Northern Ireland

May 6
Today we first stopped at Carrickfergus castle, it was a fun castle because they had lots of models through out the castle symbolizing what is may have been like. It was right on the coast and had a draw bridge.
We then headed to the Giant Causeway there is a fokelore tell about how the causeway was built
Finn McCool an Irish Giant lived on an Antrim headland and one day when going about his daily business a Scottish Giant named Fingal began to shout insults and hurl abuse from across the channel. In anger Finn lifted a clod of earth and threw it at the giant as a challenge, the earth landed in the sea.
Fingal retaliated with a rock thrown back at Finn and shouted that Finn was lucky that he wasn't a strong swimmer or he would have made sure he could never fight again.
Finn was enraged and began lifting huge clumps of earth from the shore, throwing them so as to make a pathway for the Scottish giant to come and face him. However by the time he finished making the crossing he had not slept for a week and so instead devised a cunning plan to fool the Scot.
Finn diguised himself as a baby in a cot and when his adversary came to face him Finn's wife told the Giant that Finn was away but showed him his son sleeping in the cradle. The Scottish giant became apprehensive, for if the son was so huge, what size would the father be?
In his haste to escape Fingal sped back along the causeway Finn had built, tearing it up as he went. He is said to have fled to a cave on Staffa which is to this day named 'Fingal's Cave'.

Then we went to the Carrick rope bridge that was built so that the fisherman could get to the island with out taking his boat. It was a beautiful walk along the coast to the bridge

Killkenny and Trinity college

St Patrick Catherdral in Downpatrick

View from our bed and breakfast in Downpatrick

May 5
We left Waterford and head to Kilkenny castle. The castle was being lived in until the early 1900. It was quite a large castle but were only showing a few rooms. I liked the library and the great hall with lots of portraits. The kitchen was large and the pans were very heavy.
We then headed to Dublin to see the Trinity College and the book of Kells. Thank goodness for our GPS. We then stopped and saw some high crosses (Monasterboice) Then we headed to our next Bed and Breakfast. It was located in Downpatrick which is the burial place for St Patrick

Blarney Castle

May 4
Today we had our first Irish breakfast, they start with cereal and fruit then have bacon, sausage, blood pudding, and eggs. I did not want to try the blood pudding it looks like sausage sort of. There sausage taste quite different and there bacon is more like Canadian bacon. After breakfast we headed to the Blarney Castle. I kissed the blarney stone it is a bit ackward as you have to lie on your back and slide and lean your head back. We also toured the Blarney house. There are people living in the house and only offer tours 40 days out of the year. The house is beautiful and a had a small baby grand piano that was all hand carved. They would not let you take pictures in the house. It had beautiful wood work and high ceilings with great windows. After touring we did a bit of shopping and then headed to Waterford. We stopped and saw a couple of old castles from the outside and had a pretty drive along the Irish sea. We were a bit disappointed as the Waterford Crystal factory has closed

Shannon Ireland

First Restaurant we ate at

Shannon River

Pretty Yellow Flowers

Waterfall in Aillwee Cave

May 3
We arrived in Ireland at 9:00 am (Left NY at 10:00 pm May 2) got our rental car and headed off to see the sights. We went the Quin Abbey and saw an old church and cemetery they were interesting. Then we headed to the Cliffs of Moher. It was very windy but at least it was not raining. The Cliffs were very cool. Our next stop was the Aillwee Cave near Ballyvaughan, containing vast, dry caverns, is one of Ireland's oldest caves. They were ok caves but nothing special. The one interesting thing was that it had a water fall in the cave. We then saw one of may tombs in the Burren. There are over seventy megalithic tombs in The Burren, the most well known and most easily accessible being Poulnabrone. It reminded me of Stone Hendge. Jacob would have enjoyed jumping from rock to rock. We then headed to out hotel as we were exhausted being up for over 24 hours

Helicopter ride New York City

Wow!! Just got back from my first helicopter ride I saw downtown New York, the Empire State Building, Central Park, Ship Intrepid with fighter jets, Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge it was soooo amazing. They looked like miniature buildings. They reminded me of mini sets they might build for Universal studios. The ride was very smooth a lot smoother than our airplane ride to NY. I was impressed at how well the helicopter maneuvered around. This was definitely a fun was to see NY.