We know the routine, up, stretch, down to breakfast, up for
our luggage, and one last time down to this beautiful and charming lobby to
meet our new driver.
There is a
distinguished-looking man in a white dress shirt and white hair who is going to
Galway eventually and we decide to ride with him.
Okay, he really is our new driver;
but I might have gone with him anyway!
He loads our luggage into his shiny silver BMW (see what I
mean?) and we’re all laughing before we even get in the car. Connie sits in the front and I spread out in
the back seat with my backpack for ready access. Noel, who was born on Christmas Eve, just the
day before Connie, our Christmas baby, tells us that the weather will be bright
spots with intermittent showers. There
is already a bit of mist on the windshield, so shooting from the moving car
with spotty windows will probably not yield much!
On the way out of Killarney we notice that they have a
regional airport called the Kerry
Airport (we’re in County Kerry) and there’s a Ryanair plane at the ready.
We’re moving right along when we run into a big bus that
will be going to slow for Noel’s taste, so he decided to show us the town of Rathkeale. It’s interesting in part because he has
relatives there but mostly because half the town is owned by
Travelers/Tinkers. They don’t mix with
the local inhabitants and build huge houses in their own part of town. Then they erect fences with strong gates, put
shutters or screening on all their windows, and take off in their caravans for
months at a time. When they’re home you
can see one or even two big RVs or camper vans in each yard or on the street. When Connie asks how they make their money, Noel
responds, “illegally” and proceeds to describe the asphalt-driveway scam.
On to and through another little town and like every one
we’ve seen, it is colorful both because of all the flowers and the delightful
choice of paint colors!
We stop for a bit
in Adare where we check out the historical display, the visitors’ center shops
and then drive past the old thatched-roof cottages from the town’s earliest
days. It’s amazing how the thatching
lasts for so many decades. No wonder the
thatcher’s cottage in the Bog Village was larger than the rest. He was the craftsman everyone depended on!
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| chain mail |
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| interesting way to construct the display! |
Noel shows us Limerick, a port city and the third-largest
city in Ireland. They have just built a
new rugby stadium, but we stop to take pictures of the old castle and the new
art work!
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| That's the tallest hotel in Ireland! |
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| Ancient walls |
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| new rugby stadium |
There is a little town, Lisdoonvarna, whose major claim to
fame is that they host an annual, month-long match making festival every September. Noel told us that one year he was at the
airport when an entire plane load of Russian women arrived! Some were quite beautiful and some where the
size of elephants!
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| Statues in the town square commemorating the dances during the festival. |
On, now, to the Cliffs of Moher but the closer we get, the
less promising the weather.
When we
reach the car park the fog is so thick we can’t see which way to go and finally
ask another tourist.
It doesn’t look
like I remember it and I never see the display that Stu, Marilyn, and I
studied.
Then, again, I think we
probably were on a path that wasn’t quite supposed to be in use!
When Connie and I get to the actual
view-point walk, there isn’t much to see.
After a short bit I keep climbing and Connie stops.
She says a prayer of thanksgiving, and when
she looks up, the fog is lifting!
It
never becomes one of those tourist-ad blue sky moments;
but at least we can see the cliffs and it
isn’t raining!
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| Even official documents put the Irish language first! |
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| Yea, we couldn't see much of anything! |
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| Even the vegetation was wet, although it hadn't actually rained! 100% humidity today! |
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| Is that a cliff? |
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| Maybe? I can see waves! |
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| Brian's tower. Glad we hadn't paid to see the view from there! |
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| Poor dear in the damp. Can't be good for the instrument! |
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| Getting better! |
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| People come anyway. If this is your day, this is your day! |
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| Okay, I couldn't decide which one I liked best! |
As we decide we’ve seen about all there will be to see, the
fog comes rolling back in! We stop at
the visitors’ center again to look at the displays – and the gift shop- and go
back to the car park, where Noel has had a sandwich and a little snooze.
On, now, to Galway, to the Harbour Hotel, so Noel can start
his hour and a half trip back home. Poor
guy, he will be stuck in the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic!
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| Not many people going our way! |
We check in, receive a coupon for a dinner for two with a
glass of Prosecco each, and go upstairs to decide if we have the strength to
make it to a pub for a trad session that won’t even start until 9:30.
We think about it a bit, decide to use our
coupon, and after a huge, huge meal, the answer is plain.
Tomorrow is another day!
I don’t even have the oompf to write tonight.
It will wait for the morning.
I can’t let dinner pass, though. We each have a different appetizer. Mine is sweet potato and coconut soup!! Connie has a Killeen farmhouse cheese and
leek tartlet with spiced tomato sauce. I’d
marry it!! Her entre is baked fillet of
salmon with baby potatoes, red onions, olives, green beans and lemongrass
sauce. I have slow-cooked pork belly
with carrot puree, roasted butternut squash and a balsamic glaze. The only thing that could have made it better
would have been for the portions to be SMALLER!
These people must eat like the giant from the Giant’s Causeway! And there was dessert! Bailey’s and white chocolate cheesecake! With coffee or tea! I really wanted to order
the Dillisk Potted Plant! What a cool
name, hunh? It was vanilla panna cotta Connamara seaweed crumb; but the seaweed kinda put me off. They also put seaweed in their Guinness bread
at the beginning of the meal. I loved it
(too much) but Connie could smell the sea when she picked it up.
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| tartlet |
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| pork belly |
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| salmon |
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| OMG cheesecake! |
Up we go to see if we can catch up a little on our
sleep. One thing about a short trip like
this, is that you don’t ever get a down day.
Boy, those get to be more and more important! I can’t get by with four hours’ sleep like I
used to! J
And because my phone finally sent these, a couple from the night before!
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| The world's best goat cheese salad |
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| What a lovely combination! |
Oh my gosh! What a day. I love the troll looking mounds, the murals, and the face on its side. The fog was not wanted, but you still took amazing photos. The food looks scrumptious and absolutely divine. You truly know how to live life to the fullest. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Thanks you! You, too, know how important it is to live NOW!!
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