Still on my way, don't know where I'm goin'...: Ireland Trip

En route to Dublin on Aer Lingus!

Ha' Penny Bridge, Dublin

River Liffey

Trinity College Dublin--We started off our time in Dublin with a visit to the Book of Kells

Reading Room at Trinity

Molly Malone

Arthur Guinness' house

Guinness Storehouse--my favorite part is the advertising section

View from the Gravity Bar

Live Irish music in The Old Storehouse pub, Temple Bar district

Temple Bar at night--I kept Mom out past 8:30pm!

The next day we drove across the country to the North West corner to visit Belleek Pottery

The factory tour was brilliant--so much of it is made by hand

I admire those baskets even more now that I know how they're made

Mom got to dip a piece in the glaze

Tea at Belleek

That bridge over the River Erne is the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I was curious to see just what a "soft border" means, especially with the prospect of it changing due to Brexit, and was surprised to see there's no signage at all. You wouldn't know you'd crossed a border at all. The speed limit signs change from km to miles, but that's the only difference!

View of sheep from our hotel in Donegal--the countryside around Donegal reminded us a lot of the Yorkshire Dales, and we saw lots of cute lambs in the fields

Tea at Galway Crystal

Galway doesn't have a factory tour, but the tea room and shop were lovely

Kerry Woollen Mills

Killarney National Park

We hit the road to do the Ring of Kerry drive nice and early, so we had the park mostly to ourselves

We spotted a deer family

Gorgeous views of the coast on the Ring of Kerry

Muckross House

View of the lake from Muckross House

Muckross Farm

There are so many cute little seaside towns along the coast

Waterford Crystal factory tour--this is the "apprentice bowl" and it has all of the types of cuts that an apprentice crystal cutter would need to know. When they finish their training, they have to make one and they get to keep it!