Wednesday 15 June 2011

Irishtown

There were times that everything in Ireland seemed set up as if we were in a theme park. How could Ireland be so Irish???

(Lunch at The Old Head was not one of those times. Palm trees, sun, surf - so unexpected! We'd had our moments of getting lost along the Irish backroads but how did we end up in Bermuda?)

Most of the time Ireland was:


Sheep,




Quaint shops,



and Shamrocks.

At other times Ireland was:



Military escorted bank security trucks complete with machine guns. How Ken's dad was comfortable chatting him up, I have no idea!

Driving was quite an experience. I managed my stomach on the twisty-turny tunnel vision roads with healthy snacks while Ken managed the road itself.



Look again: double white line in the centre (sometimes a single white line) with dotted yellow lines on the shoulders.



The speed limit on these backroads was always 100 km/hour!



Ken rarely topped 60 km/hour.



One awesome tour we did was of Ross Castle in Killarney, a restored Tower House. All the formal tours we did were very well done, the guides were engaging and knowledgable. This tour stands out for me because later we visited tower house ruins with family connections and knowing what we were looking at in the ruins added to my understanding.



The best tour guides of all, and our travel companions: Ken's mom and dad - Sue & Harry.



I wish I'd taken more pictures like this one. In a perfect world where Ken could collect cars like he used to collect match box cars, he would have one of these: a righthand drive Land Rover Defender complete with snorkel. Ken saw so many Land Rovers, I could have done a whole post. I'm just a little too oblivious to cars, which became more obvious when we got to London which according to Ken was one long parade of spectacular cars that didn't catch my eye at all. It's amazing we get along so well!

2 comments:

Jill said...

It's funny to think of Ireland being so very Irish that it felt like a theme park. Palm trees, what in the world?!

Marie said...

Two things I did NOT expect to see in these posts: Machine guns and palm trees. Huh.