22/09/2011: Dublin, Ireland: Got up early so pete could drive us into Birmingham International Airport so we could catch our plane to Dublin at 7.55a.m. we thought we had plenty of time, but realised we had nearly run out of time waiting to get served at Burger King, had to run for the plane, after a 40 minute flight we were on our way, Arrived safely in Dublin, got a taxi to our guest House, Egan's Guest house, We then caught a bus into Dublin,we got a 'hop on hop off' bus ticket and saw the sights of Dublin (In the rain) We got off and the Guiness Brewary cost us 10.50 Euro to get in, but because it was Arthur Guiness's birthday, they gave us a voucher for a free meal, and a pint of Guiness, I had Irish Lamb Stew and diet coke, Pat had Guiness Beef Stew, she had the pint of Guiness, but didn't like it, so we gave our other 3 free tickets to some lads> I bought Wayne and Adrian a Guiness T/Shirt & Caitlin a small block of Guiness flavoured chocolate, (NICE) We then had 1/2 tour of the rest of the City of Dublin, we arrived back at our Guest house about 4.30 p.m. we had bought a 'crayfish & rocket' sandwich a desert & juice cost us 6.50 Euro's bought it from Mark's & Spencers

23/09/2011 Got up early had a continental breakfast then left for Heuston Train Station to do our 2 day tour of Cork/Blarney Castle/ and

Ring of Kerry and an overnight stay in a B & B..

We had a loverly tour of Blarney Castle, we both climbed to the top and "kissed" the Blarney Stone, the grounds were magnificant, we had lunch in the converted woollen mills, nice souveniers, but all i bought was a fridge magnet., then we left to go to an old cemetary, was where the memorial for the Luistinia that got sunk on the coast of Cork in the 2nd world war, Then we went to have a look at Cobh's Cathederal, St. Colman's Cathederal Cobh, Ireland, there was a wedding in progress. Then we went to the old railway statuion for a tour of how life was, in the 1800's to present day, including the story on the 'Titanic', was very interesting, as Cobh was the last port of call be fore it sunk.

Cork, Original English name, Queenstown, (named after Queen Victoria) now it's revereted to it' Gaelic name of Cobh

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Then we caught a train for Killarney, it was raining when we arrived, taken to a very nice B&B called 'Beauty's Home', aptly named. we joined up with a couple of American (Mother & daughter) nice couple, so we travelled with them, we all got taken to a pub that was nearby, but we had to walk home, got soaked, so we had an early night,

Saturdaqy 24th September:

Got up had an 'Irish breakfast', then off to do a tour 'Rings of Kerry', went thru a town called Sneem, (no photos) Then we called into Waterville, photo shop with a statue of Charlie Chaplin, then we went up to the top

to have lunch, I had curried chicken and rice, Pat had Irish Stew (To die for), we had to be carefull what we could buy as we were running out of Euros, and we didn't really want to change any more, (and they won't take English Pounds), Then on the road agin, Oh what beautiful scenery we had lots of photo stops our last being at a Cafe Avoca, high up in the mountains we had enough money to buy afternoon tea of coffee and scone jam and cream, we arrived back at Killarney to catch the train back to Dublin, we got a taxi to our hotel (9.30p.m.) had to go and get some pounds change into Euro's for the taxi driver, checked into Jury's Inn, Cusotoms House, Dublin, very nice hotel, but we had to leaqve at 4a.m. this morning, so we could catch our flight back to Birmingham, Pete met us at the airport, and yes it's raining again today. We leave Birmingham on Tuesday for the Lakes District>