Last day in Ireland spent driving from Cork back to Dublin to fly out in the morning. We stopped at Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny Castle, and drove along the Sally Gap in Wicklow.
Our good luck with the weather finally ran out and we couldn’t go out until the afternoon today, so we only made it to Blarney Castle. Ended up being a lot more there to explore though; I saw signs for “Jurassic Fern Park” and obviously had to wander around there for a good long while.
Drove from Galway down to Cork, stopping in Limerick for lunch and seeing King John’s Castle.
Kilkee Cliffs (quite windy but not too cold) & Cliffs of Moher (extremely windy and quite cold); we spent a lot of time at the underrated Kilkee Cliffs and then were lucky enough to get the handicap buggy to the top of the Cliffs of Moher. In between we stopped at Loophead Lighthouse, Doonagore Castle, and drove through Doolin.
Drove up north of Galway. Saw Kylemoor Abbey, Connemara National Park, and Killary Fjord.
Now the real fun can begin with seeing all the pretty places. We took the train back to Dublin to rent a car and drove to Galway, stopping in Trim and County Offaly to see the Trim Castle and Clonmacnoise Monastery (which we may or may not have snuck into after hours through an open gate).
The day we’re all here for, the tour of the campus. We explored a Tesco and ended the night at a bar with some music; we’ve found that they’re pretty much stuck in the 70s, the musician was playing lots of Eagles and Beatles, and stores/restaurants in both Dublin and Dundalk play almost exclusively all the oldies but goodies.
Took a stroll to the Ha’penny pedestrian bridge to see a bit of Dublin without the rain, then took a quick train ride to Dundalk. Today was mostly meandering around, walked around Ice House Hill Park (where I took my obligatory European duck pictures – though not the best cuz all the kids were trying to pet them), and ended the night as the “Comfortably Dumb” trivia team and actually not doing terribly!
Landed at 1am – I mean 7am – so the perfect time to get started with our day! Got some breakfast, saw the Book of Kells, toured the Guinness factory, then grabbed dinner at the oldest pub and are taking an early night.
