A Well Kept Man

We had a wonderful trip to Ireland, in spite of all of the rain and cold temperatures. Most of the people in Ireland seemed downtrodden over the weather, labeling it as "October-like". I can't say it was that bad, although we were happy to get back "home" to Switzerland where shorts and t-shirts quickly replaced our jeans and rain coats. We maybe had two half-days of sunshine, the rest was a combination of cold, misty, rainy, overcast, windy, foggy, but vibrantly green and stony/rocky.

I never fully appreciated the size of Ireland until we started driving around. If you plan on going and want to see it all, you will probably need a good two to three weeks. It's not that cities and sites are located a long way from each other, it's just that the road system doesn't allow for efficient transit (most roads the max speed you could safely drive and not hit a passing car, 1000 year old wall, or sheep/cow was around 60 kilometers per hour or ~35 mph). I thought it would be super easy to just drive 2-3 hours per day and see everything...but we sadly had to drop some things from our itinerary (whiskey factory tour, driving tour of Connemara, a few churches/abbeys/stone forts).

If you plan on driving yourself (rather than taking a tour bus), I say go for it. I'll admit each morning I struggled with trying to remember that I was supposed to drive on the left, but once you almost crash head on into oncoming traffic once or twice then you remember. I was disappointed at Susan's performance at times, as there are now a couple major superhighways that did she did not know about so I was taken off on some windy country roads which impeded our progress somewhat, and I was often yelling at her (especially when she couldn't find our B&B that I told her about before we left).

Susan is the name of the chick on my GPS who pronounces things funny. In Ireland, she pronounces the word 'road' like you and I would pronounce 'rod'. But on the other hand she is worth every penny I paid as she has enabled me to avoid having to ask people for directions. If you plan on traveling on unfamiliar roads and are too lazy to plan everything ahead of time, get a GPS. Make sure the maps are up to date, download some POI's (points of interest), and you should be in for good times.

We saw bronze age forts, castles from the days of yore, and beer from last week (Smithwicks is great, Guinness is ok - although it is much better than in the U.S., Porterhouse brew pub beer is so-so, although I only had 3 of 9 varieties so maybe there are some better choices). We saw how they make Waterford Crystal, almost were lost at sea, stayed at an awesome B&B (a couple were sorely lacking), ate potatoes in multiple forms (fried, mashed, covered in cheese, roasted, boiled, stewed, au

Ireland is a lovely place, despite the weather, and I hope to go back someday to see all that we missed. More stories to come...must sort through 500 pictures of leprechauns, crosses, beer, and sheep. gratin, and many more), and interacted with the locals.