Merrion Square - Dublin

Ireland was just an all-around wonderful week. We were so lucky to have beautiful weather during our entire stay in Ireland and we were untouched by that silly volcano in Iceland that was still playing games with European airports.

A fun perk of traveling with a kiddo . . . making time to play in parks along the way.



Had to take his cute mug in front of flowers that matched the stripes in his hat!

How did I forget to mention this first???
Our baby's first time in a swing! Yeah, Will!

I was too chicken to try driving on the left side of the road. Lucky for me, my son wasn't.

Future BMW driver???

Dublin

Last but not least on our fun drive around Ireland, we landed ourselves in Dublin.

What does any smart tourist do after setting down their bags in their Dublin hotel? Set off straight to the Guinness Storehouse, of course! Just a decade ago, Guinness transformed their original storehouse into a visitor center experience. It was built with much of the original two-hundred year old building beautifully incorporated into the modern, updated visitor center. More easily translated: 7 floors of heaven for Jeff. This is a must-see, self-guided tour through the history of Guinness, the brewing process, fun advertising through the years, and just a visual spectacle. Hey, and just when you get half-way there and think, is this tour almost over? They give you a mini-free sample to spur you on! Thank you, Guinness!

The Zabel 3 at the entrance -- From left to right - the seasoned Guinness consumer, a future customer, and a Guinness virgin, turned super fan.

The icing on the cake, whoops, I mean the foam on top of our pint, at the end of the tour is a free Guinness in the Storehouse's renown Skybar. Seeing that the company modeled the new visitor center after a pint, it was only fitting that the top of the building be an all-glass, 360 degree bar with a beautiful view of Dublin.


Our next day in Dublin found us on the Viking Tour of Dublin. This was recommended to us by more than one Irish friend, so obviously it was no miss.

We had fun driving around the city in a bus/boat learning about Dublin, growling at "Kells" on the sidewalk, laughing at punny jokes from our tour guide, and laughing even harder at our William who loved his viking hat and growled longer than anyone else on board.

My boys during our Leo Burdock's Fish 'n' Chips lunch in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Just one of the many fun, painted pub signs along Temple Bar. This one just happens to be for THE Temple Bar!

Molly Malone (a.k.a. The tart with the cart, The dish with the fish), an almost asleep Will, and me

One of the many gorgeous door fronts along Merrion Park.
Not every half circle window had a lantern. These windows were in the occasional house on the street, lit by the housekeepers (before electricity) to serve as street lamps for the street.

The Zabel 3 with Oscar Wilde (Ireland is most well-known for all the world famous writers it has produced.) in Merrion Square

Lahinch Golf

During our Ireland trip, one of the things I've always wanted to do besides play golf at St. Andrews Old Course was to play golf in Ireland.  I can now tick that off my list of things to do, although I'd love to go back and do it again!

Sarah let me take off for a day while she went to a castle to go and play golf.  After some internet searching, I decided to play golf at Lahinch Golf Club in  County Clare Ireland.  It had some really good reviews and as you can see below, is pretty much the Pebble Beach of Ireland!  Lahinch was a classic links course built in 1892, originally designed by Old Tom Morris and then redesigned in 1927 by Alister MacKenzie (notable as he also designed Augusta National!).   It is commonly referred to as the St. Andrews of Ireland.

Below are some pics of the course right on the Ocean and a stones throw away from the Cliffs of Moher.

6th green and 7th tee box

A shot of our group.  Everyone had a caddie - 8 people total

Me and my caddie - Tommie.  Tommie was 68 years old he told me.  I just hoped he was going to make it around.  The senior caddies (apparently better?) took pull carts to take the clubs.  It was really awesome to have a caddie on this course.  Sometimes, it wasn't even clear which direction the hole went.  One par 3 had a rock was moved daily to tell you the pin position  since the flag was not visible from the tee.  Tommie would tell me where to hit it and I would try.  It was a different type of golf for sure as the ground was super hard and very fast.  One hole he told me to literally hit it 25 yards short of the green and 25 yards left; the ball somehow after hitting it in this area ended up 10 feet from the pin.  On another hole, I hit what I thought was a good miss right at the pin only to end up in a 15 foot deep pot bunker.  Whoops!  Without Tommie, I would have shot a lot worse.

Shooting out of the rough on hole 3.  Even par at this point:)

The course had some crazy rough and bunkers.  This bunker was so steep you needed stairs to get down into it.  The pictures don't do it justice.  Literally probably about 50 feet down and I was glad not to be in it.

The steps down into the bunker.  Straight down.

The reason I did not shoot the age of Tommie:)

Overall, it was a really great day and I ended up playing really well.  I shot an 82 which isn't bad considering on one whole Tommie told me in all 40 years of caddying, he had never been there.  I had hit my ball over the green and up into this rough embankment.  Personally I think he said this because it pretty much killed him trying to find my ball.  He could barely walk the rest of the 18 and one of the other caddies told me to take it easy on him:) It was fun to play again as it was my first time since I left the states in July. 

I feel very lucky to have been able to play here and have to thank my wife for taking care of Will and David Corson.  Funny thing in Europe is that most courses require a handicap.  Since I don't have one, I needed to find someone who did.  Breaking golf's law of honesty, I lied at check in and registration telling them my name was David Corson and showing an old handicap card he had loaned me last July just for situations like this.  This worked well until at the last minute they paired me with new people to play with.  Upon introduction, I told them I was Jeff Zabel.  This got funny looks from the starter, pro shop and caddie who I previously told I was David Corson.  Lying it tough!  So the first tee which is literally right next to the clubhouse, caddyshack and proshop (see picture below)

My slip had the caddymaster, my caddie, and the starter watching fairly closely.  Thank goodness I striped it down the middle.  Thanks again Dave for lending me your name and handicap even if I blew it!  At least it got me on the course.  Don't worry, I didn't post the score as the last thing we need is for you to boost your sandbagging:)

Cliffs of Moher

I don't even know how to explain the magnificence that is the Cliffs of Moher. They took our breath away and left us speechless. Jeff and I think they should be added to the list of Seven Wonders of the World. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. It was one of those few places where you feel like you could stay all day and just stare at it and still not feel like you'd taken it all in.
I'll let our pictures do the talking on this post.

Muckross House and Shannon Ferry

We stayed only one night in the town of Killarney, just outside of Killarney National Park. We drove through the park at the beginning of our Ring of Kerry drive the day before, but we returned to see Muckross House inside the park the next day.

The is the back side of Muckross House. It was built by a rich family in Ireland for a wedding gift for their daughter. It changed hands several times throughout its history, being owned by the Guinness Family at one time. (As we'd come to learn, what hasn't the Guinness Family owned or funded in Ireland??? They do so much good with their money.) The grounds are amazing and the house tour a fun glimpse into the early 1900s.

Me in front of Muckross Lake - also a view from every room on one side of the house. Not too shabby!

We left Killarney and drove north on our way to the Cliffs of Moher. We took a ferry across the Shannon River to shorten our driving time. Here are my boys celebrating Will's first time on a boat!

On a side note, two other notable firsts for William on this trip:
- Hamming it up for the camera -- the minute his hears the first shutter, he's all smiles! (As you could see in some earlier pics)
- Removing his hat all by himself and throwing it out of the stroller. It was unfortunate we discovered this trick on the busiest pedestrian mall in Dublin, but fortunate that my husband's awesome eagle eyes spotted it after retracing our steps three blocks back! (Remi Coleman, we credit you with teaching our son this fun new trick!)

Had to stop and take this picture on our scenic drive toward the Cliffs of Moher. Do these cows know how lucky they have it? Ocean front property! Lucky cows.

Gap of Dunloe

After a long day of driving the Ring of Kerry, we arrived at our B&B in time to get a recommendation for dinner at Kate Kearney's Cottage. Seeing that the recommended restaurant was at the entrance gates to a nature area, we decided to explore a bit. This nature area was the Gap of Dunloe and what a gem it was! The travel sites didn't do this place justice. It was dusk and there was hardly a sole there. This allowed us to drive in a little further than would normally be allowed during the day. The Gap of Dunloe was just excitingly beautiful, totally Ireland, and gave us the most wonderful memory of the day. Add it to the list of Do Not Miss This in Ireland.

Will and me at the bridge and river

Sheep along the roadside (Ireland, living up to dreams!)

Hello, beautiful!

Old stone homes

Family pic!

After further reading we learned Deros Tours does a tour of the MacGillycuddy Reeks (where we were in the Gap of Dunloe and further) that returns you to Killarney via boat on the lakes of Killarney. SOOOOOOO on our list of things to do on our return trip.

Ireland . . . Behind the Scenes

Our blog (or lack of updates) is evidence that we are having an absolute blast taking advantage of our European adventure. And while our son is a shoe-in for the Super Trooper Award for all the places we've dragged him so far in his life, we thought we'd give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse into our smoke and mirrors vacation posts.

While every trip is a life-long experience, it's the incidental parental moments that make us smile along the way as well. Will has had more than one bottle in various castles throughout this continent, has napped in his stroller in front of landmarks millions of people travel to see every year, and has had his diaper changed in places I'd never imagined myself changing diapers -- windowsills, marble steps, train platforms, world-renown parks, just to name a few. It's amazing to realize how much time it all takes during traveling, yet funny how our experience is just as, if not more enriching, having him with us through it all.

A wind-swept diaper change on our drive to the Cliffs of Mooher. The door kept blowing closed! (For our experienced parental blog readers, can you find Sophie in this photo?)

Will snoozing in the car while Jeff and I take shifts taking in scenery and acting as baby monitor.

When traveling, our emergency change outfit is always a set of his pajamas. It's just easy. This picture was taken Tarbert where we stopped for snacks and an ATM before boarding the ferry that would take our car and ourselves across the Shannon River. A diaper blowout sidelined us longer than anticipated and we were afraid we might "miss the boat". Luckily, we didn't!

Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is a picturesque 179 km loop drive in The West of Ireland. Some tourism websites recommend spending two days driving it, but we Zabels heed no warnings. We were going to do it in a day! YES, we did! We left our B&B in Blarney at 8 a.m., reached the ring by 9:30, and arrived at our B&B outside of Killarney around 5:30. Take that, Rick Steves!



A lake on our drive through Killarney National Park

The Atlantic Ocean along the ring

Staigue Fort

We made a quick off-road exploration to visit Staigue Fort. It's an amazing stone fort that is thought to have been built during the late Iron Age, probably somewhere between 300 and 400 AD, as a defensive stronghold for a local lord or king. Even more amazingly it's the world's coolest jigsaw puzzle since it was built with no mortar, just loose stones stacked with sheer precision. Being it was still before tourist season, we had the whole place (inside and out) to ourselves which made it that much more impressive.

Another Ring of Kerry viewing spot.
This photo is brought to you by a sleeping Will in the car and a Canon camera timer on the roof.

Our little man was awake for this stopping point.

This is what I pictured Ireland to be like and it lived up to my dreams! While we really did love the Ring of Kerry, it wasn't as breath-takingly spectacular as people made it out to be. Ireland tourism blogs advise avoiding the Ring of Kerry altogether (during peak tourist season it's overrun with coach bus tours) and driving the Ring of Beara or the ring on the Dingle Peninsula (both still on the western coast) for they're less traveled and just as picturesque. We'll have to do this on our next trip . . . .

We were about 20 miles away from our B&B for the night and nearing the end of our Ring of Kerry adventure, but both of my boys were thirsty, so we stopped in at a pub for a well-deserved refreshment. The Guinness was refreshing, the coasters absolutely enthralling, and the Cockney being spoken at the bar 100% indecipherable. Loved it!

By now I'm sure you've surmised we were driving around Ireland and not in one of those large tour buses that traverse the country on those tiny little roads. My husband has always been my hero, but now even more so. Not only did he successfully chauffeur his wife and son around a foreign country, he did it while . . .
driving on the left side of the road,
sitting in the driver's seat on the right side of the car,
shifting the manual transmission with his left hand,
listening to the British lady on our iPhone navigation app with his left ear,
listening to his wife talking over the British lady for she was holding a real map and had her own opinions with his right ear,
whipping around a zillion roundabouts (a fabulous invention that America has far too few of, might we add),
squeezing past oncoming cars on narrow, narrow Irish backroads,
and all without rental insurance!

Which brings me to . . . .

Zabel Travel Tip #4:
Always be present at the rental car counter when your husband picks up your rental car so that you can thank him for upgrading to a larger car (I've GOT to remember 'economy' translates to 'still way too small for any human being to rightfully fit inside'.), and remind him that our expat insurance only covers OUR car. Boy, were we lucky!