Ireland--Dublin, Giants Causeway & Omagh, Northern Ireland

The big trip of the year came--Ireland and England!  My sister Lois found an awesome deal on plane tickets that I didn't want to pass up.  We did have to get the kids out of school early for the year, a week and a half, but that was pretty smooth. I promised them that I won't do that again haha. We go to leave in the late afternoon which was really nice!  But the flight was over night which was not nice... Have to have some pain when having fun, right? Ha. 

 

We flew on Play Airlines.  I think they took over Wow Airlines--Wow went bankrupt.                              

We made it to Iceland!  At about 5am.  Whew!

And Dublin.  YAY!  First stop, getting the rental cars.  We again only did backpacks on just one                carryon. And not one carryon per person, just one total. That had all of our Sunday clothes in.               

Shanna trying to make a point haha...                                                                                                   

We then stopped at a mall that had a grocery store.  We landed around 10:30am, so it was lunchtime and we hadn't eaten anything really.                                                                                                                   

Our rental car.  It was a pretty fun little car!                                                                                         

It's always fun seeing different products in grocery stores.  That one of our favorite things to do in different countries---go to the grocery store!

I got this for Deb. 

Ketchup flavored Cheetos.

Shanna bought a bag of mixed candy.  She liked the teeth.

Shrimp flavor is huge in Ireland and the UK!  We saw lots of shrimp flavored stuff all the time. 

FRESH orange juice.  So fun!

Kind of shocking seeing bread just sitting out where lots of people are walking by...breathing...

This was the spot where Handel's Messiah was first sung!  The building is gone, but still cool.

Christ's Church, Dublin.

Ha'penny Bridge!

One way to reuse a telephone booth....

Lois' rental van. 

After exploring Dublin a little bit and trying out driving on the WRONG side of the road we headed out to Fitzpatrick Castle. It was built in 1740. 

Swimming at the castle!  You had to wear a head covering.  That seems to be a thing in Ireland. Head coverings in pools.  And signs stating no photos allowed.  My kids got the caps....Maybe I didn't see the sign...haha. 

At some point that afternoon we bought some water.  Shanna found this clear "can" of watermelon flavored sparkling water. Super fun.  She LOVES watermelon stuff. 

After a quick swim we went into the town close by to eat at Bubbas.  Fun little place. 

After we drove by the seaside and then came back to the castle!

We weren't ready for a fox hunt, but a fox visited the parking lot. 

Some carrot cake from a store that day.  It looked great...but was just okay.  Plus it had WAY too many raisins!

The next day we drove to Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK and not part of the Republic of Ireland. Some butter and bread!

Cool bridge!

But first, I forgot!  Pictures of the "traditional Irish" breakfast buffet at Fitzpatrick Castle. 

These waffles were so good...and didn't need a drop of syrup.  They were basically a donut.  A little crisp too. 

Yum.  Irish butter. Something I pick up was the black bread pudding.  Turned out to be blood sausage.  Gross.

Now back to Northern Ireland.  Our main stop of the day was Giant's Causeway.  A cool bit of mother nature at work! During COVID the people that worked there counted each one.  There are 41,366 rock formations there.  Crazy!

Sheep!  They were quite loud and their voices were pretty different!

We stopped at a Lidl in Northern Ireland for some snacks and water.  Then we went over to a grocery store and grabbed some dinner.  In many stores in the UK and Ireland you can do this 3 for 5 pound or 3 for 5 Euro deal.  Depending where you are.  You grab a sandwich or wrap, a bag of chips and a drink or 5 pounds or euros.  Pretty nice for dinner! We ate in our cars and then drove down to Omagh where we stayed at the Silver Birch Hotel. 

T

he Silver Birch Hotel.

There was a little grocery store right next to the hotel that we had to go to, haha.  More treats and ice cream.  Pancakes?!  It was open till 11pm.  The sun went down quite late which was really nice!

In most hotels we found out that we had to put a key card in this thing by the door for the electricity to go on.  We had no idea.  It was pretty standard and no one told us about it.  We had to ask the front desk for help because our electricity wasn't working. 

Back to that little grocery store...ice cream!