Adventures

Ireland - Day 12 - Glendalough & the Spinc Loop

The only 'sight' we had initially planned to visit in the Wicklow area was Glendalough, so we decided to make that our first stop here. The weather looked OK, but we expected to get some rain, so we packed all our rain gear.

Inside the visitor center at Glendalough we learned that every first wednesday of the month the entry to the exhibition is free, and since today was exactly that, we checked that out before we went outside to see the real thing.

Afterwards we looked at the remains of the Glendalough monastery. That was alright but I do have to admit beside the round tower the graveyard really was the best part. I loved the ancient, crooked tombstones with the withered inscriptions on them.

Since the exploration of the monastery didn't take us all that long, and the school classes walking around were very distracting, as not to say annoying, we decided to take a walk through the Wicklow Mountains National Park, since all the trails start around the Glendalough Visitor Center anyways.

We decided to do the white path, called "The Spinc Loop" as this would take us the farthest up above the lakes, and was supposed to give some stunning views of the surrounding area.

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Ireland - Day 10 - Torc Waterfall & the Killarney National Park

The first thing out our list today was a one-hour-horse riding trip through the Park with Killarney Stables. After that we had planned to hike up the Torc Waterfall today. During the ride we had great, beautiful weather, but as soon as we got to the parking lot at the bottom of the waterfall, it started raining. The path is actually very much like stairs, so we decided we could still give it a go.

We continued as planned. It first rained lightly, and then it started pouring down on us. While we slowly made our way up, sweating in our raincoats, the world seemed to end behind us.

It did get better pretty much as soon as we reached the highest part of the hike though, so we did have a bit of a panoramic view across the Killarney Lakes before we started to descend towards Torc Waterfall.

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Ireland - Day 9 - Gap of Dunloe

The weather forecast for our day nine had been pretty good, so we wanted to use the day for our hiking trip through the Gap of Dunloe. We booked the trip "the wrong way round" - starting our journey with a boat ride through the Killarney Lakes, and then walking though the famous gap, where we'd be picked up again at the end.

We started the tour in a Vintage Bus at O'Connors Pub in Killarney. The bus took us out to Ross Castle, where we transfered into a small wooden boat.

Then the ride across the Killarney Lakes began. First we crossed the biggest lake, Lough Leane, until we came to the Meeting of the Waters.

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Ireland - Day 8 - Ring of Kerry

Here we are at day eight of our Ireland Trip - we skipped number seven because it was a rain day and we didn't do much but shopping and eating - which finishes of our first full week in Ireland.

Today we drove the Ring of Kerry. Praised widely but also known for the many tourist buses taking the narrow roads, we decided to leave town at about 10 in the morning. We started and got sidetracked the first time not far down the road, as we wanted to see the Lough Caragh but somehow couldn't find the viewpoint that was supposed to be somewhere, so we just stopped on the road to take some pictures.

Soon we got back on the N70 and continued driving the regular route along the Ring of Kerry. We stopped at some of the main attractions on the way, but didn't take many pictures until we decided to get off the regular route to pay a visit to Valentia Island. And there, we ended up spending half our day. Everything was just so beautiful. Or strange.

We stopped shortly at the grotto in the old quarry, then drove down to the Valentia Lighthouse.

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Ireland - Day 6 - Dingle Peninsula

Our first day in Killarney started off with absolutely beautiful weather. The locals gave us the advice to use it for a trip to the Dingle Peninsula, so that's exactly what we did.

The dingle peninsula is a beautiful place that has everything you could ever want: Beaches, Rolling Hills and green meadows, as well as steep mountainsides with waves crashing below.

The first important stop on the drive around the peninsula is a really wide and beautiful stip of beach called the Inch Beach. With the glorious weather there were quite a few people out and about, taking walks on the beach.

Chrissi had been here before and she had told us that every year she would actually get into the water at this beach. Despite the cold. This year she wanted to just go barefoot at the beach. It was kind of fun to watch. Naked feet in the icy water, and up top still wearing a winter coat.

Afterwards we drove on towards Dingle. The town has one really famous attraction and that is Fungi the Dolphin. I guess normally we probably wouldn't have gone out to see it, but Chrissi really wanted to, so we decided to tag along.

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Ireland - Day 5 - The Burren & Ennis to Killarney

Our fifth day didn't start out so well for me, I didn't feel good. We still made a lot of plans for that day since we didn't have much time in the Ennis region.

We had been pretty impressed by "the Burren" on our drive yesterday, so we decided to pay a visit to the Burren National Park. We came by a (closed) visitor center, so we just drove on with the vague information we had about the area. The road was really narrow, but we didn't come across many people out there. We came by a parking lot that seemed to be the starting point for different hiking paths, but wanted to get deeper into the rocky landscape.

After a while we had pretty much no idea where we were, as our map wasn't detailed enough to show the tiny road we were on. We didn't realize that we had actually driven out of the National Park already until we came into the next little town. There we found a little Tourist Information that had a map of the different hiking paths in the area.

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Ireland - Day 4 - Renvyle to Ennis via Cliffs of Moher

Today we had to say goodby to Castlehouse B&B and Connemara, driving down the Wild Atlantic Way towards Ennis, where we would spend our night.

The beautiful view in the morning didnt make leaving any easier, but we got started right after breakfast anyways. First we drove through Clifden, where we had been before, and then further south. Even though we were driving the whole time we hardly seemed to make way though. That was partly due to many short breaks for taking pictures, but even more than that due to the tiny winding roads that summed up to many more miles than the national roads and highways would have.

We ended up making it to Galway at about 2pm, and realized that we really had to get going - because the one stop we really had planned for was still about two hours of driving away. And of course that stop are the famous Cliffs of Moher.

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Ireland - Day 3 - Cleggan Loop & Omey Island

For our third and last day in Connemara we drove the Cleggan Loop. The first picture is the view right from our first B&B this morning, which changed every day a bit through the drastically changing weather conditions. On the way to the Cleggan Loop we passed this really still mountain lake in the second picture which was absolutely gorgeous.

Our main goal that day was to see Omey Island as we had read about the fun way to get there - there's a road, but it is usually flooded. Only when the water is low can you drive over there. We timed our drive to that and arrived at the parking lot overlooking the Omey Island Road when most of the water was already gone.

One other car before us traveled over, but drove around the biggest puddles still left. So we decided to also drive out into what used to be the sea and was now just a white beach. At about the middle there was still some water, so we waited for maybe another 20 minutes, taking the time to take a walk and collect some sea shells and then drove over. And now, that's the important point: You're NOT supposed to drive over there. There's only one road on Omey Island, and it is not for tourists, but for the islands inhabitants. It really didn't say that anywhere though, so we drove over.

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Ireland - Day 2 - Connemara National Park

Our second day in Ireland led us to the Connemara National Park. Located near Letterfrack it was just a really short drive and promised to be a great trip. And it really was. The weather looked like it would give us the rain - sun - rain - wind - rain - treatment again, so we came fully prepared with all our raincoats, rain covers for the backpacks and waterproof hiking boots. We started our hike at the Visitor Center at about 10.30, the sun still shining brightly. After just about fifteen minutes we could see dark clouds coming up and rain poured down on us once again - but this time we were prepared. We stayed mostly dry, and everything else dried with the harsh wind following the downpour.

The ascend of the mountain proved to be really windy, and we decided the warning sign we had seen early did in fact make sense. Todays weather wasn't all that bad though, we arrived at the peak of Diamond Hill in bright sunshine, even though it was still windy. The view was fantastic from up there.

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Ireland - Day 1 - From Dublin to Renvyle

Our day began really early when we left home for the Frankfurt Hahn Airport at about 4:30 am. At the airport everything was pretty uneventful, and soon we were on the plane and in the air. We had a very smooth flight (which I have been told is rather unusual) and a perfect landing in Dublin at about 9.00am local time. Our next step was the rental car pickup at the airport, and then it was Tims job to take us onto Irelands roads. Driving on the left side, of course, as our rental car, navigational systems and multiple road signs told us repeatedly.

Our first stop was Trim Castle, the biggest anglo-american castle...somewhere.

Anyways, it was in fact pretty impressive - and we walked around the castle grounds for quite some time to take our first photos on this trip. It was drizzling most of the time we spent at Trim, but we did not let that darken our mood. We all brought plenty of rain-equipment, because after all, we're in Ireland, what did we expect?

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