Ireland

May - June 2023

A 20-day adventure by JoAnne Read more

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Traveler Ireland
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- May 13, 2023, 11:31am
- ⛅ 19 °C
- Altitude: 568 m
- Canada Saskatchewan Dieppe Place Sakimay 74-6 50.441667, -104.69333350°26’30” N 104°41’36” W
Day 1
On our way!
May 13, 2023 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
We are off to Ireland to see the emerald isle. Looking forward to learning about Ireland and seeing the sights. Its our 30th anniversary. What a great way to celebrate our marriage 😀❤️
Traveler Have a wonderful trip!!! I can’t wait to hear all about it!!
5/13/23Reply
Traveler Thanks. We are looking forward to seeing the rest of the UK.
5/13/23Reply
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 13, 2023, 1:36pm
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 1,070 m
- Canada Alberta Beddington Calgary International Airport 51.13, -114.00166751°7’48” N 114°0’6” W
Day 1
Dublin
May 13, 2023 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Got to Dublin around noon Ireland time, which I think would be 5:00 am Regina time. Right now everything feels very familiar. We checked into our apartment and instantly took a nap. Then we found a bar that Dad wants to see. Then found a place to eat that didn't need reservations.
My first pictures are from Calgary Airport. I always appreciate the things they have to look at while you wait for the plane.Read more
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 15, 2023, 1:16pm
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitude: 12 m
- Ireland Leinster Dublin City Mountjoy North Wall Station 53.348333, -6.24833353°20’54” N 6°14’54” W
Day 3
EPIC Emigration Museum
May 15, 2023 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
Started the morning with a Hop On Hop Off bus tour to get ourselves oriented. Had a really good guide who used a lot of Irish humour to describe the sights. Once that was done we went to the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum. This museum explains why the Irish have been leaving Ireland for so many years, decades, even centuries. One of the first reasons people started leaving had to do with the British. When Britain was taking over the area the Irish had to pledge allegence to the queen and become Protestant rather than Catholic. Those who wouldn't do this were forced to leave. Frickin British Empire😕
This was a great interactive museum that explained a lot of Irish history and the influence the Irish has had on the world.Read more
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 15, 2023, 3:35pm
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitude: 17 m
- Ireland Leinster Dublin City Temple Bar Trinity Chapel 53.344302, -6.25815253°20’39” N 6°15’29” W
Day 3
Trinity College
May 15, 2023 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
We went specifically to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Old Library. The Book of Kells was written in 800 a.d. by some monks
They rewrote James and Matthew's gospels in Latin. The book was not meant to be read but rather was to be used as a decorative piece for the altar. The book is encased in a glass box and a page is turned about once a month. It sounded like a painstaking process. A poem was written by one of the monks about how his hand was shaking and that it was difficult to write clearly.
You were not allowed to take photos of the book. I was a little jealous of the guy who managed to take one on his cell phone while the security guard was not looking. I was tempted to ask him to send it to me.
The Old Library is a long high room with first editions of so many books. The books don't have to be Irish to be housed here. The library has acquired some of Shakespeare's original works and had a special display for these. The books in the library can be and are used by the students at the college.
At the very end of the library was a fake copy of the Book of Kells, so I got a picture of that 🙂Read more
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- May 15, 2023, 10:25pm
- ⛅ 10 °C
- Altitude: 17 m
- Ireland Leinster Dublin City The Coombe 53.347416, -6.28244253°20’51” N 6°16’57” W
Day 3
Cobblestone Pub
May 15, 2023 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
Ended the day by going to the Cobblestone Pub to drink Guiness and listen to some Irish music. No I didn't drink the Guiness, Dad did.
The pub was packed. The space where the the musicians are sitting are reserved for them, so they get a little bit of room. We managed to grab bar seats at the front. There were so many people behind us.Read more
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- May 16, 2023, 1:05pm
- ☁️ 15 °C
- Altitude: 15 m
- Ireland Leinster Dublin City Clanbrassil Street 53.338333, -6.27666753°20’18” N 6°16’36” W
Day 4
Teeling Whiskey
May 16, 2023 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Today we went to two places. I only took pictures at one. First, we went to the Teeling distillery to see how whiskey is made. Although this is a small distillery in Dublin terms it was huge compared to Last Mountain Distillery. It's also quite new in terms of Irish distilleries. The two brothers who run this distillery are from a family that have been making whiskey for generations. So lots of experience. An interesting display that was at the distillery is the family vault. Most of the whiskey is stored at a different facility while it is aging. This is both for safety and economical reasons. However they have three barrels stored at the distillery. One is the first barrel of whiskey distilled at the plant. The other two are barrels that were distilled on the day of birth of the two daughters of one of the brothers. These two barrels are to be opened on their 21st birthdays. Pretty cool!

The second place we went was the museum of archaeology. There lots of really interesting items there. Dating back prehistoric times. The item I found most interesting was a long boat carved out the trunk of an oak tree. It was incredibly long and incredibly old, 4000 years. It was pretty much intact. Just no pictures😕Read more
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 17, 2023, 1:07pm
- ☁️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 20 m
- Northern Ireland Belfast Queens Island River Lagan 54.608333, -5.9154°36’30” N 5°54’36” W
Day 5
Titanic Museum
May 17, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
While in Belfast we had the opportunity to go to the Titanic Museum. It explained everything from the business purchases that were made, to the discovery of the Titanic. It was pretty interesting and had quite a moving memorial near the end. I won't go into too many details except one. The sinking of the Titanic was Murphy's Law in action. From the keys to the binoculars being left on shore to radio messages calling for help not being heard because the radio operator falling asleep. And finally icebergs floating by when they weren't normally expected.Read more
Traveler That’s very interesting. Last night, I watched a series of pix that they’ve put together using hundreds of thousand of pictures. Nice there is a museum.
5/18/23Reply
Traveler If you get the chance to go to this one you should do go to this museum. They've done a very good job.
5/18/23Reply
Traveler Those pics would be very interesting to see now that I have a reference point.
5/18/23Reply
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 17, 2023, 4:49pm
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitude: 65 m
- Northern Ireland Gracehill The Dark Hedges 55.135, -6.38333355°8’6” N 6°22’60” W
Day 5
Belfast to Portrush
May 17, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
This was the first day of our 5 day tour with Rabbies to Northern Ireland. We traveled from Dublin to Belfast to Portrush and learned a lot about 'The Toubles'. The Troubles were the time of conflict between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK). It's kind of weird to think about these times because I remember hearing about the conflicts when I was child/teenager.Read more
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 18, 2023, 10:50am
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitude: 16 m
- Northern Ireland Derry City and Strabane Bogside Guildhall 54.998333, -7.3254°59’54” N 7°19’12” W
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Day 6
Derry
May 18, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
Derry is where Bloody Sunday occured in 1972. It happened as a result of 'The Toubles' associated with separation of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK). Thirteen people died and an inquiry said these people provoked the situation. After a second inquiry it was found that they were innocent. Derry has done a lot of work to promote peace since that incident.Read more
Traveler was it me?
5/22/23Reply
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Traveler Ireland
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- May 18, 2023, 12:29pm
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitude: 56 m
- Ireland Ulster Donegal Drumfin 55.056667, -7.93666755°3’24” N 7°56’12” W
Day 6
Glenveagh and Donegal
May 18, 2023 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
We traveled from Portrush to Donegal. Along the way we stopped at Glenveagh National Park to see Glenveagh Castle. There were some cool pieces in the castle and the gardens were really nice. Once we were done with that we were off to our tour guide's hometown of Donegal. He suggested that after supper we go to the Reel Inn. Another pub with Irish music. Got front row center seats to watch the musicians.Read more
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