Day 1

Hello from Ireland! We are having an amazing time and we love Ireland! We started this post yesterday, but lost it somehow so tonight (Friday), we'll post day 1 and will try to post day 2 sometime tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by to share our journey! We arrived in Dublin on Thursday morning right on schedule. Neither of us slept much on the plane, but we were in Ireland and on vacation so we just kept right on going! Our first major stop was Clonmacnoise. What a beautiful site! Quoting Wikipedia, "The monastery of Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis in Irish, meaning "Meadow of the Sons of Nós", or perhaps, albeit less likely, Cluain Muccu Nóis "Meadow of the Pigs of Nós") is situated in County Offaly, Ireland on the River Shannon south of Athlone. Clonmacnoise was founded sometime between 545 and 548 by Ciarán Mac a tSaor, a young man from Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon. Until the 9th century it had close associations with the kings of Connacht. The strategic location of the monastery helped it become a major centre of religion, learning, craftsmanship and trade by the 9th century and together with Clonard it was the most famous in Ireland, visited by scholars from all' over Europe. From the ninth until the eleventh century it was allied with the kings of Meath. Many of the high kings of Tara and Connacht were buried here." What a beautiful site (and sight!).

Next we drove to Galway. On the way over we stopped to enjoy the scene along the River Shannon.

We then checked into our B&B, took a walk along the water front and called it a day! And what a day it was!