A Little R and R: Day-1 Ashford Castle

We took off from Atlanta airport around 6 PM for our 7 1/2 hour flight. I had major anxiety over the flight and took half a xanax for the flight. I guess my anxiety was too much for the pill because I wasn't able to sleep at all! I tried so hard to sleep and I wish I would have just watched the movies that were available because I wanted to see them. But, I tossed and turned trying to relax in order to nap. The overall flight was uneventful (thank God!) and we landed safely in Dublin.

The Dublin airport had penguin figures everywhere and of course Ryan wanted her picture taken in front of one.

Fran and Allan met us at the Dublin airport to take the majority of our bags because we rented a car to drive to Galway. We had a quick bite to eat with them and then we got our rental car and started our 3+ hour drive to Galway. David did a great job driving on the right side of the car and left side of the street. There were times that I ducked my head because we got close to the side of the roadway but he didn't hit anything! :-) Ireland was under an icestorm and extremely cold temperatures so we had to be careful driving. We tried to stop a few times to use the bathroom and was told that the pipes were frozen. So, we took our breaks behind buildings, trees, you name it!

I had an issue of People Magazine and it talked about different things to see when you travel. On the cover was Brad Pitt looking at Ashford Castle. I said to myself, I must see that! Ashford Castle is actually the former Guinness family home and is currently a hotel. Unfortunately they were having a private event so we weren't able to roam around the hotel too much but did take some time to see the grounds. The grounds were MASSIVE and we probably only saw about 1/8 of it. It was so cold outside with freezing rain and we were slipping and sliding everywhere. The grounds were so beautiful in the dead of winter so I can just imagine what they looked like in the spring/summer.

Entrance to the castle grounds

One entrance to the castle

I thought this was a cool tree in one of the gardens

Entrance to a tunnel that takes you to another garden. You can see all of the ice on the walkway.

I can just imagine this in the spring!

The bridge that had to be crossed to get to the actual castle. So I guess this was a moat!

This is the only picture I have of the Irish countryside. The walls lined both sides of the road with no shoulder.

John had his turn driving the car. Ryan couldn't handle it and had to go to the back.

We had dinner our first night on Quay Street. Most places were closed because it was St Stephens Day. We ate at an Italian/Mexican restaurant. It was yummy!

We were up about 36 hours at this point.

Ryan's first glass of wine. There were many on the trip...

We went to a local pub after dinner. I was exhausted so David took me back to the hotel and then went back out with Ryan and John. The locals made fun of Ryan's rain boots :-).