Ireland - Itinerary

Peter and I had been travelling Ireland for five days last week. The trip was planned long ago as a "trial trip" for Peter's company. We travelled together with B., a colleague of Peter and B.'s lovely wife Z. It was my first time travelling to Ireland and I was immediately smitten with the lush green Irish landscape. Oh so many shades of green...

We rented a car at Dublin Airport and drove straight to Kilkenny, our first stop. I was quite confused though by left-hand driving and left-hand traffic. Glad that B. took on driving all the time. Thank you so much, B., your are indeed a brave driver!

Kilkenny is a pituresque town and our hotel was directly by the river Nore overlooking Kilkenny Castle. The next day we took a scenic route south to Youghal and then to Cork, our second stop. The weather was totally different from what we expected. Sun and gloriously blue sky and pleasant 20 degrees Celsius! We were thrilled as we left Germany in torrential rain.

In the evening we met with lovely Mrs. Murphy in Cork, a German living in Ireland for more than 30 years. She congratulated us in experiencing the first two warm and sunny days without any rain in Ireland!
We had delicious food that evening too!

 

  

 

The third day contained lots of driving, very scenic though. Rough mountains and blue sea (and twisting roads, urrgh). We drove via Glengariff to Killarney and finally took the motorway back to Dublin. There we stayed the fourth and fifth day.
 

 

Glengariff has some interesting (rare) vegetation due to the Gulf stream. In Killarney we run across some droplets of rain, but only on the windscreen of our car. In the rear though windows stayed dry!

We arrived in Dublin just in time for rush-hour traffic.  But eventually we arrived at our hotel which  was situated close to the river Liffey and a walking distance from the Temple Bar district. Have a guess where we spent the evening?

We also visited St. Patrick's Cathedral,

which has amazing floor tiles. Almost like a blanket made of quilts.

 

 

And there are great cafés with the most delicious cakes.

 

 

And more pubs......

 

 

And of course crows!

All in all a superb trip. I love the landscape, the cities and towns, the food, the cakes, the people - but most of all the colours of Ireland.

I know understand why everybody who visited Ireland is so enthusiastic about it. I am too!