Kilkenny/Achfords/Dublin – Day 10

Day 10 – Thursday, September 27:
Kilkenny/Ashford (Dublin)

Left hotel 10:00 AM
Glendough for lunch-snack break
While renowned for it’s magnificent scenery Glendalough is also full of a rich and varied heritage in terms of history, monuments, archaeology, architecture, landscapes, geology, parks, flora, fauna, wildlife habitats & mining history.
The Glendalough Valley was carved out by glaciers during the Ice Age and the two lakes, from which Glendalough gets its name, were formed when the ice eventually thawed. The Valley is home to one of Ireland’s most impressive monastic sites founded by St. Kevin in the 6th Century.
Situated in the Wicklow Mountains National Park, the area is a haven for wildlife and their habitats, flora and fauna.
The remains of the Glendalough Mines and Glendasan mines can be found both inside and outside the Park

The ‘City’ consists of a number of monastic remains, and the most impressive being the Round Tower which stands 30m high. The main group of monastic buildings lies downstream near the Round Tower. The grounds were entered through the Gateway, which has two round headed granite arches.
Beyond St. Mary’s Church is the Priest’s House, a 12th Century building in Romanesque style, with an interesting carving of a much earlier date on the lintel of the doorway.
Just beyond the Priest's House is a large granite cross (sixth or seventh century) and the "Cathedral", the largest church on the site, with a nave, chancel and sacristy (11th and 12th C), and St Kevin's Church.

St Kevin’s Church is commonly known as St Kevin's Kitchen. This is a barrel-vaulted oratory of hard mica schist with a steeply pitched roof and a round tower belfry (12th C).
Approx 200m east of the Church of the Rock is a cavity in the cliff which is known as St Kevin's Bed or Hermitage.
At the Glendalough site on the road to Laragh, to the right, stands Trinity Church (11th-12th C). Beyond the river about 1.5km to the east of the Cathedral is St. Saviour’s Priory a church with fine Romanesque carvings on the chancel arch and windows.
The remains of an old stone fort and three stone crosses can be found between the Upper and Lower Lake, and beside the Lower Lake another cross; all four are stations on the pilgrimage route at Glendalough. Near a small bridge by St Kevin's Bed stands Reefert Church (11th C.) with a nave and chancel.

And our final destination of the day was at an Ireland know celebrity and television personality cooking school. Arrived at Ballyknocken House and Cookery 1:45 PM

Award-winning Ballyknocken Cookery School is home to TV Chef and Food Writer, Catherine Fulvio, and  is scenically located on a 350 acre farm a short drive from Dublin City Centre in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Ballyknocken Cookery School is a centre for culinary learning. Catherine’s style of cooking is modern Irish,with an emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients. The Cookery School offers a wide range of cookery classes, including Catherine's Southern Italian Kitchen and seasonal favorites including BBQ & Outdoor Dining to Fabulous Mains & Desserts and our Head Chef Junior Chef where adults and children cook together in the kitchen. 
The Cookery School at Ballyknocken is a centre for learning culinary skills. The school caters for vocational, professional and personal development as well as corporate groups.  At Ballyknocken Cookery School you will find a fresh, fun approach to cooking with an emphasis on hands on courses.

Chef Catherine made scones with assistants Edna and Janet.  Scones were served with fresh jam and tea.  They were awesome!  We walked around the gardens and looked at a rare collection of farm tractors.  Everyone enjoyed the visit.
Left at 3:15 PM

 These are some photos of her garden and farm.

Pear tree

 The farm had so many picturesque areas to photograph.
We were tired and were ready to go to our last hotel.

Gresham Hotel, Dublin


Our trip back to the hotel was fun. We learned the winners of 2 contests we ran 
We had a contest on the bus with writing a LIMERICK after the city of Limerick:
Did you know"

1st line
2nd line....rhyme

3rd line
4th line....rhyme

5 line rhyme with 1st

Winners of Limerick contest:
    •    Marianne Miller

There was a coach driver named Mike,

Who all of us really do like,

He is witty and funny,

With a smile that is sunny,

He’s half Leprechaun going on strike!

    •     Nan Hurst
I
once had a driver in Eire,

Who let us stop to admire,

Old castles of yore,

And gardens galore,

This red-headed driver in Eire

    •     Marge Rushing

There once was a dutiful daughter,

Who went to fetch her mum water,

She tripped on some stones,

Broke both her wrist bones,

And that was the end of mum’s water.

Arrived at Hotel Gresham, Dublin 4:30 PM
Farewell dinner; thanked group for choosing CTD, airport procedures

Results of Kilometer game: traveled 2,647 kilometers (winners:)
  
•    Julian Smith (2,500)
    •    Lisa Sheller (2,400
    •    Denice Fini (2,745)

Dublin/Chicago – Day 11

Day 11 –Friday, September 28:

Our final dinner

Farewell to Ireland
Left hotel 10:00 AM

We met for breakfast to enjoy our final Irish breakfast before heading to the Dublin airport.
Now it was time to pack our final bag and weigh them for departure.
Our final dinner was very nice we said our good-byes that evening. A couple of families were continuing on to England to meet friends, but the majority was well rested and ready to head home.

After breakfast, we were surprised to see our driver Mike, who thought for sure he would not be able to take us back to the airport. He managed to move some plans around and off we went.

The airport was crowded but the lines went quickly. 2 security areas was a bit much--but we were organized and Jim lead the way to all the security points. I was nervous with all the paperwork for things to declare and moving from this line to that...passport here...passport not here...but finally, all of us met at our gate on time with no one lost or delayed.

Left with 23 passengers; others traveling separately.
US pre-clearance before the gate
Departure Dublin, Aer Linguis flight #125 scheduled for 12:50 PM, left at 1:30 PM
Arrived in Chicago 3:30 PM CST

It was a great trip; now back to reality—with family, friends and work!

Thanks guys, it was a wonderful trip with lots of new friends and memories!!!

Blarney/Kilkenny – Day 9

Day 9 – Wednesday, September 26:
Blarney (Kilkenny)
Left hotel at 9:00 AM
Arrived at Blarney 11:00 AM, Went to the castle.  Some kissed the blarney stone; others watched, some time for shopping. Woolen Mills before heading to Kilkenny Castle. We really enjoyed the shopping. Picked up some gifts and some things we were looking for after getting to Ireland.



 Blarney Woolen Mills had the best selection that we saw while in Ireland, but you really need to have enough time to see EVERYTHING. The store is HUGE. Prices were a little higher than in some of the other shops, but if you want color, style, and the widest selection, it might be worth it to you.
Left at 1:30 PM

Our next stop was Kilkenny Castle is a castle in Kilkenny, Ireland built in 1195 by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke to control a fording-pointof the River Nore and the junction of several route ways.

The magnificent Kilkenny Castle overlooks the River Nore and has guarded this important river crossing for more than 900 years. The gardens, with extensive woodland paths, rose garden and ornamental lake, create the setting for a beautiful stroll.

Two wings of the castle have been restored to their 19th Century splendor and include a library, drawing room and the noted Long Gallery.

A suite of former servants rooms now houses the Butler Art Gallery, which mounts frequently changing exhibitions of contemporary art. The Parade Tower is the Castle’s conference venue.

Kilkenny Castle had a guide in certain rooms.  It was not easy for group to navigate to rooms; also lots of stairs. No camera's were allowed in the castle.

nope, NOT an escalator....

Walked to Ormonde Hotel, Kilkenny, Cork 5:30 PM
After dinner we had a chance to pick up a few souvenirs and a few hours before we left the next morning to explore the little town

 Tomorrow we are off to Dublin. We weren't departing our hotel until 10am

 

Kerry/Kilarney – Day 8

Day 8 – Tuesday, September 25:
Kerry (Killarney)
Left hotel at 10:00
First stop Kenmare for a short break. Charming little town.
The three main streets that form a triangle in the centre of the town are called Main Street (originally William Street, after Sir William, 1st. Marquis of Lansdowne), Henry Street (originally Sound Road), after the son of William the 1st. Marquis and Shelbourne Street (Henry Petty became the first Earl of Shelburne). This name was also later applied to Shelbourne Road in Dublin.
However, the area has more ancient roots. One of the largest stone circles in the south-west of Ireland^[9] is close to the town, and shows occupation in the area going back to the Bronze Age (2,200-500 B.C), when it was constructed. The circle has 15 stones around the circumference with a boulder dolmen in the centre.^[9]

Watch these video's: really beautiful footage of various parts of Ireland in this area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G6VjJBitts

The eternal beauty of the Irish landscape is most breath-taking with a sweep around the Ring of Kerry. And a great jumping-off point for this tour is Kenmare, with its cozy feel and close proximity to the peninsula.

Kissane Sheep Farm
Preserve an Irish Heritage
In the area of the Ring of Kerry mountain sheep have been in the hills and on the roads for over one hundred years. Every year thousands of tourists come over to see the beautiful countryside and make photographs of the ewes and little lambs wandering around, enjoying their freedom. The goal of Adopt a Sheep is to preserve the Irish heritage of mountain sheep, living in the mountains in the scenic area of Moll’s Gap on the Ring of Kerry (Ireland). In doing so also the heritage of a traditional family farm in this Special Area of Conservation is saved for future generations.Situated between Kenmare and Killarney National Park in Co. Kerry in the Republic of Ireland is Kissane Sheep Farm.

The color stained on their pelt are markings of the farmer owners. Each farmer in the region marks their sheep.

Windy road to Moll’s Gap, Ladies View The famous panorama of Moll's Gap is in the middle of the land, overlooking the farm and its sheep and lambs. Arrived at Kissane Sheep Farm 11:45 AM, light rain, watched sheep dogs herd sheep; a sheep shaved.  Very nice people; everyone enjoyed. This was our best day for seeing the country side. It was truly beautiful.

Interesting enough, all the mountains are named after women

Muckross house, walked around gardens. This nineteenth century Victorian mansion is set against the stunning beauty of Killarney National Park. The house stands close to the shores of Muckross Lake, one of Killarney's three lakes, famed world wide for their splendour and beauty. As a focal point within Killarney National Park, Muckross House is the ideal base from which to explore this landscape.
1,1400 acres of gardens, parks settings and walking paths. A beautiful piece of land.

Below is this mansions view

Rock gardens

Old trees and emerald green lawns

Muckross House was built for Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife, the water-colourist Mary Balfour Herbert. This was actually the fourth house that successive generations of the Herbert family had occupied at Muckross over a period of almost two hundred years. William Burn, the well-known Scottish architect, was responsible for its design. Building commenced in 1839 and was completed in 1843.

It was raining pretty hard by the time we arrived
but managed to get some pictures

Afternoon free time—
And now we're off to downtown Kilarney. Lots of shops, cafe's and flowers.

Our options were to either shop or to stop at the Roses of Tralee, we chose the garden.

There are two origin stories regarding the Irish folk ballad "The Rose of Tralee." It was either written by a lyricist named C. Mordaunt Spencer and a composer named Charles William Glover sometime in the 1800s (the more likely but far less romantic version), or it was composed by one William P. Mulchinock, a young Protestant man who fell madly in love with a Catholic girl named Mary O'Connor, who worked as a maid for Mulchinock's parents. There's more to the second story, and it's certainly far more charming, but unfortunately there's not a lot of documentation for either, so "The Rose of Tralee" remains a mystery.

"The Rose of Tralee" Festival:

Phot0s from the garden

An Irish personality, beauty, and charm competition, featuring young women of Irish heritage from around the world, The Rose of Tralee Festival is, as described by the About.com Guide to Ireland Travel, the event most Irish people claim to not be watching, ever. It takes its name from the song, and, like the song, seeks to find the young lady the most "lovely and fair as the rose in the summer." And Irish, of course.

The festival has its origins in the local Carnival Queen, once an annual town event, fallen by the wayside due to post-war emigration. In 1957, the Race Week Carnival was resurrected in Tralee, and it featured a Carnival Queen. The idea for the Rose of Tralee festival came when a group of local business people met in Harty's bar in Tralee to come up with ideas to bring more tourists to the town during the horse racing meeting and to encourage ex-pats back to their native Tralee. Led by Dan Nolan, then managing director of The Kerryman newspaper, they hit on the idea of the Rose of Tralee festival. The competition started in 1959 on a budget of just £750.^[2]
The founders of the organisation were: Billy Clifford - an accountant with the Rank Organisation who was one of the first recipients of the Golden Rose award (which was inaugurated to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Festival of Kerry); Dan Nolan, the owner of The Kerryman newspaper and involved with Tralee Races; Jo Hussey, a shopkeeper in Tralee and Ted Healy.
Originally, only women from Tralee were eligible to compete, in the early 1960s it was extended to include any women from Kerry, and in 1967 it was further extended to include any women of Irish birth or ancestry.

 Off to the hotel and dinner...we're all pretty tired.