Statue of St. Patrick
December 14, 2014
It has been a busy four months since we last wrote in our web journal! We spent a week at the end of August visiting parents and children in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. We then flew from Chicago to Dublin, Ireland and spend 6 weeks, splitting our time between Ireland and Scotland.
Neither of us had ever traveled to Europe so we suffered a bit of culture shock (Americana coffee is glorified instant coffee) along with the jet lag. We landed in Dublin and used the bus system to get around the city.
It has been a busy four months since we last wrote in our web journal! We spent a week at the end of August visiting parents and children in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. We then flew from Chicago to Dublin, Ireland and spend 6 weeks, splitting our time between Ireland and Scotland.
Neither of us had ever traveled to Europe so we suffered a bit of culture shock (Americana coffee is glorified instant coffee) along with the jet lag. We landed in Dublin and used the bus system to get around the city.
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We visited the typical tourist attraction such as: Trinity College, Christ Church, Kilmanham Gaol (we discovered that a cell was a little larger than our main living space), Dublin Castle, multiple museums, and of course the Guinness Brewery. We found time to listen to music in several areas including Temple Bar.
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Half Penny Bridge - Dublin
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Edinburgh Castle
After 3 days of touring, we headed back to the airport and were off to Edinburgh and 10 days in Scotland. We were struck by the beauty of the city and how youthful the population seemed to be (maybe we are spending too much time in Florida!). Edinburgh is a “walkers” city. Starting at Edinburgh Castle we walked the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse Palace.
Mike at the top of Arthur's Seat
We made sure to visit St. Giles Cathedral, the Greyfriar Kirk (Church) and Kirkyard and of course the Scott Monument. We also were told to go up to Arthur’s Seat, a mountain top, for fantastic views of the city. There was a path that most people followed, but we spied the Radical Route Trail which went up the front of the mountain. The name should have told us something. We arrived at the summit breathing hard and a bit sweaty, but as stated, the view of the city was spectacular.
"No one provokes me with impunity"
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Walter Scott Monument
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Edinburgh Castle
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Along the Royal Mile
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While at Edinburgh Castle we bought a pass to visit a multitude of other castles throughout the country. It became our unofficial guide. Mike was reminded of teaching Macbeth when he recognized the names of castles and towns as we toured. We rented a car and bravely set out to see the rest of the country. We should now apologize to those few Scottish people that we traumatized, while Mike learned to drive on the left and shift with his left hand. Our mantra was, “Left is right and right is wrong.”
We left Scotland two days before their vote for independence. We had talked to many Scots and were impressed with the desire for independence, pride and concern for the divisiveness that this issue presented.
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Our plans when we returned to Ireland were to visit the two areas where our ancestors came from and to listen to as much traditional music as we could find. We returned to Dublin, rented another car and drove to Stradbally Cove in Waterford County on the southeast shore of Ireland. Stradbally Cove is where Francie’s grandmother’s grandfather was born. We met with the local parish priest and found church records of his baptism.
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Baptism record of John Veale
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Stradbally Cove
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Thatched Home in Stradbally
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Crossmolina
From Stradbally we drove west and then north along the coast following a road called the Wild Atlantic Way, finding lodging as we went along. As we drove, we read the guidebooks and listened to the recommendations from the people we met to decide on our next stop. The Beara Penninsula took us to Dursey Island, accessible only by cable car, where we met a television crew filming a documentary of the coast also following the Wild Atlantic Way! We did stop at many of the traditional attractions, the Cliffs of Mohar, Killkenny Castle, Jameson Distillery, Dingle, and the pre-stone age structures at New Grange. In the northeast of Ireland we stopped at Crossmolina in the County of Mayo, where Mike’s ancestors came from.
We listened to many great “sessions” of traditional Irish music in local bars, but the highlight was stumbling upon a show by Switchback (www.waygoodmusic.com), an American duo that performs Celtic music. We know Brian Fitzgerald, one of the band members and they were performing in Westport, Ireland. During their performance they invited a member of the audience to play with them, he was Matt Malloy of the Chieftains. Turns out Matt Malloy is also a sailor and we traded sailing stories with him for a bit after the show!
We turned in the rental car after totaling 1700 miles of driving the breathtaking winding, narrow roads of Ireland and meeting many kind and welcoming people. After four hundred pictures taken and six weeks of travel we were missing the boat and ready to go home.
We turned in the rental car after totaling 1700 miles of driving the breathtaking winding, narrow roads of Ireland and meeting many kind and welcoming people. After four hundred pictures taken and six weeks of travel we were missing the boat and ready to go home.
Navy submarine that followed us out St. Mary's Channel.
We returned to Brunswick, Georgia on October 15th and took the first good weather opportunity to leave and head south. After brief stops at Cumberland Island and St. Augustine we arrived in Stuart, Florida at our favorite boatyard, Hinckley, for a bottom job and new salon windows. After a bit of “mission creep” all the work was done by Thanksgiving. Our extended stay in Stuart gave us time to visit with Mike’s sister Patt and for Francie to make a quick trip back up north to visit her mom. Finally a couple of days after Thanksgiving we motored down the ICW to Lake Worth. With Northeast and East winds between 15-25 knots predicted for another week we decided to brave a difficult day sailing to Key Biscayne to get us further south. Waves were 5-8 feet but our speed was good! Mike saw 11.2 knots while we surfed down a wave, although our average was probably about 8 knots. The next day was a beautiful sail down Hawk channel to Marathon, 10-15 knots of wind and 2 ft. waves. It doesn’t get much better than that!
We had the chance to visit with good friends in Marathon and then sailed up the Gulf to St. Petersburg where we will spend the winter.
We had the chance to visit with good friends in Marathon and then sailed up the Gulf to St. Petersburg where we will spend the winter.
A brisk day in Ireland