Money in Ireland

Got questions about how to handle money issues on our Irish Tour?   If so, you may find answers below.   Or else not.   Before we get to that, here's a quick quiz for you. 

1. Today how much U.S. money would you have to spend to get one Euro dollar?  
     A. 67 cents      B. $1.30      C. $245.50
 
2. While in Ireland, which of these would be the best place to exchange your U.S. money for Euros?
     A. Currency Exchange Booths    
     B. An ATM       C. A guy in a trench coat


3. The U.S. dollar symbol is $. What is the Euro symbol?
     A. 0      B. €    C. z


Answers:   B, B, and of course, B. 

By the way, the € symbol comes AFTER the number in Ireland. And instead of a decimal point they use a comma. Thus we might see a Irish price tag reading 20,50€ (which would be $26.74 U.S.)  

Euro coins come in 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 dollar and 2 dollars. Paper Euro’s come in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500.

Below you’ll find a bunch of money tips from “Rick Steve’s Ireland, 2013.”    His guides to European countries are widely acclaimed as the best.

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Bring both a debit card and a credit card. Use the debit card at ATM’s to withdraw local currency for most purchases. Use the credit card for larger purchases. For emergencies, bring several hundred dollars in hard cash in easy-to-exchange $20 bills. Avoid using currency exchange booths because of their lousy rates and outrageous fees. 
 
Cash is just as desirable in Ireland as it is at home. Small businesses (hotels, restaurants, shops, etc.) prefer you pay your bills with cash. Some vendors will charge you extra for using a credit card, and some won’t take credit cards at all. Cash is best, and sometimes the only way.
 
Throughout Europe ATM’s are the standard way for travelers to get cash. Stay away from “Independent ATM’s such as Travelex, Euronet, and Forex which have huge commissions and terrible exchange rates. 
 
To withdraw money from an ATM, you need a debit card (ideally with a VISA or Master Card logo) plus PIN code. Know your PIN code in numbers—there are no letters, only numbers on European keypads. You can use a credit card at an ATM but it’s more expensive.

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[Rick Steves recommends that you check with your credit and debit card companies before embarking, to make sure your card will work in Ireland and to alert them that you’ll be using the card in Ireland so they won’t deny transactions as suspicious.]
 
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I’ve had a request to focus a blog issue on how to dress/pack for our tour of Ireland.  You do NOT want me giving fashion advice, so please send me information about your packing plans. 

Write me at bowdavis@msn.com 

Join the blog

In an earlier blog post Bill Brass was justly credited with organizing the Smith Cousin Tour of Island 2013. We all owe him much thanks. There are others who’ve been doing a lot of work to make this tour live up to the reputation Smith Cousin Tours have created--the whole “Brass Band,” for example.

Bob coordinated flights for the Nebraska majority. Trudy did a stellar job with the tour jackets. Oh, and then there is Bobbi Ann, distributor of jackets in Nebraska and Ohio. We’ll have to make Bobbi an honorary member of the BRASS BAND so this photo makes sense.

Are there others deserving of recognition for their pre-departure efforts?  

And now for something completely different:

Smithing Ireland can best chronicle our adventure if it features all of our voices. There will be moments you’ll want to be sure to get into the blog—moments only you can tell well.  You are encouraged to join in the story-telling.

How to contribute your own blog stories and/or photos:

1. Write it on your Ipad or laptop and email it to Don. I suspect there will be several of us with electronic tablets in our luggage and Del tells me most—if not all—our hotels have internet connections.

2. Write it on paper or on the back of a 50 Euro bill and give it to Don

3. Anyone (on the trip or folks back home) can write in the “comments” section.

4. Jeanne also has control of the blog and has volunteered to help out, but we need to remember that she’s a professional blogger on vacation.

Watch your Smithing Ireland blog in coming weeks for Ireland travel tips about using credit/debit cards and cash, packing for Ireland, and more.

Smithing Ireland, a preface

“Smithing Ireland” will attempt to recount daily highlights of the Smith Cousins Tour of Ireland, 2013—an adventure that has its roots in extreme southwestern Ireland 152 years ago—even before Bill was born.   It was in 1861 that 20 year-old Patrick Sullivan and his widowed mother boarded a ship and sailed from famine ravaged Ireland to America.  He supported himself and his mother as best he could in New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois for eleven years, and then at 31 he returned to his boyhood home in County Kerry, married Margaret McDonnell (a.k.a. McDonald), and brought her back to America where they established a family.    
Thanks largely to organizing efforts by Patrick’s great grandson Bill Brass—seen here with his wife Jan in front of their backyard water feature near in North Little Rock, AR--fifteen cousins in the fourth generation of that family in America are returning to Ireland to get a sense of whence they came—or maybe they’re going just to see the sites an sip a wee cup o’ Irish coffee.   (Perhaps you’re thinking that might be a pint of Murphy’s Stout?  Or a shot of Jameson?  Remember, Aunt Mary will be looking down on the lot of us.) 
The point of blogging the trip is so that our relatives and friends who opted out of the adventure might enjoy it vicariously with no danger of drinking too many pints of Guinness with us.     And when we get home, those on the trip who—like me—can’t remember why they went into the kitchen can look at the archived entries to see what they did on the tour.
One word of caution.  Use your discretion about giving young grandchildren this blog address, as there are bound to be some among us who misbehave.  They’ll be easy to spot—they’re the ones having the most fun.  What’s the old expression?  “What happens in Sneem stays in Sneem.” 
Stay tuned to this station for the exciting adventures of The Smith Cousins Ireland Tour, 2013.

Test Post on LiveWriter

OK, let’s see if I can create a blog posting using this new-to-me program, "Live Writer" from Microsoft.   Professional artist/blogger Jeanne Raffer Beck put me onto this.

  This is a test.  This is only a test.  Had this been an actual blog, I’d have spent more time revising the text.  

This is is why the Smith cousins always say “High Four” rather than “High Five.”   I don’t know who started it, but it was on the Smith Cousin New York Tour while at Bob and Jeanne’s lake cabin.  Al has four fingers on his left hand and as I recall after a significant amount of beverage was used to wash down boiled clams, someone wanted to high-five Al, but  . . . well, you get the picture. 
 

Soon the whole clan was high fouring and laughing a great deal.    

Al is a good sport about it all.