Saturday July 2 - Hollywood, Wicklow, Republic of Ireland to Toome, Antrim, Northern Ireland

The morning started with Dave saying we were locked in our room and he couldn't find the key. He'd searched everything/everywhere twice with no luck. So I went over to the door, opened it and found the key in the lock on the other side. He must have been especially weak to not be able to open the door. Our day began with a smile.  :)

Roseanne (the owner of the B&B) made us an Irish breakfast, which it turns out, is exactly the same as an English breakfast except that you start with a bowl of cornflakes. The amount of food served In Ireland is far more than one person needs. We're actually starting to order one meal and split it - and it's plenty!

The B&B didn't have wifi so we once again began the search. Just down the road was Blessington with a coffee shop and that's where we landed. While there, we learned that there was a farmer's market in Naas. I really wanted to get to a market while we're here. This one, however, was not what I had in mind. It was nice and all but only had about 10 stalls. Hopefully we can find a "real" market at some point. Interesting note - bananas were 3.90 euro per pound. That's about $4.40!

Dave has been doing really well with the driving. A couple of days he's had someone honk their horn at him because he was doing something wrong - nothing serious. Today we came far too close to hitting someone. We wanted to turn left. The cars in the lane we wanted to be in were coming at us from the right. Even after driving here for a week, your brain still has to work hard to remember that. Dave pulled out in front on a car and we both hit the brakes.  A bit of heart thumping and all was fine again.

We did a lot of driving today - 170 miles. That doesn't sound like much but unless you're on the big highways, it's slow going. Ireland isn't as great as we thought it would be. Much of the time it's like we're driving at home. Almost every old building has been covered with stucco and almost every building/house is some shade of soft yellow/beige. They all pretty much look the same.  We tried to take some back roads, which is typically where you "really see things". Once we tried to find a castle but after taking every exit on the roundabout we finally gave up. Sigh......

We stopped in the small town of Blackrock which is on the Irish Sea. That was a cute place! We had lunch at Belles Tea Rooms and Patisserie. Emma and Ana would have loved it. It was a tiny two story old building with lovely tables and fancy chairs. They were so close together that there was hardly any room to walk.  Lots of fancy tea cups and tea pots. The food was very attractive. (Yes, I took a picture of it). We started by sitting outside the shop in the sun but that lasted about 10 minutes. The entire day it was either sunny, raining, cloudy, and/or windy. It literally changed about every 10 minutes.

The tide was out. Dave estimated that it was about a mile to the water. We walked a bit on the beach covered in rocks and huge piles of stinky seaweed. It was really nice. Being there - not the stinky seaweed.

We crossed over into Northen Ireland about 4 pm  - which is more scenic than Ireland. They're two different countries. Our hotel is at the top of a fairly large lake - which there are very few of here. Sitting in the lobby, we did some research as to what we'll do when we arrive in Scotland tomorrow. The distances are much greater than we first thought and so plans to go to Endiburough are off. The ferry will land in Scotland. We'll drive in it for about an hour and then get into England again. We want to find a spot to stay and make day trips from there. Enough of all the driving!

About 8 pm we headed out for a walk. Bought a few things at a grocery store and headed back to the room for scones and sandwiches for supper.

A few interesting tidbits.
Flo, our GPS, for some reason has lost the ability to say "road" ever since we got to Ireland. She now says "rahood".
There are times we're asked for a contact phone number. Since we don't have a phone, we give them Bobby's number. (It's the only one we can remember.) So Bobby, if you get a phone call from "across the pond", that's why. :)
I think people can tell I'm a tourist. I'm the only one with an umbrella. Everyone else just puts up with the on and off rain showers. (We've had a fair bit of rain but it hasn't stopped us from doing anything. We hear that the weather in Enland is "grand". Warm and sunny. Let's hope it stays that way as we head back there tomorrow.)
Today we saw how the "hedges/grass walls" along the sides of the road are trimmed. They use what looks like a lawnmower deck on an arm.

One thing I learned today: Ireland uses Euros and the metric system, while England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland all use pounds and the imperial system. And, I figured out how to change the car so we can see either miles or kms/12 hour or 24 clock/temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius. That was exciting!

One thing I experienced today: In both the market and the grocery store, all of the fruit and vegys are tagged as to which country they come from. Sweet potatoes from the US, several things from Holland and other from South Africa to the Dominican.

Most powerful moment of the day: Being very close to Belfast. (We go there tomorrow.) When I was a teen, I remember hearing about Belfast in the news a lot. I'm eager to see it.

One pleasurable experience: As we read the menu at the Tea Room, I saw the word "peckish". This is a word Amanda uses when she's a bit hungry. I thought she made it up. Even if she did, it's a real word here - and it means the same thing.  :)