Ireland Adventures, Week 1

After arriving in Ireland we decided to let our mishap in Paris behind us and go forward in a positive frame of mind. We found a taxi right away from the Dublin Airport to our "Guest House". Our driver was a talkative man from Greece who had moved to Ireland 15 years ago. He took us straight to our guest house, the Charleville.Lodge. This is a small boutique hotel in a remodeled old Georgian house. It is out of the downtown Dublin area, but is within walking distance, perhaps a one half hour walk or you can take the bus to

O'Connell Street

which is the start of downtown Dublin. Our room was comfortable and the staff was helpful. They recommended a pub to eat where we had our first Irish meal and a pint of Guinness. As the day had been stressful we decided that was the extent of our first day in Ireland.

On Saturday we woke up with a sense of adventure. We started with an Irish breakfast at our guest house which was huge, including Irish Bacon, sausage, black and white pudding, beans, eggs, toast, juice and much more. We had prepaid for the breakfasts. We will stay there twice more during this trip, so will definitely not have to worry about getting enough to eat. After breakfast we hopped a bus to

O'Connell Street

to catch the On and Off Tour bus. For 14 Euros, senior rate it gives you a guided tour of historic Dublin with 23 stops. There are many busses running the route so you can jump off at a stop and jump on another bus with your ticket. We had jumped off the bus and were about to return when I realized I had lost our ticket. Luckily, a kindly bus company supervisor believed we had paid and issued us another ticket. The tour took us to Trinity College and the book of Kells. Trinity, a very old college was having a graduation.

We also went to Irish National Gallery and saw some great art. We walked through the Temple Bar neighborhood, a place of pubs, and loads of street life. Our bus took us by the home of Guinness, Irelands signature beer, (stout), Dublin Castle,

Kilmainham Gaol, the jail where many of the Irish rebels had been held and many had been executed. We also enjoyed a good pub lunch while in downtown Dublin. Although we enjoyed our tour, Dublin is such a busy, crowded city, we were glad to head back to our guest house. Before we reached our guest house we needed to relax, so stopped at a neighborhood pub. They made Janice a "Gaelic Coffee" that helped her to relax.

On Saturday July 2nd after another huge breakfast, Joel walked to our car rental agency and picked up our rental car. As Joel had never driven on the left side of the road in a car that the driver is on the right, there was a learning curve. Right turns are especially tricky in a busy place like Dublin, so did many left turns to get the same result. Also, the car is a manual shift with the shift on the driver's left. As Joel is left handed, this didn't take to long to master. After picking up Janice and the luggage we started out for Galway. Luckily, the rental agency had given simple directions for getting out of Dublin and on to the freeway and then to the road to Galway. The road to Galway was a Toll road, but there were only two tolls, totaling 4.5 Euros, about $6.60 U.S. Things went smoothly until we reached Galway. We found where the person that rented us our apartment told us to meet him. He showed up and asked us to follow him. We drove through clogged narrow streets and Joel did several maneuvers that cause Janice's life to flash before her eyes. We finally made it to our apartment. Our apartment is up two flights of stairs, but as our adrenaline was pumping after the traffic scares, we were able to get the luggage upstairs. The apartment is basic and we still haven't figured out how to get a hot shower. There is a beautiful, old church across the street and it is in walking distance to the "Latin Quarter", the old town where all the action is. We walked to the old town and enjoyed the ambiance and had another pub meal.

Sunday was a recovery day. We again walked the old town and it's many pubs, shops, and street musicians, (buskers). We then went to the waterfront where Janice did some sketching and Joel caught up on his reading in the sun. In the evening we found a great pub where Janice had a great lamb dish and Joel had a great steak with fried onions and mushrooms. Also included was an appetizer of hot wings.

Monday the 4th, Janice's birthday was a day of driving and sight seeing. We took a scenic drive from Galway to Clifden, the capitol of the Connemara. This is the area where many of the residence speak the traditional Irish language, (Gaelic). This was a slow moving drive on many narrow winding roads, often besides inlets of the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped at several beaches for Janice to look for sea glass, but the pickings were slim. We stopped at one small stop in the road for a "potty break". The only place available was a roadside pub. Although it was 11:15 A.M. we ordered an Irish Coffee for Janice and a pint for Joel. Another couple with their two young daughters came in soon after us. They were from Stockholm, Sweden and dropped in for some coffee and juice for the girls. In Ireland, pubs are a family place and kids are welcome. We enjoyed talking with the pub owner and enjoyed the pub dog, Monte. The pub owner spoke both English and the traditional Irish language so would shift from one to another. After he found out it was Janice's birthday he said her Irish Coffee was on the house. We continued on our drive and stopped in a town called Roundhouse. We walked around and also stopped at the site of an old monastery. One impressive feature were the many stone wall fences.

Traditional Thatched Roof

 From all the rocks in the fields we saw, it looked like life was hard if you wanted to farm in this area. We continued on our slow trip and finally arrived in our destination, Clifden around 2:30. We were both hungry so saw Mitchell's Seafood house and decided to eat there. Two of our grandkids last name is Mitchell, so we pretended it was Jordyn and Javin's place. The food was delicious. After that we stopped at a bakery and enjoyed a desert. We started our drive back to Galway on a more direct route, but ended up on a road heading north, rather than East back to Galway. We found a road that would reconnect us to our route and this was part of our adventure. It was a narrow country road. Over the course of driving this road we had lots of sheep on the road, plus some cattle.

Walking along the side of the road.

Walking along the side of the road, grazing.

It took us through beautiful country that looked similar to Washington's Cascades. We then got back to our route back to Galway and arrived back in Galway around 6:00 P.M. We got sidetracked, (lost) in Galway, but eventually figured out our way and made it back to our apartment. As we had left before 8:00 in the morning we were ready t relax. Joel walked to a nearby market and picked up chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream to celebrate Janice's birthday.

So far, we enjoy Galway, Dublin is interesting, but both very expensive and very intense, Galway is more relaxed, and while expensive, it is less than Dublin. Galway is a college town and the youthful feel is fun.

We are still unsure of what will happen the rest of the week. On Saturday morning we will leave our Galway apartment and drive slowly to Killarney where we will stay for two days at a B & B and drive "The Ring of Kerry". Ireland is cooler and our first few days were rain free, but the forecast calls for rain and we are told this is the usual state of affairs. More to come later.