The Kitchen Window

The Kitchen Window
Antique Milk Bottles with Herbs and Flowers

Welcome!

Welcome to the Frog Hollow Farm blog! I've been blogging since January 2010 and have switched from Blogger to Word Press, but I'm back to Blogger because, for me, it's easier to use. My husband and I live on a little farm in Northwest New Jersey. We have some chickens and a very large vegetable garden with asparagus and raspberries, and rows and rows of sunflowers, snapdragons and zinnias. Traveling, entertaining, gardening, spending time with family, studying Italian, blogging and reading keep us busy and happy. With all of this going on, moving towards a simpler life seems almost impossible but it's definitely a daily goal.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

'O' is for an Outstanding Start to our Ireland Trip

Our recent tour of Ireland was designed by two women very familiar with Ireland and all it has to offer, Bridget and Maggie. These women have traveled to Ireland many times with their families, so this trip was intended to include all of the beautiful, out of the way, non-touristy parts of the country. The itinerary was phenomenal, developed with help from CIE Tours International located in Morristown, NJ,and included some of the places that FHFB and I definitely wanted to visit.

 

Our first day in Ireland brought us to the village of Ballbriggan for a full Irish breakfast at an original Dublin pub called the "Man o'War Public House'. 'Ball' or 'Bally' means 'town' in Gaelic. This pub has been recorded in deeds dating back to 1595 - it was just adorable.



The fireplace right across from our breakfast table at the Man O' War Public House.

In Gaelic, Man O' War means 'In the Middle of the Road'.

This is a traditional Irish breakfast, and I ate way too many of them.  
My thighs are still complaining!  LOL - back to the gym!

Irish bacon
Sausages
Broiled Tomatoes
Cheese
Hard Boiled Egg
Cucumbers are not normally included

After having a delicious meal and getting to know some of the people in our travel group, we headed to the bus to make the drive to Ballyfarnon to the Kilronan Castle Hotel for our first night's stay.  This hotel has a wonderful spa where my cousin Sinead works as an esthetician - and she was able to get me in for a massage - it was wonderful!


On our way out we stopped at this ancient grotto at the gates to the castle's entrance. 
The Kilronan Castle Hotel is about 10 away from where my mom grew up in
Kilmactranny, County Sligo.



My next post will be about our trek up to Donegal, days 2 and 3 of the tour. 
I hope you enjoyed reading about our 'Outstanding' beginning to our trip!

Ciao, bella!
xxoo

I'm linking over to Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday!

16 comments:

  1. this is so beautiful..i would LOVE to visit here one day...

    happy to stop by today, my friend

    kary and teddy
    xx

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  2. This is absolutely fabulous! I love reading about where you are but also about your mother.
    Can't wait for the next post.
    Karen
    Ladybug Creek

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  3. So fascinating! I love reading about others' trips since I am a homebody. Glad it was outstanding!

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  4. Very pretty! Looks like you had a special vacation:@)

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  5. How wonderful that your trip started out so well. Hope the rest was outstanding too. :)

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  6. Glad you had an Outstanding start to your trip. That castle looks beautiful.

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  7. You're so fortunate to have been able to go. It sounds so interesting. Beautiful pictures too. That breakfast is a little different from what I would have expected. I don't know why I thought an Irish breakfast would have pastries. Are you from Jersey? I grew up there and lived in Parsippany for a while after my husband got out of the Navy. I saw where the travel agency was in Morristown and you had a post about Cape May.

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  8. That breakfast would have had my attention too!...but then lots of walking afterwards!

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  9. Sounds like a wonderful vacation.Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  10. Your vacation sounds fabulous. I had no idea Ireland was so pretty. What a breakfast, but they say it's the most important meal of the day, so eat up.

    The meaning of Man O'War is interesting. Where we lived in the Bahamas, there was a cay named Man O'War and I believe it was named after a fishing bird.
    Sam

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  11. What a wonderful adventure for you and yours. I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately - this has been a tough summer and I haven't been as good about visiting my blog friends as I should be.

    xo
    Claudia

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  12. What a great wonderful adventure!

    Thanks for asking us to come along...

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  13. What is the temperature there? I look forward to more posts. Sounds like a great trip.

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  14. isn't Ireland wonderful! Hope you had lots of fun! {:-D

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  15. What an outstanding trip! I love that you let us tag along. I've been to Wales but never Ireland, and I think I need to rectify that horrid oversight!

    This was lovely.

    Thank you for linking.

    A+

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