More Ireland!

A lasting impression I have from Ireland is one of flowers. They're everywhere! Big bunches of color in containers - bright and welcoming. All the stores and businesses in every little town have flower boxes at their windows filled with vibrant and colorful flowers. I never saw any that were brown or droopy and it made me wonder how they kept them all so fresh-looking. I decided it was all the help from Mother Nature: rain, misty and ever-present for at least a little bit, it seemed, every day. Left: in Durrus, on Sheepshead Peninsula (county Cork).


In Blarney (county Cork), at a restaurant called Muskerry Arms:











In Bushmills (county Antrim):











A hostel in Killarney (county Kerry):














In Northern Ireland, a street in the walled city of Derry (county Derry):

Ireland!

We just returned from 2 weeks in Ireland. It was both exhilarating and exhausting. The entire country is 170 miles wide and 310 miles long - roughly the size of Maine. But the roads! The roads near the bigger cities (Dublin, Cork, Derry) are 2- and 4-lane "motorways" and are wide enough so that you don't feel like you're going to smash side view mirrors. But everything else, especially all the coastal roads, are unbelievably narrow with so many twists and blind curves that it makes for a very traumatic and slow-going experience. We toured nearly the entire country, driving almost 1700 miles! I wouldn't do that again.

The people are very open and friendly and the landscape is beautiful beyond words. And when the sun comes out - wow - it's magical. I took over 1400 pictures! Here are a few from the beginning of our trip...

Sunrise on the Sheepshead Peninsula:










The coast of Sheepshead Peninsula:














And what would Sheepshead Peninsula be without sheep?










More to follow...!