Ireland - March 2019

Monday

We left Holyhead just ahead of scheduled time, I assume because it was quiet and everyone had already checked in. Didn’t do much walking around the ferry as we were both fairly tired considering it was 0230. There had been incredibly strong winds all day Sunday and this caused some big waves and the boat was crashing about and caused the car alarms to go off. We went up to the Hygee Lounge where I'd booked nicer seats to try and get some sleep. We arrived slightly late into Dublin but it meant an extra 15 mins sleep! We drove straight from the ferry to a little carpark overlooking the sea and got a few more hours kip until the sun had rose, the weather forecast said 80% chance of rain and grey thick clouds. We were greeted to a cloudless sky and an amazing sun rise. From this car park we made our way through the rush hour traffic to a shopping centre to freshen up and get some breakfast.

After a croissant and a coffee we drove to the hotel to park the car up and walked towards the centre. We walked through a nice park on the way and we liked the old buildings after a light lunch we went to a Viking museum and learnt about the Vikings inhabiting Dublin in the 840's. For the evening meal we went to Devitt’s Bar - highlight of the day. We had our first pints of Guinness and the most amazing chicken burger and chicken goujons!

After that our long day of travelling and little sleep had caught up with us so we took the short walk back to the hotel and retired for the evening.

Tuesday

Marta's Birthday! She woke up in the nice hotel room and opened her few birthday presents. The chocolates she opened straight away and had for breakfast, she got two new El Camino bracelet additions which she added to her collection, a journal for writing about her travels much like this diary and a scratch map of Europe which we went through all the places we'd already been to.

We then had a lazy morning and eventually left the hotel and headed for our first stop - Hell Fire Club, just a short circular walk from the car park but with great views over Dublin, and we managed to fly the drone about just before the heavy showers forced us to shelter in the old stone building the "Hell Fire Club".

We had lunch back at the car and then drove south over the mountain roads towards Lough Tay, where they filmed some of the Kattegat scenes for Vikings.

It was extremely windy and we almost gone blown over a few times. Next stop was the Powerscourt Waterfalls. This was a huge waterfall in the eastern side of Wicklow Mountains. I managed to fly the drone about a bit again.

We drove about a bit more around Roundwood reservoirs. Then looked for a place to have dinner. We found a nice Pub with live music and great food in Kilkenny called Matt the Millers. Chicken and Curry soup was the highlight of the meal.

We then found a nice place to stop for the night in the car, just on the edge of the town next to the river.

We watched one episode of After Life then fell asleep!

Wednesday

After a peaceful night by the river we went to McDonalds for a coffee and planned our day. We went back into the centre of Kilkenny and visited the castle, it had a rich history with lots of changes being made to the fortifications but was now left with three sides complete. It was sold to the town council for £50 a few years back so it could be restored.

We had a bit of lunch before driving South to the Comeragh Mountains and went for a walk up the hill to a huge lake - Counshingaun Lough. Again I managed to fly the drone about a bit and we headed back to the car quickly as the storm clouds were looming.

From here we went round the mountains to Mahon Waterfalls. It was just a short walk from the road to the falls. And despite there being gusts that almost blew us over the rain held off.

We found a quiet little sleeping spot next to what looked like a lake bit was in fact part of the huge Cork Harbour system, often used by bird watchers but tonight would be our campsite. On the way we stopped and bought some bread to have with our dinner - we made noodles for tea and ate it in the car over looking the water. We watched a film on the phone before getting into bed.

Thursday

We wanted to wake up and see the sunrise however the sky was completely covered in thick grey clouds, although it wasn't raining so that was a bonus. We made some coffee while we got ourselves ready for the day, a quick fly of the drone and we left.

It was just a short drive into Cork and we walked through the town to a small park - Fitzgerald Park. We got some coffee here and then walked back into town.

Did a bit of shopping in Tesco and left for Kinsale, we wanted to visit James Fort which was a huge castle built on the side of the hill. It was very impressive and in a star shape. It again had a long history with the English, Spanish and Irish all having involvement with it. We had lunch here also overlooking the small port of Kinsale before driving through the town on our way to Killarney.

We went for pizza which was very good and then went up into the hills to find our campsite for the night. As it was still early we watched a few episodes of After Life before going to sleep.

Friday

We woke to the rain hitting the car windows, again Marta wanted to set the alarm early to catch the sunrise! We did manage to get some of the views though, 180 degree view of the mountains in the clouds. I wanted to fly the drone up above the clouds to get a view of the lake but in the few hours we were there it didn't stop raining.

We drove a short distance from the campsite to Torc waterfalls, we parked next to "feet_on_tour" a German couple traveling around in a camper. We sent them a pic on Instagram of our "feet on tour".

The walk was quite short and down lots of steps but it was worth it. We walked a little further to the edge of the lake before returning up all the steps for lunch back at the car.

Next stop was Ross Castle right on the edge of the lake. It was a small tower with four levels, where one family lived. We had a short walk around before going back into Killarney for a coffee and slice of cake. Then we drove through the "Gap of Dunloe". This was spectacular, an amazing road through some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen. We stopped several times to take many many pictures.

It was a long drive in a loop back to Killarney, stopping off at Ladies View, another sunning viewpoint where we saw two young deer.

We managed to get quite close!

Once back in Killarney we went back to the pizza place and had just a small pizza between us as it was still raining and we didn't think trying to cook in the rain was a good idea. We headed north then towards Limerick to our 4th campsite at Ringmoylan Pier. It was a nice location, only we had to move the car off the pier at midnight out of fear the car might be washed away with the rising tide!

Saturday

We woke to another grey start, are what was left of the bread, cheese and ham then got ready to go into the town of Limerick.

In Limerick we went to the castle, it had a very informative, interactive section at the start which gave a detailed history of all of Ireland, not just this castle. Then getting into the castle itself with tall towers it had great views across the city.

We had some lunch after the castle and decided to move on to the Cliffs of Moher. We had showers on the way there but started to have glimpses of blue sky so everything was crossed hoping for a nice view.

We didn't quite avoid all the rain and the wind was pretty relentless, but the view was still breath-taking. We walked north slightly first towards the tower which was having a lot of renovation and then walked south along the small muddy path in search of different angles and perspectives. We had short windows of clear skies and sunshine and we must have taken hundreds of photos each time the clouds parted.

There was also a visitor centre there and a gift shop. We warmed up for a few minutes before going back to check the sunset, however the thick clouds had moved in so no chance for a romantic picture!

Now getting dark we headed north to our final destination, Galway. We got to the hotel quite late and were in desperate need of a shower.

Sunday

St. Patrick's Day!

We started with a nice large breakfast in the hotel which was a welcome change from a Weetabix drink and a sandwich in the car! The blue skies we were greeted to when we first woke had been replaced by grey rain clouds however it turned out to be just a few showers so couldn't complain.

We headed into town and found a spot for the parade. It lasted for quite a while and had many different people represented, from the local dancing school, scout groups and sporting teams to the Pilipino-Irish community.

When it finished we needed to warm up and happened to notice the bar we conveniently stood in front of served Irish Coffee. Of course being St. Patrick's I had to have a Guinness too!

After warming up we wandered around the busy town of Galway, walking along the river and fighting our way through the busy shops and streets.

We found a small café for lunch and then wandered towards the Harbour area, the sun had decided to come out and although bitterly cold everything looks better in the sunshine.

All this walking around had made us thirsty so we headed back towards a pub we heard playing live music and wrestled our way to the bar for another Guinness and enjoyed the music.

After here we went in search of more live music and found a lovely little pub playing "proper" Trad music. Just a group of locals all having fun together, it was everything we wanted from Ireland! We enjoyed more Guinness listening to them playing and as they started to pack up and finish we also left and en-route back to the hotel stopped off for Halloumi Chips at the same place as we had lunch! It was a short walk back to the hotel and that was St. Patrick's Day over along with our last full day.