Europe 2026

 Another travel day as we say goodbye to Dublin. Out to the airport to pick up a rental car from Sixt Rental. All goes well. But really won’t know till it is turned in.  We are off to Kinsale Ireland, not because I had heard it was famous, but because it was 3 hours South of Dublin and a jumping off spot to see the Wild Atlantic Scenery. A one night stopover.  We take a slight diversion along the way and go to Waterford, famous for it’s crystal. Here are some photos.  And alas no crystal to be found aside from the ones brought in from China.  That said, we did not stop in Cork to see if they had any of that stuff there.  So we arrive in Kinsale, find our place, but ate early so off to a Pub. And we fond a nice one. I have Guinness and Mary Ann fish chowder. And what nice bartender. I ofer a half pint instead of the usual pint. He tries to say I need a pint, but I defer. When the half pint is done, I ask him jokingly why he talked me out of ordering a pint. ...

 Our last full day in Dublin. What to do when it is raining?  Well one is for me to walk the dirty clothes over to the laundromat and have them wash, dry and fold them. Pick them back up after 2:00 pm. The rain stopped enough that it was a nice walk even though it was hot and humid outside.   Mary Ann has some tea and me a shower after I get back and we have to decide what to do on an off and on rainy day. Really the first one of the trip. So it seems like a museum day. And I know just the one.  The Whiskey Museum of Dublin. Turned out to be a great choice. It was a guided tour with a great guide telling everything about the history of whiskey and its background in Ireland . A building on the way to the Whiskey Museum   Opening of the interactive program. Irish for “Water of Life” English could not pronounce Irish words and came up with whiskey for the first word. Close but no cigar.  After going over the different ways to distill things we moved to this Vi...

 Well how can you top a night like last night?  You don’t try. Have the Hotel breakfast, find the Hop On Hop Off bus stop, sit back and enjoy seeing Dublin. Today was cold and windy but it was still nice. Some photos. One of the streets going through the Guinness complex  many many acres in Dublin   One of the gates to Guinness.  Wellington monument. He was Irish, but wouldn’t admit it.  Close up of a street lamp.  These are not grain silos. They hold Guinness beer to be bottled.  One of the oldest pubs in Dublin.  Seagulls swimming in the river.  Road to City Hall The Post Office where the 1916 armed Easter rebellion for Independence took place with the reading of a declaration of independence. All of the people involved were executed by England.  The river running through Dublin.   Better photo Rowing on the river.  Trinity College Campus The Quad at Trinity  We had lunch at a nice place. Just sandwiches but it...