Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Iceland ~ April-May 2018

Our trip consisted of a five-week trip to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Iceland.

April 9, 2018.  Jim and Linda Sims, Jim and Danette Potochick, and Deb Anderson flew from US to Dublin, Ireland.

IRELAND

April 10.  Dublin.  Trinity College, Book of Kells,Molly Malone statue, Christ Church Cathedral, Famine Memorial, Abbey Theatre, O'Connell Monument, Brazen Head Pub for dinner, walked Temple Bar area and along Liffey river walk.

April 11, Wednesday. Dublin. National Gallery, Natural History Museum (dead zoo), Shelbourne Hotel, Merrion Square and Oscar Wilde Memorial, National Museum where we saw bog people (preserved dead bodies), Sweny Pharmacy where we did group read of Portraits of a Young Man by James Joyce, lunch at Doheny & Nesbit.  St. Stephen's Green, church service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and walked by Dublin Castle. 

April 12.  Picked up car and drove to Rock of Cashel.  Over the ages it was a multitude of things from a kingdom to a church.  The building is on top of the rock.  Drove to Blarney Castle. Drove to Cobh which is in the south coast.  We drove to Kinsale via a short ferry ride and had an outstanding dinner at Fishy Fishy.  This town is in 1000 places to see before you die as a culinary location.  The town was charming. We stopped at Charles Fort. 

April 13. We drove the Ring of Kerry and stayed in Tralee. 

April 14.  Drove the Dingle Peninsula, walked the Cliffs of Moher near Doolin, and stayed in Galway.

April 15, Sunday.  Walked around Galway and then took varied roads along the coast up to Connemara National Park and stayed in a hostel.  Went to a local pub and enjoyed a meal and local music.

April 16.  We toured Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, county Galway.  We toured the Castle which became an Abbey. We walked the gardens.  We then drove to Sligo taking some back side roads.  

April 17.  Left Sligo and drove to Yeates Grave, a poet, in  Village of Drumcliff.  Drove N16 through Blacklion.  There is a bridge in village of Blacklion that when you cross you go into Northern Ireland.  The drive was very nice I with lots of sheep and rolling hills.  We stayed in Portrush.

April 18.  We toured the Dunluce Castle (1600's) which is located right on the cliffs.  
We went to the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge.  It is a bridge that is about 100 feet above the water.  We walked across the rope bridge to a little island.  People would go across the rope bridge to the smaller island in order to catch salmon in their nets.  
We did a fabulous walk around the Giants Causeway.   The rock formations were perfectly formed and looked like they were made by man and not by nature.  It is a 5-mile long stretch of coastline made up of basalt columns.  
We then went to Bushmills Distillery from 1608.  Jim and Linda toured.  Jim Sims, Deb, and Danette did scotch tastings.

April 19. We drove to the Dark Hedges.  It is a lane with about 150 beech trees lining a road up to a country manor.  Behind the manor is a house called the Belltower which was filmed in Games of Thrones.             We drove to Belfast and toured the Titanic Museum.  2225 people were on the titanic and about 1500 people died.  Titanic was built in Belfast and launched in 1912.  We also toured the Nomadic which was a tender that took people out to the Titanic before the voyage.

 

April 20. Friday.  We hired Paddy from Black Taxi and he drove us around Belfast.  He told us about the Protestant and Catholics/Loyalists and Republicans.  Still today gates close between Protestant and Catholic communities at 8:30 pm.  
We drove to Dublin.  Stayed in the Camden area.  

 April 21.  Last day in Dublin.  Toured jail, museum, and went to the Jameson factory.

WALES

April 22.  Took ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales.  We had private bus drive to Bangor and stayed at The Boatyard.  We had a Sunday Carvery meal which is a buffet of various meats, vegetables, salads, and potatoes. 

April 23 Monday.  Drove around Wales.  Went to longest city name in world, drove to Caernarfon, went to a slate museum, drove through Snowdonia National Park, Betsy-Coed, and walled city of Conwy.  We stayed in Llandudno which is a seaside village.  

ENGLAND
April 24.  Left Wales and drove to The Lakes District of England.  We went from Windermere up to Keswick.  Then we took a loop road through various small villages along small narrow roads, rolling hills, streams, waterfalls, sheep in fields.  Stayed in Carlisle.

April 25.  Drove from Carlisle to Hadrian's Wall which is about 20 minutes north.  This wall was built by the Romans and runs the width of Scotland/England.  We stopped by Inverary Castle which is a Castle that was in Downton Abbey.  The uncle from Downton Abbey lived here and a Christmas scene was shot there.  We drove to Oban and stopped at the Oban Distillery. 

SCOTLAND

April 26, Thursday.  We took a ferry, bus, ferry, and boat today.  We drove through Isle of Mull, went to the Isle of Staffa, and Isle of Iona.  Staffa is an uninhabited island and has basalt columns formed from volcanic activity.  A highlight was seeing puffins swim and fly near Staffa as they arrive for their annual mating season.  

April 27.  Drove the Glencoe Valley, Sims and Jim walked the Ben Nevis trail just outside city of Ft. William, and Deb and Danette had tea at Inverlochy Castle. Stayed in a youth hostel in remote Glencoe.

April 28.  Drove the southern portion of Isle of Skye.  Stopped at Tallisker Distillery. 

April 29, Sunday.  Drove the northern portion of Isle of Skye.  Saw Fairy Glen and Man of Storr, which are both areas to walk.  Stayed in Ft. Augustus which is near Loch Ness.  

April 30.  Drove along Loch Ness and through Inverness.  Saw Cairns which are 2000+ year old burial areas.  
Toured the Culloden Battlefield grounds which was the fight in 1746 between the Jacobites and English.  
Went to a working farm and saw sheep dogs and sheep demonstrations where the dogs rounded up the sheep.  They also sheared one sheep.  Stayed in Aviemore.

May 1.  Stopped at Queen's View lookout and then drove to Pitlochry.  Deb, Jim, and Danette walked the whiskey trail and stopped at a couple distilleries and a brewery.  Jim and Linda did a more extensive walk up a high hill just outside the city.  

May 2.  Walked around Doune Castle, 14th century, but it was closed.  It was the location for filming Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  We toured Stirling Castle.  

May 3.  Drove to Dundee to see the Discovery Point exhibit.  RSS Discovery was built in Dundee and sailed by Captain Scott to Antarctica in 1901. 
Drove along coast to St. Andrews and Culross. Saw The Kelpies, large horses, and the Falkirk Wheel, which is a lock system for boats. 

May 4 Friday.  Took a walking tour around the Old Town of Edinburgh.  Sims and Jim went on the Edinburgh Castle tour in afternoon and Deb and Danette went to Palace of Holyroodhouse.  

May 5.  Walked in the New Town area.  We listened to a music folk session at Sandy Bells bar.  Sims went to Botanical Gardens, Princess Gardens, Nelson Monument, Sandy Bells, and Surgeon Hall Museum.

May 6, Sunday. Sims went to the National Museum and walked.  Potochick and Deb went to Stockbridge Market and walked to Dean Village.  We all met up at The Wee Restaurant for dinner. 

May 7. Took train from Edinburgh to Glascow and walked the city.

ICELAND

May 8.  Flew to Iceland with Sims.  Deb flew to USA.  We walked around Reykjavik, and went into the church and the organist was playing.

May 9.  We drove The Golden Circle.  We drove past some thermal nurseries, saw a large crater lake, went into Pingveiller National Park, saw the Mid Atlantic rift where the Eurasian and American plates meet.  We saw many waterfalls, Law Rock, and Strokkur Geiser.  Stayed in Dyrholaey.  

May 10.  Went to top of large hill where we saw Hole In The Arch which is located along a long sandy black beach.  Stopped in city of Vik.  Saw sea stacks which are large stone formations that look like stacks. We drove through volcanic lava fields which looked like moss covered globular shapes.  Apollo astronauts 11 trained in this area.  Went to a national park and saw the largest glacier mass in Europe.  Vatnajokull has seven active volcanoes.  We went to two iceberg lagoons where we saw floating icebergs.  Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon is an area where icebergs float to the sea.  On Diamond Beach you could see the icebergs at the ocean edge.  We all wore long underwear today and it was very windy. 

May 11, Friday.  Today we drove most of the day through varied terrain.  We saw snow and lava stone.  We went to a large waterfall, named Dentifoss, a mud pool area, called Hverir, and then we stayed in Myvatn.  We went to geothermal pool in the evening.  

May 12.  Stopped at a cave area where you could walk in to the cave and view the thermal water, but it is too hot for people to get in.  Hiked through a lava field area where the lava and water sent the ground upward forming large high mounds.  Drove to some huts that were made with brick and were covered with grass and people lived in them around 1084.  Stopped at Godfloss waterfall.  Stopped in town of Akureka for lunch.  Drove to a beach area and saw the large rock formations in the water.  Stayed in a guesthouse in the middle of a farming and horse area.

May 13, Sunday.  Drove a peninsula and stopped for fish and chips in Stykkisholmshofn and saw some sea stacks later in day. We saw caves and "church rock".  Today was a scenic drive with clear weather.

May 14, Monday.  Drove back to Rejkavik.  Went to Lava Tube which was an underground cavern where the lava flowed, hardened, and you could see the formations along the walls where lava hardened and the huge rocks that were carried along the floor.

May 15. Went to geothermal hot tubs in morning.  Flew home.