Irish Odessy 2004

Ireland 2004

During June 2004 we accomplished one of our long anticipated travel goals: Ireland! We spent nearly the entire month in the Southwest part of the Emerald Isle, at first on a sailing vessel and then with a small group tour seeing the island from the inside. We also had four days to explore on our own between these tours.

Our Elderhostel segment was called "Sailing the Irish Coast" and started in Bantry and ended up in Cork. We sailed on the Dutch herring drifter Tecla with twelve other passengers, two group leaders and four crew. The weather was good, the sailing excellent and we all had a great time.

On our own in Galway, we crashed in the Radisson SAS hotel and recovered from the sailing trip. We also took the ferry to Inish Mor, one of the Aran islands, a bus tour to Kylemore Abbey on the Connemara Peninsula and explored Galway. We also made a much needed stop at the only self service laundry in the city.

We joined our Overseas Adventure Travel group in Ennis for "Celtic Discovery" a thirteen day odessy through the Irish counties of Clare, Limerick, Cork and Kerry. Our group of fourteen, leader Noirin and bus driver John bonded well and had a great time exploring all the sights in John's small Mercedes bus.

Of the 300 plus photographs taken on the trip, I've selected 38 to include here. Click on the photos below for more details of our Irish Odessy!

Route Map	Tecla in Bantry	Aboard Tecla	Tecla near Bear Island
Manor House near Castletown	Ruins of Dunboy Castle	Mizen Head Light Station	Shirkin Island
Drumbeg Stone Circle	Charles Fort, Kinsale	Kinsale	Cathedral in Cobh
Approach to Dunaengus on Inish Mor	Cliffs of Inish Mor	Dunaengus	Seven Churches
Galway Cathedral	Kylemore Abbey	Street art in Ennis	Fransiscan Friary, Ennis
Cliffs of Moher	Farm ruins near Doolin	The Burren	Poulnabrone megalithic tomb
Bunratty Castle	Quinn Abbey	Quinn Abbey	Blarney Castle
Kissing the stone	Round Tower at Cloyne	Jameson Distillery	View from Healy Pass
Thatched cottage at Muckross	Arthur Young Trail	Jaunting carts at Muckross	Parkavonear Castle
Sheep farm and show	Torc Waterfall	County Kerry Museum

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Updated 7/15/04