The Great Adventure, Sunday, July 31, 2022

Our last day in Dublin. Howie is up and out for a run, By the time he has returned, his shirt is soaked through - Irish sunshine drizzle has hit and he is damp with a capital D. Howie dries off as the rest of us enjoy some coffee, toast and orange juice in an attempt to clear out our provisions. We depart at 9:45 towards Trinity College Dublin, its famous library, and the renowned Book of Kells. We had purchased on-line tickets a month ago for this timed visit. Our assigned time was 10:30.

We arrived in time and only had to spend a minute or two in queue before they let our lot in. The Book of Kells, one of the great treasures of medieval Europe, is an illuminated manuscript written in Latin, and containing the four gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) together with various introductory texts and tables. It was created around 800 AD by Early Christian monks and is a masterwork of Western calligraphy. Previously displayed in the Long Room of the Library, it now is housed in its own specail interactive display room. 

The main chamber of the Old Library, built between 1712 and 1732, is known as The Long Room.

This chamber contains over 200,000 books. The Long Room also has on display the Proclamation of The Irish Republic. This is one of the few remaining original copies printed in secrecy in Liberty Hall the day before the 1916 Rising began. Also on display is a 15th century Irish Harp, which false legend says belonged to Brian Boru an ancient king of Ireland. The national Symbol of Ireland is modeled after this harp.

Following our walk through the library, we ventured out on the streets of Dublin, first heading to see the statue of the mythical Molly Malone, the fish monger heroine of the song “Alive, Alive O.“

Next on to the pedestrian area of Temple Bar, a walking district renowned for its art galleries, restaurants and pubs. Past visits have proved to us that one does not want to be in Temple Bar of a Friday or Saturday night - party time! 

We stopped at The Shack Restaurant, for lunch, tasting Irish lamb stew, bangors & mash, a seafood chowder and a chicken tagliatelle. All accompanied by wine and Irish ale. Excellent food, finished of with a dessert of  “Trinity Mess,“ Dublin‘s answer to England’s Eton Mess.

Just as tasty although the meringue in this version was a bit chewy, according to our chief “mess“ tester. After lunch, we struck off down Grafton Street pedestrian shopping district and crossed the huge St. Stephen’s park on our way back to our BnB for an afternoon rest and pre-packing for tomorrow’s travels. We enjoyed a glass of our wine, again only to deplete up our supply and then left for a walk to our 6:15 reservation at Matt the Thresher Seafood Restaurant for our last Dublin meal. We arrived on time, and the restaurant seemed empty. We were seated on the upper level, and suddenly, the early reservation time made sense; the entire establishment filled up quickly. 

Matt the Thresher’s was clearly understaffed, as were so many of the places we visited in Ireland, and the staff here was working at double-time. They were friendly, accommodating and quick to make recommendations on our choices, but observing how they were hustling was startling. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, a house red wine, a roast salmon special of the day, caprese salad with steamed mussels, a mixed crab and seafood salad and roast Irish chicken Supreme (basically roast chicken breast on a bed of mashed potatoes.) Plenty of dark stout bread and butter. A satisfying meal.  We declined the dessert offerings and headed back to our abode to rest, complete our packing and read before bed. 

As we reflected on our twelve day Irish holiday, the highlights were our walk around Douth, the first meal in Athboy, the rope bridge at Carrick on Rede, the Japanese Garden in Tramore, the National Gallery in Dublin, the Trinity College library with its Book of Kells, our visit with Zoe, the children and Bernadette, and the overall greenness of the landscape and hospitality of the Irish people; Lina at the SIXT car rental, Rachel at the Tara Lodge, Collette at Molly’s Yard pub, Sue at Sharamore House in Clifden and the Egyptian mummy in the Ulster museum in Belfast all deserve special mention. The Guiness and Irish Red Ales weren’t bad either.

The Great Adventure, Saturday, July 30, 2022

We tried to sleep in a bit this morning, but we were still up by 6:30 AM. Howie went for a run while the rest of us cleaned up and made coffee. We discovered that a fledgling (huge) seagull had managed to trap itself at the bottom of our steps into the BnB and was unable to escape. After searching for the Ireland SPCA and other ideas to rescue (remove, relocate) the avian intruder, Deb, the bird whisperer, finally stumbled on the solution. She stepped out the front door and began laying bits of torn bread bits, up the steps and out into the street. Lo and behold, the intruder got the hint and hopped up the steps, out onto the sidewalk. It stopped, looked both ways as taught and then hopped down the street. Crisis solved.

Deb & Mark were scheduled to meet Zoe and the children, along with Zoe’s mother Bernadette Cleary at the National Gallery at 10:50. As this was also a destination for the Needelmans, we all left the premises together and proceeded in the light rain to the Gallery entrance across from the Merrion Park. First we stopped at the statue of Oscar Wilde and listened to the Statue Speaks bit on the iPhone app. An illuminating bit of history and a truly remarkable statue, by Sculptor Danny Greene. According to Wikipedia, “since marble alone was deemed inadequate, the statue was formed from different coloured stones from three continents. The torso is of green nephrite jade from British Columbia, Canada, and pink thulite from Norway. The legs are of Norwegian Blue Pearl granite with the shoes being black Indian charnockite and finished with bronze shoelace tips. The statue also wears a Trinity College tie made from glazed porcelain, and three rings – Wilde's wedding ring and two scarabs, one for good luck, the other for bad luck.” 

At the appointed hour we crossed the street to the National gallery entrance, Howie and Lee split off to spend the rest of the day viewing the galleries, and Deb and Mark to meet their friends. After hugs and kisses all around, adults and children repaired to the coffee shop for a chat. The girls were satisfied with some Danish pastries while the adults had coffee, a ham and cheese breakfast sandwich and coffee. We caught up on each other’s travels to the Emerald Isle and the Highlands’ plans for their move. After the girls became restless and Arthur had been fed and tucked into his stroller in the hopes of a nap, we headed to the children’s active art section where they were able to ”create” their own art while the adults chatted.

After bathroom breaks, we left the Gallery and crossed back to Merrion Park and the children’s playground. We spent a good hour at the playground visiting, while the girls climbed the paraphernalia and demanded pushes on the swings. Eventually, we departed the playground and walked over to Grafton Street, the pedestrian shopping area that runs through the center of the district. Our goal was the McDonald’s restaurant, where we found a large table and ordered Kid’s Meals, McFlurries, french fries and coffees. After this break we steered off onto Grafton Street for a walk and eventually parted company, a marvellous four and one-half hour visit with a sad departure but a promise to see them all again next year as we now have a regular reason to visit Ireland.

Deb & Mark stopped at a Zoe recommended pub, Neary’s, for a beer and Aperol Spritz before catching a cab with their recovered extra suitcase and back to the BnB.

Needelmans had returned some 45 minutes earlier. We had a glass of wine and planned our evening meal. We settled on walking to a nearby pub, McGratton’s and dined on Guinness, Smithwick’s Ale, bangors & mash, and shephard’s pie. We walked back to the BnB, stopping at the Tesco for milk and butter for tomorrow’s breakfast and coffee. We settled in to watch the final 2 hour episode of Stranger Things and then retired for the evening, watching as the Irish Sunshine (rain) drifted down from the skies onto the green of this island nation.

The Great Adventure, Friday, July 29, 2022

An early 8:00 AM breakfast for this travel day. We dine on the typical light Irish breakfast of egg, sausage, bacon, grilled tomato and toast with juice coffee and tea. Back in our rooms we make final adjustments, push the luggage down to the reception for checkout and load up the vehicle for the last driving day of the trip. We depart Faithlegg Club by 9:30 and with only one missed turn, we are on the road to Dublin, a journey of 160 Km and about 2 1/2 hours. We arrive at Dublin airport at 11:55 and find our way back to SIXT, our car rental agency, well before our 12:30 deadline.

After ditching the vehicle we shuttle back to the airport and, owing to crowds and our checkin time at our air BnB of 2:00 we decided to sit in the airport coffee shop for a bottle of water and a muffin. After the crowd surge was down, around 1:45, we hailed a large taxi for the ride into Dublin. Our abode for the next three days is very well located on Fitzwilliam Square, in the heart of the city, near the government offices. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, lower level flat in a typical walk-up building across from the Fitzwilliam Square park.

We have a living area, full kitchen and two bath and shower locations, although one of the baths is “split” with the shower in one area and the toilet in the hallway near the bedroom entry.

Not ideal, but workable. The only drawback is that the sink cabinet is tiny, making lay out of makeup or other supplies problematic.  Actually there are quite a few problems with the unit…hastily cleaned (and not well) as well as a smell of old bacon.  We opened windows and unpacked and worked at giving it our “smell”.  Easier than it sounds, it turns out.

We settled in for a bit of work and rest, while Lee and Howie went out for a scouting walk around the area. After their return we enjoyed some of our leftover wine and discussions about dinner. We walked a bit and found the series of restaurants along the way with sidewalk seating that Howie and Lee had seen earlier. We picked an Italian place that looked clean and had an open 4-top table on the sidewalk. Our Croatian waitress was right on the spot, and we soon had our order for a pair of truffle cream, mozzarella and salami pizzas on wonderful Neapolitan crusts. Starters of calamari and bruschetta with a bottle of Montepulciano completed the meal.  We all agreed that it was one of the best pizzas we had ever had!  We turned down the dessert offers and instead went for a short stroll around the city on this pleasant Friday evening, looking for ice cream but they had closed up for the night. Howie and Lee had already reconnoitered the area and walked with alacrity while Mark and Deb plodded along wondering when we would finally get home.   A slight sprinkling of rain started off and on but not enough to deter us. We stopped at a local Tesco market on our way back to the BnB to pick up some bread and juice for tomorrow and replenish our wine supply for the next two nights.

We returned and soon found ourselves wrapped in nice cool beds and happy to be in the Dublin town. 

The Great Adventure, Thursday, July 28, 2022

We had a late breakfast today, beginning at 9:00 in the restaurant. The host, a suave and glib young man from Montenegro (although he first claimed his accent placed him in Sligo,) was genial, flirtatious and brightly humorous. All service was to order, so we enjoyed eggs, sausage, bacon, juice and a serving of French toast. Coffee and tea finished the meal. Back in the rooms, we gathered ourselves for a quick rest and then left Faithlegg to explore the Waterford city area. 

We drove into Waterford and found a car park at city center. Waterford City, founded in 914 AD by Vikings from Norway is Ireland’s oldest city. The name Waterford is actually from Old Norse meaning “ram fjord.” Waterford City is older than any capital of Europe, save Paris and London.

The city is famous for Waterford Crystal, a legacy of the city’s former glassmaking industry. The Waterford Crystal visitor’s center in the Viking Quarter was a must stop on our walk. Although we made no purchases, there were plenty of tourists who were buying. We sat on a bench in the plaza and plotted the balance of our afternoon. The debate was back and forth between the city of Wexford, or on to a garden in Tramore that Howie had discovered in a brochure. Due to our time constraints, we picked Tramore. this turned out to be a most serendipitous choice.

We found the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens captivating and amazing. Hearn, was born on the Greek Island of Lefkada in 1850. He was moved as a child to Dublin and eventually was abandoned, first by his mother, then by his father and finally by this father’s aunt, his guardian. He emigrated to the U.S. and ended with some relatives eventually in Cincinnati. He became a writer and journalist and was sent to Japan by Harper’s Magazine to write an article. He became enamored of the country, married a woman of Samurai descent and lived there to the end of his life, raising, with his wife, four children.

Although we have been to Japanese’s gardens before, including the one in Omaha at the Lauritzen Gardens, nothing we have seen is comparable to this small gem of a garden. It is a must see stop when in southeast Ireland. It is divided into 11 distinct gardens connected by lovely winding paths down and then back up the hillside. The gardens commemorate points in Hearn’s life, beginning with the walled Victorian garden and ending with the Journey’s End garden. In between are woodland gardens, a tea house for tea ceremonies, a summer pavilion, a Greek garden and more. Enchanting and restful.

We left Tramore, and headed back to our lodgings at Faithlegg Club, arriving home around 4:00 PM. All agreed that the Hearn Garden was a one of the highlights of our trip - unexpected pleasure and not a crowd of other tourists in sight. We rested and recouped for a while, meeting at 5:30 for a drink in the lounge before our 6:30 dinner reservation. We enjoyed a dirty martini, a cosmopolitan and a pair of Smithwick’s Ale. 

Dinner was a pair of house made pasta with red sauce and prawns, a Rogan Josh Thai wrap, and a grilled ham and cheese on Irish loaf bread. This was preceded by one large side salad and three small bowls of mushroom soup. All washed down with a bottle of Montepulciano Abruzzo wine. A simple and delicious meal. After the meal, we walked a bit, touring parts of the grounds and watching the duffers whacking the small white ball over the green swards!

The Great Adventure, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Another lovely Irish morning, cloudy, cool, and signs of a light rain ovenight. We enjoyed our first buffet breakfast this morning in the Dunraven Arms Hotel restaurant. Scrambled eggs, plus all the normal full Irish accoutrements were on display. The problem with buffet presentations is that there are too much food and hot items such as eggs which never hold up to their promised flavor. Nonetheless, we all walked away, having eaten more than our fair share. 

We got off to a bit of a late start as we struggled in the parking lot and then again in the hotel lobby trying to properly load the Google Maps application on Deb’s phone. We finally threw in the towel and reverted to paper maps as we traveled through the town of Adare and headed south towards Tipperary. Yes it was a long way to go! We stayed to secondary roads this morning, enjoying the gorgeous mid-island scenery driving through the small towns of Hospital,Emly, Lisvernane and many more.

We traveled through the Glen of Aherlowe and a scenic view of the Galaty Mountains. This range of mountains is the highest inland mountain group of the island, with the tallest peak some 700 meters above sea level.

Next we pulled into the large village of Tipperary, parked the car on the Main Street and stepped out on foot in search of a bathroom stop and to stretch the legs. We stumbled into a lovely pub named Nellie O’Brien’s, settled in on a table and decided to enjoy our first pub lunch.

A round of Smithwick’s Irish ale, fish and chips and some garlic toast and chips arrived at our table for sharing and consumption. The pub was charming as were the bar man and our server, Mary. After lunch, we strolled a bit and stopped at an ATM to replenish our supply of Euros.

Next stop was on to the Rock of Cashel. This in the village of Cashel and is the ruins of an ancient church. This site, probably originally a fort and the seat of the ancient Kings of Munster (one of the historic provinces of Ireland) is reputed to be the place where St. Patrick arrived to convert King Brian to the Christian (Catholic) faith in the 5th century. Legend has it that St. Patrick threw the devil out of a nearby cave, and in the process the rock was thrown from the mountains and landed in Cashel. Around 1101, the King of Munster gave the site to the church and the church construction began. Finally abandoned in the early eighteenth century, the ruins are now a protected state site. We joined a public tour for some 45 minutes in the light rain and wandered around the graveyard (still in use for some lucky Cashelians who are on the ancient list) and enjoyed the views of the surrounding countryside.

Now, shortly after 4:00 PM we got back on the road and headed towards the town of Waterford and our site for the next two nights of Faithlegg Hotel & Golf Resort. This golf course and hotel were reputedly founded in 1783. The golf course is beautiful and the hotel is definitely upscale but in a kind of haphazard way.  Not enough staff and some not too friendly. Our rooms are not adjoining as in previous stops so no knocking on each other’s doors to hit the road in the mornings!  We had a 7:00 dinner reservation in the casual restaurant in the pro shop, overlooking the course. We dined on huge burgers, a fried chicken sandwich on a brioche bun, and a Caesar salad. All accompanied by some pints of Heineken and glasses of Multepuciano red wine.  While dinner was good and the view of the Red Cedars (also name of restaurant) were breathtaking, the service was gawd-awful, as they say somewhere.

After a long day of driving and sightseeing, we returned to our respective rooms for some rest, looking forward to some exploration tomorrow of the Waterford area, a city that Deb has not even been to in past journeys.

The Great Adventure, Tuesday, July 26, 2022

A wee bit of sunshine in the sky this morning. We packed our bags and headed down to our second breakfast at Sharamore House. Another great full Irish breakfast, fresh fruit bowl, pancakes, coffee, tea, and orange juice. These huge breakfast feasts are going to be the death of us, particularly when we have a lot of car time and very little exercise.

We said our goodbyes to our landlady/hostess and drove off through Clifden and towards Galway, the first destination of the day. We fought our way through the city traffic to a multi-storey car park in the City Centre, left the car, hoping we could find it again, looking for a restroom and to stretch our legs. We first found the necessities and then found the pedestrian walks through out the City Centre. As it was the noon hour, and also the first week of summer holiday for school children, the walks were packed. People “enslaved by desire of merchandise and manufactured articles” shopping, eating in the myriad of patio restaurants, and buskers everywhere, serenading all with their music. A magical scene. (And the quote courtesy of Willa Cather in her novel Youth and the Bright Medusa.)

We found our way back to the car park and paid to release the vehicle. We spent the next nearly one hour trying to find our way out of Galway. We circled the block of our car park three times just trying to find a highway out of town. the traffic was heavy and the route poorly marked, at least for us foreigners. After the third swing around the area, we finally took a left turn with no parking and found the highway we were looking for. Today was the start of the horse racing meet at Galway and we were lucky to find our way out before the first of the crowd for the afternoon opening race started.

We were trying for a southwesterly direction, looking to get to the UNESCO Heritage site of  the Cliffs of Moher.

Two interesting facts about the Cliffs of Moher: at their highest, the elevation, or sheer drop, above the Atlantic Ocean is 702 feet.  Second, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in Ireland, attracting over 1.6 million visitors per year. Most of those visitors joined us this day! When we were last here (2002!), we shared the cliffs with maybe 50 people.  There is no doubt that more than 1500 fellow travelers trod the paths and in and out of 6 (count ‘em) shops and the restaurant. 

We walked along the designated and now very safe walk along the cliffs, viewing the scene and looking out across the Atlantic, only 3,000 miles away from Newfoundland. After a stop in the gift shops, coming away with only an ice cream cone and a new coffee cup, we trooped back to the car, loaded up and, as we pulled out, Deb received a note that Zoe and the three little Highlands arrived safely on the Emerald Isle for their version of a truly Great Adventure of a Lifetime.  

We then viewed the lovely scenery as we headed through Limerick and towards our final destination of Adare and our lodging for the night - The Dunraven Hotel. this upscale property provided lovely accommodations, with only a few downsides. Firstly, our assigned suites were down through a maze of hallways and up steps to the second level; this necessitated utilizing a bellhop and a luggage cart to get our belongings to the correct location, sprinkling breadcrumbs along the way so we could find our way back to reception. Secondly was a problem that wasn’t discovered until the next morning: no coffee pot or hot water pot in the room!

As we had not arrived into our rooms until 6:30 PM, we made a reservation at the restaurant for 7:45 and then enjoyed a glass of wine in the Covert suite. Dinner consisted of three plates of barley - mushroom risotto and one of roasted chicken breast. An Irish version of a Dirty Martini (one little olive) was consumed, along with some wine. The meal was good, the service mediocre for such an upscale establishment. We took a short walk to offset the lateness of the meal.  Adare looks much the same as it did 20 years ago with the charming thatched cottages and cascading flowers but the traffic and the noise of it were new and take a lot away from this lovely little village.  We have decided that the only times to visit Ireland are April/May and late September and October.  Summer tourism has skyrocketed and turned this beautiful island into a wet and very green Disney World. We were back in our rooms by 9:30 and ready for bed.

  

The Great Adventure, Monday, July 25, 2022

The morning started with a Big full Irish breakfast (AGAIN!), a smoked pollock and poached egg over spinach, crepes, juice, coffee and a wonderful conversation with our server, Eilaish, and our hostess Sue. For our second day in the Clifden area, we followed the scenic drive to the peninsula and toward Omey Island. At low tide, which time it was, we were able to park at the car park and walk across the hard sand to the island. Although one could also drive the sand to the island, we chose to walk in order to enjoy the wind, the various rocks and shells buried in the sand, and the vegetation adhering to the uncovered rocks. This was an unique experience.

Back into the Skoda vehicle, we then continued the drive around the point and then another drive towards the villages of Ballyconneely, the Dogs Bay Beaches and the village of Roundstone. We parked at Roundstone for a short walkabout and view of the shops, boats, and bay. Howie remained behind for a nap in the car, missing the excitement of Mark’s hat flying off and landing on the rocks facing the beach; a few tense moments as he struggled down the rocks, collected his hat, threw it back up to the bank, and then climbed back on hands and knees to safety, a total distance of maybe 10 feet, but hilarious to view, nonetheless. According to Deb, it was more terrifying than hilarious but all’s well etc.

We finished the drive along the Bog road, stopping for sheep in the road and portraits of sheep and a friendly neighboring donkey who was expecting a treat, but was disappointed. The only treat we could offer was fudge, and we weren’t sure the donkey could survive the dose of chocolate.

Back to the Sharamore House for naps, reading and a glass of wine before we headed back to Clifden for dinner at the Darcy Twelve Restaurant.The source of the name we learned was that of a man called John D’Arcy who founded Clifden in 1812. According to Wikipedia, the D’Arcy family owned some 13,000 acres of land in this portion of the Connemara. His goal of founding a town on some of the land was successful. Although the town suffered ups and downs over the years, including major losses in the Great Famine, the town thrives today on the fishing and tourism trade.The restaurant’s  food however was most acceptable, Beef Bourguignon, a chicken burger, and a fresh crab salad, all accompanied by wine and a local ale, Sheep Stealers Brew.

After a stop at the local Aldi’s for provisions for the balance of the trip, we retired to Sharamore, tired, sated and happy.

The Great Adventure, Sunday, July 24,2022

This morning started rainy and continued as such for a good portion of the day. Early in the morning, Deb could not find her purse and after searching the car, the room, and the sitting room of the B & B, it was determined that it may have been left at the previous evening’s restaurant. A quick phone call revealed that it would not be open until 11:00 and no one was answering at this early Sunday hour. Nothing to be done but head to breakfast and worry about the hour long backtrack later. The full Irish breakfast and Irish pancakes (crepes) were excellent.

Following food, we went back to pack up, and upon moving a suitcase, the missing purse was discovered, It had fallen behind the suitcase the night before and sat there, protected and undiscovered the entire night and into the morning. Crisis averted. As we started out of Boyle, we found ourselves in a long queue of traffic, surprising for a Sunday morning. we suspected a traffic accident head and so spent 30 minutes in line, advancing slowly. It occasioned pictures of windows with flowers and other interesting sights. As we got closer up the line, we realized that the line was for fuel; the local service station was celebrating its 25th birthday and was offering a significant discount of fuel, but only until 11:46 AM. As we were intending to ill up this morning, we took advantage and saved nearly 15% on our fill-up. It still cost us €70 for the tank of diesel fuel. Our first destination of the day was Tobercurry, County Sligo, to take a picture of the Highland’s new home to send to them. We sent the this onto Zöe, as they had only seen a photo from the rental agent. Also photos of the neighboring cat and a flock of sheep in the meadow adjacent.

Then onward towards Westport. In this market town we parked and walked to the town center, finding a coffee shop to sit and have a cuppa together with some pastries. We then wandered the town, completing some shopping and buying some wine for future consumption. We took our leave of this busy market village and drove towards Clifden. A major stop along the way was the Kylemore Abbey,

a Benedictine Nun’s monastery originally built as a castle by William Henry in 1870.  We toured the lower floor of the monastery, which is open for tours and is a history of the building and its residents and servants/employees. The structure and rooms are beautiful and the restoration appears to adhere closely to the period and fairly presented. A number of family photographs and other personal belongings are on display.

Next we took the shuttle bus to the walled gardens laid out in a Victorian setting The gardens are huge and beautiful - at least what we c old see of them (photo) in the firs 7 minutes before the midges descende and drove us off. They were everywhere; in our eyes, flying up our nostrils, invading our ear canals, getting into our hair. There was a small sign early on at the gift shop noting about ticks and midges and that select repellants were available for sale. It also noted that

midges were heavy at certain times of the year, particularly when the weather was warm and calm.  Today must have qualified! We walked briskly out of the garden swatting and brushing at the little pests as we boarded the return shuttle, glad to finally be rid of them but still brushing them off our face and hair as we reached the obligatory gift shop.

At 5:15, we mounted our chariot and headed on to Clifden to our eventual goal for the next two days of the Sharamore House B&B, arriving about 5:45. We offloaded our luggage and, with help of the proprietress, Sue, got the luggage up to our send floor suites. Another long and adventure filled day. As we reached Sharamore House, the sun came peeking out from behind the clouds and the rain had stopped for the moment. After a rest and a bit of unpacking and laundry duties, we set out for the town of Clifden to score our evening meal. 

Clifden is a surprisingly lively town with a plethora of restaurants and pubs up and down two streets, interspersed with shops and gallery’s. We settled on Mitchell’s Seafood restaurant, a recommendation of both our Sharamore hostess and The Lonely Planet travel advisor. Three huge servings of steamed mussels and one large bowl of Irish lamb stew accompanied by excellent olive bread and a bottle of merlot made for a satisfying repast. We walked back to our parked vehicle and took the 3 kilometer drive back to our resting place. Another adventuresome day, the constant companion of rain not withstanding.

The Great Adventure, Saturday, July. 23, 2022

 This morning we rose to find a wee bit of rain in the air, but it quickly cleared off. Our breakfast this morning encompassed a full Irish (fried egg, bacon, sausage, black pudding, grilled tomato and toast) or Omelettes including cheese and mushrooms. Orange juice, coffee or tea topped it off. We spent some time plotting and discussing our day and then loaded the luggage into the Black Beauty and headed towards Londonderry, the second largest city in Northern Ireland.

This very old city is actually two cities divided by a culture and by the River Foyle. The two halves are known locally as Cityside and Riverside. It is reputed that the divisions were so strong that, upon setting up the border, the negotiations about the dividing line between Ireland and Northern Ireland was being considered as running down the middle of the River Foyle. Obviously, this plan was scuttled. Sitting on the western bank of the river is the old original walled city. We found a car park right near the city center and began our exploration.

The two halves of the city are now joined by two vehicular bridges and one pedestrian bridge known as the Peace Bridge. It’s design and layout are remarkably similar to Omaha’s Bob Kerry Bridge over the Missouri River, linking Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa.  We walked across the bridge and back, enjoying the views of both sides of the bifurcated city.

Upon return to the western side, we visited a lovely small bookshop and then climbed the ramp and began our meander along the ramparts of the city walls, reading as we walked about the history of the city and all the conflicts that have erupted over the century, from the sieges in the early 1600’s right up to Londonderry’s role as one of the original Troubles areas in recent history.

After three hours in Londonderry, we left the city and struck out for our next and final destination of the day: the village of Boyle in County Roscommon. As we left Londonderry, the occasional sprinkles turned to rain, which accompanied us, off and on, throughout the rest of the day. We stopped just north of Sligo to search out the burial spot and grave of William Butler Yeats, the great Irish poet. Although he died in France, his body was exhumed and reburied here in this quiet churchyard. After assisting a fellow searcher to find the grave (“Wouldn’t you know it would take an American to help this Irish literature teacher to

locate Yeats’ grave!” ) we traveled a short distance down to Sligo and back in search of a dinner stop. 

We ended our search by backtracking north of the grave site at a very busy restaurant, the Davis Restaurant and Yeats Tavern. Thoroughly modern and very busy. Think of an overly enlarged Denny’s filled with Irish citizens and you might get the picture. We dined on a pair of pizzas, some small salads, chips, and wine and ale; except for the driver it must be noted.

We then proceeded on south to Boyle and our B&B of the night - Lough  Key Forest Park House. This modern, purpose built B&B was nicely situated and offered very poor wifi service, but comfortable rooms and a lovely sitting room. We read, reviewed our day and retired at a reasonable 9:30, looking forward to another day of adventure. Note that, in passing towards Sligo, as predicted by our “resources” it began to rain, obscuring our view of the mountain Ben Bilbun.

The Great Adventure, Ireland - July 21 & 22, 2022

Breakfast Thursday morning at Darnley Lodge was near perfect. Eggs as requested, a breakfast sandwich such as we hadn’t seen before - a  long English sausage layered over their very thick bacon, topped with an egg, all on a hamburger bun. A lot of food, but very tasty. Also the traditional Irish breakfast with black and white “pudding”,  eggs, bacon and sausage with the obligatory grilled tomato. All totally satisfying, accompanied by orange juice and coffee. And all included in the room price of $119 per night!

We set off towards Belfast this morning, leaving Athboy behind. We motored up the east coast, enjoying the scenery of a very pleasant and sunny day. We arrived in Belfast shortly after noon and found our way to our Inn for the evening - Tara Lodge. This hotel is a gem! One of the top 25 hotels in the UK, the receptionist was a professional young woman - Rachel. After tagging our luggage, she made us comfortable in the lodge and began a very thorough outline of places to go and things to see. She recommended and reserved a restaurant for evening meal; she recommended and booked a Taxi Tour of Belfast and then outlined the many areas of the city we could also visit.

At 1:30, our Taxi Tour arrived, piloted by Stevie. This was a two hour eye opener as we drove back and forth around the “troubles” neighborhoods, viewed the famous murals around the area and got a total

lecture regarding the cause of the Troubles, the historical context and the current status. The Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods are still very separate, being fenced off with walls every evening at 7:00 and reopened at 5:00 the next morning, plus all weekend. We toured the neighborhoods, saw the current living conditions, learned of the major fighting in the 80’s and 90’s, the Good Friday Agreement brokered by Bill Clinton, the residual after effects of the agreement and how life is slowly, generation by generation, to become integrated. The fighting only stopped 24 years ago, and it may take 50 to 100 years before the integration is anywhere near complete. There are echos of the current USA situation in the polarization that drove these two separate societies to the fighting. Not a pretty thought. 

We arrived back at the hotel around 3:30 and then struck out to explore. We headed to the Ulster Museum (formerly the Irish branch of the British Museum) to view all the displays, the Egyptian mummy being one of the most intriguing. This was not an art museum, but a history museum and it lived up to it’s billing. We walked through the Belfast Botanic Gardens and then stopped at our original first choice restaurant, Molly’s Yard. They had not been able to accommodate us for dinner due to a previous private party booking, but they were able to serve us some delicious brown oat bread, hummus, tasty olives and a bottle of Pinot Noir. Our server, Collette, was as interested in our take on the world as we were in hers and we had a fun and lively conversation.  As driving duties were over for the day, Mark also enjoyed a lovely Red Ale.

Following this cocktail hour, we walked the two blocks to our dinner reservations at Holohans.  Here we enjoyed a salmon steak and three different versions of a Boxty. This local dish is basically a large, flattened 9” circle of mashed potatoes, flattened and grilled, then filled with a choice of fillings, and flipped over like an omelette or crepe. We sampled chicken and mushroom, chili beef and a seafood example. All were wonderful. A shared helping of an ice cream sundae capped off the meal. We returned to the Tara Lodge, our wonderful rooms and passed out, more educated and very sated with wonderful food and drink - also a good day’s walking.

Friday we awoke to another beautiful day, weather-wise. The Tara breakfast was even better than the day before, a pair of perfectly prepared Omelettes, and a spot on fried egg with bacon, grilled tomato and sausage and bacon. We struck out this morning headed eventually to Bush Mills on the north coast. First stop along the gorgeous Coastal Causeway was the famous Rope Bridge at Carrick-Rede (rock on the road) which spans the sea, perched some 100 feet over the water. The bridge leads from the main land to an island from which fisherman launched their boats to reach their salmon fishing nets. We negotiated the parking scheme with our National Trust parking pass and then, thanks to the National Trust membership we had purchased in the US, we gained free entry to the cross the bridge. Shortly thereafter they shut down further entry as they had hit their limit of people allowed on the path , the bridge and the island. The walk to the bridge was challenging, just over a kilometer, but up and down. There was a line to cross the bridge as it is only one way at a time. The only way to the island is over the bridge - also the only way back.

Once we crossed the bridge and reached the island, the hardest portion of the walk began. The rock path was treacherous to old slow people such as ourselves. Only one slip up as Mark took a knee (actually a sitting position) coming down an especially rocky trail, but no injuries. We walked the kilometer  back to the parking lot and headed next up the road to the Giant’s Causeway, anther National Trust and also a World Heritage site. This set of hexagonal pipes rising from the sea is the remains of an ancient volcano in the area. It gets its name from the myth that the giant Finn McCool used these as stepping stones between Ireland and Scotland. We wandered the steps, and then part of the crew took the last trolley up the hill while the other half walked up. We rendezvous in the parking lot and head to our final destination, some 5 miles up the highway at the Bushmills Inn. After check-in, we adjourn to the pub for a refreshment and then into the dining room for our 6:30 reservation. The food was very good, although rather upscale in setting and number of servers. We enjoyed roast sea cod, roasted lamb rump and duck breast, all accompanied by wine. Dessert was a chocolate lava cake and a caramel sundae. The service here was slow, and a bit diffident considering the number of employees meandering around. Also, they were unable to provide separate checks, which meant spending 15 minutes at the checkout splitting the bill into its two segments. Also not an inexpensive meal - $145 to $180 per couple.

The Needelmans did a short walk about the town while the Coverts retired for the night. Today was a long day with plenty of hiking/walking. It was very informative and filled with never before seen sites; however, it did point out that some of us are in better physical shape than others. Any guesses? Still a great day on our great adventure.

The Great Adventure - Ireland, Tuesday, July 19 & 20, 2022

Here we go! Today, with our traveling companions Lee and Howie Needelman, we depart for Ireland on the first leg of our Great Adventure. We meet at Eppley Airfield in Omaha with our combined five suitcases, our four carry-on pieces, plus three additional suitcases that we are shepherding across the Atlantic for our neighbours the Highlands. Zöe , Garth, and their three children, Iris, Esmè and Arthur are emigrating to Ireland at the end of the month, Zöe returning to her homeland and Garth becoming the foreigner in the family. As we are able to check additional luggage, we offered to ferry the added pieces.

Our first flight is to Chicago via United Airlines went well, for the most part on time. We and our luggage made it with no problems, and we were only 15 minutes late push off. The 7 hours 43 minute flight was smooth and arrived in Dublin 30 minutes ahead of schedule. After clearing passport control and collecting all the baggage, we proceeded to the arrivals hall to be met by Zoe’s uncle Dick Butler who collected the excess baggage and also one of Covert’s extra bags, considerably lightening our load. (We will collect our extra piece of luggage at the end of the Ireland leg before we head over to England.)

At the SIXT car rental agency we signed the rental agreement and loaded on to the shuttle for the car park where we were to pick up our vehicle. Unfortunately, the vehicle we bargained for was not able to accommodate all our luggage, nor allow the rear seat passengers to view much out the windows. We quickly regrouped, and after a search throughout the inventory, we finally landed a new Skoda SUV that would carry all our luggage and provide plenty of visibility for all the travellers, and at a bargain upgrade of only €525!

We drove off the airport property in search of the M1 motorway. Our destination was north of Dublin to the New Grange area. In this region there are a number of pre-Christian burial mounds, New Grange being the most well known and totally excavated and available for tourists. Unfortunately we had found while back home that all the timed tickets were sold out well in advance for today’s date. Our resources (Zöe ) had told us that there were a number of other mounds in the immediate area, Knowth and Douth being two. Knowth was available for tour only with a group, and required pre-purchased tickets, but Douth was undeveloped and we were able to walk the grounds, hike up the mound and survey the area, which we did.

These burial mounds are at least 5,000 years old and have underground burial chambers. Two had been discovered in the mid 1800’s but they had not yet been excavated and set up for touring. The setting is idyllic and we enjoyed hiking to the top of the mound and viewing the surrounding countryside. We could even see the New Grange mound off in the distance. A wonderful experience.

We then drove on to our destination, Darnley Lodge in the town of Athboy. We found our destination, parked and toted out luggage up the three flights of steps to our very serviceable rooms. We descended for an early and excellent dinner of sea bass, pasta and hamburgers, accompanied by wine and beer. We topped off a surprisingly delicious dinner with a shared serving of Eton Mess and then a short walk around town. We were in bed before 9:00 for the end of a very long 24 hour travel day!