Places We Stayed

The Ballynahinch Castle












The View from our Room







Name: Ballynahinch Castle
Town: Recess
Type: Castle
Website: Ballynahinch Castle Website
Comments: 4 Star Hotel overlooking a beautiful winding river. It has both a restaurant and a pub called the fishermans pub. You can rent/borrow (not sure) from a selection of fly fishing rods should you want to fish in the area. Our room had a perfect view of the river. According to the guest book, Brad Pitt and George Clooney stayed there shortly before us but then again that might just be a bit of blarney. We ate in the pub, which had some great food. Ironically one of the best parts of the meal was the fresh vegetables of snow peas and carrots. These were the tastiest and freshest vegetables I have ever experienced. I didn't know vegetables could taste this good. Additionally they served small potatoes which were done to perfection, not too soft and not too hard with amazing flavor.








The Gregans Castle Hotel












Sitting Room








Name: Gregans Castle Ballyvaughan
Town: Ballyvaughan, County Clare (near Doolin)
Type: Hotel
Sites: Cliffs of Moher, Oconners Pub (real Irish Music)
Website: Gregans Castle Ballyvaughan Website
Comments: Very pretty hotel with a wonderful view of mountains and fields. It's a place you MUST eat. The food is some of the best I've ever eaten in my life. I've been to many places that can present food well, but too many lack flavor. The chef here does a phenomenal job in both presentation and flavor. Service was well above par. When we asked the manager for information regarding local tourism information and pubs, he didn't hesitate for one second to get on the phone and inquire about several places for us.









The Shelbourne Lodge B&B













Grass Tennis Courts






Name: Shelbourne Lodge
Town: Kenmare
Type: Bed and Breakfast
Sites: Ring of Kerry
Website: Shelbourne Lodge Website
Comments: Very quaint accommodations. The people were by far the friendliest and most accommodating. We ate dinner in town and when we returned I asked for some coffee. Well I received so much more then just coffee. We were sitting in the garden relaxing when they brought us a tray with a coffee pot and some wonderful cake. It was some kind of coffee almond cake with a creamy filling. We felt like we were royalty. It was far beyond our expectations. The breakfast was also one of the better breakfasts we had, so fresh. The service was ultra friendly, a wonderful experience. Kenmare is a cute little town, just a short waling distance, and easy to walk around and see a lot in a very short time.









The Tudor Lodge B& B and our car out front






Name: Tutor Lodge
Town: Glendalough (1+ hrs from Dublin)
Type: Bed and Breakfast
Sites: St. Kevins Monastery, tallest waterfall in Ireland
Website: Tudor Lodge Website
Comments: This was the lowest cost of our stays. The house is lovely, the room is pleasant and comfortable. We did have an issue with the hot water in the sink, which required a special way to turn and lift the handle to get it to work (apparently it needs a new washer or something). Another minor issue we had was the light over the desk. Every time it got a little hot (about 2 minutes) it went off. Apparently the electrician is on call, but being a small town you are at their mercy. Neither was a big issue, especially since the accommodations were the most reasonably priced and included a Full Irish Breakfast. The people were accommodating and courteous, but not quite as much as some of the other places we experienced.


Name: Westin
Town: Dublin
Type: Hotel
Sites: Guinness Brewery, Jameson Distillery (museum only)
Website: Westin - Dublin Website
Comments: Elegant accommodations set in the heart of Dublin, a "lovely" hotel. Due to it's convenient location, it was easy to walk around Dublin and not be far from the hotel.


Name: Sheraton Fota Island and Spa
Town: Fota Island (near Cork)
Type: Hotel
Sites: Last port for the Titanic
Website: Sheraton Fota Island Website
Comments: Only about a year young. Upscale accomodations with a nice LCD TV and speakers in the bathroom. However, when we could not find a volume control for the speakers we called the desk and they were perplexed that there were even speakers in there (hmmmm). The Westin (also a Starwood property) in Dublin had these same speakers with a volume control, but not this one. The next day we found they disconnected the speakers.

May 15 - St. Kevin

Our last full day was ahead of us. Always a sad time maybe, but we both agreed that we were ready to go home. We agreed that our trip was neither too short nor too long. As much as you want vacation to be forever, we were ready to make this our last full day.

As good as the weather had been for us, today seemed to be a particularly exceptional day. We first headed off to St. Kevins Monastery in Glendalough. After touring the remains, we found an ice cream truck and had our last taste of soft ice cream in Ireland. This one was a bit different though in that you could get a few different flavors. I got chocolate, which was vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup somehow twirled into it. We sat and enjoyed our ice cream while taking in the beautiful weather.

From here we proceed onto Powerscourt House & Garden. It was a beautiful place, but really not a lot to see. I was trying to take a nice shot of the fountain, but there were these darned people picnicking on the lawn (which your not supposed to do). Darn people are always getting in the way. We toured the gardens and also the gift shop (of course). In one area of the gift shop they were selling some fresh scones, so we bought one to share. It was very yummy, so fresh.

After the Gardens, we proceeded onto see the tallest waterfall in Ireland. We were able to drive almost right up to the base of it. I took several photos but then my camera batteries died. I brought 4, and my last one went dead. Perfect timing I guess because it was the last thing I was going to photograph. I could have charged it, but was a bit leary about the power differences, even though we had a converter with us. I still had my little pocket camera, if there was anything I needed to take, and as a very last resort, I had my camera phone.

By this time we were getting hungry so we went to look for a place to eat. We stumbled along this place called Johnny Foxes, which apparently is quite famous (we didn't even know). We both had some cold seafood dishes. The place is loaded with atmosphere. It looks like they decorated it by finding things people were throwing away. A real mishmash of stuff, but it was our kind of place. I wish we had something like that by us.

We found out that they have music every night, so we decided we would go back later that night. We went back to our hotel and packed up all our stuff and various purchases we had made. We rested a bit and headed out back to Johnny Foxes. The place has two parking lots, one small one next to it, and a very large one close by. When we went there to eat, there was hardly anyone there, but that night that lot was full and the other one was partially full. Apparently it's a place for bus tours to stop. When we went in, we saw a separate room where there was an Irish band performing and dozens of people sitting in tables that probably had 30 or more people each. It was full. We decided to sit near where we were earlier and there was another performer there. He was singing some Irish classics on guitar.

It was a perfect place to spend our last night. We had a few pints and listened to the musician. He did a bunch of sing-along songs most anyone would know. He even took some requests, which I asked him to sing American Pie. After a few other requests (not sing along songs), he played my request and everyone sang.

We ended the night with an Irish Coffee, which was the best I ever had. I generally don't like Irish Coffee as it has too strong of a whiskey taste, but that's in the US. In Ireland it was purely yummy. Rich cream on top and wonderfully rich coffee with just a hint of whiskey.

It was a good day and night!

May 14 - Waterford

Today we were off to Waterford and then Glendalough. Waterford is both a town and a company. While Waterford, the company, is in town of Waterford, we were just there to take a tour of the factory.

The tour was very interesting. You first go to a main building where you purchase your ticket, then proceed to a bus. The bus travels all of about 3 blocks or so to the factory. The first station we saw was where two men were making the first parts of a pitcher. The part we saw was them making a handle. One man heated up the glass and placed it on the partially completed vase. It was all done in about a minute or two with proficient skill. I have some photos.

From there we went to see other glass being blown into their first rough shapes. A piece can go through many stages, from the rough glass shape through to it's final product. They have a whole section of people etching the many designs into a variety of items.

The final stage we saw was where they do custom etching. There are some really beautiful pieces in this room, and we got to see someone etch a glass up close and personal.

Waterford also makes many of the trophies for various sporting events. Tiger woods has so many, that they gave him a section all his own. The ones on display are exact duplicates of the originals as they make two copies of each trophy for a "just in case" scenario.

Like any good old tour, it ends at the gift shop (of course). Not surprisingly, this is the most expensive gift shop we've ever been in. Neither of us are very interested in expensive (or inexpensive) nik naks, but we agreed if we saw something we thought we could use, we would buy it. Those who know us know we are into wine, so we were particularly interested in the wine glasses. Waterford has various design patterns, but there are some that are only in Ireland and some that are only available directly at the factory. This appealed to Naomi since it made them somewhat more exclusive and different. We found a pattern that we liked a lot, so we purchased a special set that came in a nice box. We also found out that we could get them engraved for free, so we thought why not. Discussing our options, we decided to keep it simple and just put our last name on it. That way we could hand them down to a family member and it would have special meaning.

Then we had this other great deal, free shipping BUT there was a minimum. Don't you know it we were less then 2 Euro short of the minimum and they wouldn't override it. So it was either buy some small item (nothing for 2 Euro I assure you), or purchase something we want. Well after we couldn't find some small item, we decided to get the matching set of water glasses. The only downside is that they do the hotdog/bun gimmick, the one where they number in each set doesn't match. Well we decided to live with the mismatch in number. We could always go back and get more, as Waterford never discontinues an item. Since the engraving was free, we decided to get those engraved as well. Quite an expensive day, and the day wasn't over yet.

We proceed onto Glendaloch where we were staying for the last two days of our trip. We stayed in a quaint B&B called Tudor Lodge. All the places we stayed had a lot of country charm, except for the Starwood hotels which were very nice, but had a hotel feel. The possible exception was the Westin in Dublin, which seemed to have more charm then the other Startwood properties. All were very nice though.

We checked in, dropped our luggage in the room, and went off to dinner. We saw a couple of place in town, and just picked one. Ironically it was right next to where we were going the next day, but we didn't find that out until the next day. Since this was one of the most reasonably priced places, we decided to have appetizers. I had wings (which Naomi lovingly exclaimed "YOUR HAVING WINGS IN IRELAND!!!"). YES! Well they were the best wings I think I've every had. They were super crispy, not greasy, and a lot of flavor. I liked them so much that I was going to go back there the next night just for the wings, but we ended up with other plans.

After dinner we went back to our B&B. On the way, we stopped by a convenience store for some soft ice cream. Well it wasn't very convenient because they had shut down the machine for the night and it wasn't late at all. Apparently it's an arduous process to shut it down and/or start it up so NO Ice cream. So we proceed onto our B&B. It was still very light out and right near where we were staying is a field where some kids (just barley old enough to walk) playing footbal (aka soccer). We sat on a stone fence, opened a Guiness, and watched the game for awhile. After awhile, we went back to the B&B to watch some TV and call it a night.