ireland the 1st

we had a short flight to start our week long vacation, just joel and me, in ireland.
a bit of a whirlwind to get all kids to their camps or the grandparents house, but we did it and without much trouble, all of them where so happy with the place each of them was going to spend that week. we left the house in high spirits, as it has been a while since we took a lone vacation. a long dream come true, ireland with it's beautiful landscape, exciting music (to play along for joel) and delicious beer (and food too, we learned).
of course there was a project coming along with me.... this one, should have been done a while ago, but it will after the trip!

the first night in dublin. yup we found music and drink.

as ireland is presenting itself, wonderful summer weather. perfect landscape. we are loving the first stop, a top of a hill at the rock of dunamase.

the portumna castle and gardens. a wonderful place, especially the kitchen garden was nice to walk through. the castle itself is a work in progress, though very interesting to see how preservation of such a place is hard work.

we decided to not drive all day every day and so we did stick with the midlands, western ireland and lower shannon. this wonderful site is killmacduagh monastery. no other people visiting, just the cows grazing on their pasture. there are so many interesting sites in ireland, the land is dotted with ruins.

 

crosses are omnipresent in ireland, and we found a few of them, this one i particularly like. there is history all over and in each and every corner i looked. the vastness and and all the pit marshes still in use, a lot to learn and to see. those peat marshes helped the irish people to not get totally over run by all the different invaders, but they also kept them poor. the bogs are wonderful and i wonder still, how can we do more to keep those marshes alive. as well as the people to stay and be happy in the place they live and work. some work i'm sure is done by the conservation council.