We spent the day on Limerick. First we did our laundry and then in the afternoon went exploring. We went to the Frank McCourt Museum. He is the author of Angela’s Ashes. We then saw some of the Frank McCourt tour. We kind of took it easy and just rested for a while. We returned to the Lebanese restaurant because we enjoyed the selection and food so much. There are no pics because it was do similar to the night before.
To day is the 29th and made our way to Belfast. We were either on a train or at a station waiting for a connecting train most of the day. We hot to Belfast at 6:00pm and checked into the hotel. We then went to eat. Marsha had lentil and sun dried tomato soup and I had potato leek soup. Marsha had a Brie, cranberry and caramelized onion tart. I had pork and leek sausages with champ and brown gravy. After dinner we went back to the hotel to watch Downton Abbey. We have signed up for an early tour tomorrow.

We went by train to Killarney. This is a charming town with little shops and restaurants. No great attractions except a very large park. We decided to have dinner in Killarney. I had chicken breast wrapped in streaky bacon and Marsha had vegetable curry. We then headed back to Limerick and arrived at our hotel about 11;00. It was Arthur’s Day. A day to celebrate Arthur Guinness birthday since he founded the brewery. There is a pub in our hotel so we stopped in to have a pint for Arthur. Then up to bed because we signed up for a tour the next day.
Our tour was for the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. On the way to the Cliffs we saw many castles and then Galway Bay. There are even cottages with thatched roofs in this area. Then on to the Cliffs. I’ll let the pics show how beautiful they are. Then back on the bus to return to Limerick. We spent some time looking for a hotel in Belfast, our next destination. Then we set out for dinner. Again it was late but we found a Lebanese restaurant where we could have little dishes of different foods. It was perfect!
We are staying in Limerick today and as I am writing this we are in a launderette doing our wash.

We went back to Limerick on the train and got a hotel. We left our luggage and headed for Cork. Irish trains are great and have wifi. We. Went to Cork to go to Blarney Castle.

Some of the pictures were taken from the top of the castle while we we waiting to kiss the Blarney Stone. Yes, I kissed the Blarney Stone. See pic – I took the pic from the screen on Marsha’s camera.

The grounds of the castle are beautiful. While we were there the weather became colder and damper do we decided to head back before it got too late. We stopped into a restaurant and had tea and scones to warm up.

We arrived in Limerick about 8:30pm and it was raining. Since we were cold and tired we went to the Chinese take away a couple of doors away from our hotel. Sorry – no food pics. We then went to the hotel and were in for the night.

We started the day with a full English breakfast. I took a pic of mine that was at least normal portions. Most of them are huge! We then took a train to Limerick and then went on to Bunratty Castle where we had reservations for a hotel and a Medieval Dinner. We stopped at a pub for a pint before dinner and them went to the castle. See pics. It is a much smaller venue than Medieval Time but much more personal. The pics are all in the castle and of course the food was fantastic. We actually ate some of our plates before I took the food pics. Also you can see we were greeted by a bagpiper as we entered the castle. After dinner we went to our hotel where there was live Irish music in the bar. See pic. There will be a banjo and string competition here this weekend, but we will have moved on.

Today we went on a tour to Tara and Newgrange. Tara was the place for the high kings of Ireland. There are no structures now, but archeologists have been able to determine what it would have been like. First pic is at Tara. We continued on to Newgrange which is the site of a passage tomb. The burial tomb is based on the winter solstice. We were able to go inside the tomb and there was a demonstration of what it would be like on the solstice. This was fascinating. Newgrange predates Stonehedge by 500 years. We went on a Mary Gibbons tour and apparently there is a lot if information on her website as well as on www.newgrangetours.com. This is all to complicated to explain here. We passed through The Village
of Slane – a town of historical significance but more importantly the hometown of Pierce Brosnan.
When we got back to Dublin we went to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. This was also fun. On the way to the distillery we passed the Dublin Spire. See pic. We then went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. We both had burritos for dinner. Yes I know we are in Ireland and had Mexican food. Crazy thing is the food was really good.