Danube River cruise with a pre-trip to Ireland

[calypso726]

We are excited to be embarking on the river cruise next week! I will be attempting a day by day play by play trip report. Our adventure will be starting today though, since we are going to visit Ireland on the way to Budapest. We really wanted to do an Ireland ABD as a pre trip but the dates didn't work out for us. Therefore, much of our itinerary is based on ABD's itinerary with the knowledge it won't be quite the same. Other aspects of our itinerary may be be helpful to those who are looking for on your own activities, dining and pre and post stay ideas for their Ireland ABD.

Gearing up and loaded with excitement for the DVC exclusive ABD river cruise I finally completed an ABD Pandora bracelet reflecting the adventures we've been on and I am hoping to find some charms to commemorate the river cruise. I also had my nail tech theme my nails for the adventure!

 

[tgeorge]

I'm so excited you're leaving on your adventure! I love reading your reports (even though it usually means I add more locations to my wish list) Love the Pandora bracelet and the nails! Have a fantastic trip and I'll be following along on your adventure. I've thought if a river cruise before, so I'm eager to hear what your thoughts are.

 

[acndis]

Calypso,

I always love your trip reports. I am looking forward to this one, too! We cancelled our River Cruise in favor of Peru for this Christmas but still have it on our radar for the future!

Safe travels and if you have Hanni, tell her that Cindy, Adam, & Nick say hi!

 

[Calfan]

Have an amazing time! I'm excited to hear about Ireland because DH and I are hiking there in Sept. Also excited to hear about the river cruise. We are planning a river cruise to the European Holiday Markets in Dec. 2018. We'll probably do the Rhine, but since ABD has expanded there, I'm thinking your review of the Danube and how ABD does river cruising will still be very informative. I also love the Pandora bracelet. How did you collect most of the charms, in a store or on-line?

 

[Woodview]

We are excited to be embarking on the river cruise next week! I will be attempting a day by day play by play trip report. Our adventure will be starting today though, since we are going to visit Ireland on the way to Budapest. We really wanted to do an Ireland ABD as a pre trip but the dates didn't work out for us. Therefore, much of our itinerary is based on ABD's itinerary with the knowledge it won't be quite the same. Other aspects of our itinerary may be be helpful to those who are looking for on your own activities, dining and pre and post stay ideas for their Ireland ABD.

Gearing up and loaded with excitement for the DVC exclusive ABD river cruise I finally completed an ABD Pandora bracelet reflecting the adventures we've been on and I am hoping to find some charms to commemorate the river cruise. I also had my nail tech theme my nails for the adventure!

View attachment 178002 View attachment 178003

Have a good trip.

Enjoy " Hayfield Manor Hotel "

Do not forget the " Relaxing Walk " around UCC .

As you go out the gate Turn Left & cross over the road.

 

[tink1970]

Can't wait to read all about it...or as much as possible before Thursday when I leave for 4 days in Scotland and 8 in Ireland

Excited to read about the cruise since (fingers crossed and in laws stay well) we'll be on the same one in December.

 

[Woodview]

To Calfan

When are you in Ireland & Where ?

We will be in Canada ( Vancouver ) till the middle of September & I hope to be in Berlin at the end of September.

...............

We are in Edinburgh now & then doing our own touring of Scotland till the 121th July

 

[Calfan]

To Calfan

When are you in Ireland & Where ?

We will be in Canada ( Vancouver ) till the middle of September & I hope to be in Berlin at the end of September.

...............

We are in Edinburgh now & then doing our own touring of Scotland till the 121th July

We are doing a hiking trip with National Geographic Adventures. Here is a map that shows where the trip goes:

And here is a link to the trip itinerary:

http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/expeditions/hiking-ireland/detail

I'm not expecting to have too much "on our own" time, but if you have any suggestions for the places we will be, please share.

 

[Woodview]

Hello Calfan,

Do NOT MIISS day 9 Arran Islands ( If you do you will be sorry )
..........................

I would advise NOT to climb Carrauntoohil ...... You can do it BUT the weather might go against you

.............

I would do The Hike in The Gap of Dunloe or even part of it for sheer beauty.

We Drive through it & onto Sneem but that's My style of tourist travel

 

[calypso726]

We arrived in Dubln today. Our connection was through Heathrow so we spent two hours getting through border security. Fortunately we made it in time to take advantage of the complimentary spa treatments at the Concorde Lounge. DH had a massage and I had a facial while sitting in the best massage chair ever!

Our driver picked us up in and we headed to the Guinness Store House. We did a self guided tour and learned how to taste and pour Guinness properly.



Will add more photos and update a little later.

 

[sayhello]

Yay! Looks like you hit the ground running!

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

Pouring the perfect Guinness!



Afterwards we headed to Trinity College to go see The Book of Kells. It was amazing to see the pages of a book that is over 1200 years old!

 

[calypso726]

We are staying on points at he Radisson Blu. we checked in and received a complimentary upgrade to a business room, plus free wifi and complimentary breakfast! This is thanks to the Club Carlson card which gives us gold status and 40K points every year you keep the card. After checking in, we walked over to the Temple Bar district which was about an 8 minute walk away. Unfortunately, we could not stay at Temple Bar, the cigarette smoke was a bit much for my asthma. we headed to the Old Storehouse a couple of blocks away and enjoyed great pub food and live music.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Brings back good memories. It looks like you've aced the perfect pint! And the Book of Kells was so beautiful. I wish I could see a few more pages in person.

 

[tink1970]

Just finished packing for our Scotland/Ireland trip...y'all look cold (fellow Floridian here so figure what you wear I'd find warm enough). Going to add a scarf I think

Thanks for the updates-your photos, as always, are lovely!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

So excited to read about your travels, Calypso! Hope you guys are having a blast--it looks like it.

 

[calypso726]

I'm so excited you're leaving on your adventure! I love reading your reports (even though it usually means I add more locations to my wish list) Love the Pandora bracelet and the nails! Have a fantastic trip and I'll be following along on your adventure. I've thought if a river cruise before, so I'm eager to hear what your thoughts are.

Thank you!

Calypso,

I always love your trip reports. I am looking forward to this one, too! We cancelled our River Cruise in favor of Peru for this Christmas but still have it on our radar for the future!

Safe travels and if you have Hanni, tell her that Cindy, Adam, & Nick say hi!

Thank you will do! Hanni is one of the guides. I am looking forward to seeing her and Zoe again.

Have an amazing time! I'm excited to hear about Ireland because DH and I are hiking there in Sept. Also excited to hear about the river cruise. We are planning a river cruise to the European Holiday Markets in Dec. 2018. We'll probably do the Rhine, but since ABD has expanded there, I'm thinking your review of the Danube and how ABD does river cruising will still be very informative. I also love the Pandora bracelet. How did you collect most of the charms, in a store or on-line?

Beautiful country! Thanks! SOme were in store and some on location and some online. The Viking for Copenhagen and the Scotland flag were purchased online. The Stonehenge one was purchased while we are at Stonehenge on the London/Paris ABD in 2014. The rest were in store. I am really hoping to find the next few at the locations we visit. I did find a really neat one in Ireland charm here but it will go on a different bracelet since this part of my trip isn't ABD.

Have a good trip.

Enjoy " Hayfield Manor Hotel "

Do not forget the " Relaxing Walk " around UCC .

As you go out the gate Turn Left & cross over the road.

We are here now and it is a beautiful manor house! We also went to the chocolate factory and had some gelato!

Can't wait to read all about it...or as much as possible before Thursday when I leave for 4 days in Scotland and 8 in Ireland

Excited to read about the cruise since (fingers crossed and in laws stay well) we'll be on the same one in December.

Have fun and safe travels!!!

Yay! Looks like you hit the ground running!

Sayhello

We sure did! Poor W@LL-E is already exhausted. I think he is still really jet lagged.

Brings back good memories. It looks like you've aced the perfect pint! And the Book of Kells was so beautiful. I wish I could see a few more pages in person.

I can't believe and drank some and actually like it! It truly was and such a shame we weren't allowed to take photos. I did see some folks sneak in a shot before getting caught. I couldn't bring myself to do it though.

Just finished packing for our Scotland/Ireland trip...y'all look cold (fellow Floridian here so figure what you wear I'd find warm enough). Going to add a scarf I think

Thanks for the updates-your photos, as always, are lovely!

Thank you. It's 55 degrees! We're freezing! I'm doing ok with a long sleeve tee, topped with a sweatshirt or fleece and a rain jacket/windbreaker over that. So far no need for mittens or gloves.

So excited to read about your travels, Calypso! Hope you guys are having a blast--it looks like it.

Thanks! Californiagirl! Cant wait to read about your trip to Greece! Have fun!!!

 

[calypso726]

Today we checked out of the Radisson Blu and headed towards the Rock of Cashel. On the way we made an unexpected pit stop in Kildare and were able to see the St. Brigid Cathedral as well as her well.









The Rock of Cashel

 

[calypso726]

From The Rock of Cashel, we made our way towards Blarney Castle.







We kissed the Blarney Stone. quick! Someone notify the CDC, I'm sure we're contaminated with something!






We visited the Poison Garden which was really neat. Some of the plants are covered by a cage so no one takes any of the plants as a memento.









Off in the distance



Tasty gelato! Thanks to Woodview's recommendation!



We visited the Woolen Mills store and I added a few Irish Aran sweaters to my wardrobe which were my bucket list purchase item for this trip. Next, we checked into the Hayfield Manor which is a lovely place to stay. It looks like there is a Tauck group staying here. I saw their bus at the Woolen Mills place and then parked in front of the Hayfield Manor.

We initially had reservations for dinner at Orchids here at the manor. Somehow though, there was mistake and there was a private function going on at the restaurant. I was very disappointed about the mix up whereby I was not only told I had a reservation and received an email confirmation, I was then never told about the mix up until I checked in today. This was supposed to be a really nice fine dining experience for us since we are celebrating 20 years of marriage on this trip. The manager offered to take us to their competition for fine dining but we really didn't want to leave the hotel. He offered us reservations at their other restaurant on the property, Perrott's and offered to buy us a bottle of wine. I appreciated the gesture, but explained that DH doesn't drink and I am good for a glass or two at most so it would be wasted on us. He said he would speak to the head chef and oversee our dining experience and make sure it was a good one. I must admit he really did come through on that promise. Our service was outstanding and the chef included some extra touches for us that are not done at the restaurant like an amuse bouche and later a lemon sorbet with peach schnapps to cleanse the palate. At the end we also received a serving of petit fours which were quite tasty, plus my glass of Riesling was comped. In addition, we received a gift bag of full sized goodies from Elemis Spa which is on the property and a handwritten card wishing us a Happy 20th anniversary celebration. As tempted as I was to write something on TripAdvisor over the dinner reservation disappointment, I won't be doing it, having since been mollified. While it should have never happened in the first place, it did and the manager handled it very well.

 

[calypso726]

This morning we checked out of the beautiful Hayford Manor and made our way to The Ring of Kerry. Hayford Manor pictured below.



We had enough moments of sunshine in between the rain to really enjoy the views. The area is just lovely and all of the vibrant shades of green everywhere are simply breath taking.















We saw some interesting abandoned buildings along the way and went exploring.