Irish Road Tour 2011

I've just been across the sea to Ireland and arrived at the closing of the day...

Last Thursday Dick and I left our home in Reading early in the morning. In a minibus with four friends we drove to Pembroke where we boarded the ferry. It was a smooth crossing and we arrived at Rosslare at the closing of the day. Our hotel was nearby and offered a view of the harbour.

The following morning after breakfast we started our ten day road tour. We moseyed west on through Kilmore Quay and Hook's Head Lighthouse to settle in Glengarriff for three days.

From there we explored the Killarny National Park area and visited Bantry. Our next stop was Bunratty which we approached via Dingle and the Burrens. While there we enjoyed a medieval banquet.

I had chosen the White House for our base at Galway as it was located on Ocean Spray Road. I figured that I would see the sun go down on Galway Bay. Didn't happen :(

I had allotted two days for Galway. However, as Galway turned out to be a much smaller town than I imagined, we took the opportunity to explore Connemara.

It was Dublin next for a two day city stay. We did the usual - the hop on - hop off bus tour, a dinner show with Irish music and dancing. I saw it reviewed as cheesy and twee but that suited us tourists fine.

On our last night we found a great french film, Little White Lies. After the show we walk around town a bit before making our way home. The town was alive with more people out on the streets that Friday night than we had seen during the day.

Then it was south to Rosslare via Kilkenny, which bills itself as the medieval centre of Ireland. There is a nicely restored castle there.

At Rosslare we stayed in the same hotel as before so I felt quite a home. An Elvis Presley tape was playing when we checked in around 3.00 p.m. and I heard Elvis songs until I retired after dinner. This was okay as several were old favourites, which I had not heard for a while.

We were booked on an early sailing and I jumped out of bed when I mistook the fog horn for my alarm. It was a little eerie sailing in a fog with the horns blowing frequently. The sea was calm and we enjoyed another comfortable crossing.

Ireland is a great place to visit. The scenery is pretty and varied, the people friendly and helpful and the food tasty and too plentiful.