Day 4 Muckross House and the Gap of Dunloe

After getting to bed later than we'd hoped the night before it was a little hard to get up.  Everyone was comfortable in their own bedrooms and everything is so peaceful out in the country.  The alarm went off at 6:30 but I didn't get up until closer to 7:30.  Breakfast wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped.  Dan and Connor liked the cereal they'd bought at the store but Ali and I weren't fans of what we got.  Not a huge deal, we improvised and everyone ate.  After breakfast we packed a picnic lunch.  My family gets pretty tired of eating out every meal and I know from previous trips to Europe that they are usually happiest when we just take a lunch with us.

We got a later start than I'd hoped, we left our little house in the country at around 9:30 am.  We arrived at Muckross house just outside of Killarney about an hour later.  I was worried that it would be crowded since it had opened at 9:00 am but that wasn't the case.  We walked up at 10:40 and were able to get on the 11:00 tour.  Admission to Muckross House was included in the Heritage card we'd purchased in Dublin.  Since we had a bit of time before the tour started we walked around the grounds a bit.  The kids had fun exploring some of the paths before we had a quick snack in the restaurant near the gift shop.  I was definitely in need of a snack after my less than stellar breakfast!

Beautiful Grounds at Muckross House

The kids were having fun being goofy and skipping down the path

Cool paths

Our tour started about 5 minutes late but there were things to look at while we waited.  Muckross House was built in 1843 on the shore of a beautiful lake near Killarney.  The setting of the house is absolutely gorgeous.   In 1861 Queen Victoria visited the house, the owners did massive improvements to the house to get it ready for the Queen's visit.  Two different families lived in the house throughout the course of history.  In 1932 the house and land surrounding it were given to the Irish Nation and it became the first Irish National Park.

Muckross House

The tour lasted about an hour and we learned some interesting facts about the house.  There were a lot of things in the house that reminded me of things on the show Downton Abbey.  I loved seeing the bells downstairs where they'd ring for the servants from different rooms.

After our tour we were ready for lunch.  It was kind of chilly out (people who know me know I'm always cold!!)  so we decided to eat our picnic in the car.  I had to laugh about both kids raving about how good their sandwiches were!  Ali loves having sandwiches on mini baguettes and Connor says the Irish ham was amazing!  I guess I should be happy that they are so easy to please.

Picnic in the car

After lunch the kids told us they were getting kind of tired of tours and that they wanted to do some hiking.  That was perfect because our next stop was the Gap of Dunloe.  The Gap of Dunloe is a narrow mountain pass outside of Killarney.

On the way to the Gap of Dunloe, Dan was pointing out some lambs in the field and a moment later he hit a big pothole.  This wasn't the first pothole of the day but this one did some damage.  We kept driving for a moment and I asked Dan "Do you think we have a flat tire?'  He pulled over onto a side road and I hopped out to look.  Sure enough, the back tire on the passenger side was flat as a pancake!  Thankfully we were pulled off the main road into a driveway so we didn't have to worry about cars rushing past us.  Dan checked the trunk and there was a full size spare!  We called roadside assistance because the special key to unlock the hubcap on a Volkswagon was nowhere to be found.  They told us they could send someone out to help but it would be expensive.  Dan ended up being able to get the job done without the special key!  The whole process took less than 45 minutes until we were on our way again!  I was pretty proud of how well Dan handled everything.  It wasn't a memory that we were planning on making but it will be a memory we will laugh about!

Changing a tire on vacation!

What a gymnast does while the tire is being changed

What a cheerleader does while the tire is getting changed

We continued on to the Gap of Dunloe with the new tire in place.  We parked at Kate Kearney's cottage which is a restaurant at one end of the gap.  We started our hike there.  You don't have to hike the gap, you can also hire a jaunting cart to give you a ride.  I offered this option to my kids but they were adamant that they wanted to hike.   The scenery is gorgeous!  We were there on a grey day but on a sunny day I imagine it is even more beautiful.  We hiked for about 45 minutes before we turned back, you are on a paved road so the walking is very easy.  My kids were so happy!  They were really enjoying being outside and being able to run around.  We saw lots of sheep and some were even "talking" to us, we saw a baby lamb too!

We saw deer right after we started our walk

Family selfie

Family fun 

We loved the tie dye look!  I read later that it is to keep track of which farmer they belong to.

On our way back to the house we made a couple of grocery stops to pick up some odds and ends we missed when we went yesterday.  We made spaghetti for dinner and had a quiet night back at the house.  Everyone is so happy to not be crowded into one hotel room anymore!

Our day was a success even with the tire mishap!  Life is what you make of it, we chose not to let it ruin our day!  We are not sure what our plan is for tomorrow.  We are waiting to see what the weather is like when we wake up.  We have a rainy day plan and a non rainy day plan, I guess we'll decide in the morning!

Day 3 Dublin Castle and Heading to the Countryside

We were up early but not quite as early as the day before.  I think everyone slept better than they did the first night.  We headed down and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant again.  We decided to do a few more things in Dublin before moving down to County Cork for our last five nights of the trip.

After breakfast we packed up our stuff and left it all with the concierge to hold until we were ready to leave the city.  We mapped out our plan on Google Maps and headed to the bus stop, this was a different bus stop that we hadn't been to before.  Our walk took us by a river that flows by the stadium, the path was not the cleanest.  There was quite a bit of litter on the path, maybe they were left overs from the Saint Patrick's day celebration!

Not so lovely path we walked on

We made it to the bus stop and caught a bus to take us to Dublin Castle.  We arrived and signed up for the tour that was included with the Heritage card we'd bought the day before.  Dublin Castle isn't actually a castle but more of a ceremonial government building.  The site was once was a castle that was built in the 1100's it burned in the late 1600's being replaced by a Georgian palace.  It pales in contrast to the great palaces of Europe but was interesting to tour nonetheless.  The tour starts out underground where you can see the ruins of the castle walls and other structures.  There is a beautiful church on site that was once used by the English Viceroys, in 1943 it was reconsecrated as a Catholic church.  The tour was fine but paled in comparison to the two tours we'd done the day before.  If you have a couple of extra hours in Dublin then it is a fine place to visit but I wouldn't put it at the top of the list.

Dublin Castle

Outside of the Chapel

Beautiful Interior

After our visit to Dublin Castle we headed to Grafton Street for some shopping.  One they way we stopped at Gino's Gelato for a snack.  It was excellent and everyone enjoyed the stop!  We did some window shopping on Grafton Street and stopped in a couple of shops.  Ali and I picked up a few things.  We headed to Wagamama for lunch, it is under the mall at St. Stephen's green.  We needed a little help finding it because you have to go outside the mall to find the door.  Lunch was good, everyone got at least one thing they liked.  It wasn't as good as our favorite Japanese restaurant at home but everyone was full and ready to head out of Dublin.  After lunch both kids wanted to go back to the mall and get cupcakes from a shop they'd seen.

My happy family eating gelato

We took a cab back to the hotel because our 24 hour bus pass had expired.  The cab ride was easy and it only cost 12 Euros.  That was money well spent, nobody was in the mood to walk 2.5 miles back to the hotel.  We got our bags from the concierge and headed to the car to get on the road to County Cork.  Well.... Things didn't quite go as planned.  As we walked up to the car I complained to Dan that the remote didn't seem to be working to unlock the door.  We wondered for a minute if we had the wrong car but then Dan tried the key and it opened the door.  Then a light bulb went off and Dan said "I bet the battery is dead."  Now this is the 3rd time we've had a dead car battery since Christmas!  I was not amused.  Luckily I knew since we were at a hotel that they'd have someone who could help us.  I learned this little fun fact at a cheer competition a couple of weeks ago when my battery died.  I now have a new battery in my car at home.  Dan went to the front desk and Ali and I found a comfortable place to sit in the lobby.  The concierge headed down to help Dan with the car.  The whole process took quite a bit longer than I expected and I was getting worried that something more serious was wrong!  After what seemed like forever, Connor came up and told us the car was on and we could go.  I found out later that diesel cars take longer to charge.  Dan found that a switch for the running lights was switched to the on position instead of being where they turn off when you shut off the car.  I wonder if that happened when they were cleaning the interior of the car before we picked it up?

Finally we were on our way!  The 3 hour drive to our Airbnb rental in County Cork was easy and uneventful.  We arrived at the house a little later than we'd hoped but it was still light out.  I think it was around 5:30.  This is the second time we've done a rental through Airbnb, we had great luck the first time and decided to use it again.  When we walked in the house we knew we'd made the right decision!  The house was even better than the pictures online.  It is small but the space is used well with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom.   The kids were thrilled to have their own rooms!  We get tired of hotel rooms pretty quick so we tend to prefer condos or house rentals.  We like having a kitchen to do some cooking and more space to spread out.  We check out the house and unloaded our stuff before we headed to the grocery store.

Our home for the next 5 nights!

The view from the family room

So happy to have a kitchen

The house is out in the country so it is about a 15 min drive to the store.  We found the store easily and bought the food we'd need for the next couple of days.  I was pleasantly surprised with how low the food prices were!  I'd say the prices were similar to or even a little lower than the prices at home. My kids love grocery shopping in other countries, it is always fun to see the differences in products and to try new things.

We thought about going out to dinner but everyone opted for an easy dinner back at the house.  We grabbed a few pizzas and cooked them when we got back.  Nothing fancy but everyone was happy with simple after our long travel day!  We headed to bed later than I'd hoped but it took a little longer than I'd thought to get settled.  We were all happy to settle into our rooms and head to bed!

Day 2 Dublin Kilmainham Jail and Glasnevin Cemetery

Today was our first full day in Dublin.  We were up early after falling asleep so early the night before.  We headed down to breakfast at around 6:45 am.  We'd added breakfast to our room for 24 Euros a day for all 4 of us,  we figured it would be easier than heading out to find a place to eat each morning.  When we got downstairs we found that the breakfast was a full buffet.  Ali and I were both really hungry because neither of us ate dinner the night before.  The buffet was a nice selection of hot items, baked goods, and fruit.

After breakfast we headed back to the room and got ready for the day.  Our main goal of the day was to visit Kilmainham Jail.  This was my number one must do in Dublin.  You can't book a tour ahead of time and the only way to visit is on a guided tour.  The wait can be long and I have a feeling the crowds are even higher this year with the anniversary of the 1916 uprising.  We arrived before it opened and a short line had formed.  We were told that we'd be in the second tour of the day and we were happy with that.  Our tour started at 10:00 which gave us some time to explore the museum.  We purchased a Heritage card at the museum.  It was 60 Euros for a family card and it would cover our entrance to Kilmainham and several other sites that we'd be visiting.

Waiting outside at Kilmainham

The museum was small but interesting.  The first floor gives information about the history of the jail with the second floor being more specific about the role the jail played in Irish history.  There are some interesting letters and artifacts to read and look at.

The tour starts in the chapel and then moves to the oldest part of the jail.  I can tell you that being in jail in the early 1800's was no treat.  The conditions were terrible.  Sadly, when the famine happened in the 1840s people were committing crimes to be sent to jail because jail was better than starving to death on the streets.  The jail housed men, women, and children.  All inmates were mixed together.

We then went to the part of the jail where the leaders of the 1916 rising were held.  It was fascinating to hear the stories of the men and the woman who were housed in those cells.  We learned a lot about the rising and how people felt about it.  The tour was a huge Irish history lesson and it was fascinating!

I bet you've seen this in some movies!

The tour ends in the yard where the leaders of the 1916 rising were executed.  It was a very somber place as  it should be.

I can't recommend this tour enough, I had very high expectations going in and the tour met all my expectations.  It isn't a happy feel good tour but you wouldn't expect a tour of a jail to be.  The tour was serious but extremely interesting.  Those walls definitely have a lot of stories to tell!

After our tour it was time for lunch so we headed to a restaurant that had been recommended on Trip Advisor.  The restaurant is in the Temple Bar area.  This part of town is well known for it's pubs, restaurants, and party atmosphere.  When we arrived we could tell we were in a busy part of town.  We quickly found the restaurant and they told us we were in luck because they'd just had a cancellation and we could have a table in 30 minutes.  We had no idea we needed a reservation so we were pleased that the wait was only 30 minutes.  We did a little exploring down the street while we waited for our table.

Temple Bar

Our lunch at Elephant and Castle was excellent!  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meal.  Three of us had breakfast items and Ali had mini burgers.  I ordered a mimosa and was told that they couldn't serve alcohol on Sundays until 12:30 but they snuck it to me a few minutes early.  We were seated by one of the front windows and it was fun to people watch.  Temple Bar was busy on Sunday morning with people heading out with suitcases, I would guess that people were heading home after spending St. Patrick's Day weekend in Dublin.

Cute little hamburgers that Ali ordered

Restaurant

After our excellent lunch we caught a bus and headed to Glasnevin Cemetery.  A jail and a cemetery, sounds like a gloomy day right?  Actually it was a super interesting day!  I had read recommendations of Glasnevin Cemetery online and despite it getting great reviews I was on the fence about visiting.  That was until my dad told me that my great-aunt who I met on my first trip in 1985 was buried there.  When I found that out I immediately booked a tour of the cemetery.  We arrived about an hour early for our tour, I was hoping to find my great-aunt's grave before the tour so that when the tour was over we could head back to the hotel.

We checked in early for our tour and inquired about finding out a plot number for my great aunt to make it easier to find the grave in this huge cemetery.  The lady at the desk was extremely busy checking people in for the 1:30 tour so she didn't have time to help me right then.  We wandered down to the museum and I was able to find the plot number using the cemetery's website.  A bit later we headed back to the front desk and it was a lot less busy so the person at the desk was able to show me where to go to find the plot.

Once we had a map it was very easy to find.  My great-aunt was a nun and the order she was part of has a small section at the cemetery.  We bought some flowers on our way to visit.  When we found the spot we left the flowers and took some pictures for my dad.  I chatted with the kids a bit to make sure they understood how she was related to them and I told them a few stories about her.  Both kids were genuinely happy that we found it and that they got to visit.  Connor later said it was his favorite part of the day because he really felt like it would make his grandpa happy that we visited.  Not bad coming from a rather selfish 13 year old!

We met for our 2:30 tour and the group was huge!  We were told right away that they'd be breaking us up into smaller groups.  We all started out at the grave of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rassa who was one of the founding members of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood), this was the site where in 1915 Patrick Pearse stepped out of the crowd to give a famous speech in support of Irish Independence.  We listened to an actor give the same speech that Patrick Pearse gave that day.  It was a nice fit with our tour in the morning because just 9 months after Patrick Pearse gave that famous speech he was executed at Kilmainham Jail following the 1916 Easter Rising.

The tour at the cemetery was about 90 minutes long.  Our tour guide was amazing.  He added in a bit of humor when appropriate and we learned even more Irish history.  I never thought I could enjoy a cemetery tour nearly as much as I did.  I would highly recommend the tour and it was a nice fit after spending the morning at Kilmainham.

We headed back to the hotel after the tour and spent a bit of time resting our feet.  We decided to go to dinner at the Italian restaurant down the street that we never made it to the night before.  The restaurant is just a couple of minutes away from the hotel.  We all ordered pizza and it was excellent!

Today was definitely a success!  We truthfully couldn't have hoped for a better day.

Ireland Travel Day / Dublin Day 1

Why Ireland?  Well, my kids have been bugging me since our first trip to Europe 4 years ago to take them to Ireland.  We flew through the Dublin Airport on our way to Paris and that was enough to make them want to come back.  They also wanted to visit a place where "we are from."  On my side of the family the kids have a lot of Irish relatives.  My father's parents both immigrated to the United States from Ireland in the 1920's.  I was lucky enough to visit Ireland as a child on several trips with my parents.  I met all of my grandmother's siblings who still lived in Ireland.  I have no great reason why it has taken me so long to get my own kids to Ireland.  I think part of me was feeling like I'd already been here so I wanted to travel to new places, another part of me felt like I wouldn't be able to give them the same amazing experiences I had in Ireland as a child.  Obviously though in the end the kids won me over and here we are in Ireland!  A fabulous deal on plane tickets helped seal the deal.

In July, when I booked our tickets to spend Spring Break in Ireland it seemed like a great idea to book the Friday 9:00 pm flight out of O'Hare.  It would get us to Ireland almost 24 hours before any flight that left on Saturday.  The Thursday night before we left, when I was frantically packing, that plan I hatched in July didn't seem nearly as smart.

Dan and I both worked all day Friday and the kids were at school.  We all met at home at 3:30 and left for the airport.  Luckily even with the construction near Chicago we still made it to the airport in plenty of time.  The lines for security were long, I can see why they suggest arriving 3 hours early for international flights.   The International Terminal at O'Hare is actually a pretty busy place between 7:00-9:00 on a Friday night with lots of redeye flights leaving for other parts of the world!

I had been preaching to my family all week that they needed to sleep on the flight because we'd be arriving in Dublin at 9:15 and our hotel room wouldn't be ready so they'd need to be ready to be awake!  I had good intentions of sleeping on the plane but the universe just wasn't very cooperative.  First off, we left O'Hare at 9:00 pm, at around 10:00 pm they came through the cabin to serve dinner.  I really didn't want dinner but with all the commotion of the service and with the cabin lights on it was hard to sleep.  The airplane food was pretty yucky as always but I ate a bit.  Finally an hour or so later after the meal service was cleaned up they turned off the cabin lights.  I tried my best to sleep but I just couldn't.  The first problem was the temperature, it was super hot!  I'm always cold on planes but not this one.  It was so hot!  The other problem was that the arm rest between the seats couldn't be pushed up all the way.  This made it hard for Ali to get comfortable to sleep so I had a wiggly 11 year old sitting next to me.  I know I dozed off some and I'm sure all combined I slept for a couple of hours.  It just wasn't the quality of sleep I'd been hoping for.

We arrived in Dublin a couple of minutes late around 9:30 am (4:30 am in Wisconsin).  The airport was easy to navigate and we got our bags quickly.  Ali was pretty excited to get another stamp in her passport.  The Dublin airport was all decked out in Saint Patrick's day decorations.

St. Patrick's Day Decorations at the airport

We went to the counter to pick up our rental car and was told we'd need to take a shuttle to the rental facility.  It took about 10 minutes for the shuttle to come but the rental process was easy from there.  I'd rented through a 3rd party that works with Hertz.  The company is called Easy Tour Ireland Car Rentals, I used them because their pricing is inclusive of all the insurance you'll need.  We never take the extra insurance with rental cars but for Ireland we did.  Everything I'd read just made the extra insurance seem like the best choice!

Now came time for the test!  How would Dan do driving on the wrong side of the road? Considering he'd hardly slept in the last 24 hours he did very well.  We got a little lost on the way to the hotel which was a little stressful.  We ended up stopping at a shopping center to ask for directions.  We got directions but the person also directed us to a mobile phone store where we could buy an Irish SIM card for our unlocked phone.  Yippee!!  After buying the SIM card we were good because we could use Google Maps to get to the hotel.  We arrived at the hotel quickly after that little stop.

I check in at the hotel but the room wasn't ready yet (not a surprise).  We dropped our bags and parked the car.  We wouldn't be using the car for our 2 nights in Dublin.  We talked about what we should do, everyone was hungry so we decided we needed to find a place to have lunch.  First, we thought about going to a pizza place near the hotel but then realized it didn't open until 5:00 pm.  Then I suggested catching a bus into town and heading to the National Museum of Archaeology.  We decided to go to the museum and plotted our course on Google Maps.  We had already purchased a bus pass before leaving home so we were ready to go! 

It was about a 5 minute walk to the bus stop.  We stayed at the Croke Park Hotel which is across from the Croke Park sports stadium.  It is about a 20 min walk to downtown or a short bus ride.  We opted for the bus which took us right to the museum.  The kids were tired but excited to take their first ride on a double decker bus.  Of course they wanted to sit upstairs.  The ride gave us a nice view of some of the sites downtown.  Dublin is incredibly busy this week with Saint Patrick's Day being just 10 days before Easter.  This year is also the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising that took place in Dublin.  We saw a lot of signs and banners for the 1916 Centenary. 

We arrived at the museum and headed straight for the café.  The museum has a lovely little café called Brambles.  Everyone in my family was able to find something they wanted to eat.  We had a lovely lunch!  The museum is quite small but has some very interesting pieces of Irish history.  Connor was taken back by how old everything was.  They had pieces dating back to 700 BC.  The museum is free so I'd say it is definitely worth an hour or two of a Dublin visit. 

After our visit we walked a bit and then found a bus stop and headed back to the hotel.  At this point it was about 3:30.  We made a plan to head to an early dinner at 5:00.  Then I made the biggest travel day mistake ever!  Ali and I laid down and fell asleep!  I knew better but I did it anyway.  5:00 came and went and when Dan woke me up I told him I didn't want dinner.  Dan and Connor headed down to the hotel bar for dinner and Ali and I stayed in the room.  I paid later for that 2 hour nap when I had a hard time sleeping through the night! 

Overall it was a good travel day/first day.  We didn't have any major mishaps and we were able to get a few things done.