Ireland

    Our trip to Ireland was the best vacation that we have ever been on because everything went so well.  The country was as pretty as you could possibly imagine with the beautiful green hills lined with rock walls.  Every day was a gift; a present that, when opened, contained at least one good memory.  And because Tracey and I are experienced travelers, we have learned to take our tours one day at a time, to appreciate each day as being special in its own right, and to just roll with it.  Our reward for our patience and for our positive mental attitude was to make new friends in the U of L Travel Group, spend time with our old friends that we had met on previous tours, and to see some of the most glorious places that God has placed on this earth.  

   The three main events that I was really looking forward to was the Waterford Crystal factory, the Blarney Stone, and Ashford Castle.  I kept my expectations for the Waterford Crystal tour low because I thought that it may turn out to be a tourist trap where all they do is to try sell you something.  As it turned out, the tour was great because we got to watch the craftsmen turn a block of crystal into magnificent bowls and glasses.  The second event was the Blarney Stone, and to get to it we had to climb up the steps of the Blarney Castle.  This was really scary because, by the time that we reached the top, we were almost crawling up the stairs because they were so narrow and steep.  Then, to kiss the Blarney Stone and get “the gift of gab,” we had to lean over backwards while an assistant held our feet.  Tracey did it with me and, for this, she earned bragging rights forever.  The third major event was when we went to the aviary at Ashford Castle so that Tracey could have a trained hawk land on her arm.  The hawk flew up and around us but would come back to Tracey’s arm when it wanted a treat.  It was special for my blind wife because she got to feel the hawk flap its wings near her face and to feel the weight of the bird as it used her arm as a perch to stand on.  These three events alone would have made our trip complete but there was much more to our trip to Ireland and we took advantage of every experience.

   When I plan my own trips I will stay at the hotels that are the cheapest or the nearest to the tour that I have planned.  The great thing about the U of L Travel Group is that they booked rooms at the nicest hotels in Ireland regardless of the cost or location.  The Trinity City Hotel, for example, is a four star hotel located in the heart of Dublin and an easy walk to Trinity College.  You know that you are staying at a nice place when you are greeted by a staff member who is wearing a top hat and tails, like they did at the Mount Juliet in Kilkenny.  With a Jack Nicklaus signature-designed golf course and a Michelin-starred restaurant, it was more like an estate than a hotel.  We also stayed at the Marlborough, which is just outside of Cork, and the place is so elegant that people want to have their weddings there.  We saw a reception for one of these weddings while sitting on our balcony.  The Great Southern Killarney is so nice that Charlie Chaplin, Princess Grace of Monaco, and Jackie Kennedy have all stayed there.  We spent three nights at the Ashford Castle, which was named the best hotel in the world by Forbes in 2015 after it completed a $75 million renovation.  The corner stone for Ashford was laid in the twelfth century and different sections had been added since that time.  The Guinness family bought it in 1852 and its most famous guests have been Ronald Reagan and John Wayne.  We had our own private tour of the special rooms, the grounds, and then took a boat ride around the castle.  The Ashford was, in a word, magnificent.    

   My wife is blind and we like to go on the U of L Travel Group tours because they make some accommodations for her.  For example, Tracey sits in the handicapped section of the bus, which is right behind the tour guide, so that she can hear what the speaker is saying.  Breda was our guide and she talked incessantly about her love of Ireland and that made the trip for Tracey.  At the Muckross House, one of the members of the staff pulled Tracey aside and gave her a personal tour.  It was completely unexpected.  The tour guide at Waterford Crystal kept Tracey at her side and gave her a lot of special attention by letting her feel the crystal and describing the process of making the bowls and glasses.  Finally, at Jerpoint Abbey, I think that the guide was specifically talking to my wife when she told the tale of Felix.  As the story goes, if a visitor took some of the dirt from where Felix is buried and put it on their eyes then that dirt will cure blindness.  The other members of the group laughed when Tracey said, “Come on!  Work for me!” while she was feeling the tomb of Felix.   

   The weather in Ireland was exactly as you would expect it to be, which was cold and rainy.  And yet, we were lucky several times over.  For example, when we were in Dublin the sun finally came out in the early afternoon for my tour of Trinity College and the students took advantage of the warmth by laying out in the grass in the quad.  When we finished our tour of the Rock of Cashel, it rained hard but only after we had arrived at our hotel and got our luggage inside.  The sun came out for our boat trip to the Cliffs of Moher on the Ring of Dingle, which made the colors of the grasslands and the black rocks pop out.  It was only as we were leaving did the clouds roll in and they were so thick that the next out going tour boat could not see the cliffs at all.  When we first arrived at Ashford Castle, it poured on us, but rain left as suddenly as it came in.  Then the sun came out and, when it shone on the flowers, the aroma was so pungent that it was almost overwhelming

   You just have to appreciate it when everything goes right.  We travelled through Ireland with forty other people and no one got sick and no one was hurt themselves.  In my experience, that fact alone is a rarity.   We like to go with the U of L Travel Group because it is more fun to do activities with other people.  Also, we feel protected when we are in a large group and I must have told my blind wife a hundred times that, in order to be safe, we needed to “stay with the herd.”  And besides, we get the extra things with U of L like having a dress up dinner at the King George V dining room at the Ashford Castle.  It was one of the most posh things that I have done in my entire life.  Finally, we like the U of L Travel Group so much that we have decided to go with them to France in the Fall and then tour Italy in 2025.  As I liked to tell my kids as they were growing up, “life is worth living.  Let’s go live some of it.” 

Funny
• James, who led the excursion with the wolfhounds, said “this is Dooley and Mulligan.  Don’t ask me in two minutes what the names of the dogs are.”  After waiting two minutes, I raised my hand and asked, “what are the names of the dogs.”  James gave me a side glance and then laughed.  To get the dogs to brighten up for pictures with the tourists, James offered them “cheery sausages.”
• Breda, our tour guide, was kidding around with our driver when she asked him, “I’ll bet that you drink Poitin (Irish moonshine).”  Dillon responded with, “I would rather drink weed killer.”  
• The middle schooler in me cannot get past the name “The Ring of Dingle” because it sounds like a venereal disease
• When the waiter asked us if we have any allergies or diet restrictions, Tracey said “no, but we will need to have all of the calories removed.”  To which the waiter responded with, “No problem, Ma’am.  We here at Ashford Castle aim to serve.” 
• “He took a deep, long look at her father’s bank account and immediately fell in love.”  This is attributed to the Duke of Wester, who was always broke, in regards to marrying the heiress, Helena Zimmerman.  
• My running joke was to ask, since we were in Ireland, “where are all of the Leprechauns?”  The best answers were, “you can catch them the first thing in the morning at the end of a rainbow,” and “they will appear only after you have had a Guinness!”
• Do you know why Dublin has the most people in all of Ireland?  Because its population is always Dublin.
• The Guinness in Ireland will make you seeing double and feeling single.
• That tree is a Beech Tree.  And the little ones around it are sons of Beeches.  

Facts
• A fort becomes a castle when someone “of title” owns it or a member of royalty spends the night
• A lot of the conversation revolved around the rain.  If it is “boiling rain,” that means that it is getting ready to rain.  If you have been “bucketed,” then the rain has poured on you.  The only way that you know that it is summer in Ireland is when the rain has turned warm.