Crazy Bill's Travel Blog: Ireland Final Wrap Up

The trip to Ireland is all over and we are back home safe and snug in our little lake house. After the long flight back which took pretty much all of 18 hours flying and waiting time plus 5 time zone changes I expect we'll be out of sync for at least a couple of days. I'll post some photos of our final morning at Ballynanich Castle after my observations. This would be the perfect time for Mary and I to express our thanks to Beth and Bruce Jacky. They did all the planning and organizing for this trip and made all the reservations. Mary and I just went along for the ride while poor Bruce was our unpaid Chauffeur on all those narrow, winding roads. In looking back on it I'm not sure we would have made the trip to Ireland on our own and even if we did we wouldn't have been able to take in as much as we did. The whole trip was like having your own private tour guide and entertainment director. Thank you Beth and Bruce. At the risk of repeating myself it is a real eye opener to visit a different culture. The list of things you DON'T see is amazing. In 12 days we saw three pickup trucks. We saw three McDonald's and all of them were in Dublin. We saw one Burger King, again in Dublin. No sandals or flip flops. Not one. No shorts, none. No obese people and these people live on bread, potatoes eggs, bacon and ham. The difference is they eat no processed or packaged foods. Their bread is made daily fresh from scratch in a thing called an oven and not bought at a store. I need to get one of those oven things. Fluoridated water is illegal in 98% of the european countries. They serve bowls of brown sugar and white sugar but no artificial sweeteners. They say it causes cancer. There are no air conditioners in Ireland. At least we never saw one. They do not use furnaces with ductwork and blown air. All their heat comes from hot water registers which are on timers. They are off all day and come on in the mornings a couple of hours before you wake up. They serve potatoes with every meal, cover their bread with lots of butter and jam and yet they are all thin. No margarine either. Never saw it anywhere. They eat a lot of sausage and bacon and mutton. In short they eat like we did back in the 30's and when we were poor and skinny as a nation. It should be noted that air travel is a modern day wonder. To travel non stop from Atlanta to Dublin, Ireland at 560 mph crossing 5 time zones in 8 hours is a real marvel. Finally I must point out that both women realized lifelong dreams on this trip. Beth got to see sheep on the road and Mary got to to stay in a real castle. How much better could it get?