Carnet de voyage

Ireland Road Trip

C
14 étapes
C
Discover Ireland with Marie, Bob,Patrick and Alice, through Game of Thrones ,Star Wars any many other series or movies.
Du 15 au 28 juillet 2017
2 semaines
Partager ce carnet de voyage
1
1

I am so tired to explain how the flight was 😉 but ifI had to say a thing about it I would say that I am so ennoyed because Bob crushed my foot in the plane and it's still so painful ! 😦

Anyway ! Tomorrow we will visited Skellig Islands 😀 Yeah !

first day in Ireland 
2
2

After a whole day spent in the van to go to Port Magee, we finally succeeded to take the boat which was going to lead us to Skellig Islands. Hopefully, we had booked the tour before because there are many tourists who want to visit the islands. On the boat, we had the chance to see a dolphin, it was magic! On the "monasteries island", there are many stone huts, the guide told us the story of those "bories" : some monks were going to this island to indulge their religion. A perfect place to allow the Jedi, Luke Skywalker to withdraw from the rest of the world in the last chapters of Star Wars. Unfortunately, there was a lot of wind so we couldn't take the boat to see "Little skellig", Marie was very disappointed. But we stood longer in the "monasteries island" it was wonderful. We tried to take pictures like in the movie Star Wars so we had a lot of fun!


At the end of the day we were so tired! We went hinking on Skellig Michael and it was exhausting!

3
3

Today, we went to Cork, there was a market. So we decided to visit it and we discovered local products like cheese, cold cuts, sausages, bread, smoked salmon.

Market of Cork (food capital of Ireland) 

We were impressed by the quality and quantity of products. There was something for everyone. We went to see an Irish cheese producer and we asked him -just to be kidding- if his cheeses are better than French cheeses. He told us "obviously!" Bob bought some since he adooores cheese! We tasted and unfortunately, they tasted better than in France ... we had to admit!

Durrus, Irish cheese 
• • •

Patrick offered to go to an Irish restaurant where we ate Irish specialties. The four of us could eat all of that :


  • Irish stew
  • Shepherd's pie
  • Guiness Pie (I admited, this dish is my favorite pie EVER)
  • Apple crumble cake
  • Potatos farls
  • Irish coffee
• • •
4
4
Rock of Cashel


On the day, we visited the rock of Cashel, it's the shooting place of the horror movie "sanctuary". This movie won the price of the best Horror Film Award at the Empire Awards 2016.

The interior was very scary and Bob had fun scare us.

The night we went on a Irish pub and we met a lot of people it was funny!

TJ Ryan Traditional Pub
5
5

manon lou quentin emma


Today, we went to Curracloe beach for a day to rest to remember the beautiful movie, "Saving Private Ryan". So, after our breakfast, we packed our picnic in our bags, and we decided to leave....and off we went !! The beach was only 15 minutes away, so cool !! We were lucky with the weather so the beach was just as in the film during the marine assault. Bob decided to take surfing lessons.

Meanwhile, the rest of our group stayed on the beach and had lunch but suddenly the rain poured down on us. We ran and found a shelter in a café and took a hot drink to wait for Bob, who was still in the water.

When Bob came out, we left because it was still raining and quite late so we took our way back to the hotel.


Curracloe Beach 
6
6

manon lou quentin emma

We woke up at 7 a.m for our new step : Wicklow Mountains National Park.

After 5 min driving, we got a call from Marie who was really pissed. She said 'So where are you?? I'm in front of the hotel, I'm waiting for you!!'

'You're always spending time dolling yourself. Sorry, we'll be right there.' Off we went, with Marie this time.

Very special day for Alice since she loves the movie so much . We could see the landscapes when Holly comes back to her dead husband's native land and where she found love. As soon as we sat by the lake, Alice started to cry remembering this tragic story.

After such an emotional moment, Pat decided to bring us to Powerscourt estate, one of the numerous places of King Arthur's shooting! Patrick just loved that visit of the woods and the gardens of the castle.

7
7

Today, we decided to go and visit Dublin. We wandered in the streets and we went shopping until 10. We ended up sightseeing and admired the Spire which is a gorgeous monument in central Dublin.

The Spire 

Then, we went to a bar restaurant to have some Irish specialties, it was so yummy! Then we took a 'Dublin bus' and went to visit : first the Castle of Dublin and then St Patrick's Cathedral. This took us all afternoon and we enjoyed a great pub before coming back to the hotel.

on the left : St Patrick's Cathedral / on the right : the Castle of Dublin

The pub was quite famous and crowded : Temple Bar. We met a couple there with whom we talked and got along really well. We spent the evening with them and enjoyed a great evening.

8
8

First day in Northern Ireland. In the morning, we stayed at Newcastle, in an incredible hosting home. Breakfast was not quite yummy! 😀 . When i went downstairs, i met Alice who was going up,- some early bird, I thought! I remembers saying to Alice : « What's around your mouth ? »

- She said to me smiling « it's blueberry jam » with a big crumbs of bread through her teeth ...I had to admit she did NOT look glamorous with her fussy hair, she looked like a Cro-Magnon girl who put her pijama on... What a glutton i think. 'Go and brush your teeth or you will scare Tollymore bears off!'I told her kidding -even if I admit we never came across any bear in Tollymore.

'That's what I was gonna do' she replied with her crumbs of bread still there. I still don't know if that was a smile or a grin😛

Breakfast went incredibly well, except that everybody was ready to go and I had to swallow my coffee and my toasts really fast!

Marie wished to drive ......it was such a terrible idea 

We rushed to the van once we were all dressed up -we were late for the GOT visit- Marie wished to drive and asked me for the keys begging 'pleaaaaase, pleasssse'. I agree admitting to Bob that it was a terrible idea. Indeed once in the van, Marie started the car .....going backwards and bumped into the owner's dog😦.

Once we got to Tollymore, Bob and I went down stumbling, half sick. Marie and Alice came down and asked 'What's wrong?' Bob pretended to fail and said 'I need mouth-to-mouth'. Understanding his joke, I knelt and told 'OK, no problem'!

'It was a joke 😉', he rushed to his feet.

We were on the car-park and we headed to the site entrance. We are straight on time (10 a.m) for the visit of the shooting places of GOT ! As we are all fans of the big series, we were super excited and we couldn't wait for the visit to start.! We were given our tickets to enter the site and while we were coming in, we met a group of people gathered around the guide.. disguised as Stark, Lannister, Targaryen! Personally I adore the Starks, they're all extra cool! The only little thing is that they all died...But I still have some faith for Arya and Jon 😀. We got there and the guide said 'ah, here are the latecomers!' He stopped for a while and started again. 'Welcome to Westeros, dear friends, we are here in the sacred wood of Ned Stark, in the haunted forest where the white walkers appeared for the first time and where the Stark children discover their wolf cubs'. I'm so excited to follow the traces of Bran or Arya! My favorite heroes!!!!

 Bob's beautiful funy face 

The guide turned to us and asked to take the capes hung on the close hut. They were the capes from the different houses of GOT. We rushed to them and I managed to get on hand of Stark's cape 😀

'Marie, don't you think I look like Jon Snow?'

'You put it upside down', she said laughing at me. We were all wearing different capes : Bob in Lannister, Alice in Targaryen and Marie in Grejoy. I took a small stick and I turned to Bob 'En garde Lannister!'" He jumped over me and the fight began. 'Guys, be serious, I'm trying to listen to the guide!' she said even if she looked amused by our ridiculous pause. 😛 We were indeed at the right place of the haunted forest in North wall where the creatures called White walkers appeared for the first tome in the serie.

We are also gone where the Stark children discovered their wolfs cubs😀. After the visit, we layed in the grass to have our picnic and get some rest while sunbathing. What a beautiful day it was! During the visit, Marie saw a red squirel, the rarest ones in the park. She approached slowly but he got scared and ran away. Marie was sad until the end of visit of park. That's why we bought her a squirell teddy bear and her sadness back down. We got back to the van for 55 minutes but that time, I DROVE 😉 ; and nobody vomited. We came to Strangford in the evening.


 Marie saw a red squirrel
9
9

Ok, its 7:00 am we woke up and we were preparing to get ready to visit Inch abbey. An abbey in ruins. I heard by Irish people, it's an incredible, mind-boggling landscape. Inch abbey was a Games of Thrones' shooting place. Indeed, This abbey was used for the scene of Hoster Tully's funeral. Hoster Tully was Catherine Stark's father. This abbey was used for Robb Stark's announcement "King of the North" by Nordics.


Inch abbey, Stangford

Inch abbey is located 1.2km around at the north of Downpark, There is a river just close. This abbey was built in the 10th century, Gothic style.


At 8:30 we were in front of the abbey and ready to visit it. It was just ruins, but astonishing view and the flora just behind transforms totally the atmosphere. It was an extraordinary experience.

Next we discovered a walk path. This path turns around the abbey and passes by the river

The river close Inch Abbey 

Just after midday, we went to a restaurant, near Ward castle. Ward castle is the set of Winterfell in GOT.


Ward's castle

LOL, Ward castle looks very much like Winterfell, a little old 😀. Ward castle is very impressive, "is it haunted????, i'm scared !" says Bob.

Ward castle is used for Winterfell, all seasons !! its unbelievable 😀. And i'm so happy, we visited the King's tree and Walter Frey's pair houses.

And to finish, we went into a pub, to have a good beer. After some effort, comfort, as we say in French 😀.

It was an amazing day, it was fun to have a break from your usual routine. I keep all these memories in my mind and they will last forever.

Winterfell, Castle Ward
10
10

We were in the fird day in the North Ireland, wow we were in Belfast!

Yeah! we got the tickets after 1 hour of  waiting line  

So, we woke up at the 7:30am and breakfasted in the hotel. We decided to go at the titanic belfast for the morning, the titanic's museum. When we arrived in front of the monument, we just said wow and nothing more! This architecture, the structure had been amazing. When we got the titanics's tickets and entered to the museum, we were so excited. As the museum was so big , we divided us in two couples, Alice with Patrick and Bob with Marie. We had taken some fotos . We've walked on the glass that was on the Titanic's copy.

Wow ! Bob and Marie discovered the glass! 
11
11

We got to Sligo Abbey at 2 p.m. We had our picnic packed in our bags so we laid down on the lawn facing the abbey sightseeing while having lunch was cool! Bob and Patrick had fun feeding the birds with bread but the problem was that a bunch of them attacked us all of a sudden! We laughed so hard! ! 😂

we had lunch at this place 🥪

Then we got inside the abbey to visit it. We were lucky enough to see numerous manuscripts and wonderful sculptures.. It was sooo interesting and such a beautiful place!

 Some pictures of our visit to Sligo Abbey (from Expedia)

Unfortunately Marie wanted to kid around -as usual- and climbed on a rock which looked really precarious and literaly destroyed it! 😓 We got scared of being kicked out of the abbey but the security guards thought it wasn't important. So we ended it up finding this story very funny! 😂

It was a great experience, both fun and cultural. We came back to the van to our next direction...👣

12
12
Lough Gill 's pictures (from Fine Art America) 

I am a big lazybones 😀

13
13

In Westport we can do the Greenway trail So we decided to rent bicycles. The landscape was amazing we were only with the nature, cows and sheep... No cars in the surrounding area.

We took a break at a little coffee place because 45 km of bike was indeed very exhausting!

14
14
The cliffs of Moher 


Today is the last day.. We're all very sad... But we are certain to enjoy what is next ! we're going to the cliffs of Moher ! That's one of the places where a scene of Harry Potter was shot, this is super cool ! We'll be able to show off when we'll tell our friends. Anyway, when we walked along the 8 kms of the Cliffs, Patrick made a joke to Marie and pretended to push her in the vacuum, she was veeery scared that was so fun !