Spring Break Day 6: Dingle to Dromoland

This is it, friends. I have stumbled upon heaven. I should elaborate, but I just... words fail me for once.

How the day in Dingle began -- rainy and kind of somber

Going to a famous Dingle church!

One of the really cool parts of the church was a fresco painted by a native, who did some really interesting things with the Last Supper -- Judas is a raven in the right-hand corner, and all the disciples & Jesus are modeled after natives in Dingle. Gorgeous.

Joseph. And St. Joseph. What a pair of winners.

The main attraction of the church: the Harry Clarke stained glass windows. So amazingly vivid and painstakingly done!!!!

Exterior of church

And some palm trees, chillin. No big deal.

The parents and Joe by the well the nuns used back in the day.

A crazy cool old tree in the graveyard.

Dingle Bay! Or, y'know, just the harbor. It's a functional, working quay, so we weren't really allowed out on it. C'est la vie. Still got a pretty picture from a distance.

One of the more frequent road signs: "More squiggly roads. OH GOOD."

Ma's favorite sign: "The redundant 'no passing' sign..."

Gotta love the ocean :)

Joe and Ma at lunch -- Joe hitting the mid-afternoon sleepiness.

Da and me <3

On the road again! On a very tight road, with a large truck coming at us, mostly in our lane. Good thing my da's an exceedingly excellent driver...

WHAT IS ALL THIS SPACE?!? THESE ROOMS ARE SO BIG!!! WE'RE IN DROMOLAND CASTLE!! AAAAAAH!!!

Ma and Da's king-sized bed in their suite

The bathroom -- when Da walked into it and asked Joe if he'd seen it yet, my da's voice echoed. Joe's comment was: "I could probably play baseball in here."

The lobby. I would love to have one of those chandeliers someday...

The Dromoland Castle crest -- see the lions? That's the O'Brien crest, where my mom's side of the family gets their Irish ancestry.

THE CASTLE.

See? CASTLE. And me, just after falling flat on my face. Fun fact.

They have some phenomenal trees here -- exhibit A.

The 'toddler-frowny-face-of-doom' came out when we spent too much time in the walled garden and weren't getting back to my archery time when we said we would...

The full side of the castle

Doing what I love most: archery practice with Pat, my new favorite person ever.

I got to shoot with two different bows for about a half hour. SO MUCH FUN!!

The one true bulls-eye I got during that half-hour -- my skill from the summer was not there :P

I even got Ma to try!!!! She didn't do too poorly either :D

All five arrows on the target! Hooray!!!

Meanwhile, the boys went out for 9 holes on the massive golf course...

Lookin' classy.

And speaking of classy, we had a VERY fancy dinner. Joe: "I don't think I've ever drank a beer while wearing a suit before..."

Look at all that cutlery. I didn't even know what most of it was for!!!! But it was there.

Course 1: duck leg. Almost fell off the bone. YUM.

Course 2: a scoop of peach and white rum sorbet. SUPER YUM.

Course 3, main course: LOOK AT THE LID. YOU CAN SEE ME TAKING THIS PICTURE IN THE LID!!!

Course 3: hake filet. It was really funny when they brought all our food out, and whipped all four lids off at once. I felt like applauding.

 The camera battery lamentably ran out before the dessert course, but HOLY WOW. There is just a pervasive sense of happiness and contentment in my life right now. I'm chilling with Joe in our upgraded suite (we both have a queen bed to ourselves) and are watching TV, blogging/using Interwebs, and digesting all that FOOD. It's generally awesome. Sadly, we're on the road again tomorrow, but it's back to Louisburgh/Westport, which is exciting!!! Because the day after tomorrow is the ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADE!!!!!!! So I'll be reporting from Co. Mayo home tomorrow :) Until then!

-S

Spring Break Day 5: Dublin to Dingle

Holy wow, friends and family. Today involved being in the car a lot more than any of us would have liked.

The hotel at which we got our directions to our real hotel. Da and I went back to the guy who helped us out, and thanked him again :)

Shopping on Grafton Street: my new favorite cafe name!

The shirt in Carrol's that Joe and I tried to convince Da to buy :P

Me and the W.B. Yeats 'sculpture' in St. Stephen's Green... abstract, to be sure.

THE SUN.

The fam is still in love with the concept of driving by random ruins :)

For a stretch break, we stopped in Cashel to see THE ROCK.

It was a little bit of a hike to get up there, but worth it!

Plus it was really nice because the sun stayed with us!!!

Ma and Da making the hike :)

The 12th century St. Patrick's high cross -- unique because of where the weight of the sculpture is held. Instead of on rings, the weight was held up by two posts on the side, said to represent the two other men crucified with Jesus. FUN FACTS!

Family in front of the Cathedral :)

Interior of the Cathedral

Lack of ceiling and the conical tower on the side

Ma exploring in the Cathedral

The arch here was where the rope for the bell hung down into the Cathedral itself -- more fun facts!

The source of all the fun facts -- Da reading the Rick Steves travel guide aloud

Been a while since we've had a 'taking a picture while taking a picture' picture...

The graveyard here is famous for having a large amount of well-preserved high crosses as gravestones... very pretty.

The Cathedral from the outside

Proof that we still had sun later in the day, too -- it was coming in and out for a while, behind clouds and whatnot, but it was nice to have around. We did spend a great deal of time in the car today: we left Dublin around 11:45, stopped at Cashel for maybe 2 hours, and got to Dingle by 7:15. WOO.

Joe spent a good deal of the trip sleeping, and since I was bored, I spent a lot of the trip taking pictures of him sleeping. This is my favorite.

Hills on the way into Dingle from Tralee

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME DOES THAT SIGN MEAN?!?! WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS??"

Dinner at Doyle's in Dingle -- I had the bacon and scallop salad!! (so much alliteration -- but so good!)

Joe's dessert of vanilla pannacotta. Super yum.

Joe's enthusiasm for his stick of chocolate.

My dessert -- something like mousse but also like cake. I forget the title, because it was very spiffy, but it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. With raspberry sauce and white chocolate ice cream to boot.

Favorite store I've seen on this trip as of yet -- Foxy John's bar and hardware store.

Our inn for the evening! Has its own pub, and a laundry facility. Very nice...

...if a little cramped. Three beds, a bathroom, not much else. A definite change from Number 31, but since it's only for the evening, it's not a big deal. A comfy place to sleep is all we really need :D

 So. Another long day, full of fun and car travel. Tomorrow, I'll be reporting from a castle. There's a distinct possibility that I'll be able to shoot some bows, for a small fee of LOTS OF MONEY, so stay tuned!!!

-S