Ireland Tour--Day 6 Connemara National Park; Kylemore Abbey (June 11)

We had a great day in Connemara National Park. We hiked up one of the hills--Diamond Hill. The views were worth the hike! We had a chance to go to Kylemore Abbey too--the view of it from the top of the hill was great! You'll see the first picture shows a herd of sheep outside the window--this was on the drive to Connemara. We could not get the camera out quick enough to get the picture of the cow running down the road toward us--at least it was in the right lane!

Ireland Tour--Day 5 Glenveagh National Park Donnegal (June 10)

Note: Laura has not yet lost her mind or committed a violent crime against her parents. All rejoice.

Well, Laura decided to add in her two cents to the blog! She got a bit overwhelmed with castles after a while. The National Park had a castle--of course--and a great garden. We did a short hike and then hit the road to Dunfanaghy--a small town on the top of the coast. Some of the shots are from the drive down to Castlebar on the Galway pennisula. We stopped off in Sligo and visited the Abbey there. We also made a stop in Drumcliffe to see the place Yeats was buried and the high cross and round tower.

Ireland Tour--Day 4 Giant's Causeway & Derry (June 9)

We left Ballycastle for the Giant's Causeway and continued to be amazed at the different beauty of the coast line. This drive is in the "top 5" in the world--according to someone! The volcanic rocks looked like honeycomb. A nice walk to the top of the hill gave good panoramic views too--you'll see the zigzag trail we took. At the top of the hill, a flock of sheep greeted us. Our next stop was Dunlace Castle--we opted to skip the Bushmills whiskey distillery along the way. Laura dipped her toes in the water at Downhill--she quickly found a small crab in one of the tidal pools. Our last stop of the day was in Derry--"the city of walls." Quite a lot of history in this short walk on the top of the walls--the town had been sieged many times, bombed, rebuilt, etc. It is only in the last decade that the canons were refurbished and reinstated on the wall. Derry and Belfast were two key locations during the Troubles and quite volitle. Much has been done here by those involved in the Peace Movement, but as with Belfast, the toll has been taken on the economic infrastructure of the city. We stayed in Letterkenny at the Ballyraine Guesthouse--so voted our most favorite shower in Ireland! A hearty Irish breakfast got us on the road the next day.

Ireland Tour--Day 3 Ballycastle (June 8)

Our first stop on day three was at Cerrickfergus Castle. There were "soldiers" staged throughout the castle to show you the everyday life of olden times. As with many of Ireland's castles, this one was on the sea. Our next stop up the coastline was at Glenariff Nature Reserve. There was a nice walk to a series of waterfalls. Here you begin to see the green fields of Ireland and lots of sheep! Our final stop this day was at Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Check out the website for further details on this (http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Carrick-a-Rede-Rope-Bridge-Antrim-Northern-Ireland-Ballintoy-Ballycastle-P2829). The bridge is over a chasm 23 meters deep. The newer bridge felt quite safe, though a friend told us when he was little that the bridge was much more rickety and risky. The views from the island were amazing. Our final stay was at Sheep's Head Hostel--Laura got top bunk! There were lots of backpackers and fisherman staying the night. You can see one of the views from the hostel with the white building in the corner. Visitors were from around the world. At this point, the sun is rising around 4 am and setting at 10 pm--so you really need dark curtains to get any sleep!