On the way to Kilkenny (our final stop during the trip), we drove through County Waterford so we could visit Lismore Castle. I won't go into the history or anything of the castle as I never bothered to read up on this one; instead I will just share a few pictures. The castle sits on the bank of the River Blackwater and the two pictures show what is on each side of this certain point of the river so you can see the building's design and the view provided to the castle's occupants.
The one real challenge we had in Ireland was driving between all of our destinations using the wrong side of the road. It was my first time driving on the left and it was really an odd experience for the first few days. I made sure we got a rental that had an automatic to simplify the process as much as possible and with Kathi's help, to make sure that I didn't kill us when turning right (now into traffic), everything went perfectly smooth. As a matter of fact on all of the little two lane roads in the country that have no shoulders and a wall on each side I managed to pass most of the natives using my Viennese skills without losing a review mirror even though only about an inch of extra space was given on each side. Good work me and good work Opel Astra.
Our next stop was on the south coast in the self declared Irish Riviera region. We stayed at a nice hotel just up the beach from a town called Youghal (pronounced 'yawl' for you southern folk) which is about 30 minutes from Cork. It was a great place to relax during our anniversary and the area provided many excellent opportunities for walks on the beach. Also, County Cork is nicknamed "The Rebel County" which has led to the area supporting many of its own products including several excellent beers (such as Beamish and Rebel Lager).
The hotel we stayed at was very nice and located right on the beach. When we arrived I asked if it would be possible to have a room with an ocean view and they did not disappoint. For the same price agreed to online they gave us an apartment with an ocean view (because only the apartments are on the beach) so we ended up with two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen all for the price of a hotel room which further proves that it never hurts to ask (especially in Ireland where the people are extremely nice and willing to help when they can).
After the Burren we stayed in a little fishing village named Liscannor where we could visit the Cliffs of Moher. The spot that we visited has a 215 meter (700 ft) drop-off and was a spectacular place just to stand and stare. Inland are rolling grass fields with the typical stone walls and grazing cows so it really seems as if the world has fallen into the ocean where the cliffs start. I really can't think of any other way to describe it besides saying it's simply an extremely beautiful area that is a must see for any trip to Ireland. .....Only a few more posts and then I will finally move onto a new topic.
On the way to our next destination we drove through the Burren. This is a region in the west of Ireland that is dominated by limestone intermixed with a few small patches of green. It is sparsely populated and gives you a bit of an "out of this world" feeling. The top picture is of the Poulnabrone Dolmen which is an ancient tomb that dates back five to six thousand years and the bottom picture just gives a good overall feel for what the area looks like. With the tomb dating back so far I find it interesting that people were able to live in the area during the Stone Age when it has been largely neglected in more recent times because of its relative barrenness.
Next we started driving down the west coast of the country and stopped for a night in the
Connemara region. In this area we felt a bit more isolated as the roads were smaller and not in the best condition, plus we stayed at another B&B Farmhouse which was miles from anything (including the road) and in the middle of a small valley. On the way we were wondering "Where the hell are we going?" but when we arrived we were really happy to be spending the evening in such an isolated place. The sheep were allowed to graze anywhere they wanted so you had to be careful not to hit any wondering on the road and we found a beach a few miles away from the farm that was anything but a tourist hot-spot (though it definitely would be if it were closer to civilization), and it made the perfect place for an evening picnic. Before heading out of the area we also visited Kylemore Abbey which can be seen in the picture below. It was actually built as a private residence and then sold to Belgian nuns during WWI. Today it is an all girls school ran by the nuns and an incredibly beautiful structure snuggled perfectly in the middle of nature.
While we were on Ireland's north coast we also visited Dunluce Castle. It is a beautiful castle in great condition and with the simple addition of a roof it would be possible to live in once again. It was first built in the 1200s and it sits on a cliff overlooking the sea (on a clear day you can most likely see all the way to Scotland). At some point in the 1600s part of the cliff collapsed during a party at the castle and it took the kitchen along with some of the servants with it to their death in the ocean below. After this time nobody has really lived in the castle so it has had 300-400 years of deterioration but it is still an excellent site to visit.
Before we left for Ireland Kathi bought me tickets to the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which was tonight). I won't get into too many details about the movie because I don't want to spoil the fun for the rest of you, but I will say that I really enjoyed the experience. Indy is a bit older now and it shows at times (though he can still kick more butt then I can) plus the feel of the new movie is a bit different as everything is taking place in the 1950s instead of the 1930s but it was nice to have a new Indiana Jones film after such a long break. I think the movie stayed true to its roots and I definitely recommend a viewing for all of you fans of the franchise out there.
I will return to posting about Ireland tomorrow...
After Dublin we drove north where we stayed at a B&B Farmhouse (the top picture was the view from our room) for two nights so we could check out Giant's Causeway. The closest town was two miles away (Bushmills) and is home to the oldest legal distillery (for whiskey) in the world which we checked out while we were in the area too. During this time we were in Northern Ireland so technically in the UK and in the need of British Pounds (boo to that exchange rate).
Giant's Causeway is an interesting natural feature that was created by a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. This eruption created thousands of interlocking basalt columns that look like giant floor tiles. Because of this look legends were created saying that a giant that lived in Northern Ireland built a bridge to Scotland to fight a rival giant for a variety of reasons and these stones are what is left of that bridge/road. The area also has many cliffs which provided an excellent opportunity for nice walks and the surrounding farm land was a beautiful and relaxing place to visit for a few days.
We started off our trip in Dublin but we also rented a car for seven days and drove around the country a bit so to give everyone an idea of where we all went I put red Xs on a map and added it as the first picture for today. The people were really nice in Dublin and the taxi drivers gave us some good tips but the main thing we liked about the city was the beer. To start any trip to Ireland off properly you should head to the closest pub and order a pint of Guinness, and we did just that when we arrived. It sounds odd but all of the travel guides were correct when they said that Guinness tastes better in it's home country and even more so in it's home city. Other then that the city gave me a mixed feel of Europe and the U.S. (which I liked) and overall it reminded me a bit of Boston, though to be honest I enjoyed our time in the countryside a bit more. Also, (as an odd note) I found it more difficult to understand peoples dialects in Dublin then in any other part of the country. I understood what most everyone was saying but I had to try a bit harder when in the city which is something I definitely did not expect.
Well, we are back home and getting things sorted out so we can get back to work and our normal routines tomorrow. Ireland was beautiful and the people were great so I definitely recommend taking a trip there for any of you who have have ever considered doing so. I will post pictures and some details about our vacation over the next several days so that should provide us all with a little entertainment. I will also note that I received a speeding ticket in the mail while we were gone dated April 23rd (the first day we had Suzi). It seems I will have to ease off the accelerator on the new ride and pay more attention to the radar machines on the autobahn in the future.
Tomorrow morning Kathi and I leave Austria to spend nine days in Ireland where we will celebrate our second anniversary. Since one of the main things we have in common is that we like to travel (how else would we have met?), we are currently trying to spend our anniversary in a different country each year. We will see how many years we can make it before we run into a work or money type conflict, but so far we are two for two. Obviously there will be no new posts while we are gone so you will have to find alternate sources of entertainment during the next week and a half. My sincere apologies for that. I will however not apologize for the fact that there are Papa John's in Ireland and I plan on breaking out of my upcoming Irish diet (of potatoes and Guinness) for one meal of American style pizza during our trip. Happy Anniversary to me (and Kathi too of course)!
There's not much going on here so I will just talk about the weekend. Elli and Gerd came up from Carinthia so we all got up early on Saturday morning and went to the outlet mall in Parndorf. The getting up early part turned out to be a good idea as things were quite relaxed when we arrived but by the time we left in the afternoon the general browsing around of certain stores and parking became close to impossible (holiday weekend in Austria + location close to the Slovakian and Hungarian borders = shopping for everyone). Last night we had a Stadler siblings' "guys night" at our flat and a "ladies night" at Stefan and Sona's. Us guys ate meat (Cevapcici) and bean dip, drank beer and vodka, and played poker and blackjack while the ladies chose a healthier menu and filled the evening with conversation so I would say things went exactly as planned. I had an excellent time at least.
......just a few more work days and we are off to Ireland.
May is the unofficial holiday month here in Austria with workers getting about one day off each week because of a different national holiday. To start off any such month properly it is only appropriate to have the 1st be a holiday too. Therefore Kathi and I went to the Wachau today to enjoy the scenery and some good food. We tried a new restaurant this time around in a little town just past Spitz and the food was excellent and the price very cheap. They had a very nice garden too so we plan on going back sometime this summer when the weather is a bit warmer.
To work off our lunch I decided that we should finally walk up to the castle that lies above Dürnstein. It is actually the ruins of the castle where Richard the Lionheart was held as a prisoner for a few months more then 800 years ago. The walk didn't take too long but it was a good workout for a couple of city slickers like us. The castle might look small from the bottom of the valley but when you get up there you realize that it was actually pretty large. Also, the views from that height are excellent as you can see in the pictures. Now we are back home where I plan on watching some baseball (the Orioles play on NASN) while having a beer so today is really ending up as an excellent start to holiday month.
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