Ireland

So the week of March 21st through march 28th we decided to go visit Brian's Brother and his family in Ireland. They moved over there about a year and a half ago for a job. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to go visit another country since Brian nor I have been outside of the US.

We left Sat evening around 5:30 from RDU airport and arrived in Dublin Ireland around 8 AM Sunday Morning. Ireland is about 5 hours ahead of us in time. We then left Dublin at 8AM on Sat the 28th and arrived back at RDU at 7pm, we were supposed to arrive at 5pm but we had a delay at the Newark airport.

While we were there the weather was about 6 -10 degrees Celsius, which is about 42-50 degrees Fahrenheit. It rained some days, and it was sunny some days, but it was also windy a few days. If the wind that we had while we were there were here in the US I would have thought we were having a hurricane but without the rain.

We had a great time. We wish we could have stayed longer but unfortunately with work schedules we could only do a week this time. Maybe if they stay out there another year we can go back again next year.

They live about 18 miles south of Dublin in a town called Greystones which is in the County of Wicklow. They are the last stop on the Dart going south. The Dart is like the metro in DC. It is a train that you can take from little towns to get to Dublin or other areas instead of driving.

Their town is on the east coast which is the Irish Sea. You can walk there from their house. One thing I noticed about Ireland was there was a lot of green everywhere. Green grass, bushes, trees, etc. Guess because it rains there a lot.

One thing that was hard to get used to was being on the other side of the road and the driver on the other side of the car. Also was hard to understand some of their dialect especially when we traveled to northern Ireland. You know it is going to be bad when Dave, who has been there a while says that he is having a hard time understanding someone. That means we are going to have a hard time understanding them!

Where they live the currency is Euros but as we traveled up north the currency changed to Pound Sterling. I think the Euro is a little more than the Pond Sterling 35 Euros=31.86 Pounds Sterling.

I took quite a few pictures and I tried to put captions on them to help you with what you are seeing. I hope the picture do the real thing justice!

I am going to do a trivia of Ireland and see who may know the answer to this:

In the first house we visited, the Powerscourt House, what movie was filmed there?

Other places we visited:

Dublin Spire

We drove the Causeway Coastal Route to Northern Ireland

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Northern Ireland

Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland

Lion's Gate and Downhill Estate, Northern Ireland

Guinness Storehouse/Brewery

Molly Malone, Dublin

Christ Church, Dublin

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Howth Harbor (rhymes with both) to see the sea lions and lighthouse.

Malahide Castle and Playground (see pictures for playground)

Glenluce Bed and Breakfast in Ballycastle

The WhiteRocks, Northern Ireland

Marble Arch Caves Geopark, Northern Ireland

Leprechaun

We did see one Rainbow but it was while we were riding in the car and I wasn't able to get a picture of it.

Ireland 3/21/09-3/28/09