Ireland

[lutz]

If you find yourself near Tralee (north of Killarney), I would recommend a visit to Pisces restaurant. The owner/head chef, Trish Goodwin, gave me my first job when I was 15 and she cooks some of the nicest seafood you've ever tasted.

As for the mix CD... nothing but The Corrs and the Riverdance soundtrack. Well, either that or a double whammy of Westlife and Boyzone, haha.

[Ella Minnow Pea]

OK here is the itinerary:

Day 1 – we get the minivan at the airport and launch around 7:30-8 am for Waterford (south), then to Cork and Kinsale on the ocean, Blarney (if we want) and then head up to Limerick/Bunratty to the  hotel (and probably catch some pub grub in either Limerick or Bunratty).
 
Day 2 or 3 or 4 -  we get up and going early (say 7-8ish) and head to Killarney and drive the Ring of Kerry which is supposed to be probably the most scenic drive in Ireland, return to Killarney and sightsee and enjoy a pub for dinner and then back to Bunratty.
 
Day 2 or 3 or 4 -  we get going early and head north to the Cliffs of Moher, drive through The Burren, go to Galway, and return.
 
Day 2 or 3 or 4 -  we can add some other things to the going north – we could take a ferry to Aran Islands, go up to Connemara, go to a couple abbeys, see Cong (where they filmed The Silent Man) and other sights.  We could also add the drive on the Dingle Peninsula in the SW.

I did the reverse of this trip back in 1993 on a college trip. We had an awesome time. We actually stayed at a youth hostel in Cong. If you go, be sure to check out the abbey ruins and the path that runs along the river in the forest. Ashford Castle is quite amazing. While we didn't tour the castle, we did take a boat ride that departed from the Castle to Inchagoill Island and saw the ancient ruins.

We played a lot of U2 on our trip.