Upon arriving in Ireland, Olivia and Luisa reached their 40th country!

We arrived in Dublin late on Wednesday, May 20th and picked up our two rental cars, with just a little bit of trouble. We then drove straight to Killarney where my aunt has been living for almost 20 years. Steffen, Hannah, Charlotte and I had visited her in July 2011 but only Hannah had been back since then. (My aunt had been to see us in Germany a few times, and we met up with her throughout the world over the years, including Amsterdam, Vienna and LA, so you can see that the traveling gene runs deep in our family.) We were eager to get the whole family there and my sisters hadn’t visited Killarney yet, so we decided to spend a few days there together, and it was wonderful!

The first day we met up with Claudia, walked around town and enjoyed some lunch. We then walked to Killarney House & Gardens in the Killarney National Park. It was so beautiful! The house has a museum and then we walked through the park to a cafe where we enjoyed a dessert break. We then ended the day with pizza and games at Claudia’s which was very fun. What a great first day!

The next day was Friday, May 22, and we all drove to Dingle for the day. We didn’t really have a firm plan, but decided to stop by the Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium and were so glad we did! It was very cool, and Luisa was especially enthralled. She spent a lot of time watching the jellyfish, the shark and the butterflies. She also asked the educator at the touch pool many, many questions. We all enjoyed the penguins; watching them dive and jump and the one male who kept bringing food to a female who was breeding. So sweet! Afterwards we walked into the shopping area and had a delicious lunch while the rain poured down. Then it was time to head home. Christie and Megan had heard about a local pool tournament that Steffen was also interested in checking out. I went with them but pretty quickly decided that wasn’t how I wanted to spend my evening, so I walked the 3km back to the house and was treated to the most amazing rainbow and sky. So beautiful! Another wonderful day.

Saturday was our last day with Megan and Christie, sadly. They didn’t leave until the late afternoon, so we had some more time to explore together. We drove to Torc Waterfall and walked past the falls a bit into the forest. The different shades of green, powerful waterfall and fabulous views were stunning.

Afterwards, some of us walked (and others drove) to Muckross House where we had some lunch and then explored the traditional farms. The traditional farms were very neat! The highlight was definitely the baby animals (chicks, ducklings, a calf and donkey) but we also liked the schoolhouse, the blacksmith and seeing the dwellings furnished in traditional style.

We had such a wonderful week with my sisters and were very sad to see them go! Luckily we will live closer to the soon. And luckily we still had a few more days with my aunt. We took things slower the last couple of days. We did a bit of shopping, saw a movie, ate a delicious pub meal, wandered around town and took a trip to Cork (where Steffen works whenever he comes to Ireland for work and where Hannah did an internship in fall 2025). There was an Irish football game one afternoon that Charlotte and Steffen went to see. We knew right away when the game finished by the floods of people in town!

Killarney

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Cork

We are so thankful that we could spend time with family as our Bigger Trip wrapped up. So wonderful to be surrounded by people who know and love us and to share these experiences. Thank you, Christie, Megan and Claudia for a lovely week!