Dublin and Connemara (May 2|3|4)

Wednesday was a travelling day as we said goodbye to Edinburgh and hello to Dublin. After our flight arrived We picked up our rental car: a Nissan Micra. Perfect for two people and two big bags. Jeff did a fabulous job on first attempt driving in Ireland: driving stick with his left hand, on the left side of the road, into rush hour in Dublin! He got us safely to St. Jude's B&B. We went out looking for a bite to eat and found two of the best burgers we'd ever tasted. We ended the night with a pint in a cosy pub. Alaina happily has discovered that almost every pub in Ireland has Smithwicks on tap!

Got on the road mid morning on Thursday. Our first stop was at the ancient burial mound Bru na Boinne. We got to go inside and were amazed by the building process that has withstood over 5,000 years. We drove on to Kells for lunch and a toast to Jeff's late Grandpa Stu. The rest of the day was spent driving the windy but breathtaking roads of Connemara. We arrived at the Kingstown House B&B and went to find supper. We ate at EJ Kings then enjoyed some live traditional music.

After a great breakfast we set out to check out the town of Clifden then picked up some food for lunch on the road. We took a wild and wooly drive to a farm where they do sheepdog demonstrations. Unfortunately they weren't operating until June but they did let us play with their puppies, meet the older dogs. The two little kids on the farm were great hosts! Well worth the trip for all the cuteness!

We got back on the road and stopped in at Kylemore Abbey. We really enjoyed checking out the sprawling walled garden and beautiful old mansion that used to belong to aristocrats but was taken over by Benedictine sisters almost 100 years ago. We got back to Clifden and went for a delicious meal heavy on seafood since we were on the coast. We headed back to EJ Kings for some more great music before retiring to our B&B.

Our last 2 days in Scotland (Apr 30|May 1)

Monday we checked out Calton Hill then spent most of the day checking out pubs and shops around the Grassmarket area. While looking for another place we stumbled upon a pub called Brew Dog where they serve their own microbrews. It was such a nice change not to see taps with all the regulars: Stella, Tennents, Guinness. Real ales are not as easy to come by as we thought they'd be. We tried a hopless American Saison, a black lager, then shared one that has 15% alcohol, achieved using champagne yeast. Servings were restricted to 1/3 pint but it was a real treat!

We ate supper at a Spanish tapas place then went back to the hotel to get bundled up and went back to Calton Hill for the Beltane Fire Festival, a moving performance involving dancers, drummers and fire progressing from station to station. It is put on every year to signify the change of seasons and is based on pagan celebrations of the past. There were around 11,000 people taking in the performance.

On our last day in the city we went to Edinburgh Castle then had a late lunch and wandered a bit, settling on a pub that turned out to have a very sweet resident black Lab. We then headed to Divino Enoteca wine bar where we each had a flight. Great fun comparing notes and tasting eachother's selections. We had supper upstairs at Italian restaurant Vittoria's then headed back to Frankenstein Pub to have the test tube shooters promised to Jeff that we tried to have the night before only to have the power go out in the block a few minutes after we'd arrived. We ended the night by dancing a not too bad military two step at another ceilidh. This one is a weekly event put on by the Edinburgh Ceilidh Club. Lots of fun and great dancing!

A day on our own and one last tour. (Apr. 28|29)

Well it finally happened. They told us it would but we were sceptical. We had our first sunny day on Saturday! We had a bit of a sleep-in and by the time we hit the road the streets were busy. We saw at least six hen parties in our travels! We took advantage of the weather and by climbed all the way to the top of Arthur's Seat where our hard work was rewarded with amazing views of Edinburgh.

After walking down we checked out Holyrood House and the Scottish Parliament from the outside. We went for nostalgic lunch to Deacon's House Cafe where Alaina had a memorable lunch with her family ten years ago. Tuna and sweetcorn sandwich! We explored the shops on the Royal Mile then came back to the hotel for a swim and sauna. The weather had turned quite cold by then so we decided on a lazy night in with room service.

Sunday we had our last day tour which took us first to the famous Loch Lomond, then to Loch Katrine where we took a bike ride along the shore.

Our last stop was at Stirling Castle. The area we were touring is home to both William Wallace (of Braveheart fame) and the outlaw Rob Roy. We ate supper on the Royal Mile at Whisky where we had fabulous Scottish lamb and venison.

Spotty WiFi and too much time spent having fun...

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know we're not dead just busy having fun in sunny (yay!) Ireland. Wifi in our B &Bs has been a bit spotty but we have drafts of posts we'll hopefully be able to get up soon. It will be a super dump of everything we've been up to for the last week and some. So please stay tuned!

Lots of love, J & A