A and J Wood in Ireland (June 2022)

In my head I saw today as trip from the Village of Blarney, to the Village of Glengarriff.  Our transition from inland to coastal.  I thought we would get up, get breakfast, go do the very touristy "kiss the Blarney Stone" thing and then make the 70 km (43 miles) drive to Glengarriff. Simple, just something that had to be done to get from point a to point. As you may guess from the todays title and the tone of the first paragraph, today turned out a bit differently - much so for the better. (In case you want to look at pictures without reading this whole dissertation, here is the link for todays pictures)    Day 4 Pictures Ireland has been a complete surprise right from the beginning.  The people here are friendly, fun, and wonderfully polite. They are inquiring in way that is not at all nosey or prying.  Their inquires are far more about them having a genuine interest in who you are and what you are doing here so they can help you out whilst you are here. ...

 Monday, Day 3.  I do not believe I mentioned that this weekend is a Irish holiday.  One weekend a month for 10 months of the year the Irish have what is called a Bank Holiday.  It is basically a 3 day weekend when the banks and most businesses are closed.  Except, of course, Pubs and stores selling things to tourists.  That was this weekend, through today. This morning we got up well rested at 8 am and had another wonderful breakfast at the B&B.   Speaking of Breakfast, there are basically 2 breakfasts in Ireland.  Standard, common or light breakfast.  Which usually consists of fruit, yogurt, cereal and the like.  Then there is a "full" breakfast.  This breakfast contains at least: egg(s), 2 sausage links, 2 slices of ham, steamed tomatoes and mushrooms, black and white pudding (that is an explanation for another post) and a plate piled high with a couple slices each of several types of bread, rolls and/or croissants....

Whew!  Day 1 was writing motivator, eh? Well as the say goes, Sunday should be a day of rest.  And that is what we did.  Luckily we set an alarm for 8:30 after going to bed at about 1 am.  If we were going to eat breakfast we needed to be downstairs before 9 am we were told.  The lady that owns the B&B is very nice lady.  She just told that she serves breakfast from 8 - 9. We managed to get downstairs a few minutes before 9 and enjoyed a lovely breakfast.  It was raining Sunday morning.  Which was perfect.  We had the perfect excuse to stay in for awhile.  Back upstairs we went, and both us promptly fell asleep until noon time, or maybe even a little later. We had made plans to meet cousin Geraldine sometime Sunday.  She was to call us when she got done with her errands.  Anita laid around the room for a couple of hours, sorting day one pictures, and writing blog posts.  Next thing you it is 3 oclock and it had stopped...

The final part of the Day 1 Chapter starts thusly: When last we left our hero's they had conked out in there B&B bed like a couple of light weights after a mere 30 hours of being on the go... Anita and I woke up about 7pm - very hungry.  We had a great day with Geraldine and had discovered a a lot of information thanks to her.  We thought we should get up, walk around a bit and get some supper.  If we went back to sleep, we'd just be up too early again.  So we headed to downtown Kilkenny City, on Saturday night, at 8 pm.   Kilkenny City is not unlike most other small cities in the world on a Saturday night. Bustling with groups of young drinkers starting their Saturday drinking binge.  Stag parties.  Music, etc.  Also full of middle-to-older age drinkers out for supper and hobnobbing with friends.   It is also, at the same time, unlike any other small city in world.  In about a 10 square block area there must be 200 public ...

OK, we are out of the airport, we have the car and are ready to leave for our first stop: County Kilkenny. What's wrong with this picture? No it is not reversed by the camera.  And, the steering wheel is on the right (not correct - right, as in opposite of left) side of the car. No it is not a car for delivering mail. Yes you have to drive on the left side of the road in Ireland.   ...and if you forget, the rental car company puts a little sticker in the window to remind you: Which I find hilarious. Just a few quick words on driving on the left.  The things I've most difficult to get used to shifting with my left hand (the rental has a manual tranny); having to look up and to the left to look at the rear view mirror; and making sure to look in the proper direction to cross the lane of traffic or pull into traffic from driveway or another street. But I think we got it.  We have another 2 weeks to practice. WE ARE OFF.  It is about 9 am local time (4 am on the eas...

 Good Sunday morning from Kilkenny Ireland. As is the case with any far away trip, our Friday (travel day) and Saturday (first day here) just blended into one really, really long day. FYI: Ireland is 5 hours ahead of US East coast time. Friday into Saturday (travel day):  We are preparing to leave and there is a Tropical Storm (TS) making a Beeline straight for Fort Myers.  We are scheduled to leave at 11:50 am.  The TS is scheduled to make landfall at about noon.  YEEE HAAA! (All times in the next couple of paragraphs are US East coast times.) We flew on American Airlines.  We got to Fort Myers Airport about 8 am for an 11 o'clock flight.  We were worried about getting bumped or cancelled as a result of the TS.  Luckily, we got off without hitch and had a nice flight up to Charlotte.  The Charlotte to Dublin flight was about 45 minutes late getting out.  We were on the way to Dublin about 5:30 pm and arrived in Dublin at about 12:30 am ...

 Hello and welcome back. Boy it is getting hard to contain our excitement.  It is getting very real now as we are all packed, the house sitter has arrived, and we have checked in for our flight and have our boarding passes.  IT'S HAPPENING! So, what is our plan?  and how did we choose it. One very important goal of the trip is to meet some relatives I (Jim) have in southeast Ireland.  Several members of my family have visited County Kilkenny, Ireland and met many of our cousins that live in this area.  I really hope to be able to find the farm my grandmother (Nana) grew up on before coming to America.  I have been in touch with a cousin who lives outside Kilkenny and we are really looking forward to meeting her and hopefully some other relatives. Beyond that, we want to get away from the primary tourist roads, see the countryside and meet some smalltown locals.  Anita took a bus tour of Ireland several years ago that let her see a lot of the count...