Fortune Trip to Ireland!

7/8/14
Day 1: Jack decided he really didn't want to go to France.  So he started looking at random places he hadn't seen before and we settled on Shannon, Ireland.  We will do the East side next summer, so off to Shannon we went!  We drove 3 hours to Memingen West Airport, which isn't really in Munich at all but the air fares are cheaper so we figured a little drive wasn't so bad.  We got to the airport and it was a short two hour flight to Shannon.  I thought I had gotten a car rental through Ryan Air but apparently it hadn't gone put on and we ended up just renting a Volkswagen Tiguan.

When we get to the car, we realize that 1) the driver's seat is on the right side of the car, 2) we have a standard and the gear shift is shifted with the left hand, and 3) you drive on the "wrong" side of the street.  So Jack jumped to the rescue and drove us to our hotel.  Which ended up actually being a whole house next to a golf course instead of a silly old hotel room!

Jack in the driver's seat

A close up of the narrow roads

East Clare Golf Village

The Tiguan

Right outside our house

Bottle Brush Flowers

Our cottage

Living room/dinning room

View from the living room

Full kitchen

Two cute bedrooms

Two bathrooms

After we put our bags away, we decided to go and get some groceries so we could eat breakfasts at the house in the mornings.  After that we went to find some dinner.  We found a cute little place called McNamara's in Scariff, a town close by.  The owner was Evan McNamara.  He was so friendly and personable that we couldn't help but feel at home right away.

McNamara's

The Fortune's first pint in Ireland!

On our way home, I couldn't help but feel humbled already by our surroundings...and the people.  The land in Ireland is beautiful.  Rolling hills, green as far as the eye can see, and ancient ruins just every where!  The people too are amazing.  They are very down to earth, funny, fierce, and friendly.  Jack and I have decided that once we are retired from the military, we will live in Ireland for a couple years.  It feels like home...not forever, but a nice stop on the way towards forever home. Here are a few pics of the view from the car on our way home.  Notice all the ruins!

Ruins

Ruins

Rock walls are everywhere!

After I figured out I had the window up, I rolled it down to take a few more pictures...

Ruins on a golf green

Just beautiful land!

7/9/14
Day 2: We thought we would take the next day a little slower and enjoy the great outdoors.  We decided to go to the Cliffs of Moher.  The cliffs are located in a little town called Liscannor.  The cliffs are 702 feet from top to the bottom, at their highest point they stretch for 5 miles along the Atlantic coast of County Clare in the west of Ireland. From the Cliffs of Moher on a clear day one can see the Aran Islands and Galway Bay, as well as the Twelve Pins and the Maum Turk mountains in Connemara, Loop Head to the south and the Dingle Peninsula and Blasket Islands in Kerry. O’Brien’s Tower stands near the highest point and has been a viewing point for visitors for hundreds of years.  It was a semi-clear day so we saw much but not every part of the above parts.  O'Brien's Tower was under renovations and so we were not able to go to the top but we really didn't need to...

Keenan making a silly face with a Puffin

The sign that points to the cliffs just outside the tourist information center

Walking up to the cliffs and O'Brien's Tower

Keenan, once again making a face

Looking out from behind the safety wall

O'Brien's Tower in the distance

Realizing we couldn't go up into the tower

My guys

We realized we couldn't go up the tower so we got a couple pictures around it before continuing on.

The cliffs of Moher

My version of artsy!

My guys!

Michael, Keenan & Colleen

As we continued on, there is a sign that by a fence that explains if you go further you are no longer protected and are basically on your own.

It started getting very interesting...

There are no barriers between the path and certain death.  :)

My brave Fortunes marching onward

Spectacular views!

Keenan & Michael

Mike & his sis!

Colleen being brave!

Me & the beautiful cliffs!

We then turned around and went to the other side.

This little island is where all the Puffins live

I got some birds but not really Puffins...

After all this bravery we really needed to fuel up!  We went to a town called Ennistymon and had some lunch while we digested what we had just seen and started out plan for the next day.

This was a cute little place but we kept going.  I just had to get a pic though!

I didn't get a picture of the front of the building but the back was just as cute!

Colleen and Keenan waiting for their food.

It's so pretty!

There was a Salmon run right next to us as well

After lunch we went back to the house for a little bit and then got picked up by a shuttle and taken to a great place called Pepper's for dinner, music, and to watch some Irish dancing.

Pepper's

My guys fulfilling a dream...drinking a beer and smoking a cigar together in Ireland.

Our own little Irish dancer.  She was moving too fast to get a good pic.

7/10/14
Day 3: On our third day we split up.  The boys fulfilled another "bucket list" item and played golf in Ireland.  Since Colleen and I had no wish to join them, we went on an adventure.  We took a tour bus to Galway and Connemara. We stopped at a cute place for a quick breakfast and then headed to Galway.  On our way we had the chance to see peat bogs for the first time, rock walls, and bridges, I even got to see a couple traditional Irish Cottages with the thatched roofs.  

Our breakfast place

Rock bridge

Peat bogs

Traditional Irish Cottage

We stopped by a little shopping place in Connemara before we arrived at Kylemore Castle/Abbey.  There we saw the Connemara Giant...which shows you how funny the Irish are!

The Connemara Giant

Ireland’s only late 20th century ‘antiquity’

Close up on the big guy

Touching his hand brings you luck...no saying which hand though

The plaque says, "On this site in 1897, nothing happened."

Plaque says, "This is Connemara (Conn son of the sea) built in 1999 by Joyce's Craft Shop for no apparent reason."

So while it wasn't of historical significance, it sure was funny.  Here are a couple pictures of the landscape in Connemara.

Goats and sheep run wild here

I could stare at that all day....

After finishing up there, we continued on to Kylemore Castle/Abbey.

Our first view of the castle

Getting closer

So close!

A little history of Kylemore: Kylemore Castle was built by Mitchell and Margaret Henry.  Construction started in 1867 and ended in 1871. 

Apparently Mitchell and Margaret visited Connemara, Ireland on their honeymoon and fell in love with the land.  Mitchell was a doctor but when his father passed away, he abandon the medical field and turned to business and politics.  With his inheritence, he bought the land and built Kylemore Castle, complete with gardens, walks, and woodlands which eventually covered 13,000 acres of land.

In forty years, Mitchell Henry, turned thousands of acres of waste land into the productive Kylemore Estate. He developed the Kylemore Estate as a commercial and political experiment and the result brought material and social benefits to the entire region and left a lasting impression on the landscape and on the memory of the local people.

Mitchell Henry introduced many improvements for the locals who were recovering from the Great Irish Famine, providing work, shelter and later a school for his workers children. He represented Galway in the House of Commons for 14 years.  Mitchell Henry was a wonderful landlord to his tenants at Kylemore and was known as such not just in Connemara but throughout Ireland.  

Sitting room

Margaret Henry

Dining room

Mitchell and Margaret had nine children.  Five daughters and four sons.  Unfortunately, in 1875, the family went on a vacation in Egypt where Margaret contracted a fever and died at age 50.  A couple years later, one of his daughters died as well.  Mitchell was never the same after Margaret passed and he did not spend much time at Kylemore again, although he kept it open and functioning.

In 1903, Mitchell sold Kylemore Castle to the Duke (William Angus Drogo Montague) and Duchess of Manchester (Helena Zimmerman, whose father was a wealthy American).  After Helena revamped the castle with all the new luxuries and modern conveniences, her husband lost the Castle in a card game.

In 1920, the Irish Benedictine Nuns purchased Kylemore Castle and converted it into an Abbey and international boarding school.  The school closed its doors in 2010.

The Flag of Ramilles gifted to the Nun's in 1706

The little chapel that Mitchel had built for his wife after her death

After the Abbey/Castle and chapel, we went to the gardens.

On our way to the gardens

Had to stop and become a bear!

The caretaker's cottage

Overlooking one of the gardens from the caretaker's cottage

Looking up at the caretaker's cottage

A wall ruins in the gardens

The vine house

After the gardens, we hopped back on the bus and went into Connemara to find 500 million year old marble, mined from the Connemara marble quarry.

Connemara Marble in the shape of Ireland

After all that we started back to our place but stopped by Quin Abbey on our way home.  The abbey has a very tortured past.  It was built in 1350 on the place where a Norman Castle once stood by the McNamara clan for the Franciscan Friars.  Many clergy men were killed for different reasons during different take-overs and the church was left unused in 1541 but is still pretty intact.

Quin Abbey

Part of the original wall

7/11/14
Day 4: We finally got to complete yet another of Jack's bucket list items.  To kiss the Blarney Stone, which his Grandfather did many years before.  I guess I thought it was just the stone...not an entire castle and grounds.  It was pretty spectacular and I think my favorite thing I've done so far in Europe.

Impressive?  Yes.

I don't think I would have wanted to live there since comfort had no place in that time.  The castle was for protection not comfort and I'm certain they didn't have all the lush manicured lawns and gardens since that wasn't necessary for the protection of life.  Inside was just as cool!

The Blarney Stone is a block of limestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle.  According to legend, kissing the stone gives the kisser the gift of gab (eloquence or skill at flattery).  Blarney is not a lie, it is something more than mere flattery sweetened by humour and flavoured by wit. The complete legend says, " Queen Elizabeth I requested Cormac Teige McCarthy, the Lord of Blarney, be deprived of his traditional land rights. Cormac travelled to see the queen, but was certain he would not persuade her to change her mind as he wasn't an effective speaker. He met an old woman on the way who told him that anyone who kissed a particular stone in Blarney Castle would be given the gift of eloquent speech. Cormac went on to persuade the queen that he should not be deprived of his land."

There is also a song/poem by Francis Sylvester Mahony about the stone and it's kisser's: 

'Tis there's the stone that whoever kisses

He never misses to grow eloquent,

'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,

Or become a member of Parliament.

"A noble spouter he'll sure turn out, or

An out and outer to be let alone;

Don't try to hinder him, or to bewilder him,

For he is a pligrim from the Blarney stone."

The Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone from below

Grandfather Bonnet (Mike's Grandfather on his Mother's side) kissing the stone in the 60's or 70's

Jack kissing the stone in 2014

Me kissing the Blarney Stone

Colleen kissing the Blarney Stone

Keenan kissing the Blarney Stone

 Inside the castle at the very top is the Blarney Stone.  You have to go up a very tight spiral staircase to get there and it is not for the feint of heart.  So from top to bottom we saw the Blarney Stone area where people wait in line to kiss it, beneath that was the Chapel, with bedrooms around it, below that was the Banqueting Hall with the kitchen and Priest's Room and Murder Hole, and below that was the Family Room and Great Room.  Finally there was the basement.

The floors were once made of wood and have decayed

The Chapel

The Kitchen

The Kitchen

The Kitchen

Banqueting Hall

A bit of the wall decoration that is left

Priest's Room

Family Room

Young Ladies Room

Young Ladies Room

Great Hall

Great Hall

Great Hall

Earl's Room

Basement

The Murder Hole

Spiral Stairs

Spiral Stairs

 Then we had the amazing views of the grounds from inside the castle.  I absolutely love the colors of Ireland!

 Below the castle was the Kennel Sentry and Dungeon along with Badgers Cave.  On the grounds are beauty abounding and the poison garden!

The Dungeon

Badgers Cave

It just got tighter and tighter

This was part of the Stables and little gift shop

Gift shop

Blarney community road

My handsome husband

...always making faces...

We found this amazing tree that had been brought from America

Me & my boys

The lookout

Captain Jack, looking out!

The beginning of the Poison Garden

Deadly Nightshade

Irish Juniper

Japanese Holly

Mandrake

Poison Ivy/Oak

Wolfsbane

Last, we went to Blarney House but since it is a private residence, they would not let us in, even though our tickets included the Manor House...it was a little creepy and a lot weird.

We still weren't done with Ireland though.  We drove the Dingle Peninsula after Blarney.

View of the ocean while driving the Dingle Peninsula

It was cloudy and over cast but still really beautiful

Flowers around Dingle

This was the side of the road that wasn't facing the cliffs

One side was cliff, the other, mountain.  This was for two way traffic.  Along with the fog and rain....it was terrifying

Waterfalls on the side of the road

What the Conor Pass looks like on a clear day.  Left over remnants of the Ice Age.

What it looked like in the mist, rain, and fog.

The beach towards the end of the loop

Some of my favorite views

Just look at that land...this was taken from our moving car.

Ruins on the side of the road...amazing!

After all our traveling, we went back to McNamara's and had dinner.  Unfortunately I ate something bad and ended up getting food poisoning in the middle of the night.

7/11/14
Day 4:  We drove back to Shannon and headed home.  It was interesting travel with food poisoning but nothing could dampen a trip like this!  :)  I can't wait to go back!!!  I didn't end up making a cost list for this trip since there was four of us and it was our most expensive trip yet.  I think it cost us around $1,500 for flights, hotel, car, food, and entrance fees.