Back in Michigan

Well, our journey to Ireland went by too fast. Two weeks in the Emerald Isle and still so much more to see. We put in over 1800 kilometers of driving (1080 miles), saw breathtaking scenery, quaint villages, any many characters to remember. I will admit, we don't miss the full Irish breakfasts, but will miss the mountainous landscape that is Ireland. While still adjusting to the time change and a bit of jet lag, we have returned safely to Michigan and look forward to once again visiting Ireland. Thanks for checking in and all the kind words while we were there.
The Doddys

Our last adventure

Yesterday we went on a bus tour through gallway and county claire. We saw the cliffs of Moher. They are very pretty. It was very windy. We also seen the burrens which are mountians with lots of lime stone rocks on them. We got to take a guided tour up the mountian. That was an adventure in itself. There was about 15 of us and here we are climbing up a rocky mountian. We stopped at a few castles too. It started at 10 and we didn't get back untill 5, so it was a busy day. After that we took an hour drive to Ennis. That is where we stayed at a bed and breakfast. We woke up this moring ate and walked around the town. Then we drove to Tipperary ate lunch and drove back to Bunratty. There isn't much in this town but a famous giant castle which is a big tourist attaction,a few pubs and a hotel. We are at the hotel now just relaxing untill tomorrow. Our plane leaves at 12:30 and we get in atlanta at 4:30 then home at 7:30. That will be a busy day and then we'll have to re-adjust back to the time change. Thats all till we get home...................

Greetings from Galway

Hi Happy (belated) 4th of July
We are just relaxing and hanging out in our room tonight. Today, we drove from Donegal to Galway and the drive was mostly on winding roads the width of the railtrail. The roads here are unbelievable. Any "stereotyped" image that comes to your mind when you hear about the roads in Ireland is true...not to mention the sheep we've had to honk at to get out of the road. Lol!
It is really a beautiful and amazing country. There is so much to take in, awesome mountains, crystal blue lakes, deep green hillsides dotted with sheep and stone fences. The vegitation is so diverse...there are actually palm trees here. Almost every house is surrounded by pristine gardens, flower beds and extremely well groomed lawns.
The B & B's are just as diverse. It is just so bizarre pulling up to a strangers home and asking them if they have a room for the night. A few we stayed at were "top notch", some in between and a few were a sin. One B & B in Wexford was what I could only describe as "The Shining meets the haunted mansion in any episode of Scooby Doo" Ugh! I don't think I slept that night. But, it is interesting meeting people at breakfast the next day. Most B & B's have a cozy dining room with 3-4 tables set for breakfast. Chances are you'll dine with others staying there too. We've met people from Australia, Engalnd, & Sweden. It is so great to hear their stories and opinions etc...
We are having such a great time. It was so fantastic to meet the Doddy's in Ballymote. That has been a goal for a long time. Now we have to get busy doing some more research on the Doddy history.
Tomorrow, we have a busy day planned checking out Galway bay and the cliffs of Moher
Take Care, Angie

Galway

We have been on the go!!! Once we left Donegal yesterday morning we drove up to sleeveleague which are the highest cliffs in Europe standing at 2000 ft. tall. It was such a pretty site. The drive to it was crazy, with the tinest road ever. we were driving up the mountian and a car was coming and with the road so small you have to pull over but we were on the out side to we were on the edge of the cliff looking down with no rail!!!. Scariest thing ever. We went in a giant circle that took all day to drive and we ended up back in Donegal. It will be nice to take a shower at my own house. Our showers drain was cloged and overflowed so you had to shower quick before the water got the edge. So we woke up today ate more slimey eggs, thats what we've been getting at the bed and breakfast, and was on our way. We drove 5 hours today to Galway. It is a very big town. We are at a hotel tonight with wireless internet. It's nice. We just got done eating down at the hotel restaurant and now we are just going to relax the rest of the night. untill later.........

Dear Ol Donegal

Hi All, We are now in Donegal...It has been raining most of the day so we went shopping and found a nice B&B to settle in for the night. We were out late last night with the Doddys of Ballymote and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality. At the B&B in Ballymote the owner, Peter loaned us a book written by Michael Hanna for a local politician about the History of the Taaffe family in County Sligo. Come to find out Edward Taaffe built the replica of the Ballymote Castle in Austria, current day Czech Republic...this may be the answer we were all trying to find out how the Doddys came from Sligo to Austria to Czechoslovakia. Much research still needs to be done but I believe we found a big part of the puzzle. I have everyones email that we met in Ballymote so we will surely keep in touch. Even Cairan, the editor for the local paper took our picture and will put it on the Ballymote.ie website sometime next week...All in all, it felt like we were home and the Doddys were a gracious bunch. Tommorrow we are going along the coastline near Donegal where the highest cliffs in Ireland are...and some gardens that were recommended along the way. Not sure where we will end up after that....you'll know when we arrive. Jerry and Sue we had a cone with a 99 today. Thanks for the heads up...and Jerry I can't find Baalyswine anywhere on the map. Send Fodors on a mission! Take care all! The Doddys

At Doddys pub

Right now we are sitting at Doddys pub in Ballymote. I'm using Jane Doddys laptop. My dad and John Doddy are triying to figure out the family history. We seen some graves with Doddy on them. I stayed in the car for that. Tomorrow we are going to be heading to derry. We'll post later.....................

County Sligo

We drove from Bray to Ballymote, County Sligo yesterday...First stop, Doddy's Pub in the middle of town. John Doddy met us there and we tried to figure out if we were related to each other. We didn't have a name of a Doddy to give him so we thought it was a deadend to finding our ancestors...because our grandfather was born in Austria. We came back later in the day and met Jane, his daughter. Having a pint of Guiness, a fellow named Ciaran sat down next to us and John asked him if he knew how the Doddys would have ended up in Austria...he knew the answer...and Aristorcrat named Taffe came to Ireland to marry an Irish Catholic girl and took her back to Austria with an entourage...she became homesick so he built an entire replica of Ballymote Castel for her in Austria. Ciaran said that is probably how the Doddys arrived in Austria. There are many Doddys in this region. We passed the Doddy transport service earlier. At breakfast the owner heard us talking about the castle in Austria and he told us his boss, a politican, wrote a book about the history of the Ballymote Castle in Austria and he will bring me a copy to read after we get back to the B&B later today. Today we are spending the day in Sligo, a town along the ocean...and of course it is raining again. We are going to Derry tommorw so we will try to update from there. Take Care! The Doddys

big day in big city

Once we left Arklow this morning, we took a 40 minute drive to Bray. Once we got there we got on a train to Dublin. It is a huge city almost like new york. There are TONS of people on the streets and lots of buildings. We rode on a double-decker tour bus all around. We seen many things,including the book of kells, a city park that is the biggest in the world, our tour guide said 3 central parks could fit in it!, We saw trinity college and st. patricks cathedral, and lots more. Once we took to train back to Bray which was a 45 minute ride, also cheap it was £12 road trip for all of us. Then we found a hotel. Thats where we are now. We got bagguettes and cheese for dinner because we ate a big lunch in Dublin. There is a gym in the hotel so i hit that up! it is very nice and big and has lots of equipment. Anyway we are heading north tomorrow so we will post then!

Arklow

Hey
I'm at an internet cafe because the bed and breakfasts don't have wirless internet for the laptop. We have done lots since the last post. When we left cork we were going to go to kinsale,but we took a wrong turn and ended up in Waterford. We visited the waterford crystal factory. Before waterford we stoped at a harbor town called Youghal. It was really pretty and we had lunch over looking the bay. That is the city were they filmed moby dick. So we left waterford thnking we were going to stay in new Ross but it was kind of crusty and we didn't like it, so we moved on to Wexford. We stayed at a bed and break and it was a scary one. it smelled too. Today we got up and when we were traveling through Enniscorthy we happen to see a mass starting and went in the giant cathedral. The mass was only 30 minutes long. They didn't sing or anything. Then we kept going on to Gorey and got things for our lunch. Then we ate bagettes, cheese, strawberries, and desserts in Arklow. That is where we are now. We found a nice bed and breakfast it is clean. we just got up from a nap and now we are going to a pub that is playing music from 6-8. 2 of the people playing were in the band the coors. We r right along the irish sea. Tomorrow we are taking a train into dublin for the day. Will post later............

Darilyn

Good morning!

Today we are heading out of cork it's too crazy and Ronny don't like driving here. so we are heading south to kinsale, the food capital of Ireland. Today we plan on going a little slower because we have been going non-stop since we've been here. Oh yea i forgot to say in the last post that we met a leprechaun in a pub in Anscaul on the dingle peninsula. HE WAS CRAZY. He had no teeth. Then he asked my dad "do you like to live dangerously"? my dad said oh sure and he said" i got some sleeping bags you can rent back at me place" We pretty much ran out of there! Anyway I'll post later!

day 2 and 3

We found a converter for our laptop.yay! we acually found it in a hardware store/pub it was a little building. weirdest thing ever. anyways While we were on the dingle peninsula We saw many awesome things like Dunbeg fort the veiw of the ocean was amazing!!! Last night we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Killroglin. We ate at a pub called o'sheas. i had irish stew, it was made with lamb so that grossed me out and i starved the rest of the night. luckly i had chicken soup at murphys pub earlier. My mom had fish and chips and my dad had a roast beef dinner. At that pub we meet two ladies from Germany. They were world travelers they have been to china, kenya,columbia,alaska 3 times and many other places. Anyway when we got back to the bed and breakfast they were staying there. Today we got burnt out we did so much. We are at a hotel in Cork. This city resmebles Chicago very much. so imagine the driving in chicago then imagine it all on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel on the other side of the car. It's really scary. They roads are SO thin here. On the dingle peninsula we where driving in the shrubs when a car passed and we accually lost a hub cap and our side mirror folded in.lol so any ways me and my mom had pancakes for breakfast and my dad have the "traditional" Irish breakfast which is eggs,pork sausage, bacon, black and white pudding(don't be fooled it's not the tasty sweet treat your thinking of it actually the white is a mix of pork and like cereal and it kind of tastes like stuffing at thanksgiving and black puddings is the same thing only with blood.) Me and my mom only tried the white. We went shopping in Killarney today and also went on a hour horse and carrige ride through the woods and the scenery was beautiful! There was lakes and mountians. and we also got to stop at Ross caslte for pictures. Then we had to drive like 2 more hours and got to Blarney. And yes we kissed the Blarney stone.(I'm scared i got herpes or something) but it was cool. By that time it was 3 o'clock. So only 10a.m your time, imagine that. Gigi doesn't even fall asleep till like 5 am. lol We just ate at a little place called Zaks it was good i had rissotnto and my mom got a chicken paninni.lol now we are going to go for a little walk around.

Darilyn

We made it!

We made it here, the flight was long. We stayed in Tralee at a bed and break fast last night. Our converter only has a 2 prong plug so we can't use our laptop untill we find one. We are in a library in Dingle on the Dingle peninsula. It is rainy here today and like 60 degrees.

Ireland is beautiful. Everything is so green!!! There is lots of sheep everywhere. we are heading to Kilarney this afternoon. Tomorrow we are going to cork to kiss the blarney stone and to the taste of cork festival. We'll post when we can.

The Doddys

:)

Today is the day we leave for an adventure! we are all very excited, but yet dreading the plane ride. Have to bring Yoshi to the Kennel soon. If only he knew what he was in for...
we'll post when we get there.

Two More Days

Two more days until the big trip to Ireland. Today, we started to pack. We were having trouble deciding what to pack until I checked the weather report in Shannon (that's the city we are flying into) and it said for the next 5 days "light rain and in the lower 60's". That sounded pretty darn close to the weather we've been having here, so, it will be hoodies, jeans and dressing in layers.
Another challenge was to decide what to pack our clothes in since our rental car will be pretty small (some form of a Mazda 06). Of course Ron took the smallest suitcase, packed in 5 minutes and was relaxing on the couch. In the meanwhile, Darilyn and I were still deciding on how many pairs of shoes we could get away with..... We decided that 2 small suitcases and one larger one should fit into the car. As a side note, the rental cars in Ireland are mainly stick shifts, you have to specifically request an automatic when you reserve a car. ( which we did )
Tomorrow we will finish packing and hopefully on Tuesday everything will go smoothly. We leave from Flint at 5:12 pm and land in Atlanta, GA. at 7:25pm. At 10:10pm, we depart for Shannon, Ireland. We land there at 10:50 am. Ireland is 6 hours ahead of our time.
Our travel plan is pretty simple: rent a car, stay at Bed & Breakfasts, and experience the true culture of Ireland one county at a time. ( Although, it could all backfire and turn into "National Lampoon's European Vacation"............)

4 days!

WE GOT THE SUIT CASES DOWN! Still nothing is ready to go in them, oh well we have the weekend....

5 Days

5 days until the big trip... we have thought about packing but haven't started. We haven't even got our suit cases down from the attic.
We are very exctied since this is the first time any of us have been to Europe!