Hello from Ireland

Ireland

Hello from Ireland! This post will be cover three days because apparently it's very hard to find WiFi in Ireland.

Day 1.

We finally got in at 8:30 am which would be 3:30 am Philly time. We went to the Burren in County Clare - which is a big area with tons of rocks. We went and saw some gigantic crosses that were made with lots of amazing designs. We went and saw the Portal Dolmen which was made 2000 years before the pyramids by Neolithic people who lived on the Burren. Then we went to the cliffs of Moher - they were amazingly large and beautiful but we weren't allowed to go along the edge. After that we went to our hostel in Doolin. The room was nice but very small. After dinner Dad and I went to an Irish pub to listen to music. Some of it was Irish and other parts weren't exactly.

Day 2.

We went to the Muckross House in Killarney National Park. The Muckross is this giant Victorian house with 64 chimneys. We took a tour of the house and I think the most interesting thing was when they told us that when they wanted to make ice cream they had to import ice from Scandinavia. By the way Queen Victoria stayed there for 2 nights too - it took them 6 years to prepare for her visit. Then we took a tour of three farms that were made to look as though they were from the 1930s. People in them told us about life in those days and gave us homemade bread with very good butter. We also went on a hike to a waterfall. We passed some little cascades and were afraid that that was the waterfall but they weren't. The waterfall was huge and amazing. That night we stayed in Kenmare.

Day 3.

Today we did the Ring of Kerry but we didn't pick that great of a day. We drove around but it was downpouring we could see nothing from the viewpoints. Then we went to the Ring of Skellig by then it was starting to clear off and got very sunny. We went to a beach with the warmest water in Ireland. It was still freezing. Next we went to another beach where we had lunch, enjoyed the view and threw rocks for dogs to fetch. We stopped at the Skellig Chocolate factory where they gave us tons of samples of the really good tasting chocolate of many flavors. After that we went and saw the Skellig Island Museum. The Skellig's are these two, small (in area), tall (in height), pointy islands off the coast of the Ring of Kerry. Many birds make their homes there and it was once used as a monastery by monks. The monastery was raided by Vikings several times. We would have gone but Dad was afraid to climb up the 600 slippery steps with no railing. After that we drove up to this amazing viewpoint but the wind was unbelievably strong.

Over the course of the day we saw three ring forts. Ring forts were giant circular forts that were used over 1000 years ago. They were amazing. They had rooms in their walls and steps that you could take to walk around the top rim of the fort. In one you could see the walls of where the rooms were supposed to be and apparently some unknown important person lived there. On the way back down Colin fell in cow dung and slid. The back of his pants is covered. Dad also fell but not as badly.

Tonight we are spending the night in a town outside of Dingle.

Colin's comment. (The place where Colin writes about his day).

Ireland is really freezing but the Cliffs of Moher are very awesome.

By the way, on the beach when Dad was throwing rocks for the dogs to fetch I was wondering around and one of them hit me in the head.

At the museum there was a rock area with puffins and there was one with worms in its mouth and a little boy thought the bird had a beard!

Tomorrow we are going to Dingle and then Dublin for three nights.

Goodbye - and be careful with cow pattys