have seen in the past days as well. Since they were policing seating this was the first breakfast that we haven’t eaten sitting by ourselves. It is a different dynamic and an earlier start for the day to the group experience.

This morning we walked out across the street and loaded jaunting cars which were horse drawn wagons. We had 8 passengers in ours pulled by Sally and driven by Michael, who someone had wound up and he never wound down. He was just running through nonstop one-liners and rarely stopped. He was working. We rode the horse carts through a small part of Killarney National Park. We did view Ross Castle in the distance as well as the ruins of an island monastery and 2 different types of deer. We also saw some ducks land in Lough Leane. (Pronounced lock lean) They let us off near a gate by the Cathedral and we crossed the Deenagh River to the coach. The morning ride was extremely scenic and the nice weather held. This is the first beautiful weather day we have had since Edinburgh.

We rode in the coach to the Gap of Dunloe for a 30 minute comfort stop at Moriarty’s with Irish Coffees. We did not have Irish Coffees.  Tommy said Moriarty’s had nice men’s wear. Clay bought a beautiful Magee Donegal tweed sports coat. I bought a very nice scarf and a gift.

Next we had a quick photo stop at some Ogham Stones. This was an alphabet used in 5^th century Ireland. These stones are still standing around in seemingly random spots in Ireland.

We headed around the mountains named MacGillycuddy’s Reeks and over Moll’s Gap on our way to the colorful little town called Kenmare. We were there for about 2 hours for lunch. We walked out to see the Kenmare Stone Circle first.

Then we walked back the way we came and went in a supermarket where the locals were lined up buying takeout sandwiches and other lunches. Clay got a tuna salad sandwich and potato chips or crisps and a Diet Coke and I had a toffee hoop’s yogurt. It was all good.

We sat on a park bench and watched the local Catholic school kids getting lunch and streaming back to school. We visited with a local woman who had the interesting Kerry accent that Tommy had warned us about. She made ice cream and sold it from a small cart on the street. Of course, we had ice cream cones from here. We got 2 cones for €5. We each had 2 flavors. They were delicious. We walked over to the bridge over the River Finnihy and saw a heron standing there. Everywhere you look it is just crazy scenic.

This afternoon we drove part of, maybe most of, the Ring of Kerry in the traditional counterclockwise direction. It was amazing. We got out at Ladies’ View and at Torc Falls. It was raining a little by this time, but wow we had a gorgeous day.

We drove back to Killarney then. Tommy let us know that we were having early dinner at 6pm so we could go to see Celtic Steps tonight. We dropped our bags in the room and went out for a walk in Killarney. I wanted to replace my Sea Bands. I found some pink patterned ones! Bonus! The woman I loaned my old gray ones to found the other one and has worn them all day, so I will just give her the case and tell her to keep them. Clay went for another walk in the park but didn’t go far because it was raining off and on again.

I forgot to make notes about dinner, so I've forgotten about it. I must have been really tired too, because I didn't make any notes about the Celtic Steps show either. We did really enjoy the show and found it both entertaining and informative. Tickets were €25pp. It was a quality production and we were happy that they put on an extra performance on one of their nights off.

Well, the end is in sight and we are getting worried about luggage weight to get back to London now. Oh well. Bags out at 6:50am tomorrow, breakfast at 7am and bus departs at 8am.  Tomorrow we visit Blarney Castle and have the opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone. We have a shopping stop at Blarney Woolen Mills, but I expect we’re done! Our next stop is Cobh (pronounced cove) in County Cork for an Irish Coffee and traditional Irish music. We continue to Waterford for a locally guided walking tour. We are in the Granville Hotel in Waterford for one night, our next to last night.

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May 16 To Killarney

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Bags out at 7:20am, breakfast at 7:30am and bus leaves at 8:30am. We’ll see what Tommy does with the seat rotation today. He caught us in the hall before breakfast yesterday and told us when he filled out the seating chart for the day that he forgot us and so rather than redo it, he just put us in the back row. He promised he’d bring us back up the next day. But, now he has the 6 new people in the mix for the end of the trip. We’ll see.

We were right next to the seats we had yesterday. Oh well.

Today we are supposed to visit the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. I think we are somewhere on the outskirts of Shannon and we are supposed to skirt Limerick to get there. We are supposed to drive the Dingle Peninsula and stop in the town of Dingle on our way to Killarney. We should be at the Killarney Plaza Hotel for the next 2 nights.

We went down to breakfast early since the restaurant opened at 7am. It was lucky we did because it was a mob scene by 7:30am when we left. There were 2 CIE groups at the same time. I had porridge today. I was sick of “bacon” and eggs.  I also had some of the raw oats stuff (granola?) with some loose yogurt and that was OK. Clay had everything as usual.

We drove past the outskirts of Limerick this morning on our way to Foynes. The port of Foynes was a terminal for air traffic between the US and Europe in the late 1930s into the 1940s. The Foynes air terminal was also the birthplace of Irish Coffee. They had an interesting museum with a replica of a Boeing 314 that would have carried passengers to land on the Shannon River. They also held an Irish Coffee making seminar. First heat the glass by putting a spoon in it and pouring in hot water. When the glass is warm, pour out the water and put in a spoonful of brown sugar (looked like demerara), pour in coffee allowing room for the other ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar, follow with a shot of Powers (only!) Irish whiskey plus a splash. Finally, hold the spoon back up over the glass and slowly pour whipping cream allowing it to float off the back of the spoon and onto the surface of the coffee. Do not stir; drink the hot through the cold. Then we had an opportunity to buy an Irish Coffee or to shop in their Gift Shop and use their toilets.

We drove on to Tralee for a comfort stop at a bus station. Then we drove out to the town of Dingle on the Dingle Peninsula. It stopped raining for a short while and we had some spectacular views.

We had lunch in Dingle. Clay and I went to the Marina Bar. It was nice and good food. Clay had a Guinness. He also had the traditional bacon and cabbage special which had been recommended to us back in Dublin as a good Irish dish. It was good. I had the Toasty special which was toasted ham and cheese with onions and tomatoes. I got it with just ham and cheese and corn chips. It was cut into 4 triangles set on their crust ends in a line on the plate, I liked it. The corn chips clinched it though. Later when we were comparing lunch notes with some other passengers, they were jealous that I had a meal without potatoes! They asked how it was possible and I told them I just told the waiter not to bring me any chips! I bought a version of a Foxford polka dotted lambswool blanket I have seen at numerous stops when I found one I thought wouldn’t clash with our living room. It was expensive. I think about €90, but that was about the same price everywhere I had seen it. By the way, it looks great in the living room and I love it!

On the way back off the Dingle Peninsula, we had a photo stop at Inch Beach. Tommy pointed out some mountain chain I forgot the name of and pointed out the cloud enshrouded peak as the highest in Ireland which was interesting because I thought he had earlier told us that Croagh Patrick was the highest.

This afternoon we passed signs to Lisdoonvarna for the matchmaking festival.  I remember a movie about that and wonder if it was actually filmed there. According to IMDb.com, no, so I guess not.

We’ll have to look for it again along with others filmed in Ireland that Tommy has talked about and some he hasn’t like The Commitments.  He has talked about The Quiet Man, The Field, Ryan’s Daughter and some others that we’ve forgotten the names.

We got to the Killarney Plaza Hotel by about 4pm. We are in room 310 right by the elevators and ice machine. It is an attractive room with a large mirrored closet containing a pants press. The bathroom is large with a shower over tub and no towel warmers. We have 2 single beds about 4 inches apart, 2 night stands, 2 chairs and a table, a desk and chair, a TV and a tea set, there are 2 bathrobes and a hairdryer and a safe. I guess the safe and hair dryer have been in all the other hotels as well. I just failed to mention them. We have a view of Killarney National Park across the street.

Dinner tonight is at the hotel restaurant at 7pm. Tommy says it looks like we can’t go to Celtic Steps because there is some kind of big conference in town and they bought out the entire show. He has left messages in case they decide to do another show on our 2^nd night and he’ll let us know if it becomes possible. Clay had salad, leg of lamb and a trio of desserts from the buffet. I had a goat cheese quiche and pasta and a strawberry Pavlova for dessert.

Clay says there are lots of chemists/pharmacists in walking distance. That is good because it looks like I am in the market for new Sea Bands too now. One of our new fellow passengers said sausage made her sick this morning and she was nauseous all morning on the bus, so when I heard about it I offered her my Sea Bands. She is still wearing one tonight but says she only has the one and doesn’t know anything about the other. She is feeling much better but no good deed goes unpunished. We did see Sea Bands at the Boots at the last airport where we bought Ear Planes, but better to have them before you know you need them.

Breakfast tomorrow is at 7:45am. Bus leaves at 8:45am. We are going on jaunting car rides in the morning. They are horse drawn carts and evidently that is just what is done in Killarney. We ride them to Ross Castle. Then the bus will pick us up again. We’ll view Lough Leane. We’ll drive part of the Ring of Kerry and see Ladies’ View before returning to the hotel.

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May 15 Cliffs of Moher

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We have a very long day today. We drove towards Connemara along Ireland’s largest fjord. We went through Oughterard. We stopped at Connemara Marble Industries in Moycullen County Galway and it was also our comfort stop. We drove through some weird rocky landscape called the Burrens in the morning and afternoon.

We stopped in Galway and had an opportunity to see the Connemara marble in their Cathedral.

We went to Monk’s seafood house in Ballyvaughan for lunch. Tommy thought they had a toasted ham & cheese sandwich for non-fish eaters but he was wrong. Clay had fish and chips that he said was more than double the price and nowhere near as good as what he had earlier in the trip. Too bad. I went out and walked along the waterfront and tried to take photos of a swan there.

We had a stop in The Burren National Park to see Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. It was a bleak place and even in 3300BC I can't imagine life there.

We have had mostly sun today though, so that is an improvement. It is still cold and windy but it hasn’t rained as much. In the afternoon, we had close to a couple of hours at the Cliffs of Moher. It was very impressive and we were so happy to see it in sunshine. The bad news is that the puffins spend sunny days at sea after 11am or so, so we missed them. A ranger pointed out one to me on Goat Island with his binoculars. It was clear this afternoon, so we could see the Aran Islands in the distance.



We drove on near to Shannon for our one night in Bunratty Castle Hotel. It is a big hotel near an old small castle. It is a smaller room than we have had yet. No pants press. One king size bed. There is a towel warmer but nothing stays turned on without a key card in the slot on the wall. No ice that we can find. The hot water takes several long minutes to arrive in the bathroom and the toilet doesn’t want to flush. It is fine for one night. We may be getting a little cranky.

We meet 6 new people tonight at 7:45pm and one of our party leaves in the morning. How weird is that? The group is changing after 8 days. Everyone wonders how that will affect their places in the bus rotation. Dinner is at 8:45pm or so. We are to attend a medieval dinner at Bunratty Castle. It will be a late night. Tommy has offered an evening out tomorrow for around €30pp to attend a traditional Irish show called Celtic Steps. We’ll see how we feel tomorrow.

We got back to the room just before midnight. I hated tonight. I hate mixing entertainment with a meal anyway. I hate meat on bones and I hate eating with my hands. We did all that. They led us up a long narrow spiral staircase to ply us with mead (disgusting) while a violinist and a harpist played music. There were probably already 30 people in the room at that point. Then they crowned an Earl and Lady for the evening. Tommy gave them the Singaporean newlyweds. They were good sports. Then after they had everyone a little drunk they led us back down the narrow spiral stairs. We packed into an even smaller room full of long tables and benches. Tommy had told us we should try to dress nicely tonight. So, we did. No one else did. It is hard to get onto a bench for dinner in a dress. We each had a finger bowl, a small plate with a bowl on it and a mead cup. We had pitchers of red wine, white wine or water. At that point all of our end of the table was only drinking water. They served bread and parsnip soup to drink from the bowl. No spoons only a sharp knife and hands. Then they served spare ribs. Followed by a joint of capon and root vegetables. Last was some kind of jellied dessert with a cracker crust on the bottom. It tasted like raspberry. I had a long hungry day today. Good thing I still have a supply of protein bars.

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May 14 Westport

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Breakfast at 7:30am and the bus leaves at 8:30am. The restaurant opened about 5 to 8 minutes late and they had a couple of big groups backed up to get in there. It can be hard to have a relaxing breakfast in an hour when there are a large number of people all trying to be in the same place doing the same thing at the same time.

We drew a front row seat again today on the bus. Today we were behind Tommy. Today we went to Westport House, the local estate. You can click the hotlinked words for more information about it. The sun was shining this morning and the wind was calm. Of course that didn’t last for long, only about as long as we were inside touring the house. But, it happened.

We spent most of the day in sight of Croagh Patrick, pronounced croak. Tommy says it is the tallest point in Ireland (this is not true) and is a pilgrimage site. We drove along the coast again and saw the dramatic Atlantic. It is clear where all the bad weather is coming from when you see those big angry seas. Fingers still crossed that there is an end to this while we are still here.

We drove through Newport and Mulrany. We drove across a bridge to the Island of Achill (sounds like ack-hill). We drove all around Achill Island and had a lunch stop at a little place called the Beehive.

Then we drove to see a deserted village. It was stone ruins near an old and a new cemetery on the side of a hill called Slievemore. It was covered in sheep and lambs. We watched a guy pull up in a car and let his Border Collie out and he directed him to drive the sheep to different places. It was pretty amazing. It started really pouring rain again as we were reloading the bus. It had rained off and on ever since we left Westport House, but it rained solid all the way back to Westport. Clay opted to be let off in Westport and I came back to the hotel. Others reported sleet on the walk back.

Dinner tonight is at 6:30pm.  Clay had salad and leg of lamb and ice cream. I had goat cheese, chicken and sticky toffee pudding.

Bags out tomorrow morning at 6:50am, breakfast at 7am (which should be interesting since their published opening time is 7:30am and they were late today) and the bus leaves at 8am. We have a very long day tomorrow visiting Connemara, and the Cliffs of Moher (it will hard to get any more dramatic sea cliffs than what we’ve already seen, though seeing them with calm seas and bright sunshine would be dramatic). We end at Bunratty Castle for one night where at 8:30pm we’ll have a special medieval dinner.

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May 13 Derry to Westport

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Today we should travel through the rugged country side of Donegal with stops to sample scones and see demonstrations of spinning and weaving their famous tweeds. We should see W.B. Yeats’ grave in Sligo. We will end up in Westport with some free time before dinner. We will have 2 nights at Hotel Westport. At some point, we returned to the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland. There was no sign, so I am not sure exactly where that happened.

So, there was no scone stop. We did have Irish coffees at Triona Design in Ardara where we had the weaving demonstration. We did not buy anything, even though I tried on several jackets but none fit. It was too bad because I am looking to replace my black blazer after this trip.

Breakfast was at 7am. Derry’s City Hotel did not want to open that restaurant one minute early either. The bus left at 8am. Clay and I drew the front seat behind the driver in the rotation today. That was good because we had some rough riding today and it would have been bad for me in the back. Clay still didn’t get any good pictures on the drive because the windows were all spotted with rain, or else he has bus bits or Tommy or Martin in his photos. We drove west from Derry. We drove through Glenties and to Ardara for our weaving workshop and shopping, Irish coffee and comfort stop. We spent about an hour at Triona Designs.

In the afternoon, we had a little over an hour in the town of Donegal for lunch or whatever. Donegal Castle was right there in town and we walked over and thought about paying to tour it but it looked like you needed to allow 45 minutes and we didn’t want to cut our time too short. We found restrooms at the Information center and then got some light lunch at a little café by the bus.

Later we drove by the west coastline at Mullaghmore where Lord Mountbatten was killed when the IRA bombed his yacht in 1979. We also drove past his former castle, Classiebawn. Then we drove to Sligo to see W. B. Yeats grave.

About 5pm we arrived at Westport where we are at the Hotel Westport for 2 nights. It is on a little river with a path into town. Our room is at the end of a hall on the 3^rd floor and has windows on 2 sides and a small balcony. Given that it sleeted at one point today and we can hear the wind howling, I don’t think we’ll get much use of the balcony. Besides being the corner room, it is large with a double bed and a single bed. I took the single bed and let Clay have the double bed since he let me have the big bed in a room like this in Windermere. There is a desk with a stool, 2 chairs and a table, 2 nightstands, a tea set, a TV, a closet and a pants press. The bathroom is much smaller and in worse wear than we’ve seen, but and this is a big but, it has a towel warmer. I love a warm towel after a shower or bath. There is a shower over tub and the tub floor is higher than the bathroom floor again. These seem so dangerous. The room numbers are crazy here. We are in room 313 on one hall of the 2^nd floor. The elevator only goes to G, 1 and 2. The other hall on our floor has rooms numbered in the 600’s. You figure it out.

Dinner tonight was downstairs at the hotel restaurant at 6:30pm. It was one big noisy room full of large groups. Clay had salad, salmon and ice cream. I had soup, beef and apple berry crumble.

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May 12 Giant's Causeway

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We are still in Northern Ireland which is the UK and uses the pound and so we haven’t changed sim cards yet, but will tomorrow. It is all very complicated and yet other than the dividing barriers within Belfast and Derry, and the flags, you would never know you were in either Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland. Well, that and different currencies. Anyway, we never crossed a border, or saw a sign announcing that we were leaving one country and entering another.

We were up early again and went down to breakfast early. Clay ate cereal and cold buffet with hot tea. I had hot buffet with toast, scrambled eggs and ham and hash browns as well as a Yoplait with coffee.

The bus left at 8:30am. We drove north. We drove along the Causeway Coastal Route which may be one of the great scenic coastal drives. Evidently on a clear day at the closest point (12 miles) to Scotland you can see it. We could barely see the shore and a little ways off. So, we continue with the wretched and unseasonable weather. We drove through Larne and then had a comfort stop at the Spar in Carnlough. That is pronounced carn lock. We went inland some and drove over an old stone bridge called Glendun Viaduct. I am fairly certain we didn’t get a photo. It was a very scenic valley. Along the way we saw tons of sea birds, I spotted one otter, and one hare. Of course, we saw loads of sheep and lambs, a lot of cattle and several horses and donkeys or mules.

Our goal this morning was the reason we chose this trip. You had to spend at least 12 days in Ireland with CIE Tours  to get to the Giant’s Causeway. It is Northern Ireland’s only World Heritage site. It is a geologic feature on the northern coast. It was an awful day to visit, as it was gusting sideways rain so hard that umbrellas were impossible. Honestly, someone should have warned us to pack rain suits. We’d have gotten more use out of them than anywhere else we have ever packed them. But, we don’t have them. So, cold and soggy it is. I guess it was still impressive but not what I expected from all the photos in sunshine. I guess when you are looking through the raindrops on your glasses and trying not to slip on slick stones you can’t take in a lot else. So that was our time at Giant’s Causeway. We were there almost 3 hours as it constituted our lunch stop as well. We ate protein bars and Clay bought candy in the gift shop. Chocolate covered honeycomb pieces (like seafoam in Oregon) and I got Finn McCool’s Flump. Finn McCool is the Giant’s name and Flump is a long tube of marshmallow.

At 1:45pm the bus left for the last leg to Derry-Londonderry. Evidently even the name is something to fight over. The Catholics call it Derry and the Protestants call it Londonderry. I’ll just call it Derry for efficiency and because that is how it is listed on our itinerary. Derry is on Lough Foyle. It was an important Allies port in WWII. Derry was founded 400 years ago and it was a walled city because it was settled and built by Church of England people who were given it by the British monarchy. The locals didn’t like it then and they still don’t.

About 3:45pm we arrived at City Hotel. There is no bus parking here right on the river in view of a fancy new pedestrian bridge and the old Guildhall. The luggage was to be unloaded and a comfort stop then back on the bus. There was a large armed Police presence outside and crazy crowds. It turned out that Prince Michael, the Queen’s nephew, was staying here and celebrating something with the Young Apprentices who are the ones with the Orange Marching Season. This dates back to 1690 or something and William of Orange who defeated the Catholics and hence the trouble all the way to today.

We had a bus tour with a local guide to see the Bogs where the Catholics were separated without housing, jobs or the vote. It just looks like apartment buildings now with political murals and monuments. There was still a tall fence as protection between the 2 where they were right across the street again.

Then we walked on a section of the old city wall back to the City Hotel. I asked the guide about the city seal, or coat of arms, as it was interesting with a castle and a skeleton on it. The skeleton actually has a name.  William De Burgh had an affair with his sister-in-law and his brother walled him in the castle where he starved to death.

We are in room 612 on the 6^th floor with a view of the river and the Guildhall. We can also see a new Peace Bridge for pedestrians spanning the River Foyle.

We got back to the hotel about 5pm and got our keys and found our bags in our room. It is a large room with a king-sized bed, a chest with TV, a desk with a chair, a table with 2 chairs. A closet and tea set and a pants press. We have had a pants press in every CIE Tours hotel so far and it is a nice touch. The bathroom is decent with a shower over tub and lots of towels including a towel elephant on the sink counter.

Dinner is at 7pm downstairs at the hotel. Clay had fried fish cake and lamb with lemon tart. I had creamed vegetable soup and chicken and rice with chocolate choux buns. We both skipped tea/coffee. All the hotel meals so far have been fine. They haven’t been as good as the steak dinners we had in Dublin, but they have been OK.

Bags are out at 6:50am in the morning, breakfast is at 7am and the bus leaves at 8am. We only have one night here at City Hotel Derry.

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