Ireland Part 2

Part 2 of the Ireland adventure blog.  After we spent time in Dublin we spent the rest of the week driving around the rest of the island. We found lots of beautiful castles and scenery and lots of friendly people.  And of course, more pubs!

Our first day out of Dublin we went through the country side and stopped at several castles

The Rock of Cashel Castle with the graveyard where the people from the town have been buried for hundreds of years!

There are more sheep than people!

A monastery behind the Rock of Cashel.  We noticed this while we were exploring the castle and decided to take a little hike across some sheep fields to check it out.  Very worth it! 

Views from Cahir Castle and us standing on top of a ring stone fort

 

Beaches of Blackhead from our beautiful drive along the coast between the towns of Killarney and Galway

 

Sheep dog demonstration.  Very smart dogs!

The freezing cold Atlantic ocean.

The crew at the Ring of Kerry

Some sights along the ring of Kerry in Killarney

The Irish version of Stonehenge, from sometime in the BC

We were planning on swimming, after putting out feet in we decided this was a bad idea

The Cliffs of Moher with the fog rolling in over our heads

We stayed the night in Petes Castle (Caher Castle). He has spent years renovating it all by himself

Dad and I at Kylemore Abbey, a castle with large gardens, a mountain, a lake and its own church

Seth did a good job driving us on the edge of the sky road which followed the coastline on the Connemara peninsula

Views at the bottom the skyroad

A hunting lodge buried on the side of a mountain

It was a great trip complete with a Tech win, lots of castles, beautiful scenery and lots of man bonding time.  Thanks to the wives for holding down the forts while we were gone for a week!!

Ireland Part 1

Derek had a great week in Ireland and I wanted to make sure to document his trip! The guys were very busy and saw a lot while they were there. It sounded like an amazing trip with lots of rain, beer, and sheep :)

Flying over the island, and our first stop, The Guinness Factory

Trinity College which is like the Harvard of Ireland but much older, they hosted all of the pregame festivities and pep rallies

Walking down the busy streets of Dublin, and our first Pint in a pub

Walking around Dublin Castle in our 5$ ponchos.  The airline lost our luggage so we survived in the same clothes for nearly three days in the rain!

The official temple bar for which the area of Dublin we stayed in was named.  We spent our nights in the Temple Bar hotel

Thanks to our fancy tickets we got to hang out before the game with free drinks, food, tech gear and traditional Irish Music!

Getting ready for the game to start!

Tech came from behind to win on a last second touchdown!

Happy fans! Dad in his makeshift GT hat since his hat was still in Charlotte

Seth drove us around for the week on the wrong side of the road.  Some of the roads were barely one lane wide.  If his career ever fails he can always be an Uber driver in Ireland

Traditional Shepard's Pie!

We took a trip to the Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone!

The town of Cork from our hotel, which was located on an island

The Cliffs of Moher.  A spectacular view that we got a fleeting glimpse at between the fog

We stayed the night in Pete's Castle, more pictures from that soon, but the tub was built into the floor

The town of Clifden

We made a stop by Irelands oldest distillery, Kilbeggan, where they still have a working water wheel