On two occasions, our guide hired local players to entertain us and that they did! These guys have been playing together for over 25 years. Check out the two holes in the guitar. Crank up and enjoy!

Mary and I had never traveled to Ireland before, but it had always been on our list.

After numerous Viking River and Ocean cruises, we decide to look at a land tour back in the fall of 2021. Tours by Rick Steves seemed like an obvious choice as we were already on a waitlist for an Italy Tour, so we signed up for Best of Ireland 14 day.

We arrived in Dublin and were treated to Irish culture, politics and history from our friendly taxi driver on the 45 minute ride to the hotel.  The following day we visited Trinity College and did a Whiskey Tasting and met our group for dinner. Our fellow travelers were a hearty and friendly group and we all looked out for each other.

We basically did a tour around the island with numerous and informative local tour guides. The weather was typical October- mostly overcast, somewhat chilly with a few days of blue skies and one day of rain. We had such good food on our last trip to Italy that our expectations were not that high for Ireland.

Ireland had some of the best meals we’ve had abroad. Fresh fish, excellent meats, chips and potatoes made in many different ways. Our idea of Irish food did a 180 turn around. Not to mention the beers and whiskies!

It is difficult to condense almost three weeks and 1500 images into a five minute video, but these glimpses and snapshots each take me back to a time and a place and people I will not  easily forget.

(Click on the four arrows for full screen and then the triangle button to start the video.)