Land in Dublin. Check in and take the hop on hop off bus. Visit the Guiness brewery and the book of Skells. Dinner in a local pub, order a black and tan, not totally sure what I got, the Irish really don't seem to have the concept of a black & tan (probably related to some bad feelings about an English military group call the Black & Tans that were responsible for some unfortunate events).
Spend the night in Dublin.
Join the tour, 14 passager mini bus with a trailer for the luggage. Long drive to the first hotel in Gougane Barra with 2 stops on the way. First stop at the Rock of Cashiel, old church with a nice round tower. At the Rock of Cashiel Barb is enthralled by a local guide's story about how he met a girl on a tour 3 months ago, they'be been talking daily ever since, and he's going to Georgia to spend 3 months with her - is it true love :-)
Then on to Castle Blarney (yes we kissed the stone and had the best seafood chowder on the trip). Great hotel in a 'Gael tucht' region (Gaelic only signs but everyone speaks English).
Spend the night in Gougane Barra.
On the way do 3 hikes, one steep (right outside the hotel), one short and a long one around the end of the Barra peninsula. Nice lunch in the snug of a pub in Castletownbere.
Spend the night in Kenmere.
Ride around the Ring of Kerry. Bike ride in the Kerry nature preserve. Afternoon see demonstrations of sheep heading and sheep shearing at the Kissane working farm (current wool prices because of Brexit are 0.00/lb - tough time to be a sheep farmer).
Spend the night in Portmagee ('small' port village near the skilligs).
First of 2 days in Dingle. On the way take a boat trip around the Skelligs (Small and Michael). Significant swells on the way out and back, swells larger than the boat. Happy for the calm ride to Dingle.
Spend the night in Dingle.
Second day in Dingle. Morning of second day take a 2 MI walk from the hotel to the point of the bay. Watch 4 tour boats jocky around before we all see the dolphin Fungi. What will Dingle do when Fungi eventually dies? Rest of day spent just wandering the town and a short ride around Slea Head Drive. That night get a front row seat for some live Irish music at Murphy's Pub.
Spend the night in Dingle.
On the way take a long drive (with ferry across the Shannon river with an outdoor picnic - absolutely beautiful weather) to the Cliffs of Mohr. Take a beautiful 3 mi hike along the cliffs.
Spend the night in Ennis.
Take the ferry to the Aran islands (Innis Shere, (Innis Maan, Innis More). Take a horse drawn carriage ride around the island of Innis More for a look at some seals poking heads out of the water and a longer stop at the ring fort. This was the first real rainy day of the trip. Great view of Kylemore Abbey on the drive to the hotel. That night in the hotel Kris talks Sam into playing the piano and singing in the bar for everyone there (brave kid). Kris now owes her an ice cream from Murphy's in Galway
Spend the night in Clifton (the Capitol of Conemarra) at the AbbyGlen Castle (not really a castle, just a manor that looks like one).
We spend 3 hrs in Galway, basically drinking guineas outoutside waiting for Murhpy's Ice Cream shop to open so Kris can pay her debt to Sam. Then it's a long drive back to Dublin.
Spend he night in Dublin.
Second day in Dublin. Visit the Kilmainham Gail where the uprising of 1916 was a significant event. Turns out the uprising wasn't supported by the people (WW I) but the executions after turned public opinion around. Toured the Teelings distillery, turns out to make whiskey you make beer first and then distill the result - who knew.
Spend the night in Dublin.
Take the train to Belfast. Family friend Shirley (great lady, lots of stories including a husband who was killed by a targeted bomb from the IRA) drove us around Belfast (parts of the city still rather dreary but getting better). Toured the must see Titanic exhibit. Had dinner with Shirley.
Spend the night in Belfast.
Flight and 2 hour drive, it's going to take a while to stay off the left side of the road (driving on the wrong side of the car makes you want to move to the left too much). Turns out driving on the left in a right hand drive car is harder than driving on the left in a left hand drive car. In the RH car everything is in the wrong place (left had for the shift, glance to the left to use the rear view mirror). These subtle differences just make it hard. Walked around Bath and had pizza. Mainly a travel day so didn't take any pictures.
Spend the night in Bath.
Start the stay in the cottage in the Cotswolds. In the morning toured the Roman baths, very cool. Did a free guided tour of Bath, very nice and informative two hour walk. Drove up to Bourton-on-the-Water and discovered the tickets for the play were that night. One and a half hour drive to Strafford Upon Avon to see a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Anthony and Cleopatra (how did the reserved Britts find a way to add a full frontal nudity scene to Shakespeare :-) The 30 min drive back, in the dark, with parking lights only for half the way (stupid French controls, Hertz gave us a Renault) was interesting but we survived.
Spend the night in Bourton-on-the-Water.
Still in BOTW. Slow start to the day, basically did laundry (yea) and walked around the village in the morning. In the afternoon went to the Falconry Center in time for the 4:30 flight of 4 raptors (borrowing owl, and 3 buzzards), quite an interesting place. Dinner in Stow on the Wold (eventually, lots of full up restaurants) and then home before dark.
Spend the night in Bourton-on-the-Water.
Still in BOTW. Start the morning with a couple of walks thru paths around the village. Would have hiked off to Lower Slaughter but the trail head was just too muddy. Around noon the Tour of Britain bicycle race came thru town (had to stay for that) a lot of fun waiting expectantly for the Pelton to come by. Checked out the miniature village of BOTW. A 1/9th scale model (about waist height) of the village in stone - pretty cool. Even had the scale model in the scale model :-) In the afternoon we braved the mud and did most of the hike to L. Slaughter. Had to turn back in time for dinner reservations (learned our lesson in Stow).
Spend the night in Bourton-on-the-Water.
Still in BOTW. Spent the say in Stratford upon Avon (note from the guide in Bath 'avon' just means river so there's lots of Avons in England). Took in Anne Hathaway's house and then a boat ride up and down the Avon (beatiful river). After lunch at the Royal Shapespear Theatre the weather turned bad so we skipped the 2 hr walking tour in favor of a backstage tour of the theatre (highly recommended). An obligatory stop at Shapkespeare's birth place and then back to BOTW. We didn't learn our lesson that well as we got turned away from the first restaurant (no reservation) but they suggested another place that seated us with no problem.
Spend the night in Bourton-on-the-Water.
Last night in BOTW. Morning in Warwick castle, great medieval castle with long, rich history. Unfortunately the trebuchet was not working but got some pictures of it. Stopped in Chipping Camden for a look at a pretty town and made reservations for dinner that night there (finally learned our lesson).
On to Oxford. Say goodbye to BOTH (waah) and survive the drive to Oxford. The Buttery (our hotel) is right in the middle of town. Take a walking tour of the city and then walk down to the Themes. At night we take another walking tour, this one a Ghost Tour (in the rain). Don't see any ghosts (surprise) but the walk was fun and got a lot of interesting stories.
Spend the night in Oxford.
Final night in Oxford. Take the train to London then a hop on bus to the Eye. Ride it around (no lines) for some great views. Take a boat ride down the Themes to the Tower of London (who knew in it's early days it was a residence not just a prison - not me), ignore the gems, the amount of gold there is astonishing. Decide to take the tube to get the train back to Oxford before 4 (we thought our off-peak ticket wasn't good from 4 - 7, it turns out it was but we had fun and confused a local on whether we were in the right train - perfect tube adventure). Move the car to center town so we can leave early in the morning.
Spend the night in Oxford.
Time to fly home. Get up at 6AM to make sure we can do the 1 hr drive to the airport and get through security in time for a 10:30 flight (we had plenty of time, probably could have slept in for another 2 hrs). Miss 1 turn from the GPS close to the airport so we have to drive through some local streets to get to Hertz but not a problem. After a 6 hr. layover in San Francisco (including a 60 min. wait on the taxi way for our gate to become available) we get home after about 26 hrs traveling.
| Day 1 Dublin |
Day 2 Gougane Barra |
Day 3 Kenmere |
Day 4 Portmagee |
| Day 5 Dingle |
Day 6 Dingle |
Day 7 Ennis |
Day 8 Clifton |
| Day 9 Dublin |
Day 10 Dublin |
Day 11 Belfast |
| Day 2 Bath |
Day 3 BOTW |
Day 4 BOTW |
Day 5 BOTW |
| Day 6 BOTW |
Day 7 Oxford |
Day 8 Oxford |