Heading toward the East Coast for a couple days before our visit to Ireland.We stayed at the tip of Manhattan this time, in the financial district. Where the Green dot is.
On the way to Ireland, we stayed in NYC for 2 nights to take in some of the sights. The map shows where our hotel was, at the tip of Manhattan. In the 2 days we were there, we walked around and were able to see a lot of Battery Park, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, ground zero at World Trade Center and found some fun places to stop for lunch, dinner and cool refreshments.
We stayed at The Doubletree Hilton at the Financial District on Stone Street. This is the view from our room. The room was clean, with nice linens, but SUPER small. I guess that’s how it works in NYC. We loved the location and were able to walk around easily from the room. Starbucks was half a block away, gratefully! We had a partial view of Ellis Island, on the left side of the pic, across the harbor. Battery Park is on this side of the harbor, below. NYC, Financial District. New York does a good job of creating parks in the middle of the city. The bull on Wall Street is bigger than it looks! Defiant girl, in training!We walked down the embankment to The World Trade Center grounds. This place is such an emotional space. Years later, people from all over the world are here trying to understand how something like this could happen and pray for peace in our world.I can’t explain how it feels to be in this place. Somber, heavy and reflective. The Twin Tower foot prints, now eternity pools, are so vast. This pic shows how small the people across the pool are. The survivor tree at Ground Zero was saved after severe damage and has been a beacon of hope for so many after 9/11.1 World Trade Center.American Merchant Marines Memorial on the harbor. North Cove and Manhattan Sailing School on this gorgeous day! These yachts are over 150′ long. This marina sits along the harbor and has great restaurants, shops and walking paths with people enjoying the beautiful sunny day in August.North Cove is on the Hudson, 3 blocks from The World Trade Center Museum. We discovered a great deli and enjoyed our sandwiches on a bench watching crew members work on these amazing yachts.The Staten Island Ferry is free and takes people across the harbor to New Jersey on a regular schedule. We decided to take a spin across and back toward the end of our first day.The ferry’s are actually pretty cool. It’s a main form of transportation across the Hudson. Here are local commuters on the ferry.After walking around all day, I was looking for a good place to sit and sip. “How about this place?” I’m pointing out the Dubliner to Sean, who is desperately looking for a Guiness.
This cute little alley was blocked off to traffic and set up for people to hang out in between a bunch of little neighborhood restaurants. We loved finding it only a block from our hotel.
Awww! I look happy to be off my feet and scoping the NY scene.The 2nd day, we decided to try out luck at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tours. I’m not big on huge lines of people, but I had to suck it up and stand in line with the rest of them to see the sights!Looking back at Manhattan across the harbor.The Coast Guard is always on alert. The gunner is standing on the bow, strapped into a harness with his hand on the machine gun! Adventurous job!The path walking around Lady Liberty on Liberty Island. This shot, from Liberty Island shows Manhattan and 1 World Trade Center in the background, Ellis Island on the left of the background and all the tourists walking around Liberty Island.Liberty Island is worth standing in line and navigating through hundreds of people. The statue from France represents Liberty Enlightening the World. Such a positive image from our history.1 World Trade Center with sailboats in the harbor.Ellis Island from the ferry.
Ellis Island Hall, where thousands of immigrants landed, looking for a better life.
Irish immigrant family in a pic at Ellis Island. A hard life makes it understandable to want to immigrate. “Goodbye, I’ll see you later!”The long story of Immigration can not be accurately demonstrated in these few pics. However, when visiting Ellis Island, it’s heartbreaking and inspiring to read about all the people who have found their way to the US, using whatever means they had, to try for a better life.Ellis Island. On the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. I do love to visit New York. I’ve now been a couple times and look forward to a return visit. It’s a great way to break up a trip to Europe and now, we’re off to Ireland.
Going through customs in Shannon Ireland. It’s all a bit scary, but also exciting! We left NYC at 10:30 PM and arrived in Ireland at 5:30 AM. I didn’t sleep on the flight, instead watched the flight monitor while tightly gripping my arm rest, the whole way.It’s best not to think about being over the Atlantic Ocean for 5 hours during the flight. Movies help!There’s no doubt when you finally descend close enough to see the ground that your in Ireland. Look how Green and lush it it! Beautiful!When we landed, we were greeted with a traditional Irish breakfast. Holy smokes! I had coffee instead.We rented a house on Clew Bay and watched the tides come and go for 2 weeks.This is the house we stayed in for 2 weeks.We looked across the inlet at a small farm with sheep (of course) cows and horses. And they had a friendly dog who came to say hi when we checked it.We took walks from the house when the tide went down. Exploring small farms and inlets.And picked wild Blackberries that grew everywhere.Westport House is an old English Manor on an estate which is now open to the public as a museum. I’m curious about the history of Ireland/Europe and learning more each day.While we were there, the Harvest Country Music Festival, Miranda Lambert headlining at the Westport House estate.Wealso drove to Dublin for a Gaelic Football game at Croke Park, the largest arena in Ireland. Co Mayo was competing in the finals. Unfortunately, they didn’t win.Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland.I have to be honest, the hardest part for me was adjusting to driving on the left side of the road. I didn’t drive during our visit, but had a hard time relaxing while driving for the first week. And you can see how narrow the roads are. The shoulder is at most, 10 inches wide and rock walls line most of the roads. So as a passenger, you see the grass and rock walls coming at you on the left. It takes getting used to!Besides driving on the left side of the road, the road signs are all in Gaelic and English.We took a day trip to Connamara and Killary Harbour. So Green and beautiful!Keel Beach on Achill Island.The Wild Atlantic Drive follows the coast on the West side of Ireland. Because Ireland is an island, the coast is rocky and dramatic in many places.The town of Westport is charming and historic. You see it shown in many tourism ad’s for Ireland. Irish natives like visiting Westport for “holiday” I prefer wine, but had to sip a pint at a local pub to get the full experience.Bertra Strand, with Crogh Patrick (holy mountain) in the distance.A bunch of rocks on the beach. I think it’s beautiful!We walked out on to Bertra Strand and enjoyed the grassy peninsula with rocky borders. It was windy, but comfortable enough to spend a couple hours out there.We visited several abbey’s. Stone is used abundantly, as Ireland is basically a rock island and it’s the easiest material to get. This is in the town of Cong, where The Quiet Man with John Wayne was filmed.Stone ruins are everywhere. At first, I was taking pics of all the stone buildings, but eventually realized that stone is as common as sagebrush in my hometown. However, I still think its beautiful, historic and certainly durable! These walls and buildings are over a Thousand years old!An old Abbey and graveyard. See the grave headstones flat on the ground?These buildings are so amazing and spectacular.An old Monk’s fishing house on the river near Cong.Ashford Castle is a world destination and has a long and rich history. Being American I think 200 years is old, but in Ireland, the history goes back thousands of years.A local favorite is a “99”. Ice cream cone with a flake of chocolate stuck in it! Yum!More stonework in Westport.A hike at Old Head Beach on the cliffs.Kylemore Abbey. We got there too late to go in, but will try again next time!You still see thatched roofs on some buildings. It’s an old art of tying reeds tightly together to form a roof. This one is on the Wild Atlantic Drive near Achill Island.
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