I didn't end up posting the last two nights because I was exhausted, so this is a three day post.
We flew overnight from JFK to Heathrow (behind 3 highly inconsiderate people who had their seats reclined literally the entire flight) and then from there to Dublin, landing Saturday afternoon.
Have I mentioned this is a driving trip? No? Well, we're driving around the Irish countryside on the wrong side of the road...and haven't died yet! We'd planned to drive into Dublin to do some sightseeing, but took the Dan Dooley rental car lady's excellent suggestion and took a taxi into the city. We had a very nice driver - Paul Murphy Ryan - who dropped us off at Trinity College. The old library, or "long room," has always been on my bucket list. We walked through an exhibit on the Book of Kells, which fed into the library. It did not disappoint. Photos to follow at some point.
We walked from the library to lunch at Dunne and Crescenzi, a very authentic Italian restaurant (I know...Italian food in Ireland...eh, we're weird). After lunch we walked to Merrion Square, a lovely park across the street from Oscar Wilde's childhood home and that now has a monument/statue in his honor. A couple blocks north of the square was St. Andrew's, a beautiful little Catholic church. From there we took another taxi back to the car rental lot. I forget the driver's name, but he recommended the pub in Cong that we stopped at the next night (where I had my first glass of Guinness!). We made a slightly harrowing 35 minute drive north out of Dublin and stayed the first night in Drogheda. We were so tired we didn't even go out for dinner...we just ate a Kind/Rx bar while we crashed in the room.
Funny story about the room...when we got there, someone needed to use the restroom, but when they flipped the switch nothing came on. Turns out a fuse had tripped...so 20 minutes and two hotel workers later, we finally had light (and could shower safely)!
The next morning we went to Mass at St. Mary's in Drogheda (where we stayed the night) and headed to Roscommon for lunch at Gleeson's. From there we drove to Knock, where there's a shrine to our Lady of Knock, where Mary, Joseph and St. John appeared. We went in the shrine, the basilica and adoration Chapel...God was all over the place. ☺
From Knock we drove to Cong, a beautiful little village where parts of The Quiet Man was filmed. We made a quick stop at St. Mary's and visited the gorgeous ruins and ancient cemetery next door. We had a quick drink at Pat Cohan's Pub, which is where I got my first honest-to-goodness Irish Guinness!
Today was the longest driving day of the trip, which included having Google send us down a "two lane" road that truly fit only one car down it at a time. We made a quick stop at a small church called St. Patrick's, across the street from a pretty bay. We made it to the Cliffs of Moher, which was awesome, and walked around taking pictures for about an hour. We stopped for a quick lunch at a little village south of the Cliffs and continued on to Castlegregory, where we're staying tonight. Thankfully a very helpful gentleman told us about a ferry we could take out of Killimer that would save us a fair bit of driving, so we got to shorten our drive AND take a break at the same time.
The b&b we're staying tonight (in Castlegregory) is across the street from the ocean and has a gorgeous view. Can't wait to wander down to the beach in the morning!
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