Monday, August 17, 2009

Traveling the Rings of Ireland

This past weekend, Brian and I took a quick flight over to Ireland to travel the famous Ring of Kerry and Ring of Beara. They are routes that take you around the beautiful countryside and coastline of Ireland, giving you tons of opportunities to see amazing "scenic vistas" as we like to call them. =)

Our first day started off rough -we had horrible weather that blocked many of the views on the Ring of Kerry that we were supposed to be seeing. It also made driving VERY difficult! Not only were we driving on the left side of windy roads up and down mountains, but we also lost almost all of our visibility as we climbed higher toward the clouds that were settling in. It wasn't quite the day we were hoping for, but we still ended up seeing some great sights.

The second morning started off similarily, and a couple of hours into the Ring of Beara, we decided to cut our losses and take a shortcut home. Amazingly, though, along that shortcut the sun came out and we finally saw what everyone loved so much about these routes. We had the best day driving around and seeing the country from the high mountains and down to the coasts. We also saw beautiful waterfalls that were so peaceful! One of our favorite parts along this drive too was seeing the random sheep alongside the roads. You would be going 80-100 km/h and all of a sudden, have to break to make sure you didn't accidentally hit one! Here's a video of us driving by them:


So all in all, despite a very rocky start, we ended up having a great time in Ireland. We've included some photos from our trip here.

2 comments:

  1. Gators, I so enjoy reading your blog. It must be very interesting for you going from such a modern developed country to the UK which seems so backward! What's your opinion of the local people as I found the Brits a little introverted when I was stationed there with the USAF back in the 80's?

    Chuck.

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  2. Thanks for your message Chuck! It's definitely been an interesting experience living in the UK so far. There are certain things we love and certain things that drive us crazy (such as the constant queuing)! =) We have had difficulty meeting people here, but we're hoping that will change with time as we get more involved and settled.

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