At the beginning of the trip, Pippa got really mad when she realized that I had only brought her winter rain jacket. Now that's we're at the end of the trip, I ask if she's still mad at me. Sheepishly, she shakes her head no, since she has needed that jacket almost every day at some point.
Between the rain and the cold (it is November, to be fair), we opted out of the boat ride to the Aran Islands. Add in the car sickness, and opted out of a few remote hikes in curvy-road territory, too. But as my Irish friend Brendan tells us, "In Ireland, there's no such thing as bad weather -- just bad clothing." So between the rain coats and dumb luck, we seemed to have enough sun when we needed it to enjoy every day and get photos of the gorgeous scenery. In fact, what we don't have are pictures of the rain, because we either covered the camera or ourselves, or both.
And the rain certainly does make it all so green. There's a reason it's called the Emerald Isle.
All the rain has pumped up the Torc Waterfall near Killarney, where we go for a wonderfully green and fragrant hike (my nose knows we're not in Paris anymore). The falls are just outside the Muckross House, which is a name that just sounds green and wet.
But it's not all green. We experience the "fall back" time change while we're here, which is appropriate, because we're back in fall weather. We don't get a lot of fall color in the heart of Paris (some, not lots) or San Francisco (virtually none). So this is a real treat for us.
The colors at Blarney Castle:
Road stop at Adare, County Limerick*
*Originally I wrote County Clare, to which sharp-eyed reader Thomas commented: Adare is in county Limerick, not Clare, btw. But who cares (apart from the people of Clare and/or Limerick, that is).
County Galway:
Bunratty and Dublin:
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