Arrived in Ireland

You know you are on an adventure when the flight board reads like this.  This is in Iceland.

Had a long trip to get here but arrived safely.  Left around 9:30 AM on Monday.  We had to drive from Colorado Springs up to Longmont to drop our other car with our son, then continue to Loveland in our car to have my brother and wife drive us back to DIA airport.  They are keeping our car for us while we are gone. Then wait for the plane.  We left at 5:40 PM (a little late) and flew through to Iceland. Arrived there early in the morning due to time changes.  Had a short layover, then flew to Heathrow. Went through customs and boarded for Dublin. At Dublin the fun really started.  Got our car alright but headed out of the airport in the wrong direction. Discovered that fairly quickly and turned around. Some few hours later (after 8:00 PM), we arrived at our timeshare in East Clare.

Driving a stick shift (which neither of us have driven in probably over 30 years), shifting with the left hand vs the right, driving on the left side of the road, sitting on the right side of the car, and driving on unfamiliar and narrow roads is causing my husband (and me) some major challenges.  I am not saying I would do better, just that it is very stressful.  Some of the roads are better than others but most look like these.  And remember that the lanes seem narrower than ours. Imagine driving a small country road with no shoulder and the hedges (sometimes with stone walls in them) are literally trimmed by a large road truck hedge trimmer that cuts then off right at the lane edge.  I couldn't even take a picture in town where the edge was parked cars because I was too busy holding my breath and trying to help Doug not hit them.  We took out full insurance coverage at Hertz and it's a good thing.  I hope I don't have a heart attack before we leave here.  Then later in the trip we do it again in England and Scotland.  Sigh!!!!

Went to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast our first day. Beautiful!!  Spectacular!!  Windy, though. You had to steady yourself against the wind sometimes to take pictures.  But it is really something.  The shops and visitor center are built into the hillside.


We drove further around the point to the north through the Burren.  I have never seen anything quite like it.  It is limestone that is right at the surface and weathered into some interesting cliffs and plateaus.

Yesterday we headed to Galway.  We visited the Quadrangle at the National University of Ireland at Galway.  This was built in 1848 and is now the admin center.  The rest of the campus is pretty modern.







We also visited St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church.  It is an Episcopal church and is the largest medieval parish church in Ireland still in constant use.  It was built in 1320 and extended in the 16th century. Christopher Columbus worshipped there in 1477.  It is dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra (which is now Turkey) who is the patron saint of children, or "Santa Claus".



Among other things, we saw Quinn Abbey.  It was very beautiful and the graveyard is still active. We couldn't read all of the headstones but it appears that a family has a small plot where they must bury ashes.  The stones are then etched to add the latest names.  The oldest I could read went back to 1927, although many were worn beyond reading, and the newest date was 2013.

By this time, we got a late dinner and headed back to our timeshare.