Foto Friday #2: Ireland

Melissa and I visited Ireland in October, 2007. We spent ten days, driving from Dublin on the east side of the island, south through Wicklow and to Wexford and Waterford. We hit Cork, Kilarney, County Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula, Limerick, Galway, Clifton, Connemara, the Burren and back to Dublin. It was a whirlwind of green fields, castles, sheep, rugged shore and Guinness!

We loved the people, the scenery, staying in B&Bs, castles and cool hotels, and we even loved driving on the other side of the road - although it nearly cost us our lives once or twice!

Enjoy!

The Guinness Brewery in Dublin is a must see!

Dublin was at the end of their pre-crash boom while we were there.

High Crosses are everywhere in Ireland.

Waterfall in Wicklow Mountains Nat'l Park

Tower ruins

Use caution while driving!

I love this shot of the abbey ruins with the brilliant orange leaves.

Everywhere you turn there is an abbey or castle ruins

I forget which city this is, but I love the row houses & businesses

Just like castles and high crosses, stone walls are everywhere. 

Probably my favorite photo from the trip. We were lucky that during our time there, it only rained a couple of times. This was taken somewhere near Galway.

There still are villages where lots of houses have thatch roofs. I just loved how this roof is woven under the window.

Ireland is rugged, which this photo shows. This pic was taken in Roundstone, which is a fishing village, but is also known for making some of the best bodhrans in the world. A Bodhran is an Irish drum - we have a couple at the house that Melissa has become quite good at using.

There are small lakes everywhere. This one happened to have a beautiful abbey (Kylemore Abbey) on the other side.

Here we are at Kylemore Abbey