Ashley's Visit

  

 

This summer, we've again been blessed with many visitors. June brought our good friend, Ashley. She's an avid fly fisherwoman and spent a couple of days fishing in the South of Ireland. Unfortunately for her, we've been blessed with a rather dry Irish summer. And without the rain, the lakes were a little low for good fishing. But we used the sunshine for a tour of the Southwest coast. We took in Kinsale and Kerry for some great seafood. We even got to stay in another castle, Ballyseede Castle. And the castle had the best host ever, Arthur, the Irish Wolfhound.

This was our first time through the Ring of Kerry. And with the exception of my ridiculous pregnancy-related car sickness, it was a great trip. We had sunshine for most the trip, but got some moody mist as we cut through the mountain pass. Ashley and I continued on to Connemara for a day with more rubbish weather. And next it was on to London!

Even with the great sunny weather we've been having in Dublin, it really hasn't been what you can call warm. London was sunny, 80 degrees and actually HOT!!!! It was great. Ashley's sister met us in London and we spent the week being tourists and doing plenty of shopping. Harrod's was a hit, of course.

Okay, let's talk about my favorite place in London, Borough Market. It's my favorite market in Europe/UK, held Thursday - Sunday with dozens of booths full of fresh food, sweets, drinks and just about every culinary treat you can imagine. We've been before, but every time we went the famous "grilled cheese" guy wasn't there. Finally, this time he was there. And it was worth the wait. The grilled cheese filled with two different cheeses, green and red onion is beyond divine. There are a lot of diversions in London, but this will always be a "must do."

  

We headed home from London, wishing we could take the warm sun home with us. But next up was very hot and sunny Portugal!