How to take a vacation

I still owe you some stories and pictures from Ireland, and now I finally have the time to write about it. Being on vacation was kind of a 'new' experience for Felix and me - we never had been away together, not for more than a long weekend and without work (in fact, it was about ten years since anyone of us had done that without the other as well), and when we have time off to stay at home, there's usually so much to do we hardly ever get into that really nice, relaxed state of mind - so we were really due that vacation!

We flew to Dublin on Monday morning, got our rental car and on the road we were (after some initial confusion about driving on the right (the left) side of the road) we were off to our first B&B in Kilkenny. On the route we made a stop at Glendalough National Park and took a walk in the beautiful landscape. The next day, we explored the town a little, then went to the Dunmore Cave and then on to Killarney via the Rock of Cashel. On our first day there, we drove down to Kinmare and took the beautiful coast road of the Ring of Beara. Next day, we went to Kinmare again, this time to take the boat - the offer a beautiful cruise around the bay to watch the eagels and seals, which was really awesome. On the last day before moving on, we went to see Mukross house - only the outside, which is a beautiful park full of really big trees and plants. Our next stop was in the Galway region, but a little farther out. Our fist big trip there, we went up to Galway (were I visited a lovely little craft shop - can't have a vacation without a few souvenirs!) and then on to Kylemore Abbey with its beautiful Victorian walled gardens, from where we drove home via the stunning Sky Road. The next day, we had planned to take a boat out to the Aran Isles and to see the Cliffs of Moher from the sea side, but thanks to a storm warning, that wasn't happening. Instead, we visited the cliffs from the land, and then drove around a little, until I saw a sign 'Craft Fair today'. Of course we had to stop for a bit - it was a tiny fair, less then ten stalls, but on one a lady sat hand spinning, and I bought some beautiful onion dyed yarn from her. Turns out she comes from the same corner of Germany that I come from and lives in Ireland now! The next day, we went back to Dublin (via Trim castle) and did a little sightseeing there. Sadly, the exhibition with the Book of Kells had already closed for the day when we got there, so we couldn't see that, but we did see a few other things.

So much for the short version of what we did, now let me just do a big picture dump (in roughly chronological order) to share the gorgeous ;)