Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Ireland trip report

Part 1: Trip report on our lodgings; more to follow regarding other details of trip:

General info about our bed and breakfast stays: all were ensuite with shower only. Bring your own washcloth, shampoo/conditioner, and shower soap. All the places we stayed only provided hand soap at the sink. We had a car, so some were a bit outside of the town listed. All of the breakfasts were well cooked and filling. Also, all of the places we stayed were very neat and clean. One thing we forgot to take was a travel alarm clock. Only one of the places we stayed had clocks in the room. Hope this is helpful. We really appreciated all the advice from the forum.

March 23-24: Riversdale House, Glendalough 404 45858 (Zell and Liam Conway)
http://www.glendalough.eu.com/index.html
Located about a five minute drive from the Glendalough visitors information center down a steep, narrow, rocky drive, this bed and breakfast has a beautiful location beside a river with views of the Wicklow (?) mountains all round. When we were there the gorse was blooming (yellow) and the rain had raised the river to a dramatic level. Our room was very kid-friendly and provided a nice place for our 15 month old son to explore without getting into trouble once we moved the tea-making supplies to the top of the pine closet. The decorations within the room were simple but tasteful and the room had a nice view of the river out a small window. The bathroom had good water pressure and ample hot water. I was particularly impressed by the guest lounge and breakfast room. The lounge was comfortably equipped with leather couches, a writing desk, and local reading material, while the breakfast room had three walls of windows looking out at the river and mountains. Breakfast was great and the hostess was very friendly and helpful. The location would necessitate having a car as I believe it’s a bit out of the way from public transportation, but I could be wrong. Several local attractions are within hiking distance. We would definitely stay there again.

March 25: Joy’s Rockside House, Cashel 62-63813 (Joan and Rem Joy)
http://www.joyrockside.com/
The name says it; this b&b is located at the base of the Rock of Cashel. Our room had a double and twin bed (plus our son’s cot/crib) and felt spacious. The view from the windows was of the Rock and the street leading up to it. If you have trouble sleeping when your room is well lit, take sleeping blinders. Several street lights and the light in the b&b’s parking lot helped us appreciate how dark it was in our previous b&b. Our hosts were very amiable and helped us know how to spend our time in the area. Breakfast was wonderful and offered choices other than the traditional. I had pancakes (almost like crepes) with maple syrup and my husband had potato waffles with fruit. While the house appears clean and new, it is obvious that it is run by a meticulous couple. Written instructions were posted about the room, including “turn off the lights to prevent fire” at each switch and opening instructions on each window. The décor in the sitting room was also not toddler friendly.

March 26: Cahergal House, Newmarket on Fergus 61-368358 (Noreen McInerney)
http://www.cahergal.com/
This stay was a bit of a disappointment. I had emailed well in advance of our arrival, yet the hostess thought we were arriving the next night. Our room was barely large enough for the cot/crib provided, though there were much larger rooms in the house. The bathroom was quite an impressive size, however. The room next to ours is called the Fergus view and is quite spacious with lovely views. I think it had two beds in it, so if you’re looking for a larger room, you may want to request that one. On the plus side, they have horseback riding on the premises and I thoroughly enjoyed that in the morning before we checked out. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to ride; the ride includes a lesson if you need it. The house is on a working farm, so the fields surrounding the house were dotted with sheep and lambs, and cows with their calves.

March 27: Doonmacfelim, Doolin
http://www.doonmacfelim.com/
We originally were booked at Daly House in Doolin, but a family emergency prompted them to send us to Doonmacfelim Guest House. The room was not fancy but perfectly adequate. The hosts were willing to babysit (listen for our son through the monitor) so we could go hear live music in the pub (a major attraction of Doolin) after we put our son to bed. Susan had also been willing to do that. It meant a lot to us to be able to have an evening out. For breakfast, I had the traditional and my husband had smoked salmon on brown bread. It was a nice treat.

March 28: Waterfall Lodge, Oughterard 91-552168 (Kathleen Dolly)
http://www.waterfalllodge.net/city.html
Our favorite place we stayed! This beautiful, old two-story b&b is located on a river that tumbles down two waterfalls on its way past the house. There’s a pretty bridge over to a small island that provided a tranquil place to relax after breakfast. The gardens have pretty landscaping touches with several bushes and flowers in bloom. The bedroom was big with a double and twin bed as well as two armchairs and antique furnishings. High ceilings and a bay window seating area overlooking the river added to the effect of ample space. The breakfast room enjoyed a nice view of the river and we enjoyed French toast and pancakes. It’s within walking distance of the town of Oughterard and the hosts were gracious enough to let us have a late check out time. This was the only time our son got to nap in his crib and he greatly appreciated it. We took the day to relax in the garden and take turns going into town to shop and do laundry (rather drop off laundry to have it washed and folded…wonderful). We would have liked to have stayed here another night but I already had us booked at the next location. This was the only time I regretted how planned-out the trip was. (The only downside to this b&b was that the shower leaked quite a bit on the floor since it used a curtain, rather than a glass door which appeared to be the standard.)

March 29-31: Faul House, Clifden 95 21239 (Kathleen and Michael Conneely)
www.faulhouse.com
We found this farmhouse just south of Clifden on the road toward Ballyconneely. The room was a bit small with the cot/crib set up, but for two adults it would be plenty big enough. They had larger rooms that were unfortunately in use during our time there. We enjoyed staying on the farm during lambing time and enjoyed walking around in the fields and over the many stone walls. We saw twin lambs who couldn’t have been more than a few hours old. The house is within a quick walk down to the water (Clifden Bay?) and a short drive to the field where you can help feed the host’s Connemara ponies. It really is a fantastic place to stay if you have kids. The hosts were both friendly and helpful, and the breakfasts were great! They had several options including salmon, pancakes and the traditional. They even let me get a bit off the menu and mix and match a pancake with egg, sausage and rasher. ? In the evenings, we enjoyed sitting in the lounge by the turf fire making plans for the next day. On our first evening, Kathleen brought in a full tea service for us to enjoy by the fire. Great example of her hospitality during our stay.

April 1: Shelmalier House, Athlone 90-647-2245 (Nancy and Jim Denby)
http://www.shelmalierhouse.com/index.html
This was a quick stay with us arriving late in the evening and leaving right after breakfast. The room we had was one of the biggest we had during our trip. There was a double bed and two twin beds, plus a fair amount of floor space left over. Our son loved running around in this room before bedtime. The shower had good water pressure but for some reason emitted a piercing shriek during my husband’s shower. Maybe it thought mine had been too long and wanted to discourage him from staying in. The lounge looked nice though we didn’t need to use it. One nice perk was that they had an internet access point there for guests to use. They also have a sauna and hot tub, but we forgot our bathing suits and were too tired to make use of them anyway as it turned out. The great thing about this location is it’s about half way between Galway and Dublin on the main road that runs b/t the two cities. We had spent much of the day driving from the west coast and were glad to enjoy a brief respite before completing our journey to Dublin.

April 2: Lima B&B, Malahide (Roy Skinner) 1-845-6951
http://www.family-homes.ie/entries2004/d41.htm
Okay, the one negative thing I have to say about this stay occurred before we got there. The directions we got from our host were a bit difficult to follow and impossible once we missed the starting point. We were in a hurry to get into the city center, so we parked at the Malahide DART station and headed into Dublin, deciding to call Roy in the evening when we came back to Malahide. It all worked out fine. When we called him that evening, he drove over and let us follow him to the b&b (7-10 minutes from Malahide on the Swords road). As it was our last night, we had a lot of organizing and repacking to do. He helped us unload the car, made us tea and biscuits (cookies) for relaxing before bedtime, and generally entertained us with cheerful banter. In the morning, he gave us a wake-up call at 6 am and provided breakfast at 7. He even drove into Malahide with my husband so my husband wouldn’t get lost finding the gas station as we wanted to return the rental with a full tank (thus getting a refund on what they’d charged us at pick-up). Roy provided us with a good map to the airport and we were there in plenty of time for our morning flight (especially since it was delayed…more on that later). As for the property itself, they have more than an acre of well-landscaped gardens. I believe Roy and his son are both landscapers and they have a water feature, a gazebo and lots of flowering plants and shrubs. They also have ducks and chickens that provide eggs and entertainment (through the window) at breakfast. The room itself was fine, not super big but adequate. Again, these spaces are tighter when you have to fit a cot/crib in. The water pressure was good and plenty of hot water made for a good way to wake up at 6 am.

Part 2:
General info: before we left, I printed directions from www.aaroadwatch.ie for each leg of our trip. As the navigator, I wouldn’t leave home without those. Just be sure you have a good atlas too for those times when you depart from your planned course. We took the Frommer’s Road Atlas (2004) and it worked fine. We also took Frommer’s Ireland from $90 a day and copies of pages from Rick Steves and Frommer’s Best Loved Driving Tours. Otherwise we picked up maps and tourist info along the way.

Day One:

The morning of our flight dawned with more than the usual trip-day stress. I had spent hours on the phone with the US Passport offices trying to track down my son’s passport that I’d applied for nearly two months earlier. Even after paying an additional expediting fee the week before, there was still no sign of the passport. So, I drove into Chicago (from the suburbs) to spend 4 hours sitting in the passport office waiting, and waiting, and…well, you get the picture. Finally, at almost 3:00, I nearly hugged the guy who called my name and handed me the passport. Back to the suburbs, I had about half an hour before we had to leave to go to the airport. How’s that for cutting it close. We were scheduled on an evening flight from Chicago to Dublin and everything went smoothly. My son slept for most of the flight and we were happy to arrive to a chilly morning in Ireland. We picked up money at the ATM and a car from Dan Dooley with no lines and no hassles. After figuring out how to get the car-seat into the car, we drove to Powerscourt Gardens (1.80 euro toll road) for a nice (okay, a rainy, chilly) afternoon of walking around the gardens and eating lunch in the Terrace restaurant with a view of the gardens. The food was quite tasty and somewhat more exotic than I had pictured for Ireland. We were feeling incredibly jet-lagged and decided to drive straight to the b and b in Glendalough. No one was home when we got there so we headed back into Laragh (a few minutes away) for our first of many pub dinners (at Lynham’s of Laragh). I have to say that we enjoyed every meal we had on our trip, as well as the Guinness and Bulmers Cider, and were thankful for all the walking we did that helped burn the extra calories. We checked into our b and b and were happy to go to bed early.

Day Two:
It was a bit chilly and rainy so we decided to delay our walk around Glendalough and to instead drive down to Avoca. We had watched season 3 of Ballykissangel on DVD just before the trip to get into the spirit of things and enjoyed seeing the village where it was filmed. We also really enjoyed shopping in and touring the Avoca Woolen Mill. Among other things, I came away with a beautiful throw that is keeping me warm right now. ? It’s interesting to see the way the weaving process takes place. My husband and I laughed at how close you can get to a lot of heavy machinery that is doing complicated tasks. In the USA, there would be barricades to keep people from getting too close; but it was nice to be able to walk right up and talk with the weavers. We walked through the village and ate lunch in Fitzgerald’s pub, warming up at the fire and conversing with the locals. Wonderful. We drove back to Glendalough for an evening walk around the upper lake in a light drizzle (nice soft weather). We ate at the same pub as the night before, enjoying the feeling of familiarity as we settled in by the fire. Later, while our son settled in his cot, we relaxed in the lounge and downloaded pictures onto our computer and journalled. Each evening it was fun to watch a slideshow of the digital pictures we had taken during the day.

Day Three:
We woke up to glorious sunshine! And our son slept through the night; he’s 15 months old and we weren’t sure how he would adjust to the time change. We enjoyed our second full Irish breakfast and then set off to walk around the monastic ruins at Glendalough. Overall the mood was peaceful. We picked up information as we listened to the occasional tour guides leading groups around us, and we took lots of pictures of the crosses, round tower and other ruins. We also walked up toward the upper lake but turned back when the rain picked up. On a funny note, I was carrying my son in a backpack carrier and a group of German students kept taking pictures of him. He was wearing Robeez shoes with lions on them and I guess the girls thought he was cute. We stopped in at the Glendalough woolen mills retail outlet just south of the village of Laragh. It’s in a beautiful location across an old bridge in a wooded lot. We did a bit of shopping and then began our journey over the Wicklow Gap to Cashel. It was a lovely drive and gave our son a good time to nap. The roads were lined with yellow blooming gorse bushes, sheep, stone walls covered in moss, and horses as we neared Cashel. I have to say I’m proud of how quickly my husband adjusted to left-side driving with a manual shift car. When we arrived in Cashel, we checked into the b&b and went immediately up to the Rock so we could get in before they closed. The rain finally stopped about half way into our time and we had good light for picture-taking and viewing the countryside. We had supper in a pub called Devrons (a bit higher priced than we thought it deserved) and watched an episode of Lost during supper that kept our son somewhat entertained. Back to the b&b for some r&r.

Day Four:
Happy Mothers’ Day in Ireland! How many moms get two mothers’ days in a year? After a great breakfast we hiked to Hoar Abbey and enjoyed seeing the ruins in another fine soft Irish morning. I love the long, skinny sidewalk that was poured across a huge sheep-field to give a path to the ruins. The abbey was very peaceful as we were the only ones walking around. It was a fun way to begin the day and had great views up toward the Rock. From there, we drove to Cahir to see the Swiss Cottage and Castle. Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out exactly how to drive to the Swiss Cottage. We saw lots of signs for walking there, so we loaded our umbrella into the backpack and hiked the 2 km. The rain picked up about half-way there and we were a bit soggy by the time we arrived. It was worth the walk, in my opinion. (We were a bit annoyed to see a car park with cars in it, but that couldn’t be helped at that point). It was interesting to see the wealthy family’s perspective on poverty as they built a thatched cottage basically for dress-up parties where they would wear peasant type clothing and entertain their friends. We then toured Cahir Castle which was also a fun way to get a glimpse of the way people lived way back when. Continuing the theme, we ended the day at Bunratty Castle for the Medieval Banquet. We thoroughly enjoyed it and had fun watching our son interact with all of the Lords and Ladies in medieval costumes. The mead was great, the wine was fine, the food for the fingers and the music divine. Expect it to be somewhat cheesy and have fun.

Day Five:
After breakfast, my husband walked around the b&b with our son and I had an hour horseback riding experience. Michael, our host, took me out on the roads and in the fields of the farm and gave me tips on how to ride as well as answering all my questions about our surroundings (the lambs and calves, life on a farm in Ireland, etc.). We spent our afternoon at Bunratty Folk Park, dodging rain drops as we went from exhibit to exhibit. (Digression: to show it is a small world after all, I ran into a former colleague at the folk park. We had known we would be in Ireland at the same time and joked that it would be funny if we saw each other.) We had a nice cuppa and lunch in the tearoom and spent some time shopping in the gift shop. It seemed like most of the same merchandise was appearing in the stores we went into at very similar prices. Our evening schedule was to go see the sunset from the Cliffs of Moher. We were there in time, but the weather didn’t cooperate: 35 knot wind, rain and heavy fog. So, we drove into Doolin, found our b&b, were sent to another b&b, and then settled in at McGann’s for supper. We meant to go to O’Connors for the music session later that evening but we felt comfortable in McGann’s, had great seats, and spent a bit of time chatting with the musicians and the bartender whose CD we ended up purchasing. My husband took our son back to the b&b, settled him in for the night with our host listening for him, and rejoined me at the pub. We got to have a night out together. Very memorable!

Day Six:
As my nephew would say, “Sun’s out! It’s a happy day!” We were pleased to have mild weather for our hike up to the Cliffs of Moher. We spent a bit of time walking around near O’Brien’s tower and taking pictures. There’s a lot of construction going on down the hill; looks like there will be a great visitor’s center someday. We drove through the Burren, stopping to walk around a bit and take more pictures. It’s hard to describe the Burren’s unique rocky landscape. At times, my husband said it looked like a moonscape. We drove the coast road from Doolin to Ballyvaughan and enjoyed the views and a good lunch at Monk’s in Ballyvaughan. It’s funny after all the reading I did on the Forum to actually run across a place that’s mentioned so often. We drove up and back down the corkscrew road looking for the Poulnabrone Dolmen. A local gave us the tip that we were on the wrong road and mountain, but we were grateful for the breathtaking views we’d have missed if we hadn’t gotten a bit lost. We walked around the dolmen for a bit and then completed our drive to Oughterard. After checking into our favorite b&b we drove into town to eat at the delightful bar of the Corrib House Hotel.

Day Seven:
A day of rest. We talked to our hosts and were granted a late check-out. My husband was supposed to fly-fish today but it all got too complicated. We’ll plan better for him next time. While my son napped in his cot (crib), I wandered around the grounds by the river and in the garden. When my husband got back from town where he was researching the fishing options, he decided to stay near our son and let me go into town to shop. Ireland really is a wonderful place to shop. ? We found Aran sweaters on sale and lots of other goodies to bring home. We had a picnic lunch at the b&b and finally packed up for our trip to Clifden. We took a detour to Moycullen to see the Connemara Marble store. Unfortunately they were closing up when we got there so we just ran through the shop and bought a marble egg and a couple of worry stones. FYI, we later (outside of Clifden) saw better-shaped eggs for 4 euros less. Oh, well. We drove to Clifden and checked into our farmhouse b&b. As it was getting late, we drove back into Clifden for a nice dinner by a fire in (I think it was called) Derry Clare. We were going to stop at the grocery store a few doors down for milk for our son (a nightly ritual), but they closed at 8:00 and it was 8:25. So, back to the b&b where we put our son to bed and had tea by the turf fire. A very nice way to end the day.

Day Eight:
We now come to the part of the journey that inspired us to go to Ireland in the first place. I taught high school English for ten years before becoming a mom and in my classroom I hung a poster of Kylemore Abbey. When I “retired” to stay home with my son, we hung that picture over his changing table in the nursery. After looking at that picture quite a bit over the past year, we decided to visit the abbey. On day eight, we had a sunny morning as we set out from our b&b. The clouds rolled in as we drove the Sky Road outside of Clifden. The ocean views from that drive are stunning. We continued our drive toward Kylemore and stopped at a craft store on the way. The turf fire in the middle of the store set a nice atmosphere for yet more shopping. We bought some Connemara marble items (better price than in Moycullen), some Irish rain and peat soap, silver earrings with a Celtic pattern and Connemara marble inlay, and a shillelagh (walking stick) for my husband. They have a tearoom with an incredible view of the 12 Bens (mountains) but we weren’t hungry yet so we continued on to the abbey. Our time at Kylemore was a bit wet but quite enjoyable. We were very impressed by the magnitude of the Victorian walled garden. It has quite a bit of variety in design, and on a dry day you could probably spend a lot of time wandering through it. Unfortunately, that was the hardest rain we had all day. So, we zipped through (45 minutes) and took quick pictures then caught the shuttle bus back to the visitors’ center. We walked around inside the abbey and let our son run around a bit since there were only a couple of other visitors. We walked down to the Gothic church which nestles into a mountainside next to the lake. The area around the abbey is beautiful even when a light mist is falling and a bit of fog hovers around the mountain tops. We left the abbey and drove in search of a nice place to eat dinner. We were directed toward the town of Renvyl and ended up driving around every small road on the peninsula until we ended up at a nice Hotel bar/restaurant named Maol Reidh in Tully Cross. You can’t miss it: the stone hotel across from the little thatched vacation cottages on the main road through town. We again warmed our toes at the turf fire beside our table as we waited for our dinner. It had been a full day so we headed back to the b&b after dinner. We took a walk down the road from the farmhouse to the edge of Clifden Bay to watch the sun set over the water. Since daylight savings time kicked in on day four we’ve had sunsets between 8 and 8:20.

Day Nine:
We once again had a pretty morning when we woke up. We decided to spend some time on the farm where we were staying after breakfast. We hiked around the fields with the sheep and lambs and stone fences and an old stone house turned barn. The magic was in seeing a couple of lambs who probably weren’t older than a couple of hours scampering around their mother just a few yards away from us. By the end of our walk our son was mimicking us and baaing like the sheep. ? We began our day of sightseeing by driving south on the Ballyconneely road. We made a side trip up a hill to see the statue dedicated to Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten Brown, British World War I flyers, who made the first non-stop transatlantic flight. I was a wimp and didn’t get out of the car (the rain had begun) until I saw my husband taking pictures of two farmers leading their very-pregnant Connemara ponies up the road. Then I hopped out and braved the weather to stroke the ponies and visit with the farmers. It was interesting to hear the farmers speaking to one another in Irish/gaelic, though they spoke English to us. They continued on to their stables and we drove to the Connemara smokehouse near Ballyconneely. Unfortunately they don’t process or smoke fish on Fridays, just Mon. through Thurs. so there wasn’t much for us to see. We did purchase a package of the honey roast salmon to consume later and had a long talk with the woman who worked at the smokehouse. We then drove to Roundstone and I sat in the car with our napping son while my husband toured Malachy Kearns the bodhrán maker’s store. When we left Roundstone we drove to Ballynahinch Castle Hotel, one of our favorite places we visited. We ate lunch in the bar next to an open fire and chatted with people at surrounding tables. Our toddler tended to open up lots of conversations with people throughout the trip. After a nice lunch of seafood chowder and sandwiches we purchased a booklet of walking trails in the area. We walked around for a few hours through woods, by waterfalls and lakes; then we returned to the bar for supper by the fire. The food was delicious and the atmosphere very classy. We would love to stay at the hotel some day and give my husband time to fly fish the waters there. Our drive back to Clifden was across the bog road just south of the hotel. It was amazing to bump along the narrow road and see no signs of civilization, no electrical lines, just open fields where turf had been harvested and the mountains in the background.

Day Ten:
Killary Cruise Day. We checked out of our b&b after breakfast and drove north to Killary Harbour where we boarded a catamaran for an hour and a half cruise of Ireland’s only fjord. It was a bit chilly and overcast, but we were the only passengers on the boat and it felt like we had our own private cruise. It was fun to stand up in the captain’s bridge and get a personalized tour of the harbor. After the cruise we drove around Leenane and Ashleigh falls, some of the sights where the movie The Field was filmed. Then we drove to Cong and visited some of The Quiet Man locations. Ashford Castle has beautiful gardens and a nice location on Lough Corrib for walking around. After a relaxing (and somewhat damp) walk through the gardens, we began our long drive to Athlone. On the way, we had dramatic contrasting skies with blue sky and sun behind us and dark, brooding clouds in front of us. Great conditions for our one and only Irish rainbow! We arrived in Athlone, checked into our b&b and were directed to the Prince of Wales Hotel bar for supper. It was a Saturday night and this bar had a relatively quiet area for us to sit in for supper.

Day Eleven:
Our next to last day in Ireland, we had a bit of a drive to Malahide where we were frustrated by bad directions from our b&b host. We finally gave up trying to find the b&b and headed straight to the DART and the city center. The funny thing is that we actually drove past the b&b, we just didn’t know it. Oh, well. We arrived at the DART station 3 minutes before our train that took us to Pearce station. We walked around the Trinity College campus and toured the book of Kells and the beautiful long reading room upstairs. I enjoyed seeing the oldest surviving harp as well as the rows upon rows of old books in the long room with the impressive vaulted ceiling. Lunchtime found us on Grafton St. eating pasta at the back of Bewley’s (not sure what the restaurant in the back is called). We then walked through the National Museum of Archaeology where we saw ancient gold and other treasures (Tara Brooch, etc.). We took our little guy to the National Museum of Natural History where he toddled around among the antique-feeling glass and wood cases filled with stuffed animals and skeletons. The day was rainy off and on but we had a nice walk through St. Stephens Green Park and to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I enjoyed seeing the Swift memorabilia in the cathedral, the stained glass windows and the celtic stone pieces. The organ music playing created a relaxing and worshipful mood. We wandered past Christ Church and along the river to O’Connell street. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry when we passed several restaurants mentioned on the forum so we ate at a mediocre lobby restaurant in the Gresham Hotel. Oh, well. Since that was really our only mediocre meal in 12 days we can’t complain too much. We took the DART back to Malahide and our host drove to the station to guide us to the b&b. After much organizing of souvenirs and dirty laundry we had a cuppa tea and went to bed.

Day Twelve:
A pox upon American Airlines! We got up at 6:00 to finalize everything before heading to the airport at 8 for our 10:45 flight. I’m glad we relaxed and ate a nice breakfast; it got us through the 2 hour delay of our flight. The frustrating thing is that when I booked the flight months ago, it was a 12:35 flight from Dublin to Chicago. Then it got changed to 10:45 I think in January. Oh, well. We made it through dropping off the rental car (return tank full of petrol and get refund) and checking into our flight with no problems.

We had some euro burning a hole in our pockets so we spent some time shopping after we turned in all our VAT paper work. Should I mention here the joys and frustrations of shopping in Ireland? We enjoyed getting the VAT refund on site at many places where we shopped. The consumer does pay a pretty sizeable service charge for the privilege, but since I never used to bother with the paperwork to get a refund, I guess this is worth it. The thing that got a bit frustrating was that I asked to be charged in euro every time I handed someone my credit card and several times the person charged me in US dollars. When I asked them about it, they always claimed the machine did it automatically and they couldn’t help it. It was a bit annoying to see the notes on the receipt that we were getting hit with a 3% conversion fee and that we had been given the choice of euro or dollars. I had to keep convincing myself that a few dollars wasn’t worth stressing out and ruining my vacation relaxation mode. We did a fair amount of ATM usage and cash payments to avoid these issues.

Back to the narrative: we survived our eight-hour flight with our son only sleeping for about an hour and a half. We had lots of toys on hand as well as a laptop and Thomas the Tank Engine DVD. We walked up and down the aisle of the plane when he got really fidgety and were happy to finally begin our descent into O’Hare Airport. All in all, it was nice to be home after a wonderful time of being with family on a grand tour of Ireland. Hope this hasn’t put you to sleep. ? Let me know if you have any questions.