Adare, County Limerick

Madrid Is Food

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Near North Ireland South of the Border

WE started our Northern Ireland Adventure on Monday, June 22. We first drove north of Galway for the first time into Connemara. This is beautiful country. We went through a pass between the Connemara National Park and the Maumturk Mountains, along a gorgeous lake, through quaint villages, and through fields of drying peat. This is what they dig up and use to heat their homes in winter.


Here you can see big Jeff Diging in the Peat Bog

This drive took us into County Mayo…a new county for us! We spent the night in a village (not even a town) at the local tavern/inn/restaurant. We ate a home cooked meal in the tavern and slept upstairs. Very cozy.

BagPipes, Drums & Guinness who needs Roses ?

You will notice in the pictures there are no Tourists.... there is no admission these guys are doing this for the fun... pure and simple

On Sunday, I finally got Jeff to take a walk through our park, and into town. He was surprised that it was so close. He saw our lovely roses, and the park was full of bagpipers! There were groups all over, in alleys, side streets, just like Mariachis in Mexico! They were going to have a big competition, which we watched in the town square. They were great!

Horse Racing The Sport of Kings & Irishmen

We had a very busy “locals” weekend right here in our home town! On Saturday we went to the Castleisland Horse Races. This a neighboring town, just a few kilometers away. They had the races right in a farmer’s field. They had set up a course with rails, and there were bookies there too! They had a winner’s circle where the horses also walked around and around so that you could get a good look at them before the race, and before you bet. It was fun, but we lost on the one race we actually placed money on. We only stayed for 4 races, when they decided that one of the turns was too tight and they were going to change the rails. It was organized like little league Look at the Jockeys they Must have all been under 12 BTW there is a horse betting Bookmaker on every town street.... It was the 100 anniversary for this meet.. but the 1st year they had rails for the track which last week had sheep grazing on it

Vintage Car Rally / Irish Tractor Pull ?

Then we headed up the road a couple of miles to a vintage car and tractor rally. There were a lot more tractors than old cars…I wonder why?! It was fun though, and something different to do

Living in Tralee - Hardly a Grind

Kelly and Gil have gone, so now we’re down to just living in Ireland. So far so good. The condo we moved into has turned out to be a good choice. Jeff has set up his internet (a wireless stick) and I’ve found some great walks right outside our door. Tralee seems to have everything we need…shopping, restaurants, a library, post office, and of course, plenty of pubs. It seems that they alternate pubs and musicians. Every night the music is in a different pub…usually traditional Irish. This consists of some of the following: guitar, banjo, accordion, bagpipe, flute, and drum.

Nothing else exciting to report right now, but soon we hope to take a road trip to Northern Ireland, and we have our cruise coming up in July from Athens to Venice. I’ll update this more as our adventure continues.