Ireland

Well some would say I had the gift of the gab before I visited the Blarney Stone, but if I didn’t have it before I should have it now. For those that don’t know by kissing the Stone you are to be filled with Blarney.

The Blarney Castle and house were on beautiful green grounds. It was lovely to check it out and walk around the premises.

While in Ireland I was able to get in a nice twilight game of golf with Louise. It was great.

I visited Cobh, which was the last port of call for the Titanic. It also has a large Cathedral that we also visited. I went to the Cliffs of Moher, it was gorgeous. That was the only day it rained on me and it only rained for half and hour while we were walking around. It has rained everyday this summer in Ireland.

We went to Malahide for dinner with Louise’s brother and his girlfriend. We went to the local pub and for my fellow Fruli drinkers (a nice strawberry beer) they have it on tap and I had a pint of it. In Peterborough you can only get it at one establishment and the bottles are less than 250ml. It is a great appetizer beer.

I went to Galway bay, Limerick, Cork and through most of the south. I tried to pack in a lot in the week. It was fabulous.

Louise my friend lives in Bray which is 40 minutes outside of Dublin. I got to check out her apartment that she bought (condo I guess here). It is a one bedroom apartment that she had to gut and it cost 260 000 Euros, and you thought housing was expensive in Canada.

We went on a tour around Dublin and went to the Guinness factory. The factory is situated on land that is worth 13 billion Euros. So it is expected that the land will be sold. They have a great museum and tour that will probably remain on the site. It was great to check out the factory and production. They make 13 million pints of Guinness a day there.

I had a fabulous time in Ireland. It was so neat coming down on the airplane into Dublin. It looked like one big green patchwork quilt with all the different shades of green and the bushes separating the fields.

I was met at the Toronto airport by the Keating clan with some GREAT artwork. They had made bristol board signs welcoming me home, Jack helped too. Thanks for your warm welcome and great signs.

Home for a week and off to the East Coast with Michelle from work for a couple of weeks.