We had some friends going to Ireland for vacation, so we decided to take advantage of the cheap airfare and join them for a few days. We enjoyed ourselves and had fantastic weather for our trip. Guess it made up for all the rain we had in England!
Bunratty Castle - a restored 13th century castle. We toured the castle during the day and then came back at night for a medieval banquet. They entertained us with live harp and violin music and then some singing of traditional Irish songs. For dinner, we drank our soup from the bowl and then the rest of our dinner with our fingers. It was very touristy, but fun nonetheless. The evening finished with a a guy playing the bagpipes.
Cliffs of Moher - a beautiful, though crowded vista of Irish cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean.
We took a short hike in Burren National Park. The whole area we were in on the west coast was the rockiest country I've ever seen. There were rock walls everywhere - sometimes it seemed like there were walls just to do something with all the rocks. It was pretty in its own way, but it wasn't the vivid green I expected of Ireland.
The roads in Ireland and especially this area were rough. They were narrow, very bumpy and curvy too. It was an adventure - we couldn't believe the speed limit on these roads was 60mph!
A neolithic tomb in the Burren (it dates to between 4000 and 3000 BC)
Clonmacnoise - one of the ruined monasteries we visited (it dates to 545 AD). It had some beautifully carved crosses - an example of which is seen here.
We met up with Thomas and Laura Davison on St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. Here are Tom and Thomas on their respective 6-inch diameter posts. They watched the whole parade from these vantage points. They definitely had better views than Laura and me, but our ground positions were less trying on the leg muscles.
An Irish bagpipe band.
An Irish wolfhound (at least that is what I'm assuming). There were guys carrying all sorts of random stuff on their backs made out of some sort of foam material. The guy in front of the dog is carrying a 10-12 foot boat!
The parade was full of non-Irishy things as well. This is an example. Many people dressed up in elaborate costumes and dancing around. What impressed me most about the parade was that except for a few cars, everything was propelled by manpower. A huge float would pass by and you'd see 8-10 people behind it pushing! And they did this for the entire parade.
A round tower from the second monastic ruin we visited - Glendalough (also from the 6th century.)
Glendalough means "glen of two lakes" - this is one of them. We hiked along the entire right side of it on this beautiful day!
The fanciest McDonalds I ever did see...
Newgrange - a passage tomb that is 5000 years old, and we went inside it! This mound was designed so that at the solstice, the sun would enter the tomb and shine on the floor and it still works today. You enter the internal chamber through a narrow rock-walled tunnel. And even I had to duck to get through! The tunnel takes you into a small chamber with three small alcoves off of it. The entire length is probably 1/16 of the diameter of the mound. So this huge mound was built for a teeny little chamber. And the original stone roof infrastructure is still in place - crazy to think about when you're inside standing under a 5,000 year old roof!
We were in Ireland right after all the lambs were born. They were all over the country - you could see them bounding after each other or just hanging out with mom. Tom said I pointed out every single sheep we saw, but I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. I did like seeing all the sheep, though :)
Bunratty Castle - a restored 13th century castle. We toured the castle during the day and then came back at night for a medieval banquet. They entertained us with live harp and violin music and then some singing of traditional Irish songs. For dinner, we drank our soup from the bowl and then the rest of our dinner with our fingers. It was very touristy, but fun nonetheless. The evening finished with a a guy playing the bagpipes.
Cliffs of Moher - a beautiful, though crowded vista of Irish cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean.
We took a short hike in Burren National Park. The whole area we were in on the west coast was the rockiest country I've ever seen. There were rock walls everywhere - sometimes it seemed like there were walls just to do something with all the rocks. It was pretty in its own way, but it wasn't the vivid green I expected of Ireland.
The roads in Ireland and especially this area were rough. They were narrow, very bumpy and curvy too. It was an adventure - we couldn't believe the speed limit on these roads was 60mph!
A neolithic tomb in the Burren (it dates to between 4000 and 3000 BC)
Clonmacnoise - one of the ruined monasteries we visited (it dates to 545 AD). It had some beautifully carved crosses - an example of which is seen here.
We met up with Thomas and Laura Davison on St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. Here are Tom and Thomas on their respective 6-inch diameter posts. They watched the whole parade from these vantage points. They definitely had better views than Laura and me, but our ground positions were less trying on the leg muscles.
An Irish bagpipe band.
An Irish wolfhound (at least that is what I'm assuming). There were guys carrying all sorts of random stuff on their backs made out of some sort of foam material. The guy in front of the dog is carrying a 10-12 foot boat!
The parade was full of non-Irishy things as well. This is an example. Many people dressed up in elaborate costumes and dancing around. What impressed me most about the parade was that except for a few cars, everything was propelled by manpower. A huge float would pass by and you'd see 8-10 people behind it pushing! And they did this for the entire parade.
A round tower from the second monastic ruin we visited - Glendalough (also from the 6th century.)
Glendalough means "glen of two lakes" - this is one of them. We hiked along the entire right side of it on this beautiful day!
The fanciest McDonalds I ever did see...
We were in Ireland right after all the lambs were born. They were all over the country - you could see them bounding after each other or just hanging out with mom. Tom said I pointed out every single sheep we saw, but I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. I did like seeing all the sheep, though :) 
