When I retired, a friend said, “You’ll have your go-go years, your slow-go years, and then your no-go years.” That was nine years ago and we have to admit that, as we each passed the 3/4 century mark, we both noticed that we were definitely moving slower. Normally we try to avoid tour packages when we travel (except that lovely Viking cruise in 2017) because it’s cheaper to travel on our own, and we like to be independent and flexible on our journeys. But because we are now slow goers, we booked a Trafalgar bus tour for our visit to Ireland.

We’ve never been to Ireland other than a few hours of layover time in the Dublin Airport, but we’ve always wanted to see the land of the leprechauns. Joining a tour means we will see a lot of the countryside, without having to rent a car and drive on the wrong side of the road. We also won’t have to schlepp luggage or try to figure out public transportation in various cities, something that was much easier when we could still run to catch buses and trains.

Our tour is called “The Best of Ireland” (Who can resist that?) and takes ten days. We’ve booked two days in Dublin before the tour starts so we have time to explore the city a bit and recover from jet lag. Our tour starts in Dublin and will take us to Kilkenny, Killarney, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Swords, and back to Dublin.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve contributed to this blog because this is our first international trip since Berlin. I hope to post daily and share our adventures, but that depends on internet access and my energy level at the end of the day.

So we’re off to Boston today to catch an overnight flight to Dublin. I hope my friends and family will enjoy following along as we cross one more place off our bucket list. See you on the interwebs!