Roadtrip: Ireland and N. Ireland

Ireland has been on our list for a long time.  You’d think being so close, we would have been there before hitting the five year mark in London.  We did–but just barely 🙂

**Update!!!  We hadn’t told anyone, but at the time of this trip, I was six weeks pregnant and just starting to experience all of the joys that accompany the first trimester.  This included morning sickness and fatigue.  We still had an incredible trip, but my culinary adventures were a bit more tame than usual!  I’ve added a few things to this post to document this special time in our lives***

We aligned our trip with the Georgia Tech vs. Boston College American Football game in Dublin.  John’s cousin, Craig, is a coach at Georgia Tech and he and his wife, Maribeth, were going to be in Dublin for the game.  So, we booked tickets to the Emerald Isle for the game and a pre-game road trip!

We landed in Dublin in the early morning and immediately rented a car and took off across the country, more than 300km to Killarney.

In Killarney, we took a few moments to explore the town and then had dinner.  I had some delicious fresh salmon, caught fresh from the Wild Atlantic Way (and the streams leading from it).

After dinner, we drove a further 70km to Dingle on the west coast of Ireland, where we would stay the night in a pub.  It was a bit noisy, so we didn’t get the best night of rest.

The next morning, we were up super early (left the pub at 6am) to do the Slea Head Drive on the Dingle peninsula.  We wanted to beat the tour bus traffic, because the locals told us it could cause quite a traffic jam on the very narrow and winding road.

The early bird definitely gets the worm.  We were all alone on the beautiful road, save a few sheep.

After completing the Slea Head Loop, we headed north for about 200km to the Cliffs of Moher.  We stopped en route to pick up some groceries for a picnic lunch.  When we arrived at the Cliffs, they were covered in fog.  We decided to enjoy a fog-gazing picnic and were rewarded with some gorgeous views of the cliffs after the fog lifted!

After seeing the Cliffs, we drove to our hotel for the evening:  The Ross Lake Hotel, just outside of Galway.  This was a lovely house hotel where we enjoyed a lovely dinner and sat by a roaring fire.  Our hosts were very gracious and took excellent care of us.

***This was the first day I experienced morning sickness, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the beautiful food.  I wasn’t able to eat salmon again until after Conrad was born…haha***

The following morning, we got into the car and decided to head straight to our next lodging, since it was going to be one of the nicest places we were staying on the trip.  We went another 250km to Donegal where we stayed at the Harvey’s Point Hotel.  We cannot recommend this place enough:  friendly staff, gorgeous rooms, and glorious views.  We will be back!

Upon arriving, I immediately wanted to relax in the massive bathtub.  I was also greeted with a Donegal quirk:  bog/peat water!  The water has a slight whisky color due to the peat.  Apparently, this gives whiskey from the area a unique flavor.  The water has been treated and is safe for human consumption and soaking!

The next morning, we took off for Northern Ireland, where we would spend the next 24 hours.  Our first stop is a place I’ve been wanting to visit for a while:  The Giant’s Causeway!  It is a unique volcanic sight, characterized by 40,000 basalt columns.

After leaving The Giant’s Causeway, we embarked on John’s favorite part of our road trip:  Torr Head Road.  It is his favorite drive to date and considered to be quite a challenging drive.  Aka, very long and winding.  ***With a wife with morning sickness***  I think he’ll want to go back and do the drive again some day!  We have some videos from the awesome drive, that I can’t get to upload here.  They are good, but don’t do the drive justice.

That night, we stayed in Belfast and had dinner at a The Crown Saloon downtown.

The next morning we took a Black Cab Tour of Belfast (we used Paddy Campbell’s–highly recommend).  We saw the Peaceline and learned first hand about “The Troubles.”  John and I were stunned at how little we knew about this, especially since we live so close and it was such a recent conflict.  Our driver told us first hand stories of his experiences, including a time when he was shot.  We learned so much that morning.

After our black cab tour, we spent the rest of the day driving down the east coast of Northern Ireland and Ireland eventually ending up back in Dublin for the night.

After more than 1500km driven, we settled into Dublin for a few days of sightseeing and, of course, the football game!

Our first stop was the obligatory tour of the Guinness Factory.  I’m not a beer drinker, but I have to say the Storehouse is a well curated museum to all things Guinness, including the Guinness Academy where you can learn to pull a pint.  I was very impressed.

That afternoon we met up with Craig and Maribeth for the Georgia Tech Pep Rally at Trinity College!

That night, we were even invited to a local Rugby match.

The next morning, we went to the stadium for the game, where we watched Georgia Tech beat Boston College!!!  It was so nice to go to an American Football game.  It had been a while!

We spent what little time we had left in Dublin doing some exploring.  A highlight was seeing the Book of Kells at Trinity College.  No photos were allowed of the actual book, but I was able to get a few of the library, where it is housed.  It’s like something out of a storybook.

And so ends our adventure in Ireland and Northern Ireland.  We were impressed by the beauty of these places and the warmth of the people.  A hundred thousand thanks to the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland!  We will be back.