Castles and Cliffs; Stones and Sheep -- IRELAND

After our exploration of Dublin, we hit the countryside! We learned a long time ago that we love to see the iconic cities, but our favorite experiences are exploring the country out of the cities. We rented a vehicle and hit the road. The car rental place must assume that all Americans only drive automatic vehicles because they were shocked when I told them I was OK driving a manual vehicle. As we drive we have a general destination, then we stop along the way for anything that catches our interests! 

We drove south from Dublin to Kilkenny. We had booked a stay at a large manor house and loved driving through the fields and villages as we made our way there. Lady Hiva wanted to drive at one point...it was VERY scary! But we made it haha!

All four of us loved the green. It was so refreshing to see trees and flowers! We were also confused by the lack of people! HAHA. Mumbai has made us really appreciate open space. 

Lady Hiva ate steak every day--at least once. HAHA I was all about the salads and fruit! Of course when the server brings out the food they always make an assumption and place the steak in front of me and give her the salad--we smile and thank them and then switch as they walk away! ahaha

We spent as much time as possible out in nature. We wandered through forests, we hiked trails, we meandered through gardens and loved every minute of it! It made both Lady Hiva and I miss having a yard to cultivate. 

I wore a scarf the whole time because my nose job gets cold really easily and it hurts. So many times I am walking around with the scarf wrapped around my head with only my eyes showing! We wore coats the entire trip. It was cold!!! Definitely NOT in Inida, Dorothy. We said several times that we are thankful we did not come in March, it would have been SO COLD then!! 

Nodding back to folklore, there are fairy gardens all over Ireland. We had fun looking for them and taking photos. 

I knew these two were having a good time when they would ask for their photos to be taken. Kind of a nice change from us having to beg them to take a photo. 

Nature is so BEAUTIFUL. These photos are amazing, but it is nothing compared to the way it looks in real life. To see all the colors, hear the birds and wind, feel the air, smell all the smells adds to the indescribable experience. 

The next day we traversed more of the countryside. We saw all kinds of beauty. The roads are narrow and windy. At some point both Muggles puked. One told us in time to stop, the other blew chunks all over the car--tried to hold it in her--I mean their--mouth that just made it jet spray all over the car! We pulled over and wiped down as much as we could and changed clothes. So many people pulled over to ask if we needed help. Such nice village people. 

We stopped to look at an old ruin of an abbey. We explored the hillside ruins and watched all the sheep. We all loved seeing the new lambs running around and being mischievous. 

All of us loved Blarney Castle. 3/4 of us kissed the stone. Koala Bear was NOT about to hang upside to kiss the stone. 

The whole trip to Ireland and UK was a tour de Harry Potter. Some of the stops were planned, others we ended up finding by accident. One of the places we made a point of seeing was the Cliffs of Moher. They are a UNESCO world heritage site for ecology and geology. The plants and animals were cool to learn about. But we also loved seeing that it was the place where Harry Potter was filmed for the seaside cliffs in the last part of the series. 

It was SO cold! The wind blows up the cliffs and blows clear through your body. 

Pub food became some of our favorite food! We even tried fish and chips. 

There were a lot of gardens around Blarney Castle. We could have been there for several more hours. Our favorite was the poison gardens. It was so educational to read about plants that are poisonous--some of them I did not even realize!

We were sad to say goodbye to Ireland. We loved all that we experienced. The life style was more laid back and people were so friendly. We got a nature fix, we had good food, we took so many photos. It was perfect!