Last days in Ireland...

Woke up to another full Ulster Breakfast this morning in the gorgeous dining room at Crockatinney- the decor is delightful- birds, lighthouses, ships, seaside themed room. Made a faux pas with the waitress- poor girl. I couldn't finish my sausages as I had started with a full packet of cinnamon squares, and I said to her "You've got a dog, haven't you?" meaning that the dog could have my leftover sausages, but she thought I had said there was dog (or dog hair, I'm not exactly sure which,) in my sausages and ran out of the room almost in tears. In comes the owner to seek the cause of the problem, "What's wrong with the sausages?" I had to explain there was nothing wrong with the sausages I had just eaten too much and was too full to fit them in! Not a good start to the day! And it went downhill from thereon in!

First stop- the Giant's Causeway. It didn't look as good as it does in photos and it was a very long way down- 1km down and then 1 km UP which I just wasn't prepared to do in the frame of mind I was in. So I skipped that. On to Bushmills still feeling out of sorts so didn't imbibe any of the hard stuff. Then back to pick Kiryn and Keeley up who had walked the 7.7 kilometres of cliff-top paths from Giant's Causeway to Dunseverick Castle Ruins. We waited for them, and waited for them. Our calculations were way out, but they eventually appeared over the brow of the hill, sunburnt, windburnt, hot and thirsty but exhilarated with their achievement! Having conquered any fears of heights they may have had, they now wanted to go and walk across the suspension rope bridge at Carrick-a- Rede. It was onece again a kilometre walk down to the bridge and a kilometre walk UP, so I decided to skip this one too, which was probably just as well. I took some lovely photos though.

Dale dropped Keeley and me back at Crockatinney while he drove Lorelle in to Ballycastle to see a doctor as she was still very sick. We had the key to the front door but could not get it to work so sat on the garden swing until we were let in by the owner. I pulled all my clothes out of the dryer and went up to the room to pack. Dale brought home Chinese for dinner and we stayed up playing euchre and bloody mary and drinking pear cider and whiskey (not together!) This was the best part of the day for me.

Once again woke up to a full Ulster breakfast ( you will find a few around my middle regions!) without the sausages, and headed off to Dundalk via the Antrim Coast. We arrived at Carrickdale Hotel and SPA before noon so spent the afternoon in the jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and hot tub, with cold plunge pool in between- feeling quite refreshed ready for our flight to Paris tomorrow. Finished off the afternoon eating, drinking and playing cards and extreme scrabble in the bar! It is Ireland after all!

Derry

After another huge breakfast called an Ulster breakfast which is the same as an Irish breakfast with the addition of potato bread, we walked round the entire wall quite briskly as the wind was biting. It's a mile and a quarter in length, which is another strange thing up here. Everything's changed! Kilometres are  miles, euros are pounds sterling. I am not even sure if they call themselves Irish! There's no Gaelic on any signs and even the buildings look English. 

One of the many muralled buildings of Bogside.

Bogside- centre of the Troubles

Family photo atop the wall

The old Gaol

The contrasts existing in Derry

Of course, our history lesson during our guided walk where we walked the wall again explained the reasons why this is so. Derry has a long and troubled history going right back to the early 1600s. The first settlement was burned to the ground by the Irish who didn't appreciate their land being settled by the English, so the second settlement was fortified by the erection of a high, thick stone wall which still exists today in ints entirety. There are four arched gateways- Bishop’s Gate, Ferryquay Gate, Butcher Gate and Shipquay Gate.


After a quick cuppa, we packed up our luggage and headed off to Crockatinny Guest House- our next B&B. Our first stop was Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne which the Earl Bishop Fredrick began building around 1772. Mussenden Temple which was built as a library has survived the ravages of time, but Downhill House has not been so lucky. All that remains is the rock-walled shell of the original house, although it was still being used right through the second world war years. What a shame that such a beautiful house has fallen into disrepair though neglect! Built on a headland with views along the coast in both directions as well as a view of the magnificent wooded hills, it would have been a true masterpiece. You might get some idea of the beauty of the setting from the photos, or better still take a look at Keeley's photos!

Mussenden Temple- the library

The view west

the view east through the window

the ruined shell of Downhill House

the view through the dining room window

the remaining walls of the house

After stopping for refreshments at Bon Appetit Cafe in Portstewart, we drove the scenic, but scary, route along the coast past the ruins of Dunluce Castle, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, and the Giant's Causeway all of which we are planning to visit tomorrow, reaching our B&B at 3.30pm to find it deserted! A brief moment of panic before a level-headed Kiryn called the mobile number only to find out that our hostess was picking up her son from school and would be home in a couple of minutes, which, thankfully, she was.

Crockatinny is beautiful. Built in 1999, it has the feel of a place much older, and we fully expected to meet a ghost while ascending the dimly lit spiral staircase. We have the four upstairs rooms: Arran ( ours), Gigha, Jura and Islay which I think may be the names of islands in the Scottish Hebrides or alternately, names of whiskies!

View from our balcony ( yes, all our rooms have balconies!)

Dinner at the Diamond Bar-had to drink lots to counteract the effects of spicy chilli chips!

On, on to (London)derry.

As much as I would like to stay in bed, I had to motivate myself to get up as we are off to Derry, which used to be called Londonderry, travelling through Sligo and Donegal. After a shower, I felt better and headed off to another all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast of bacon, eggs, black and white pudding, sausages, baked beans, and grilled tomatoes. As usual, I ate far too much. The rhubarb yoghurt is delicious so I took another one for morning tea again which I ate for afternoon tea instead.

Even though I had a good night’s sleep, I couldn’t stay awake and dozed the whole trip which was very easy as it was all straight, smooth, wide roads. We stopped in Sligo to fill up with diesel. I found the Vit-Hit drink that I first tasted at Guinness Storehouse, so bought two of those. They’re water and vitamins and juice with ginseng and are delicious as well as being lo-cal and providing 100% of daily requirements of many vitamins including vitamin C.

We stopped again at Donegal but all I wanted to do was sleep so I stayed in the car. It must be taking all my energy to fight this cold. I didn’t sleep though I was bone tired. Keeley bought me some cold and flu capsules which hopefully make me feel human again.

The river at Donegal 

Donegal

Just after 2pm, we came to Derry and drove around the narrow streets in the walled part of town looking for the Tower Hotel which Kiryn spotted after only a couple of minutes of driving.  Thank the Lord! All I want is a bed!  Keeley and I have a lovely room overlooking the Wall with a lovely view. Keeley had a long bath while I searched for ice which I found in The Pub attached to the hotel. After a couple of Baileys on ice, I was feeling well enough (and hungry enough) to head down to The Pub to meet everyone for dinner. I had pork loin chops on champ (mashed potatoes with spring onion) and a G&T.

Decided at have an early night, after a hot bath, and promptly went to sleep. It was still light outside. I don’t know how long I was asleep but I woke myself up by answering a question on University Challenge. Keeley laughed and said “ I thought you were asleep!” to which I answered “I was.” I then stayed awake and played the rest of the show- boy, there are some really difficult questions, much harder than any game show in Australia! Of course, I was now wide awake and couldn’t get to sleep until almost midnight!

Lost in Galway

Because I woke up feeling poorly, I decided to skip the boat trip to the Aran Isles and rest up. Keeley and I thought we'd check out the shops so headed down town about 10am. It was very quiet and we soon discovered why. Nothing opens until midday on a Sunday so since it was raining and miserable, we decided to catch a movie. Problem number 2- the movies don't open till 12.30pm either! I didn't want to walk back to our lodging all the way we had come and said to Keeley we'd take the short cut. I don't know what happened but we got hopelessly, unbelievably lost! I am blaming the fact that very few of the streets have signs so when I asked anyone where College Street was, they either didn't know, didn't care or gave us a bum steer. Not encouraging for our trip round Europe. We walked for 3 and a half hours before we reached home! And we did do at least one huge circle because we went to the same cemetery twice! We just about peed ourselves laughing at that stage! We had walked miles away from anywhere interesting and at one stage came across a sign that said WELLPARK ROAD. When we did get back to our room, I googled it on googlemaps to try to work out where I had gone wrong, and there is a whole suburb where almost every street is called Wellpark Road! I kid you not! Check it out for yourself! Put in Wellpark Road, Galway. If that's not typically Irish, I don't know what is. Naming all the streets the same name haha! The pictures show the only interesting things we saw. My confidence at not being lost anywhere in the world is a tad shaken, that's for sure...

Galway or bust!

Headed off to Galway with a few stops planned along the way. The first was Adare, purportedly the prettiest village in Ireland. We were unimpressed- we have seen lots of pretty little villages- so just drove through with not even a backward glance. On to Bunratty Castle which was definitely worth stopping for as it had a village and animals attached as well as the original castle. The Irish Wolfhounds were huge, and the Shetland ponies were tiny! Just before leaving, I tried to souvenir some of the wildlife in the form of a green insect, maybe a small grasshopper, which flew into my open mouth and almost choked me. Luckily we were very close to the toilets at the time so I rushed in and gargled several times and managed to spit out most of its parts. Meanwhile Keeley was laughing so much she couldn't talk. At this moment Lorelle and Kiryn walked in, who luckily didn't have a camera handy to capture the looks on Keeley's and my faces.

The village at Bunratty

The Shetland ponies at Bunratty

Bunratty Castle

The Cliffs of Moher have become so commercialised.

Next stop, the Cliffs of Moher. I am going to have to steal a photo here as I stayed in the car and read. I think I have had enough adventure for one day. ( and I have seen these before, admittedly, it was a wet and windy day, and today is as perfect a day as you'll ever get in Ireland- warm AND sunny, so it was probably a completely different experience.)

On to Galway on the narrowest, bumpiest, curviest road in the world and the amazing thing is the amount of traffic it takes to the Cliffs- there were at least 14 buses and a couple of hundred cars when we were there in the late afternoon and the tourists were still coming which made driving even more of a challenge for Lorelle which she completed admirably and got us into Galway to St Jude's B&B unscathed.

The moonlike landscape around Burren

Kiryn and Dale headed off downtown to pick up fish and chips for dinner which was greatly appreciated by the rest of us, because if I had to walk anywhere, I would have gone hungry. The food revived us and we stayed up drinking and playing euchre and bloody mary till 11pm- our latest night yet- we are usually in bed before dark!

St Jude's is comfortable but we have been spoilt up till now. It has a lovely shower but no towel rails, and is quite basic accommodation for a B&B. The beds are all comfy which is the main thing and we all slept all night, well, at least we four girls did; the boys have their own room on an upper floor.

Dallying in Dingle

After a couple of hours checking out the Blarney Woollen Mills shops instead of kissing the Blarney Stone ( less face it, do I need any more gab?), we headed off on a short but very winding road to Dingle. Not a good idea to eat such a huge delicious breakfast as eggs benedict and French toast when faced with such a drive, but we eventually reached the Irish Bog Village which has been kept more or less intact since the 1700s. I love this place! I love places like this in Australia too. So sad to see Early Street torn down to make way for a housing development. The purpose of this village was to cut peat from the surrounding bog to sell as fuel for fires. Several of the cottages remain as reminders of how life used to be in times gone by. I always try to imagine myself living way back then: what would I like about it and what would I detest?

Each cottage named the occupants and their occupation.

Me outside the stable dwelling...I would not have liked to live with a pig and a cow.

Inside the thatcher's cottage were the basic necessities of life ( and a few creepy dummies!)

On the site of the old village is the old Red Fox Inn ( not quite as old as the village I am guessing, but older than anything we have in Australia), which reputedly makes the best Irish Coffee in Ireland, which I won't dispute. What they don't tell you is that it's also the most expensive for the smallest glass!

                                      

On to Dingle with Lorelle as captain and me as co-captain (well, to be more specific, Lorelle was driving and I was sitting up front enjoying the most magnificent views) as we travelled round the coast road to Dingle arriving mid-afternoon at which time Dale jumped out of the back and immediately began rolling round on the grass. I can't say that I blame him as the soft, green, lush lawn made me want to do exactly the same thing! 

Maggie welcomed us all to her Emlagh Lodge B&B. She was washing the salt from the windows as we drove in so she had obviously not expected us quite so early. Dale and I took our dirty clothes down to the cleaners to be washed by the cutest washerman ever. ( Insert daydream of being a washerwoman in Dingle...) I was expecting it to be at lease 50 euro ( we had a shit load of dirty clothes) only to be told it would be approximately 30-35 euro and we can pick them up tomorrow afternoon. Bargain! I know who'll be volunteering to pick up the laundry!

Then showered quickly and off to toast Arthur ( Guinness) at the local Marina Inn at 5.59pm on Arthur's Day. We ordered deep fried brie with blackcurrant sauce for entree to share, and Keeley and I had scampi for mains. ( never had scampi before, not quite sure what it was, but it was delectable!) Lorelle has salmon again ( it is a fishing village and we are supporting the local economy!) and we were all so full we couldn't manage dessert even though we had selected our choices.

Then toddled, rolled, strolled, or limped our way back to our home away from  home- right on the bay in Dingle- along the towpath on the foreshore which cannot be navigated at high tide. The plan of having a game of cards soon evaporated once we reached our rooms and we all had a (very) early night. I went to sleep while it was still daylight and woke up in darkness and it's 6.30am. Very strange!

Breakfast at Emlagh Lodge...delightfully delicious

After a full Irish breakfast with cranberry juice and yoghurt and berries in a parfait glass, we headed off to explore the Ring of Dingle ( as christened by us, actually called Slea Head Drive) which in our opinion, runs rings around the Ring of Kerry. We visited the Irish Famine Village

The Irish Famine Village

and the Prehistoric Beehive huts then stopped at a cafe for a coffee, ( naturally) and Lorelle and Kiryn braved the elements to climb Com Dhineol while the boys and I sanely remained in the car to follow our respective pursuits of reading and sudoku.

The view from Slea Head Drive

                                   

Looking down on a delightful cove.

                                   
We arrived back in Dingle in time for a hot bath and rest before heading out to a special birthday dinner at the Half Door Cafe ( yes, it does have half a door like a stable) in the pouring rain! Since I was wearing thongs to give my toe time to recuperate, they soon became wet and slippery so I ditched them and walked barefoot. Not too bad except by the time I got to the restaurant, my feet were like ice-blocks.

Mushroom and bacon entree

Nothing that a couple of bottles of champagne couldn't fix! Plus a delicious entree of gratinated mushrooms, lamb shank main meal and bread and butter pudding for dessert were all good remedies for any ailments.

Happy birthday Kiryn!

                       

Off to St James Church for an Irish Music Concert. I was very tired admittedly, but it's the most bored I have been in a very long time, so I snuck out at interval. Rhys and Keeley had already left and only Kiryn and Lorelle stayed. Of course, they reported that the second half was absolutely brilliant as I knew it would be, but I just couldn't last the distance. I thought about catching a cab home but walked briskly through the town. It had stopped raining but had become very cold so I walked fast. I thought I knew the way home but took a slight deviation and ended up in a dead end at the wrong place, so I had to retrace my steps. Just what I needed! I then took the correct path which was well lit for a couple of hundred metres then pitch blackness. I couldn't see a thing, except I thought I saw a reflection off water and was too scared to venture any further so I tried unsuccessfully to find an alternate route. At that moment of desperation, I spied Dale and he guided me through the water, ( which was only a huge puddle, not a lake) to our lodging.  After such a long terror-filled walk, it didn't take me long to fall asleep.

Woke up to another awesome breakfast of egg and bacon and cheese on panini before heading off to Galway.

Bye Bye Dublin! Hello Blarney!

So eager was I to set out on our road trip round Ireland, I was up, all packed and ready to go at 5.30am! Which was completely crazy as Lorelle couldn't pick up our car until 10! I have decided I have to cut down on the spending if I am to last for 4 months travelling through Europe so I had a breakfast at an aptly named coffee shop around the corner named Insomnia which everyone, except Rhys, suffered from last night. The Dublin Council (whom I am assuming was the culprit) decided to make a new road right outside Lorelle and Dale's room. I cannot even imagine the noise level they suffered because was up high in our loft room, the vibrations were so bad, we thought they were demolishing our hotel, either that or we were living through a 6 hour earthquake, but I don't think earthquakes are quite that loud! But I digress.

Everything in our hotel was oversized...not complaining though!

Insomnia ( the coffee shop) had a 3.50 euro special of any pastry and any hot drink so I chose a large latte and the biggest Danish pastry out of the basket on show and sat down in the small cafe to enjoy it by myself. I am definitely more observant when I am alone.

Back in the room, I collected all my bags with help from Kiryn and Keeley because my belongings are breeding and I now have 5 bags not 2, and went to wait in the lobby. ( I will post photos of the amazing lobby later.) Lorelle, Dale and Rhys arrived back with a big red 9 seater van, and we managed to fit all of our luggage and us in quite comfortably. 

The Rock of Cashel

Looking out from the Rock of Cashel

Dale was driving which was fortunate as I was having kittens just sitting behind him. I was sooo pleased I didn't have to drive although I wouldn't have minded driving once we got out of the city.  We had a really pleasant trip down to the Rock of Cashel, which isn't a rock, it's  a castle/church. Back in those days, the local Irish king who had been converted to Christianity by St Patrick became the bishop as well. Our lovely, easy-to-understand tour guide explained why Cashel is undergoing a conservation process so we didn't get to see the frescoes on the ceiling, but other than that was an extremely interesting place to visit to learn some more less modern history than I learnt at the Gaol.

On to Jameson's Distillery on a very windy road! Had to wait 18 minutes for an hour tour so decided to give it a miss and just do the tasting but after finding out the price, (17 euro!) had an irish coffee and banoffie pie instead for less than 10 euro! It was delicious! Lorelle had a coffee with me, and Kiryn and Keeley went off to find food in the village of Midleton. Drama of the day- Kiryn and Keeley had disappeared and no amount of texting or calling could locate them. Eventually they came strolling back to the car without a care in the world as they had found a little French bakery and then a little pub where they drank a relaxing pint of Bulner's ( what else?) while the rest of us were panicking!

Care for a whiskey?

Eventually we arrived at Blarney Woollen Mills Hotel where we stayed last time we were in Ireland, but all scored rooms with a view of the castle instead of the derelict woollen mills. We all had a celebratory drink in our room, Bailey's and Jameson's of course, before heading down to dinner where the Irish salmon was the best meal I've had so far! And at only 13.45 euro, I had stayed within my budget for the first time this trip. We all crashed early and I slept until 5.40am. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Dublin Zoo and Pub Crawl

On our second (and last) full day in Dublin, we woke up to glorious sunny, clear blue skies so the girls decided to make the trek out to the Zoo via the hop on hop off bus while the boys checked out Croke Park, the huge Gaelic football stadium. We thought we'd see the zoo in the morning then head on out to the Dublin Eye in the afternoon. The zoo was so big we didn't get back into town until well in to the afternoon so decided to go to the Queen of Tarts for a late lunch. It was packed; obviously very popular with locals and for good reason- the savoury tarts were delicious and so filling we couldn't even get to the dessert ones which looked so tempting, we decided to come back for afternoon tea. We didn't make it. Nor did we make it out to the Eye. The pubs are just too unmissable.

Flamingoes- I haven't ever seen them before

Keeley and I headed off to the Brazen Head Inn, the oldest pub in Ireland, mainly so I could say I had been to the oldest pubs in Scotland ( the Clachan Inn) and Ireland, while Lorelle and Kiryn decide to check out St Patrick's Cathedral. We both had a Bulmer's (cider) and then headed back to our hotel, both pretty tired and footsore. We hadn't gone 100 metres when we ran into the others heading TO the Brazen Head, so we all trooped back in again and I settled for an Irish Coffee- just didn't have room for another Bulmer's! Then Kiryn wanted to show us the Stag's Head which she thought we would like. We did, and I had another Bulmer's. Then Rhys wanted to show us the Mercantile Hotel which he thought we would like. We did, and I had another Irish Coffee! Enough is enough! We headed back to our hotel picking up a Molly Malone pizza from  Mona Lisa's on the way. After so many drinks, I could only manage to get through half of it but it was yummy- tuna and olives and cheese mostly.

The elephants were just so entrancing we didn't want to leave them.

The girls all had great fun at the zoo.

The first pub on what turned out to be an afternoon pub crawl. Note, I didn't take any photos of the other 2 pubs although I should have. They were all so different.

Quote of the day: Who would like the last of my stale, flavourless chips? ( Keeley, at the zoo) It doesn't sound all that funny  now but we all nearly wet ourselves laughing as Keeley had bought some TaYto chips her friend Claire had said she must try.  I am still laughing now, at my own expense.