July | 2018 | Safari So Good

July 1, 2018

IS BREA IRELAND ALAINN

by safarisogood

“Say but Little and say it Well.” Old Irish Proverb

Another bus tour today, this time Lexi came because it’s Sunday! We stopped at Glendalough, then for a photos of the Wicklow Mountains near the site where P.S. I Love You and Braveheart were filmed, then to Kilkinny for lunch and shopping.

Glendalough (pronounced Glen-duh-lock) was very small but very pretty. It is near the hills of Wicklow Mountains National Park in County Wicklow. It has a centuries-old tower and cemetery. After a walk and lots of pictures, we did some shopping then boarded for the long drive to Kilkinny.

Our last stop was in Kilkinny, a wonderful medieval town with a huge castle and approximately 25,000 inhabitants. We had a great lunch and Murphy’s ice cream afterward. We shopped at The Kilkinny Design Center, where I found two little hear-shaped plates (Moss pottery) with the same pattern as some pieces Michael bought me 15 years ago, the first time I went to Ireland. We are back on the bus and headed back to Dublin and we are all exhausted. It has been very warm here the whole time we’ve been here. Because it’s humid, the 75-80 degrees feel like 90 to me. I had to buy 4 new tops when I arrived because all the clothes I brought were for 50 +/- degrees.

Glendalough -a tiny little town, but so cute!

The heather is just starting to bloom.

Wicklow Mountains

The bridge in the movie P.S. I Love You where Hillary Swank’s car broke down and she was rescued by Gerard Butler!

On to Kilkinny…

Kilkenny Castle

One view of the town

Another view of the town — not enough time to really explore!

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July 1, 2018

SLAINTE “slawn-che” (cheers!)

by safarisogood

“God created alcohol to stop the Irish from ruling the world.”

We took a tour of the Jamison Whiskey Factory on Wednesday, June 27th. Lexi was working and Amanda opted not to come. None of us liked the whiskey, but the tour was very interesting.

Our tour guide.

I poured Michael a special bottle of Black Barrel whiskey with a personalized label!

We ate and drank our way through Ireland. We ate mostly at Pubs and pastry/tea shops, but we also had coffee and snacks at Starbucks on two mornings — why, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you! Because when you are catching tour buses early in the morning (i.e., before 9 am) there is nothing else open. Even the coffee/ pastry shops do not open early on the weekdays. Maybe because all the Pubs stay open late? Anyway, I’m not a beer drinker, but I took a real liking to the Orchard Thieves apple cider — it tastes light, sweet and refreshing and has just a little alcohol in it! So delicious. My preferred drink, iced tea, is almost unheard of and when I did find it (twice), it was pre-sweetened with lemon in it. At one pub, I LITERALLY ordered a whole pitcher of sweet iced tea and drank the whole thing by myself, except for maybe a half a cup, which KarenAnn drank.