A Visit in Ireland from Mum

My mom came to visit Karen and me in Ireland for a week. We did a lot of driving and saw so much of the countryside.
.
We dropped Karen off at work one day and drive down to Glendalough. It's the most popular outdoor destination in Ireland.
.
There is a monastic village built in the 11th century and a large very old cemetery too. The weather was just perfect today!
.
We saw these guys building a bridge over a stream after we'd seen the whole village. The tray with the delicate silver tea pot was really what made the picture hilarious.
.
It was a really beautiful day for us to go for a walk. Glendalough is such a beautiful place!
.
Karen took Friday off and we drove down to Kilkenny and stayed in this beautiful B&B.
.
We went for dinner a little SE of Kilkenny in Inistioge. The town is only a few hundred people but really quaint.

.

My mum said this one little river running through Inistioge looked like something she and George had seen in the UK.

.

We took a little drive out of Inistioge and took a few random turns. We found a great restaurant up on a hill overlooking the Nore Valley.
.
Here we are in front of a beautiful old bridge on the River Nore. It was so picturesque.
.
This is in front of the Kilkenny Castle. We're in the rose garden here. This was initially built as a defensive castle, but was donated to the people of Kilkenny.
.
This was a picture behind the Kilkenny Design Center. It was another beautiful day and the grounds were gorgeous!

.
We were on a road back towards the Cliffs of Moher and came upon a nice little town with a bunch of really quaint pubs.

.

Finally we made it to the Cliffs! (I'm writing this a couple weeks later, and another tourist was just blown off last weekend). People are really not suppose to climb over the wall.

.
They just finished re-vamping the observation center here. It's completely different then when Ethan & friends visited in college. It had even changed a ton since Phil and I visited in January.

.

Purdy cows!

.

We stopped at a real nice cliff on our way up to Galway. There were a lot of people stopping to snap a few pictures and check out the view here. That's the Burren in the backgound.

.

I found a good spot to set the camera down and get a picture of the 3 of us.

.

We stopped at a nice castle restaurant on the drive back from Galway to Dublin.

.

I had to take mum down to Temple Bar. We didn't go inside for a pint, but walked around and got a good feel for the place. It's real touristy but can't be missed!

.
Here we are at one of the pubs I stop at for lunch once in a while. Mum didn't develop the taste for Guinness, but at least she gave it a try.

It was a really great trip. I'm so glad mum came. I only wish George could have come too.

We miss you both.