The Route: Boston, MA to Dublin, IE

The Plan:

My flight number EI0136 on Aer Lingus leaves from Boston Terminal C at 21:25 (Eastern Daylight Time).  I’ll use military time mostly in this itinerary because there is a lot of travel scheduling information and using military time saves me from having to use AM and PM all the time which for me is exhausting.

I’m going to have to arrange transportation from home so that I arrive at Logan no later than 19:00 (EDT).  If I can’t get someone to offer to drive me there, I can take the 16:45 Concord Coach from Portland which arrives at Logan at 18:40 which would be perfect.  This might be the easiest thing for everyone because I really don’t expect someone to take me there and back just for my own convenience.

I will be flying economy class which will be a wake-up call for me since I spent most of two decades traveling for business and worked my way up to first-class for most of that.  I’ll get a chance to experience what flying “in the back” is like these days.  I understand it is worse now than it was 11 years ago.

Since I am a U.S. citizen travelling to Ireland, I’ll require a valid passport, which will remain valid until after completion of my scheduled trip. However, I won’t require a visa for either tourist or business stays provided the duration is less than three months (which unfortunately will only be 15 days).  My current passport is valid until February 7, 2025.

I booked the same seat 32H for the flight over and back.  One less thing to remember. The current plane for this flight is an Airbus A330. The seat is a standard economy seat with on demand TV and AC power. They are about four rows back from the nearest lavatory and only two rows back from the mid-station galley and emergency exit.  All-in-all a good compromise (I hope!).

There is a full bar service along with a hot dinner with tea and coffee.  I’ll see if it is a good idea to pack some additional snacks to help break up the six hour flight duration.

According to my confirmed reservation, the plane will arrive at Terminal 2 in Dublin, Ireland on Monday morning at 08:30 (Irish Standard Time).  Let’s pick up the trip in the next section.

What Actually Happened:

Well. I’m off! I got on the Concord bus ahead of time. Everyone was here so we left Portland only to stop on the side of the highway minutes later. Some old man left his carry on in the terminal and someone (Concord or his family) came out on the highway and delivered it to him. I’ve never seen anything like it. After a few minutes we were back on the road heading south.

I’m sitting next to a girl that just graduated from UMPI and she is heading to Scotland and Wales as a graduation present. Her real purpose is to go see Taylor Swift in Wales. That’s pretty cute. It’s her first plane ride. I’m kind of excited for her.

When we got to Logan, I checked my bag and moved onto the next phase. I got through security much faster than I thought I would.  I walked to the nearest bar to my gate and sat down to my first well deserved beer.

Plane was supposed to load at 20:30 for a 21:30 departure from gate C21.

I sat at the Santarpio’s bar while Elizabeth texted me her sweater preferences for when I was in the woolen mill stores in Ireland. I really hate shopping for myself so shopping for other people is especially annoying. For bulky items like these, I figured I’ll ship the goods home. I figured I’ll buy flasks for Mary, Ann, and Jimbo. Mary wants some hand towels for her new bathrooms so maybe I’ll see some.

These gates are for Aer Lingus flights and the nearest bar doesn’t sell Guinness. That’s a disappointment.  I was able to resolve my disappointment by having a few Sam Adams.  Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

I don’t remember ever seeing a pet excerise area in all the airports I’ve been in.  There was one right next to my gate so I had to have a peak inside.  There was some astroturf on the ground for the pets to relieve themselves.  I wondered how effective these were for dogs that weren’t used to peeing indoors in what was essentially a closet.  Kinda weird really.

After a TOO long boarding process, we finally got seated at 20:45.  I’m in 32H. The stewardess smiled when I told her I was in 32HOTEL. Probably not too many speak in the phonetic alphabet to her.

We pushed back at 21:20 with an expected flight time of 5:30 hours. ETA is now 08:11  which is 20 minutes earlier than expected.

I sat next to Will from Florida. He lives in Boston attending MIT as a PhD candidate in biology. He went to Wesleyan for undergrad and his best friend has a Maine connection and is from Yarmouth. He passed out soon after take off so not much conversation there.

Dinner on the plane was some spicy chicken thing but I didn’t catch the name because I had my headphones on.

Before dinner I had a Heineken for €6. These coach seats don’t have much room to spread out so I downed it quickly to give back the can.

I’m listening to my own music on my iPhone because the movies offered are not interesting to me.

We’re now about 35 minutes to landing in DUB. The expected time will be 08:12 Irish Standard Time. The cabin is all picked up and we have been ordered back to our seats with seatbelts fastened.

The Route: DUB airport to Grand Canal Hotel

The Plan:

My plane arrives on Monday morning at 08:30 in Dublin.  I have a reservation at the Grand Canal Hotel on Grand Canal Street Upper – Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland (whatever that means). So first things first.  When I arrive at the airport, I need to find an ATM machine and get €200 euros now that I’ll be wandering around Dublin.  I’ll worry about getting British pounds (£) when we get up North almost the first thing on Tuesday.  For the most part I’m told I can use my credit card for most transactions so I’ll probably get a taxi from the airport which is estimated to be between $26 – $31 (€24 – €29).  I’ll decide if a tip is warranted when I arrive but I understand tipping is not expected.  Best practice is to round up a couple of dollars (oops!, I meant euros, it’s going to take a little getting used to that).  It’s only about a 15 minute ride to the hotel.

Situated on the south side of Dublin City Centre, the Grand Canal Hotel is located on the edge of Ballsbridge, within walking distance to all local attractions.

By the time I get my bag, get to the ATM, make my way to the taxi stand, and arrive at the hotel, I estimate it will be about 10:00.  I am hoping that I can go into the hotel and if my room isn’t ready (which I am not expecting it to be), I’ll ask to check my bag with the bellman to be picked up later in the day when my room is ready.

One thing that is interesting (worrying) to me is that the hotel didn’t require me to put down a deposit on the room.  The cost is €189.00.  I actually called the hotel to make absolutely sure that I was confirmed in my reservation and they told me not to worry about it.  I can pay for the room when I get there.  For my reservation for when I check back in on the back-end of the trip, I have already paid for the two nights.  In any event, I booked it officially on September 24, 2023, 02:50 IST (that’s Irish Standard Time).

I think one of my first stops will be at the Gasworks Bar which is famous for their craft beers. It’s right in the Grand Canal Hotel. What could go wrong? From this point, I don’t have any specific plans or obligations. I guess that I will just take my daypack with me and wander west through the streets until I either get tired or distracted by a pub or the sounds of music.  It may be too early in the day to hear any music, but who knows.

At this time, I don’t have a solid plan for this first day in Dublin but will build out this section as I get more acquainted with the Grand Canal area from my guidebooks and other resources.  I’m not too thrilled about wearing a daypack around while touring in Dublin.  I might just take advantage of any pockets I have and try to tour as lightly as possible.  It will be different once the main tour starts, I’ll want the daypack then.  Then again, if I happen to see some souvenirs, I may be wanting the daypack. On a previous trip I took to London a long time ago, I kind of liked buying dish towels that can be used on a daily basis back home as a practical gift. I don’t think I want to buy anything fragile at the very beginning of the trip and have to deal with that given all the moving around we’ll be doing.  If I find something on the trip that looks good like a Waterford whiskey glass or something, I’ll consider it then or make arrangements to have it shipped home.

Eating Options Near Grand Canal Hotel

Breakfast, Brunch & Coffee
– 3fe – Get your barista -brewed caffeine fix from this small Dublin chain (4 minute walk)
– Juniors  – Sit-in for brunch, order ahead for to-go lunchtime sandwiches or enjoy an Italian-influenced dinner menu; casual (5 minute walk)
Lunch
– Eurospar – Large convenience store with Irish-style baguette sandwiches, fresh pastries and full deli (5 minute walk)
– Dosa Dosa – Indian food with a focus on south Indian dosas (potato pancakes); dine-in or to-go (5 minute walk)
– Lotts & Co – High-end grocery and deli food with organic, imported and local brands (5 minute walk)
Dinner
– Paulie’s Pizza – Ireland meets Naples at this wood-fired pizza joint; casual (5 minute walk)
– Etto – Italian-influenced seasonal dining; affordable fine dining (18 minute walk / 7 minute taxi ride)
– Musashi – Dublin’s Japanese chain serves up good sushi and noodles; casual (7 minute walk)
Pubs & Bars Near Grand Canal Hotel
– The Old Spot – Refined pub with an excellent dinner menu; casual (5 minute walk)
– O’Donoghue’s – famous traditional pub for Irish music; great Guinness; always busy (18 minute walk / 7 minute taxi ride)
– Ely Wine Bar – quaff from a wine list 400-strong; good food too (18 minute walk / 7 minute taxi ride)

Pubs near the Grand Canal Hotel are:

– The Storyteller: 9 Grand Canal Street Lower, Dublin 2, D02 XD98, Ireland: 350 meters away
– Ryan’s Beggars Bush: 115 Haddington Rd, Dublin, D04 H328, Ireland – 350 meters away
– O’Connors of Mount Street: 32 Mount Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland, Closest to Grand Canal Hotel – 450 meters away
– The Ginger Man: 39-40 Fenian St, Dublin 2, D02 KD51, Ireland,  – 900 meters away
– Kennedy’s Pub: 30-32 Westland Row, Dublin 2, D02 DP70, Ireland, 1.0 km
– Searson’s: 42-44 Baggot Street Upper, Dublin 4, D04 V210, Ireland, 1.0 km
– Padraig Pearse: A cozy and friendly pub with a large beer garden, a pool table, and a dart board. They serve traditional Irish food and have live music every night. Distance from hotel: 0.1 km
– Slattery’s D4: A modern and stylish pub with a spacious outdoor area, a fireplace, and a projector screen. They offer a variety of drinks and snacks, and host regular events and entertainment. Distance from hotel: 0.1 km
– Vertigo Bar: A chic and elegant bar with a stunning view of the Grand Canal, a fireplace, and a cocktail menu. They serve Mediterranean food and have live music on weekends. Distance from hotel: 0.1 km
– The Ferryman: A charming and historic pub with a warm and welcoming atmosphere, a fireplace, and a piano. They specialize in seafood dishes and have live music on weekends. Distance from hotel: 0.3 km
– The Waterloo Bar: 36 Baggot Street Upper, Dublin 4, D04 R6Y6, Ireland,

Pubs near St. Stephen’s Green are:

– The Hairy Lemon: Stephen Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland – Where The Commitments was filmed – MUST SEE PUB!!!
– The Bar: Shopping Centre, Unit B1B, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, D02 PC04, Ireland
– Sinnotts Bar: King St S, Dublin, Ireland – Rugby Bar
– Sheehan’s Pub: 17 Chatham St, Dublin 2, D02 X923, Ireland
– Neary’s Pub: 1 Chatham St, Dublin, D02 EW93, Ireland
– The Duke: 9 Duke St, Dublin 2, D02 NR76, Ireland
– Swan Bar: 58 York St, Dublin, D02 RW67, Ireland
– O’Donoghues Bar: 15 Merrion Row, Dublin, D02 PF50, Ireland
– The Long Hall: 51 South Great George’s Street, Dublin 2, D02 DV74, Ireland
– The Palace Bar: 21 Fleet St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, D02 H950, Ireland
– Thomas Moore Inn: 12 Aungier St, Dublin 2, D02 CR90, Ireland

Our Favourite Traditional Irish Pubs in Dublin 

What Actually Happened:

The taxi “rank” was very efficient and I was soon in a taxi heading to the Grand Canal Hotel. The taxi man was classic Irishman and filled me in on all the sights along the way. He drove a VW IQ electric vehicle. My first ride in an EV. The ride was about 30 minutes and cost €37.00. I gave him €40.00. I think this is the proper protocol to round up rather than give a % for a tip.

I got to the hotel at about 9:30. My watch was still set to EST so I took a minute to change it to Irish Standard Time while I had a cup of Americano coffee for €3.15.  I’m only recording these various purchases for posterity and perspective. I probably won’t have leisure time to record details like this while we’re moving about.

I’m pretty tired. I didn’t sleep on the plane and the seats were narrow.  This was my first time sitting in coach for 13 years. I admit I was pretty spoiled in my, “other life.”

I checked my luggage because my room wouldn’t be ready until noon or so.  I used my website to get some hints of things to see in the area.

The taxi driver suggested I check out the EPIC museum which was dedicated to preserving the famine migration in the mid-1800’s and the ship that carried Irish immigrants to the US in the 1850s. I went online and bought tickets for both. I walked to the museum by crossing over the River Liffey on the Samuel Beckett Bridge.  Our tour guide on the ship was a very funny guy named Jerry Kelly. I would listen to this guy talk all day. He was hysterical.There were some girls there from Pennsylvania that were touring Ireland after winning a basketball tournament. They wanted to take my picture standing at the wheel of the ship and who was I to refuse them.  They were very nice and excited to be in Ireland.

After the ship tour of the Jeanie Johnston, I went to the EPIC Museum, which is the history of Irish immigration, and it was very in depth with a lot of detail a lot of active presentations, but almost too much detail for me to take in because I was so tired. There was a band playing in the great hall.  They were playing, “You’re a Grand Old Flag” which I later found out was by George M. Cohan, an Irishman born in Rhode Island.  I wonder if they were playing that song as a tribute to him and other people who claim Irish heritage. I ended up catching a cab back hotel because I had done a lot of walking that day and my legs were worn out. I was just still exhausted from not sleeping. It was €10 which wasn’t too bad.  At that point I probably would have paid double.

At about 14:00 IST I had my first pint since arriving in Ireland at The Waterbank bar which is attached to The Grand Canal Hotel. It used to be called the Gasworks but they rebranded it. One good pint deserves another so I had a second one. Brilliant. It was time to formally check in and get a little rest so I went upstairs to room 413 and laid down for a bit.

It was about 17:00 when I went up the street to The Storyteller. Interestingly, this was NOT one of the pubs I had researched prior to my trip.  It was just an inviting place up the street from the hotel so I thought I would just go in and see what’s what. On the way there, I crossed over the Grand Canal which still had working locks.  I’m not sure who would go through there on a regular basis but the locks were automated and could be opened electronically.  It was a very pretty picture nonetheless. There were only a few people in the pub so I chatted up the bartenders.  Of course they were very nice and the bartender/owner had to leave early to play in a hurling match. I had one real Guinness and ordered their chicken club sandwich. Honestly, the best I ever had. It has an entire breast of chicken pounded out on some kind of homemade bread.  I finished up with three Guinness 0.0 and I was DONE. Exhausted.

I had to buy a shirt. Mary’s always calling me a liar when I tell a story. That’s kind of harsh.  I always say the details are not important if it’s a good story to tell.  Now I have a shirt to warn folks that I’m about to start a yarn.  Stand back all you feckin’ fact checkers!!!

I was up for over 24 hours so it was time to lay down for real now. I’m gonna take a shower, set my alarm, and get some sleep. See you at breakfast tomorrow when we launch the tour!

Sláinte

The Route: Grand Canal Hotel, Dublin to Ballygally Castle Hotel, Ballygally, Northern Ireland

The Plan:

I have been telling folks that the tour is similar to an ocean cruise that if you aren’t there when they pull out, you’ll be left behind.  That is one of the main reasons I wanted to stay at the Grand Canal Hotel, because at 08:10 we’re outta here!  I’ll have to make sure that I am packed and ready to check out after having a full Irish breakfast.  I think I should plan to be down in the dining room no later than 06:45 to eat, get back up to my room to get my bag, and then check out.  I think this is going to be the daily routine as we move from hotel to hotel frequently.  I think I’ll get in the habit of showering before bed to save on the morning chaos associated with all of that.  We’ll see how stinky I get .

Speaking of stinky, I have been “auditioning” clothing since the fall of 2023 to see how they would hold up to 15 days on the road with limited laundry facilities and also to be light in weight for carrying.  I have basically been looking at outdoor clothing like Columbia zip-off pants and lightweight fishing shirts which can serve many purposes.  I plan to buy an Irish sweater over there as a layer for warmth and I have also purchased a multi-purpose raincoat that can be used to adjust to the fickle Irish weather.  We’re roughly in the Mercedes van for an average of about three to four hours a day, so comfort is a priority over ruggedness. I purchased some waterproof boots that are lightweight and have been wearing them constantly here in our Maine winter to both break them in and also to test their claim of “waterproofness.”  Is that a real word?

I’m not one of those guys that needs to be first in line to get the best seat. There will be plenty of opportunities in the Mercedes tour vehicle to enjoy the ride. While I was initially writing this blog post, I went back and checked to see what direction we would be going.  I sent an email to the tour operators to see which direction we would be going and they confirmed it would be in the counter-clockwise direction departing on June 11, 2024.   This is very important because there are two different itinerary documents and some of the attractions are adjusted based on the direction of travel.

Some people, when they think of Ireland, they think of, “The Troubles” that defined much of Ireland’s reputation on the world stage. “The Troubles” is the term used to describe the violent conflict that took place in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998, between the mainly Protestant unionists, who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the mainly Catholic nationalists, who wanted to join the Republic of Ireland. The conflict involved paramilitary groups, such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), as well as the British and Irish security forces. The Troubles resulted in more than 3,500 deaths and thousands of injuries. The conflict was largely ended by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which established a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland and a cooperation between the UK and Ireland.

My people were from the Galway / County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland so we never really had much interest or awareness of what was happening in Northern Ireland.  That being said, it is still interesting to me and I’ve seen a few Irish TV movies describing what happened from a historic perspective.

This day’s tour will take us from the Grand Canal Hotel in Dublin and continue north to Ballygally in Antrim.  I’ll need to find an ATM to get some British pounds for walking-around money when we make a stop somewhere.

Our first castle we will tour is Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. Hillsborough Castle has been a grand family home and is now the official home of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and a royal residence. Members of the Royal Family stay at Hillsborough when visiting Northern Ireland. Viewed by some as a politically neutral venue, Hillsborough has played an important role in the Peace Process in Northern Ireland since the 1980s.  It reminds me of the Downton Abbey kind of experience.  Nobody lives like this anymore regardless of how much money they have.

From there, we “roll into Belfast.” The tour recommends the Black Cab Tour as an optional extra, but there is a competing attraction in the Titanic Centre which is a self-guided tour. There has been so much done about the Titanic, I might go for the Black Cab Tour but I’ll see when I get there or when I get recommendations from the tour guide.  If I have any time left on my own, I’ll wander around until it’s time to board the van again.

Other sights the tour has identified and suggested are:

The Crown Bar. They recommend sneaking one (or two!) drinks at this historic gin palace while in Belfast. Restored to its Victorian glory, there really is nowhere else like it in Ireland.

Then there is the Boundary Brewing Co-op’s innovative collection of beers which plays to my craft beer sensibilities.

After what sounds like a full day, we will check into Ballygally Castle Hotel. Some of these Irish names are so lyrical, you wonder if they were made up by kindergartners. It is said to be haunted by a friendly ghost.  I wonder if it’s Casper. There are a lot of references to Game of Thrones in this area.  I’ll have to check it out.

If you’re not seeing ghosts, you’re obviously not spending enough time in the pubs:

Halfway House Hotel: This is one of the closest pubs to the hotel, only 0.5 miles away on Coast Road. It is a traditional pub with live music, a beer garden, and a wide selection of drinks and food.
Matties Meeting House: This is another nearby pub, 0.8 miles away on Brustin Brae Road. It is a country pub with great food and music on various nights of the week.
Olderfleet Bar & Lounge:42 Fleet St, Larne BT40 1BA, United Kingdom
The New Fairways Restaurant: This is a restaurant and bar located at Cairndhu Golf Club, 0.8 miles away on Coast Road. It offers a delicious menu of local produce and a scenic view of the sea.
Ruby’s Bar: This is a contemporary pub with a vintage style, 3.4 miles away on Old Glenarm Road. It hosts live music, comedy, and DJ nights, and serves tasty food and drinks.
Billy Andy’s: This is a fusion gastropub with a friendly staff, 6.3 miles away on Browndod Road. It serves Irish, Bar, British, and Pub cuisines, and is known for its beautiful home cooking.
The Dairy: This is a gem in the Gleno, 6.8 miles away on Waterfall Road. It is a cosy cafe and restaurant with a fireplace, a garden, and a mouthwatering menu.

What Actually Happened:

Today’s the day we start our tour. I was up at 06:00 IST to take my shower and pack. I feel like (know that) I packed too much. I came down for breakfast at 6:45 but it didn’t start until 07:00 so I’m sitting in the lobby making this entry.  The next time I travel, I have to think like a backpacker, every ounce counts. My suitcase was close to 40 pounds which is too much.

The Spectrum Global Day Pass on my phone appears to be working. It’s slow, but it’s faster than the hotel Wi-Fi!

I’m about to head downstairs to check out. The room was very nice and I did manage to get some good sleep. Breakfast today was the full Irish breakfast. I tried most of everything but I skipped the beans because it would’ve flooded the plate with too much liquid.

In classic Billy Cook style, I almost got on the wrong driftwood tour bus. There were two at the curb when we came out.  I was standing around in the crowd of people waiting for them to board and then one of the tour guides asked me my name to check off his list.  I wasn’t on it! He suggested I check with the other tour bus and of course I was supposed to be on there. That made me the last one to board which worked out in my favor because I had a single front row seat for the journey.  The agreement I would find out later is that we would change seats on the bus every day so everyone could take advantage of the views. We proceeded north on the highway towards Belfast after looping through all of Dublin waterfront and docklands areas which were not very scenic but were still cool to see.

Shane Kelly was our tour guide and he gave us a brief introduction to his background and then opened up for the rest of us to share ours. Of course, many people quickly passed over their own names to the point where I couldn’t actually remember any of them, which is always a problem for me. One of the things that Shane Asked us to do to load the ‎WhatsApp and PhotoCircle apps on our iPhones. He then sent invitations to the groups so we could share information and also share our photos.  This was brilliant because it gave us a communication vehicle if we got separated during the tour and also so we could take advantage of other folk’s photos.  You can’t be everywhere at all times and most people have a better eye for setting up their shots. Bonus!

On the way north, we stopped at a rest stop, which was quite clean and new and bright not like American rest stops. We had an opportunity to go to the bathroom, which I took because I didn’t know how long we would be between next stops.  Out in the parking lot was a very large tanker emblazoned with the name, “Guinness.”  Could this be real?  A tanker full of Guinness?  Shane told me later that it was probably some chemicals rather than beer.  Guinness, as you can imagine, is a very large brewery with many, many, trucks and tankers for many purposes.  Still, a man can dream can’t he?  Then on the other side of the building was a trailer truck with the name “O’Toole” which was my grandmother’s name.  These are my people!

We proceeded north to Hillsborough Castle which is a royal residence for visiting dignitaries from England. It was quite grand in the spirit of Downton Abbey without the same extent of land. There were some stately gardens that I took pictures of and they were very nice. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the residence so I can’t share those with you but needless to say, it was very grand many portraiture on the wall.  Princess Ann was the last to visit and she signed the guest book.  It is still an active residence for visiting royals.

After the tour which lasted an hour, we went across the street to the Plough Restaurant for lunch. I got a sandwich and a Guinness and we all went to the bathroom again and then join the group back on the bus to proceed north more.

When we got to Belfast city, we went to the black cab tours which originated at the City Hall and took us immediately into the area of “the troubles.” The tour lasted about an hour when we piled into a black cab and a minivan and they took us around to the scenes and sights of the Belfast war and it really was a war. The cab driver of my car was named Brian and he had been in the trenches during the war, and had a perspective coming from someone who had actually experienced it. It was quite powerful what the Catholics went through compared to what the Protestants did to them was astonishing. The Police force, an army or allied against the Catholics and we were taken to a remembrance garden, where there were names of people who had been killed on plaques for everyone to see it was powerful.   I have recently seen some BBC cop drama about Belfast called “Blue Lights” and they filmed some of the scenes on the same places we visited.  I could pick out many locations which was kind of cool.  After touring Belfast, I don’t have a burning desire to go back there.  I don’t think I gave it a fair shot however, as we were moving fast and had to get on with the tour so we could get to our next stop.

After that tour was over, we went to the Titanic Museum just to pick up a few members of the tour who had decided not to take the black cab tour. From there, we proceeded north again to our hotel for the night, which was called the Ballygalley Castle Hotel. We took relatively back roads to get there which was along the coast.  It is supposedly haunted and they have a ghost room where they might have been seen.  It’s a cute touch.  Every castle should have a ghost or two hanging around.

We got there about 17:30. We checked in and Shane had made reservations for us in the hotel restaurant for 18:30. There wasn’t anything within walking distance of the castle so eating there was fine. I went downstairs to the pub and had a Guinness while I waited and then joined the group for dinner. We were set up into two tables. Our group is 14 people which makes it difficult to seat us all in one table.  I had the monkfish and their seafood chowder, which was very good. After dinner some of the tour folks, retired to their room for an early evening. I went to the hotel bar and had a Guinness zero and I bought a Jameson for my new friend Deke Schroeder. Violating the Irish drinking protocol, Deke decided he didn’t want a second one so he retired to bed with his wife, Mimi whose a hoot. I finished my Guinness and went back to my room about 22:30.

Breakfast tomorrow starts at 7:30 and Shane asked that we be ready and on the bus by 8:55 so I’ll be getting up to take my shower get dressed and pack before that all happens and be ready to go.

G’night.

The Route: Ballygally Castle Hotel, Ballygally, Northern Ireland to Bishop’s Gate Hotel Derry/Londerry, Northern Ireland

The Plan:

After our Irish breakfast, we’ll board the Mercedes Tour Van. We’ll be taking the Causeway Coastal Route which is supposedly spectacular.  There will be so many spectacular experiences on this trip, I’m going to be either jaded or spoiled.

Giant’s Causway, Giant’s Causeway, Giants Causeway!!! It’s one of the most referred to sites in all of Ireland both North and South. Legend has it that the giants loathed each other. And so one day after enduring insults from Benandonner, Fionn built a path to use as stepping-stones to reach Scotland, which was then ripped up by Benandonner. The result was the Giant’s Causeway.  If you meet any of these guys in a pub, you better be buying a round.

There is a shuttle from the parking lot which I might take instead of the 1.6 mile walk which is very steep both ways. There is a cost for this, but it’s cheaper than a heart attack.

Today’s journey is from Ballygally, Antrim to Derry/Londonderry (These are always referred to together, I’ll find out why).

One of my most important bucket list items is a tour of Bushmills distillery.  This is one of the Optional Extra (£££) attractions which means it is not covered by the tour. It is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world.  Of all of the Irish whiskeys I’ve tried, Bushmills Black is my favorite.  This is more important to me than visiting Jameson’s which I think I’ll hit when I get back to Dublin.  This could be good place to buy a bottle to have along with me for the rest of the trip.  Maybe I’ll find a nice Bushmills flask.

In true Irish form, we’ll then go to a clifftop and visit Dunluce Castle. After a few snorts of Bushmills whiskey, wouldn’t everyone want to go to a clifftop to look over the edge? Over its history, Dunluce Castle has witnessed some of Ireland’s most tumultuous and violent periods. The castle’s main structure was built by the McQuillan clan in 1500 and was hotly contested by their rivals, Clan McDonnell, who eventually seized the prized location in the mid-1500s. With its past littered with bloody feuds, it’s no surprise that over time, ghostly murmurings have emerged about Dunluce’s lonely old ruins.

Eventually, we’ll head through the gates of the walled city of Derry/Londonderry and head to the Bishop’s Gate Hotel .

Nearby pubs are:

– The Rocking Chair: 15-17 Waterloo St, Londonderry BT48 6HA, United Kingdom, 3 minute walk, 0.2 km
– Lizzie O’Farrell’s: 26 Waterloo St, Londonderry BT48 6HF, United Kingdom, 4 minute walk, 0.2 km
– Dungloe Bar: 41-43 Waterloo St, Londonderry BT48 6HD, United Kingdom, 4 minute walk, 0.2 km
– The Harp Bar: Waterloo St, Londonderry BT48, United Kingdom, 5 minute walk, 0.2 km
– Peadar O’Donnell’s: 63 Waterloo St, Londonderry BT48 6HD, United Kingdom, 5 minute walk, 0.2 km
– The Bentley Bar: 1-3 Market St, Londonderry BT48 6EF, United Kingdom, 2 minutes, 0.2 km
– Badger’s Bar and Restaurant: 18 Orchard St, Londonderry BT48 6EG, United Kingdom, 2 minutes, 0.2 km
– The Blackbird: 24 Foyle St, Londonderry BT48 6AL, United Kingdom, 7 minute walk, 0.3 km

What Actually Happened:

I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and realized the sun was coming up in a few minutes. I got dressed and headed on down to the beach to sit on some rocks and watch the sunrise. I took some pictures and some videos and I experimented with a few photos settings and I think I got some nice shots.

Breakfast was opened at 7:30 AM and I had the traditional Irish breakfast with the black pudding and the white pudding except the beans again in deference to the other people on the tour since we’re gonna be crammed into a bus together. The coffee machine was down so we had to ask for a few pots from the kitchen which were immediately provided.

After my first course, I noticed a sign on the wall over by the porridge and it was for a bottle of Bushmills whiskey, some honey, and some cream. The idea is that you fix your porridge with those other three ingredients in it and have that for breakfast I couldn’t help myself I had to try, and it was spectacular. I can see myself trying this at home with my instant oatmeal just to say I did it.  It’s hysterical. I would say only in Ireland, but I’m not sure if other places do this as well. I doubt it. This is a good place. Good people, good food, good beer.  What more  could you ask for?

Today we’re heading to the Giants Causeway, which is pretty famous basalt structures here in Ireland and then later we will tour the Bushmills distillery and I hope to sample and also find a nice Bushmills flask. I’ll purchase some Jameson flasks as gifts for folks back home when I get back to Dublin at the end of next week.

We loaded up the van at 8:55 and headed north towards the Giants Causeway. Along the way we wound down some back roads to some scenic overlooks to stop for bathroom breaks and to stretch our legs. The tour from now on is on mostly small roads winding through farms and fields and neighborhoods and ocean views. The country is loaded with sheep and baby lambs which I got to admit are pretty cute when we get out to look for things you can hear their little bleats and it’s just fantastic.

We arrived at the Giants Causeway, which is a world heritage site and it is pretty amazing. We had to take a shuttle bus down to where the actual basalt structures were emerging out of the ocean and there were a LOT of tourists there. I took a lot of pictures and was just blown away by the, magnitude of it and the uniqueness of it.  Pictures don’t really do it justice (as is true of most of Ireland) and the amount of people scrambling over the basalt took some of the grandeur away from it.

Once we had finished the tour, we had lunch at The Nook, which is at the bottom of the visitor center. I had a bowl of seafood chowder and a Guinness which I thought was good but Shane our driver thought it was shite. We’re going to have a chowder contest throughout the remaining time of the tour he seems to know there are some good ones. He was not impressed with the one at the nook and said he wouldn’t be going back there with the tours in the future.

We were then onto the Bushmills distillery but our time there was very short. We first went to the gift shop where I bought a flask and a shirt as a memory. We were then introduced to the bar where I bought a flight of Irish whiskey, three samples of their malt whiskey, which of course was very good. We boarded the bus and we were on to an amazing visual site.

Dunluce Castle is a medieval castle perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean the weather was perfect. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was no wind. It was just beautiful. I took some great pictures and I was very impressed with the whole site even though it was ruins it still was very, very interesting. Somehow while we were touring the castle, Shane managed to procure some cupcakes and other baked goods to celebrate Diane Gunn’s 80th birthday.  We passed them around while we headed out to see more sights.

We made a brief stop at Whiterocks Coastal Park to take a brief walk on the beach. The Irish are very proud of their beaches which is great considering that so much of the country has a rocky coastline but it is an island afterall!

Still in Northern Ireland, the pervasiveness of “The Troubles” continues to haunt us. I guess if you’re Catholic you would say DERRY. If you’re protestant, you would say Londonderry. it was a fair ride through rush-hour traffic which wasn’t very scenic, but showed us what sort of the daily life of the northern Ireland city dwellers was like.

We arrived at our hotel around 6 o’clock. It is called the Bishops Gate Hotel and is near The Diamond in the walled city of DERRY. The Diamond is a square with a statue to the war, dead, and some pretty gruesome looking statues surrounding it. One of the statues has a man or a soldier, actually in a pose bayoneting something quite violent looking actually was my impression. We’ll see that statue up close tomorrow.

Shane told us that we would be going on a walking tour of the walled city tomorrow. We have to be at the Van at 9:45 to load the bags in where they will stay while we take the tour.. Breakfast  starts at 7:30 AM, but there’s no rush on that day, so that’s sort of plan for tomorrow.

Tonight I asked the receptionist at the front desk to recommend a pub nearby that had music. She told me about certain places, but she said the music didn’t start till 10 PM so that was gonna be a long wait since it was only 8 PM when I was talking to her.

She pointed me to a street nearby that had a lot of pubs. She was kind enough to draw me a map, and I followed her instructions and found myself in front of a pub called The Rocking Chair. It was 8 pm and their sign said music started then so I went in. There is already a band sitting around the table about five pieces that were tuning up and practicing, etc.. I ordered a pint at the bar and went and sat down at the table by myself. They’re only two other gentlemen in the room at the time and myself, but I didn’t feel entitled to just go and sit with them, so I sat down and looked over and smiled at them, and tried to ingratiate myself to them ,and it was fine

Shortly thereafter the room filled up with people. I don’t know where they came from but there was a line at the bar four people deep I basically asked the two gentlemen if I could sit with them so that we could create space for other people who  just showed up and they welcomed me to their table, so I sat down.

The music continued to play, which was great. I hadn’t heard any pub music since I arrived in Ireland on Monday morning, so this was a real treat exactly what I’ve been looking for for over a year planning for this trip.

I was reticent to buy a round for these guys cause I didn’t want to get in that round game, which would have forced them to kind of play along. My hearing is shot so I just smiled at them and nodded. Couldn’t understand a word they said with their accent, my poor hearing so I just kind of played along.

I have sent messages through WhatsApp to the team of touring participants, and I was trying to bait them into coming out to listen to music with me and have some Guinness and the only response I got was from the two ladies, Jane and Mary, who are great participants in everything so it was going to be a good time.

Sometime during the night, other people showed up. One girl I was talking to was from the Netherlands and with her accent, and my crappy hearing, I could kinda barely understand what she was saying, but again, I smiled and nodded my head and pretended.

Before you know it, it was 10 PM and the little band was packing up their instruments and heading out. A new girl singer that looked like Cyndi Lauper showed up with her microphone and her lyrics on her cell phone and was singing to a sort of a karaoke machine for the room. I didn’t wanna go through another set with her and I offered to walk the two ladies back to our hotel not that I would be much assistance because I was huffing and puffing the whole time.

I got back to my room about 22:30 and got ready for bed. I’m making this entry close to 23:00 but tomorrow we sleep in a little bit because our walking tour doesn’t start till 10:45 with loading our bags in the van and the breakfast starts at 7:30 to 10:30 so I’ll figure out a way to get my shower and get downstairs with my bags and stuff, have some breakfast and be ready to go and hopefully will have sympathy for my slow pace.

OK, time for bed. I hope to send more information shortly. Thanks for being there. Bye.

The Route: Bishop’s Gate Hotel, Derry/Londonerry to Mount Falcon Estate, Mount Falcon, County Mayo

The Plan:

After Irish breakfast, we’ll take a guided walking tour of Derry/Londonderry.  I hope we are walking from pub to pub but we’ll have to see. Maybe we’ll get a chance to catch our breath at the Walled City Brewhouse.

Today, we will leave Northern Ireland. While we are here, we will be touring Sligo later in the day.  This is funny to me because we know people who live off various roads in Maine and New Hampshire called Sligo Road. I wonder if our friends know the origin of their neighborhood street names.

Nearby is a very famous historic site, Grianán of Aileach.  The origins of the Grianán of Aileach fort are dated back to 1700 BC. It is linked to the Tuatha de Danann who invaded Ireland before the Celts and built stone forts on top of strategic hills. The round fort is built largely without mortar. The interior has three terraces and wooden structures were built against the terraces to provide accommodation. The outline of Bronze Age or Iron Age ramparts can be seen below the fort. Legend states that the giants of Inishowen are lying sleeping but when the sacred sword is removed they will spring to life reclaiming their ancient lands.  Billy, keep your hands off the sword.

We’ll then head into Donegal town to visit Donegal Castle.  The website for this castle says it is closing on November 28, 2023 until further notice for renovations.  Hmmmm.  I wonder what our alternate options are going to be.  Maybe it reopened but the website wasn’t updated.

The hotel for tonight is one of the most intriguing ones on our tour. The Mount Falcon Estate is an active falconry along with the opportunity to fish or shoot skeet.  They also have a “forest bathing experience” and a “woodland sound bath” whatever the hell those are.  The falcon and owl experiences are something I am going to look into if it make sense schedulewise.   Just being near them could be very very cool.  Maybe I can get some pictures. This hotel looks like the complete experience on their own grounds.  Let’s just hope they can live up to their reputation.  I’m optimistic.

Pubs (not really) near the Mount Falcon Estate require a drive for the most part so this might be a night to stick around the estate.  Some pubs not nearby are (just in case):

– Paddy Mac’s: Garden St, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland
– Bar Square: Garden St, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Literally shares a wall with Paddy Mac’s
– Brennan’s Lane: 47 Garden St, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland
– Rouse’s Bar: 53 Pearse St, Ballina, Co. Mayo, F26 T042, Ireland

I’ll probably stick around the estate and have a relatively early night to catch up on my sleep plus the rooms look pretty deluxe.

Get some rest cowboy.

What actually happened:

It’s a testament to how busy we’ve been that I am making this log entry on Friday morning about Thursday’s adventures.  I just never had time to write or dictate this log entry at all on Thursday.

Our day started at a leisurely pace with a nice breakfast in the dining room of the Bishop’s Gate Hotel that was actually served off the menu and not buffet style. I ordered the complete Irish breakfast because I’m finding that I want to tank up in the mornings before we hit the road because lunchtime can be kind of up in the air sometimes if you will.

I sat across from Carmel, who is from Perth Australia, and has that sweet little accent. I think she’s gluten-free because she doesn’t eat bread and offers her selections to whoever is at the table and there was a lot of bread passed around Just mountains of toast.

Derry has a sort of a visitor center in the middle of the city which is near the walls of the wild city where we met our tour guide John who would take us along the wall tops to give us the history of the wall, the city, and the various Struggles that occurred For 100’s of years.

It was truly raining that morning, not just drizzling but real rain. I had to wear my packable raincoat, which was comfortable and fit well, but quickly became soaked in the rain the jacket claims to be waterproof but you quickly become wet either through sweating on the inside or leaking from the outside. After a brief introduction and history of the city going back hundreds of years, we crossed over and climbed the steps up onto the top of the wall, The whole time John is talking to us walking backward and, he spoke in a clear enough and loud enough voice that you could hear him. He was definitely a professional presenter and for some reason, I thought he was constantly looking at me in my eyes, and I was kinda looking back at him and we had our stares  locked up on each other. I’ve noticed this before where I think that the presenter is talking directly to me. Maybe I’m just focused on myself for some reason, but that wouldn’t surprise me.  Later, our guide Shane remarked at how think his Irish accent was (there are many Irish accents) but I didn’t notice it to be difficult to understand.  Maybe all the Irish TV I have been watching back home allowed me to translate what he was saying.  Listening to narration in a different accent or “brogue” in a language you already know (English) adds some authenticity to the information.  It is both informative and entertaining.

There was so much detail in when he spoke to us that I can’t really capture it here in this log and the history if it was interesting to people could be looked up online regarding the history of Derry / Londonderry. The things that happened there in the last 50 years or so would blow your mind the amount of violence killing all the name of Protestant versus Catholic struggles. Just amazing.

I was a little concerned that I would be able to make the complete walking tour because I admit I’m pretty out of shape and there was a lot of stair climbing on slippery steps and railings and I was very conscious about not wanting to get injured this early in the trip that would limit what I could do going forward and would probably cause the other members of the tour to adjust to whatever limitations would cause. To that point one of the members of the tour, Katie had been violently ill while we were still at the Ballygalley Castle Hotel and she actually stayed there in the room with her mother Paige until she was fit enough to join us again. Katie and Paige followed along and joined up with us after spending roughly 150 pounds to take a taxi ride from the Ballygalley Castle Hotel to the Bishops gate hotel. Surprisingly to me, I was able to keep up with the group, and the pace was reasonable, and I saw a lot of of Londonderry. After a while being out in the rain like that, I just wanted the tour to come to a close so we could get on the bus and get moving again. At the very end of the tour we met at The Diamond statue and concluded the tour thanking John for his excellent presentation. We walked back to the van in front of the Bishop’s Gate Hotel and got our soggy selves situated for the ride for that day. The van was all wet from everybody’s dripping clothes and boots and that would be the theme for most of the day on Thursday.

One thing that I’m noticing on our routes is that they don’t really follow the Google routes that I had predicted from hotel to hotel on a daily basis. We wound around all these country roads that I couldn’t really recall if I had to for this log we would go, literally through fields and hedge rows.  On our way to a Ringed fort called Grianan of Aileach. When I write this in the website, I should place directions or link to directions from the Bishop’s Gate Hotel to the ringed fort to show just off the beaten path we were.

It was raining pretty hard and a very steady wind was blowing on this hilltop fort. Once inside the walls of the fort the wind was blocked and it was pretty amazing to see scale of it. Some people climbed on the walls. I stayed on the ground and took pictures of a few things And then again you know because of the rain and everything we just kinda rushed back to the van and we’re on our way again.

We stopped for lunch at a pretty nice truckstop that had three or four different food options and a little market attached to it. I got what was called a club sandwich sourdough roll. It was just okay, it was a truckstop after all. The rain was slowing down, so that was good and kind of gave us hope for the rest of the day that we wouldn’t be totally washed out Just because it was raining, it didn’t stop us from getting out of the van and seeing some sites which is good because we need to push ourselves to experience things outside the van rather than through the windows.

We pressed on to Donegal town and got out of the van to walk around the center of town and all the shops that were there. The whole town was just Mecca tourist shops. Not being a shopper myself I wandered around for a little bit and found McCafferty‘s bar for a pint.

An old woman, an English tourist, asked the bar man if she could pour a pint just for the experience of it and he agreed. She came behind the bar and poured my pine of Guinness and then she left with the rest of her group and I called out to her I said, where did your pint go that you poured and she said you’re drinking it! So that was fun.  I don’t think that would ever happen in America where a bar patron would be allowed the back of the bar to work the taps.  Another vote for Ireland hospitality.

I walked down to the municipal parking lot where the van was and got on and took off my soaking raincoat, which was still wet from before while we’re in Donegal town. It hadn’t been raining so even though I was wet from the prior experience I didn’t get more wet, which was good

The ride to the Falcon Estate Hotel was probably about an hour and along the way we stopped at another gas station convenience store. I bought a six pack of Guinness and got some paper cups from their coffee station and we shared the six pack on the van with John and Deke and Paige and some of the other ladies had just a little sip but mostly John and Deke and I finished the beers on the remaining ride.

The Falcon Estate Hotel is truly an amazing property. It’s quite expansive and well manicured and very tidy. There was a big circus tent on one of the lawns next to the actual estate building, which is where they serve dinner. I checked into our rooms at the hotel main desk and they handed us tags for our bags  which we put on dutifully and went up to our rooms. Within minutes, there was a knock at the door and it was a porter delivering my bag to the room, which was very nice service. I wasn’t really close to the front desk and it would have been a hike humping my bags along.  I was already recognizing and regretting how much stuff I took with me on the road and will definitely curate my belongings the next time I travel.

At 6 PM we went on a tour of the falcons and owls in their aviary. I held a peregrine falcon on a leather glove and petted it. It’s very soft feathers. Next we walked to the actual aviary where the cages were and where the birds were kept and fed. They were pretty amazing and I got a lot of good pictures of them a little short movies so you can see some of their movements and hear some of their sounds just fascinating.

We had a 7:30 PM reservation for dinner in the tent, but we arrived earlier at 7:15 and they took us right in and gave us a table. I sat with the three ladies from the southern hemisphere Carmel, Diane and Deborah. Diane just turned 80 years old and is a real firecracker. A very nice lady and we hit it off famously. She remarked that I would get along with her husband Russ who was back in New Zealand.

I ordered a Dexter cut of a ribeye steak, which is something I never heard of. I ordered it medium rare along with the usual accompaniments of Caesar salad, creamed spinach, and the Cabernet Savignon wine with the cappuccino to finish off the meal. The weight staff was mostly foreign accents. I’m assuming Polish or eastern European of some sort. There were some language barriers and I was hard to understand what they were saying.  There are a lot of Ukrainian refugees flooding into Ireland so they could have been from there.  I didn’t ask.

The meal came out all at once. This was kind of a problem because steak and spinach dishes got cold while I was trying to eat in the proper sequence of salad, entrée and then dessert. I ordered a Redbreast 12-year-old Irish whiskey, which came in a very, very small portion probably the smallest portion of any alcohol drink I ever had so it was kind of a chuckle.

I truly enjoyed eating with these three ladies and listening to their accents and some of their travel adventures in the past all three of them were pretty well traveled, and they weren’t afraid to jump on a plane fly 17 – 18 hours to various locations they had been to. All three had some form of farming in their background, either presently living on a farm in New Zealand or growing up on a farm in Perth Australia.

After dinner, I retired to the hotel bar and ordered an Irish pale ale. I have been drinking so much Guinness over the last couple days. I thought I would try something different and it was very good in the manner of that I’ve been drinking.

Madison and her mother Kelly Reddiger joined me in the pub when they saw me sitting there as they were walking by. Madison is very tall 22 year-old young lady. I think she said she was 6‘2“ tall. Her father I understand is 6′ 10″ tall and played basketball in college. Kelly is very interesting to talk to and has lived. I think she said in 13 different places over the years they have moved around a lot for her husbands work. Most recently she had lived in Savannah Georgia so we talked about that a little bit. Mary Schroeder joined us for a drink and she also had previously lived in Savannah Georgia so that made the conversation well rounded out and was very interesting. It was getting fairly late around 11 PM, so we all retired back to our rooms.

When I got to my room, I took a bath and a big bathtub. There was also a separate stall shower in the quite large bathroom. I hadn’t taken a bath in a tub in years and this was very relaxing after a long day of being wet not really cold but just clammy all the time.

I set up all my electronics for charging devices, put in my earbuds turned on my podcast and went to sleep at about midnight.

The Route: Mount Falcon Estate to Clifden Station House Hotel, Clifden, Ireland

The Plan:

Let’s just assume that every day starts with an Irish breakfast, so I’ll stop reminding you at this point.  Back in the van, we head to Westport.  You could spend a whole weekend in Westport near Clew Bay, but we’ll just have time to make a quick pit stop (bathroom? pint?).

The next stop is something I’m a little afraid of.  We’re going to Mirrusk Abbey where nearby is the holy mountain of Croagh Patrick where is says you lose a sin with every step.  I don’t know if my legs can hold out that long given my lifetime of being naughty.  It would be a long march for me.

Back in the van and we’re cruising onto the Doolough Valley which is one of Ireland’s most scenic drives. A trip through the Doolough Valley is a special experience. Nestled between high mountains, there are two lakes along which the Wild Atlantic Way winds its way. The untouched nature creates a unique idyll. At the northern end of the valley, right next to the road, there is a cross built in memory of the victims of the “Doolough Tragedy”. During the great famine in 1849 hundreds of needy inhabitants of Louisburgh set off on foot to Delphi Lodge to seek food from the authorities there. However, they were harshly rejected. On the way back to Louisburgh, many of them died of hunger and frost in the Doolough Valley.  I don’t know why but this sounds like an Irish holocaust.

We’ll be staying at the Clifden Station House Hotel this night.  Some other pub options in the Connemara area are:

Lowry’s Bar: 0.2 km. This is an iconic Irish pub that offers live music, whiskey, and gin. It was voted the best traditional bar in Ireland in 2019, 2018, and 2015.
Mullarkey’s Bar: 3 km. This is a cozy bar that is part of Foyle’s Hotel, but open to the public. It is known for its open-mic sessions, impromptu gigs, and good craic.
The Signal Bar: 0.4 km. This is a casual bar and restaurant that is located on the grounds of the Station House Hotel. It serves traditional Irish dishes and locally brewed beers.
Guy’s Bar & Snug: 0.5 km. This is a traditional pub that has small intimate snugs and corners. It serves pub grub, Irish, and European dishes, as well as coffees and drinks.

What Actually Happened:

It’s Friday, the fourth day of our trip. I woke up to see a bunny out on the lawn outside of the window of my room, which was nice. I understand that some of the Raptors that are in the aviary when they’re out training have actually killed a rabbit from time to time, the trainers of the birds will take the rabbit from the bird and then feed portions of it to them overtime so that they stay hungry and want to do trainings. I kept looking at the bunny, wondering how much time it had left on this earth, but it was time to get showered and dressed and down to breakfast For today’s adventure.

Today I ordered off the menu spinach Florentine, which was sort of like two poached eggs on top of some spinach au gratin with English muffins. It was very good. I’ve been over eating at breakfast because these portions are not something that I’m really used to this early in the day, so I decided to go a little easy.

Our tour today took us to the Country Life Museum. This was very interesting and had lots of interesting exhibits. It was self-guided so you just basically wandered from exhibit to exhibit and read what they had to tell you about what life in Ireland has been like over the centuries, there’s a lot of history there. The museum is on the grounds of another Irish manner, and some of it was under construction, and being renovated or maintained is probably a better word because they were working on the slate roof at the time and therefore had scaffolding all around the building so if any slate fell off, it wouldn’t hurt any of the visitors. It was another building that made you feel like you were at Newport or Downton Abbey. These homes are just incredible.

After that, we went into another gorgeous little town called Westport. It was just filled with little shops and shopping and and some pubs not being a shopper myself I wondered around for a while until I finally settled into a pub called Cozy Joe’s where I had a bowl of seafood chowder and some fries. I wanted something a little less than a full meal because we’ve been eating so much lately, I had a pint and then walk back to where the van was and spoke with some of my tour mates finding out more about their lives and what they are interested in, etc. all in all a great day.

From there, we went to a mountain, a real mountain, called Crough Patrick. We walked up part of the mountain, basically just to get out of the low lying trees for a better view of the mountain. The story in the mountain is that for every step you take up the mountain and removes one sin from your life.  Obviously, I don’t have enough steps left in my life to reverse all my naughty nature.

We then went across the street from the mountain where there was a national memorial to all the people that died on the immigration “coffin ships.” it was very solemn.

We then went on a fairly long drive through one of the most scenic areas in Ireland called the Doolough Valley.  If you’ve ever been up to Grafton notch in Maine, take that memory and viewpoint that you had and multiply it literally by 1000 this was some of the most striking and scenic landscape I have ever seen. There were some cute cheap that were running around there’s tons of sheep in this part of the country and they’re out everywhere. They’re on the roads are in the fields. There’s little baby lambs. There’s every kind of sheep that you could imagine and they’re all very peaceful and very cute and I’m really enjoying watching the little lambs out in the field taking their naps and just being pretty cute.

We then continued on our journey down to Clifden where we would be spending the night in the Clifden Station House Hotel. This is a very comfortable hotel that was made out of the old train station. It’s a boutique hotel and they were offering a three course meal for dinner €39 which was a pretty good deal. I changed into a nice dress shirt that I had brought and got out of my hiking boots for the first time since leaving Maine on Sunday and that felt good on my feet and tomorrow is gonna be another full day.

I had mussels for my first course. For my main course I had lamb chops and for dessert I had a selection of little ice cream options. It was all very good. I ate dinner with Deke and Mimi two lovely people from North Carolina who have an interesting background and we enjoyed our company immensely and then after dinner, we retired the lobby bar. I had a Guinness, a Red Breast 12 year. Mimi had some cream d’menth on ice. We said good night to each other around 10 PM and went upstairs to our to our rooms.

We’re staying in the same hotel overnight, which is good because I won’t have to pack in the morning And we’ll be down at the van 9:30 AM after eating breakfast. Then head out to Kylemore Abbey in Connemara and there’ll be more to talk about in tomorrow’s log.

Live long and prosper.

Cheers

It’s Friday, the fourth day of our trip. I woke up to see a bunny out on the lawn outside of the window of my room, which was nice. I understand that some of the Raptors that are in the aviary when they’re out training have actually killed a rabbit from time to time, the trainers of the birds will take the rabbit from the bird and then feed portions of it to them overtime so that they stay hungry and want to do trainings. I kept looking at the bunny, wondering how much time it had left on this earth, but it was time to get showered and dressed and down to breakfast For today’s adventure.

Today I ordered off the menu spinach Florentine, which was sort of like two poached eggs on top of some spinach au gratin with English muffins. It was very good. I’ve been over eating at breakfast because these portions are not something that I’m really used to this early in the day, so I decided to go a little easy.

Our tour today took us to the Country Life Museum. This was very interesting and had lots of interesting exhibits. It was self-guided so you just basically wandered from exhibit to exhibit and read what they had to tell you about what life in Ireland has been like over the centuries, there’s a lot of history there. The museum is on the grounds of another Irish manner, and some of it was under construction, and being renovated or maintained is probably a better word because they were working on the slate roof at the time and therefore had scaffolding all around the building so if any slate fell off, it wouldn’t hurt any of the visitors. It was another building that made you feel like you were at Newport or Downton Abbey. These homes are just incredible.

After that, we went into another gorgeous little town called Westport. It was just filled with little shops and shopping and and some pubs not being a shopper myself I wondered around for a while until I finally settled into a pub called Cozy Joe’s where I had a bowl of seafood chowder and some fries. I wanted something a little less than a full meal because we’ve been eating so much lately, I had a pint and then walk back to where the van was and spoke with some of my tour mates finding out more about their lives and what they are interested in, etc. all in all a great day.

From there, we went to a mountain, a real mountain, called Crough Patrick. We walked up part of the mountain, basically just to get out of the low lying trees for a better view of the mountain. The story in the mountain is that for every step you take up the mountain and removes one sin from your life.  Obviously, I don’t have enough steps left in my life to reverse all my naughty nature.

We then went across the street from the mountain where there was a national memorial to all the people that died on the immigration “coffin ships.” it was very solemn.

We then went on a fairly long drive through one of the most scenic areas in Ireland called the Doolough Valley.  If you’ve ever been up to Grafton notch in Maine, take that memory and viewpoint that you had and multiply it literally by 1000 this was some of the most striking and scenic landscape I have ever seen. There were some cute cheap that were running around there’s tons of sheep in this part of the country and they’re out everywhere. They’re on the roads are in the fields. There’s little baby lambs. There’s every kind of sheep that you could imagine and they’re all very peaceful and very cute and I’m really enjoying watching the little lambs out in the field taking their naps and just being pretty cute.

We then continued on our journey down to Clifden where we would be spending the night in the Clifden Station House Hotel. This is a very comfortable hotel that was made out of the old train station. It’s a boutique hotel and they were offering a three course meal for dinner €39 which was a pretty good deal. I changed into a nice dress shirt that I had brought and got out of my hiking boots for the first time since leaving Maine on Sunday and that felt good on my feet and tomorrow is gonna be another full day.

I had mussels for my first course. For my main course I had lamb chops and for dessert I had a selection of little ice cream options. It was all very good. I ate dinner with Deke and Mimi two lovely people from North Carolina who have an interesting background and we enjoyed our company immensely and then after dinner, we retired the lobby bar. I had a Guinness, a Red Breast 12 year. Mimi had some cream d’menth on ice. We said good night to each other around 10 PM and went upstairs to our to our rooms.

We’re staying in the same hotel overnight, which is good because I won’t have to pack in the morning And we’ll be down at the van 9:30 AM after eating breakfast. Then head out to Kylemore Abbey in Connemara and there’ll be more to talk about in tomorrow’s log.

Live long and prosper.

Cheers

The Route: Today we explore around the Clifden area.  Destinations TBD

The Plan:

If the Portland Head Light was emblematic of Maine (and probably the whole USA based on calendar shots), Kylemore Abbey in Connemara takes the prize here in Ireland.  Just like the fictional Downton Abbey, the Irish estate and grounds are something that are irreplacable. Kylemore Castle was built in the late 1800s by Mitchell Henry MP, a wealthy businessman, and liberal politician. Inspired by his love for his wife Margaret, and his hopes for his beloved Ireland, Henry created an estate boasting ‘all the innovations of the modern age’. An enlightened landlord and vocal advocate of the Irish people, Henry poured his life’s energy into creating an estate that would showcase what could be achieved in the remote wilds of Connemara. Today Kylemore Abbey is owned and run by the Benedictine community who have been in residence here since 1920.

We won’t be doing too much driving on this day, but we’ll fit in a visit to Inaugh Valley.  I’ll need to keep reminding myself to take pictures as I will be distracted by one of the most scenic drives in the world! There is a photo opportunity at every turn as the Inagh Valley road wends its way through the majestic heather covered mountains of the Twelve Bens from the Maamturks which are separated by the valley and its picturesque lakes. The vista is ever-changing from day to day as the slightest change in the weather is reflected in the lakes and mountains. This is the second leg (30km) of the Western Way which winds its way down from Mam Éan along the valley, past wonderful scenery and then takes a right turn back towards Killary Harbour and Leenaun to where the section ends.

Weather and time permitting, we’ll make a stop to learn about the peat bogs.  My cousin Matty dug peat when he visited Ireland probably 40 years ago and I remember the pictures.  For some reason I seem to recall a slide show (remember them) in our living room of his trip.

We’ll be staying at the Clifden Station House Hotel again for this night.  Some other pub options in the Connemara area are:

– Paddy Coynes Pub in Tullycross, a cozy and historic pub with turf fires, live music, and food.
– Lowry’s Bar in Clifden, a vibrant and award-winning pub with a large whiskey selection, gigs, and craic.
– Veldons Seafarer in Letterfrack, a charming and atmospheric pub with memorabilia of the first transatlantic flight, a seafood-focused menu, and a beer garden.
– Mannions Bar in Clifden, a family-run bar and restaurant serving locally sourced seafood and traditional Irish favorites.

What Actually Happened:

Saturday. I keep having to check my iPhone home screen to see what day of the week it is. If I count on my fingers, this would make day five of our 11 day tour. We saw some really cool stuff today. We also had some sadness on our trip. The Coynes from Pennsylvania continue to be ill. Today, John and Paige remained back at the hotel while Katie their daughter went on the trip with us today. It’s kind of sad they’ve had a lot of GI issues on this trip which I can understand makes it unbearable to come along and be stuck in the van all day as we move from place to place.

It was another relatively slow start today. We all met for breakfast down in the restaurant. I had the traditional Irish breakfast, but I’ve been trying to reduce the portion size because the amount of food we’re consuming on this trip is just insane.

The main theme for today is a visit to Kylemore Abbey. I’ll fill in the details about Kylemore Abbey when I get home. I will say that this is probably one of the most grand former residences in Ireland.  I keep saying to myself and out loud, they could never do this today. just considering the amount of land that was involved in the estate and the creature ponds in the house itself and the woodwork on the walls inside and all of the art and all of the contents in the house the cost for me anyway would be inestimable.  Things on the scale cannot be even dreamed of. The highlights of the day we’re going to the Abbey house, listening to a half hour presentation given from a docent and then touring the garden areas which had temporally been destroyed, but re-created and recovered and were in active views today.

I ate lunch with Deke and Mimi again and they’re just so much fun. I really tried to have a small portion, and I basically ordered the smallest thing they had in their display case which was a chicken sandwich on a roll up with the version of Irish stuffing and cranberry and then they heated it similar to a Panini. I didn’t buy anything to drink because I have all these water bottles that I’ve been carrying around and I want to reduce the weight.

When we got back on the bus at 1 PM, Shane told us that he had made reservation at a nearby pub for us to have lunch. When we got there, I thought I would just have a pint while I’m everyone else ate, but we have this ongoing chowder contest to see what the best chowder is so I ordered a bowl of the seafood chowder and pine Guinness, and proceeded to sit across from Shane as we compared results of this chowder, Shane gave it a 7 1/2 I think well I thought it was only a 6 1/2 as the potatoes were kind of you know mushy and overcooked not the al dente potatoes that I would expect from quality chowder.

After lunch, we went to the Conamara national Park. It’s more of a park for children, but we got a chance to walk around a nice little pond and visit the museum. See some of the stuffed animal animals history of the bugs and just general sort of national natural history. We only stayed about half an hour and then we got back on the bus to go to one of the most incredible sites that I’ve seen since we’ve been on the spread trip and that’s saying a lot because we’ve seen some really incredible stuff.

Shane took us for a ride and it’s called the sky road. I keep saying these things are indescribable, but you’ll just have to refer to the pictures that I’ve taken understand the vastness of these sites and the beauty of them were words almost don’t do justice when we got to the top of the sky Road, we got out of the van and post for a group picture Smiling it’s just what we’re saying and we are so excited about what’s left to come.

We got back to the hotel about 430 or so, and sat around the tables in the sunshine to discuss what our dinner plans would be the day they started out raining turned into the most glorious blue sunny day with very few clouds in the sky almost 180° difference from the morning to the afternoon. We decided we would go to Mannions seafood bar and restaurant and I ordered a burger like a dummy because I forgot this is a seafood restaurant and I was so engrossed in talking with the people for dinner that I decided I would try to get something small to eat since we’ve been consuming so much lately and a burger seemed like a simple choice to make.  Right after I ordered the burger, I realized I had made a big mistake since some of the best seafood around was at this restaurant. Well, you live and learn.

Mary and Jane both ordered the seafood pie, which is sort of like shepherds pie with seafood inside. It had a mashed potato crust on the top of it and then sort of a crock of various seafood items like a seafood chowder almost with a mashed potato cap on top of it I tried a little of it. It was pretty good and I kind of regret it. I didn’t get it because that would’ve been more of a signature item for this particular restaurant. We had a couple Guinness at the table and then when dinner was over Mimi and Deke went back to the hotel. Mimi’s ankle has been bothering her and she’s been wearing a brace, but she decided she wanted to just go back to the hotel and put her foot up for the night.

Mary and Jayne and I proceeded onto McGrath’s bar where we thought we would hear some live traditional music. It was suggested to us by the bartender at Minnions, but we didn’t know what time the music would start when we got there. I bought a roundfor the two ladies who were brave enough to come out with me.  I got a green spot on the rocks for Mary. She likes the Irish whiskey and then I attempted to buy a old fashion for Jayne, but this bar says they don’t make cocktails so I got her a nice glass of Chardonnay while I had the usual pint of Guinness.

We stayed for a while just wanna drink because we thought the musical on sooner but then we found out the music doesn’t even start till 10 PM so we finished our drinks and walked back to the station house hotel. I crossed the street to the bar that looks directly at the stationhouse hotel, and had a pint Guinness, hoping that one of the locals would just strike up a conversation with me. No such luck there was a lot of people in there and they all seem to be in parties of six or more so they weren’t in any need of conversation from me.

After that, I just went back up to my room. Did a little prep packing for tomorrow morning and watch the Irish news to see if there was any news about a potential Aer Lingus labor action, what we would call a strike.

My legs are really taking a beating even with compression socks on every day. They’re starting to swell up more and not reduce as much with the compression socks. I’m watching them closely. Hopefully they won’t be any problems going forward, but it didn’t notice that one of the toes on my right foot is a little bit swollen, so I don’t know if that’s as result of all amount of walking we’ve been doing in boots or if it’s a problem that might be happening.

Well, I guess that’s enough for today obviously, I’ll be posting pictures from today on the website and also sending a few along to the WhatsApp group that’s been interested in my trip which I’m actually quite grateful that they would have enough interest to follow what I’m doing and sort of share in this with me.

It’s Friday, the fourth day of our trip. I woke up to see a bunny out on the lawn outside of the window of my room, which was nice. I understand that some of the Raptors that are in the aviary when they’re out training have actually killed a rabbit from time to time, the trainers of the birds will take the rabbit from the bird and then feed portions of it to them overtime so that they stay hungry and want to do trainings. I kept looking at the bunny, wondering how much time it had left on this earth, but it was time to get showered and dressed and down to breakfast For today’s adventure.

Today I ordered off the menu spinach Florentine, which was sort of like two poached eggs on top of some spinach au gratin with English muffins. It was very good. I’ve been over eating at breakfast because these portions are not something that I’m really used to this early in the day, so I decided to go a little easy.

Our tour today took us to the Country Life Museum. This was very interesting and had lots of interesting exhibits. It was self-guided so you just basically wandered from exhibit to exhibit and read what they had to tell you about what life in Ireland has been like over the centuries, there’s a lot of history there. The museum is on the grounds of another Irish manner, and some of it was under construction, and being renovated or maintained is probably a better word because they were working on the slate roof at the time and therefore had scaffolding all around the building so if any slate fell off, it wouldn’t hurt any of the visitors. It was another building that made you feel like you were at Newport or Downton Abbey. These homes are just incredible.

After that, we went into another gorgeous little town called Westport. It was just filled with little shops and shopping and and some pubs not being a shopper myself I wondered around for a while until I finally settled into a pub called Cozy Joe’s where I had a bowl of seafood chowder and some fries. I wanted something a little less than a full meal because we’ve been eating so much lately, I had a pint and then walk back to where the van was and spoke with some of my tour mates finding out more about their lives and what they are interested in, etc. all in all a great day.

From there, we went to a mountain, a real mountain, called Crough Patrick. We walked up part of the mountain, basically just to get out of the low lying trees for a better view of the mountain. The story in the mountain is that for every step you take up the mountain and removes one sin from your life.  Obviously, I don’t have enough steps left in my life to reverse all my naughty nature.

We then went across the street from the mountain where there was a national memorial to all the people that died on the immigration “coffin ships.” it was very solemn.

We then went on a fairly long drive through one of the most scenic areas in Ireland called the Doolough Valley.  If you’ve ever been up to Grafton notch in Maine, take that memory and viewpoint that you had and multiply it literally by 1000 this was some of the most striking and scenic landscape I have ever seen. There were some cute cheap that were running around there’s tons of sheep in this part of the country and they’re out everywhere. They’re on the roads are in the fields. There’s little baby lambs. There’s every kind of sheep that you could imagine and they’re all very peaceful and very cute and I’m really enjoying watching the little lambs out in the field taking their naps and just being pretty cute.

We then continued on our journey down to Clifden where we would be spending the night in the Clifden Station House Hotel. This is a very comfortable hotel that was made out of the old train station. It’s a boutique hotel and they were offering a three course meal for dinner €39 which was a pretty good deal. I changed into a nice dress shirt that I had brought and got out of my hiking boots for the first time since leaving Maine on Sunday and that felt good on my feet and tomorrow is gonna be another full day.

I had mussels for my first course. For my main course I had lamb chops and for dessert I had a selection of little ice cream options. It was all very good. I ate dinner with Deke and Mimi two lovely people from North Carolina who have an interesting background and we enjoyed our company immensely and then after dinner, we retired the lobby bar. I had a Guinness, a Red Breast 12 year. Mimi had some cream d’menth on ice. We said good night to each other around 10 PM and went upstairs to our to our rooms.

We’re staying in the same hotel overnight, which is good because I won’t have to pack in the morning And we’ll be down at the van 9:30 AM after eating breakfast. Then head out to Kylemore Abbey in Connemara and there’ll be more to talk about in tomorrow’s log.

Live long and prosper.

Cheers

The Route: Clifden Station House Hotel to Lahinch Coast Hotel, Dough, Counth Clare, Ireland

The Plan:

I don’t know if my pint is half-empty or half-full, but Day 6 marks the hump day of our tour and it should be called Castle Day.  Is there a castle on every corner like Waffle House?

We head out from Clifden and attack the Aughnanure Castle.  Their website says they are closed but who knows? In 1546 the O’Flahertys joined forces with the Mayo O’Malleys when Donal an Chogaidh O’Flaherty married Grace O’Malley, later known as Granuaile, the formidable pirate queen. The O’Malley motto, ‘Powerful by land and by sea,’ showed the awe in which that family, too, was held. At Aughnanure today we  can inspect the remains of a banqueting hall, a watch tower, an unusual double bawn and bastions and a dry harbour. Keep your eyes peeled for glimpses of the three species of bat that now live in the castle.

When I was growing up, my mother always confused me when one time she would say we were from Galway and other times she would say we were from Mayo.  Well today, I’m going to check out Galway to see what’s happenin.’  After sacking Augnnanure, we’ll lay seige to Dunguaire Castle (I gotta admit, trying to pronounce these bastions is a tongue twister). In 1954 the castle was acquired by Christobel Lady Amptill who completed the restoration started by Oliver St. John Gogarty. Subsequently the castle became the property of Shannon Heritage. Today the restored castle gives an insight into the lifestyle of the people who lived from 1520 to modern times. From April to October you can enjoy fabulous entertainment and locally sourced food at the renowned castle banquet.

We are off to The Burren!   The vast, moon-like Burren in County Clare is one of Ireland’s most compelling landscapes. Here, cool grey rock etched with crevices and cracks tumbles down to the wild blue Atlantic Ocean. The result is one of nature’s most extraordinary phenomena: a huge rocky pavement dotted with rock formations, caves and fossils, as well as an incredible array of flowers, from native species to Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean plants.  Houston, The Eagle has landed.

At last, we will have our minds, bodies, eyes, ears, and noses blown.  No, not that kind of nose blowing, but an amazing sensory experience on the world famous Cliffs of Moher.  The Cliffs of Moher tower over the rugged west Clare coast. We’ll walk the safe, paved pathways and view the famous Cliffs on Europe’s western frontier and enjoy the spectacular vistas over the Atlantic Ocean and the Aran Islands. Their natural beauty has inspired artists, musicians, and poets for generations, as well as absorbing scientists and geologists, drawn by the unique landscape in which they sit. The Cliffs of Moher, the most famous cliffs in Ireland, will leave you awestruck, creating memories that will stay with you forever.

We’re gonna start to feel the exertion of being on the road six days and seeing and doing EVERYTHING. This night we will lay our heads down at the Lahinch Coast Hotel. The Lahinch Coast Hotel is a Four Star Spacious Hotel in the coastal village of Lahinch Co. Clare with Leisure Centre and Swimming Pool. The hotel has undergone a stylish new look and redesign to its Reception, Drawing Room, Spacious Lounges and popular “Gastro Style” Aberdeen Bar & Restaurant. These modern areas are relaxing and spacious which capture the style of the wonderful coastal seaside village of Lahinch.

Pubs nearby are:

– Slattery’s Bar: 45 meters, 1 minute walk
– The Corner Stone Bar: 140 meters, 2 minute walk
– Danny Mac’s: 200 meters, 3 minute walk
– The Nineteenth Bar, 210 meters, 3 minute walk
– Flanagans Bar: 0.2 km
– Kenny’s Bar: 0.2 km
– The Nineteenth Bar: 0.3 km
– O’Looneys Bar: 0.4 km
– Vaughan’s Anchor Inn: 0.5 km

Pubs directly in Galway:
The Front Door
Crane Bar
Taaffes
O’Conners
The Quays
The King’s Head

Highly recommended brewer:
Galway Bay Brewery

What Actually Happened:

Sunday. Father’s Day. Today we went on one of the most iconic trips that we’re going to make on this vacation or this tour is just probably more accurate. We will go to the cliffs of Moher. But first…

After two nights in the station house hotel in Clifden, we met downstairs after breakfast to get the van packed and to get on the road. The prearranged meeting time to leave was 9 AM. Everyone was there and fine spirits and we expected to have excellent weather for the day.

Our first stop was Aughnanure Castle. You can read more about this online and filling for some of the history of the castle, but needless to say it was an exciting and interesting form of architecture from the late medieval period (1490) just before Henry VIII takes the throne in England.  The tour guide was so expert it was mesmerizing.

We went to the Hazel Mountain chocolate factory, the only bean bar chocolate factory in Ireland. I had a cup of hot chocolate and a brownie, and then it was time to tour the candy making operation. It was very similar to the chocolate factory and Rockland Maine the way visited previously I think I even remember some of the equipment they use in this chocolate factory being similar to what we have in Maine.

What happened next was slightly disappointing. We drove into Galway, which is one of the most exciting and entertaining cities on the West Coast of Ireland, but we only had a couple of hours to spend because we had to get onto our planned time at the Cliffs of Moher, I was able to purchase a sweater for Elizabeth and also a sweater for myself, which was one of the my main goals of this trip, I shipped the sweaters back to the United States for free and they should arrive there in 5 to 7 business days. It was the sweater store so I went outside and went up a couple of blocks and then I found a nice little pub called the Dáil Bar where I ordered another chowder and an IPA foregoing the Guinness for a bit.

I was the last one to get on the bus because I thought we were leaving at two but we were actually asked to be back on the bus at 1:45 PM. I arrived on the bus at 1:50 PM, which isn’t so bad. Five minutes late was like anybody was really gonna be delayed on our future Sightseeing.

We continued on our journey through what’s known as the Burren in Ireland. This unforgiving landscape is like being in a part of the moon not much there, it’s mostly exposed out cropping of rock, which gives it the impression. We made our way along the wild Irish coast to see what was probably the biggest earth attraction in Ireland, which is the Cliffs of Moher.  Before this, we stopped off at shrine to Saint Bridget and saw some of the items that are in their grotto, which are prayers for people who have illnesses, etc. stop for about 10 minutes when we get on our way again.

The actual Cliffs of Moher are quite crowded with tourists. There is some ascent of a path that I opted to avoid by taking a ride on a supplied golf cart. We weren’t on top of the cliffs for very long, maybe 20 minutes and then we took some pictures and then I took the golf cart back down to the parking lot where our van was waiting.

We arrived in Lahinch at the Lahinch Coast Hotel a little bit before 6 PM. A group of us agreed to meet in the lobby to discuss our dinner plans we were greeted by Deke Schröder. He invited us into the lobby bar to have a drink so we did and we conducted our discussion about dinner plans from there.

One of the places that I had previously researched was a little pub called Danny Mac’s, that had a great reputation for food and of course their drinks were what would be become pretty standard across Ireland that we’ve seen.

Continuing with the Chowder challenge, I ordered a bowl. I also had a Guinness and I ordered a steak sandwich.

Steak sandwiches different than what you get in the US or different from what I had ever before. It was actually a nice small steak on a roll with coleslaw a salad french fries. It wasn’t shaved steak like a Philly cheesesteak. It was more like a small sirloin on a bun.

Kelly also ordered the seafood chowder she awarded it score of eight while I thought it was no better than a 7.5 and I am still waiting that perfect bowl. Today’s Sunday so Shane still has time to come through with a good suggestion.

We returned back to the lobby bar for one last pint before bed and we’re up to our rooms around 10:30 PM.

Breakfast starts at 7:30 AM tomorrow and we need to be on the bus by 9:15. More to follow.

The Route: Lahinch Coast Hotel to Dingle Benners Hotel, Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland

The Plan:

After breakfast, it’s back on the magic carpet and heading toward and through the Clare coastline. Ever since surfing first exploded onto the Irish scene well over a decade ago, Lahinch has been the spiritual (and commercial) hub of surfing in Ireland. Venture south and you have the brown sugar sands at Spanish Point. Head north, and there’s the terracotta fringe of Fanore. Now all you need to do is get wet. When it comes to clubs and rolling greens, Dr Martin Hawtree’s famous links golf course in Doonbeg offers an 18-hole championship circuit. While Ennis Golf Club and Lahinch Golf Club are relaxing retreats perfect for the novice or expert golfer.  We won’t be golfing here, but who knows, we may find ourselves in the area for a pint.

We will take a ferry across the mouth of the Shannon River which is the longest river in Ireland to arrive in “The Kingdom” of Kerry.  We may visit the South Pole Inn for a pint and find out more about the Irish explorer of Antartica, Tom Crean.  Who knows?

The itinerary for today includes a tour of a working Irish sheep farm with a sheepdog demo.  I understand if there are sheepdog puppies we’ll be allowed to play with them.

Are we about to arrive in Heaven?  We’re staying over this night in Dingle.  There is a pub for every 40 residents here!  This is what Ireland is all about.  Our lodging for the night is in the Dingle Benners Hotel.  Mrs. Benner’s Bar is the onsite pub and could be an option.

This might (probably) is a good place to get some laundry done.  I  understand there aren’t any laundrymats like in the USA but there are laundry services that are quick and reasonable.  As the tour guide what their suggestions are.

Being that there are SO MANY pubs in Dingle, it is important to know and try some:

– The Dingle Pub on Main Street, a large and lively pub with nightly music gigs, a pool table, and a bed and breakfast. It is about 0.1 km or 1 minute walk from the hotel.
– Nelligan’s Bar: 69 meters, 1 minute walk from the hotel
– An Droichead Beag: 110 meters, 1 minute walk from hotel
– Dick Mack’s Pub & Brewery on Green Street, a cozy and historic pub with its own brewery and taphouse, open fires, and a mini ‘walk of fame’. It is about 0.2 km or 2 minutes walk from the hotel.
– O’Sullivan’s Courthouse Pub on The Mall, a traditional and friendly pub with turf fires, live music, and food. It is about 0.3 km or 4 minutes walk from the hotel.
– Foxy John’s on Main Street, a unique pub and hardware store with turf fires, live music, and food. It is about 0.5 km or 6 minutes walk from the hotel.

What Actually Happened:

This is the second entry I wrote for the Monday, June 17 trip. I wrote a beautiful log entry that wanted to a lot of details about what a great day we had and somehow it evaporated on Microsoft notes so I don’t know where it is.

Officially it’s Tuesday, June 18 as I dictate this log entry and I’ll try to remember as much as possible from yesterday before the details fade away.

After breakfast at the Lahinch Coast Hotel, we got back on the bus for what was going to be a very full day of activities and fun.

We drove along the Clare coastline which was spectacular.  On our way, we took the ferry across the river Shannon, which was calm about a 30 minute boat ride, not too bad and that placed us into the Kingdom of Kerry Ireland. Shane told us that the people of Kerry were not really backward, but they were very rural and lived close to the land.

One of the highlights of the trip that I was looking forward to was to go to sheepdog demo which we did and it was just both fascinating and hysterical. At the same time we watched the sheepdogs perform and if you’re a dog owner, you are so impressed with their abilities, obedience, intelligence enthusiasm, and just all around behavior it was really something special. I took some videos of that that I’ll put into the website, but there’s too much to explain here about that after the sheepdog demo, we went back to their Irish cottage, and we fed some baby lambs from the bottle, which was fun. The little guy that I fed was actually blind, somehow I guess it’s common for sheep to be blinded either by accident or through some kind of aggression from other sheep, but he was a good little boy for me and then after feeding the sheep from the bottle, a little baby goat came out and he was just so friendly with everybody and I picked him up and was holding him has some nice pictures of that. It’s amazing how light this baby goat was that I was holding, like he was a cat

After the sheepdog demo, we got back in the car went to the South Pole Inn, which is a famous little pub along the way. An arctic explorer named Tom Crean, who was part of the Shackleton expeditions lived there, and there  was memorabilia from the Antarctic adventures. We stopped and had a pint.

Along the way, we stopped in front of the entrance to a Trump golf course in Ireland. We didn’t drive in to see it, but I took a picture of the big sign just as a joke.

We continued on until we reached the town of Dingle where we were going to stay for two nights at the Dingle Benners Hotel. This hotel is very nice and well appointed. It’s right in the heart of Dingle accessible to everything by foot. There was a pub across the street. We tried to get into the Dingle Pub which is very famous, but it was so crowded so noisy that we couldn’t really sit down for dinner so we went up the street a little bit more to Paul Geaney’s bar and restaurant. I had an amazing Irish stew, Guinness of course it was a Guinness Irish still is it full name so I thought I would pair it with its name sake.

After dinner, I went back into the the Dingle Pub and it was just packed shoulder to shoulder. I stayed for one song and then went out on the sidewalk where they had some tables and I could listen to the music from out there and talk to some people from Sheffield England, which is in Yorkshire where All Creatures Great and Small is filmed. I love their accent, just more of the experience of being over here.

I went back to my room and dictated my log entry only to have it evaporate and then I was too tired to go through the whole thing again so I gave up and went to sleep and here I am today the next day, repeating that I think that’s enough for today, they’ll be more from today later today if that makes sense.

Cheers

The Route: We will stay at the Dingle Benners Hotel in Dingle for another night

The Plan:

 Downtime!?! Downtime!?!  I want to GO GO GO!!!  I guess these guys know what they’re doing and maybe it will give me some time to browse shops or if I have to, get some laundry done.  Some options are taking a boat trip around Dingle Bay or visit the Dingle Crystal Studio.  Maybe I can find my barware there. This might also be a good day to find and purchase my next Irish sweater (jumper) that I will target while there.  Shopping is not my thing, but buying is so maybe I can get some good advice from the tour guides or others I meet along the way.

I don’t know if they are going to provide us with a drive around Slea Head or see the Blasket Islands or the holy Mount Brandon, but these are surpises waiting to happen.  Mount Brandon is a premier hiking destination.  Maybe I can look upon it from below like looking up at the Matterhorn on a nice day with a pint in my hand.

Of course, there are always pubs to keep me amused. Is this the place to purchase my Irish wool “jumper” or will I have it by now.  Unknown.  I am planning to rely on the guidance of the tour guide to tell me when and where to get this all-important souvenir. Priorities first! Some of the more famous pubs are below. I won’t list a description of them here but hopefully I’ll have some tales to tell of the ones that I happen to land in:

An Droichead Beag
Dick Mack’s Pub & Brewery
The Dingle Pub
Foxy John’s
John Benny’s
Kennedy’s
Kruger’s Pub, Dingle
Lord Baker’s
The Marina Inn
Murphy’s Pub
O’Flaherty’s Pub Dingle

Since this is s a “Free Time” day, we’ll stay the night again in the Dingle Benners Hotel.  At least I won’t have to pack and rush in the morning.

What Actually Happend:

Today is Tuesday, June 18 and I woke up with a mild cold, which has been getting progressively worse throughout the day. I wasn’t gonna let it stop me, but I did defer a few walks to save my strength and my steps. I’m not really wheezing in my breathing, but I can feel it. I don’t have any headache or sore throat or congestion a few sniffles and I’m just kind of tired. Being tired on this trip is probably part of the game because we did a lot and I mean a lot. So today the agenda is to go on a boat ride in Dingle Harbor, which brought us out some very serious cliff faces and limestone caves and all kinds of other things you will never see in Maine or probably most of the coast of America. There was this little castle by the shore that was built just to pay the locals and give them something to do when the famine was on and people didn’t have work.  I guess back in the day if you were on welfare, you had to produce something even if it was just a make-work project. This place is unique. That trip lasted about an hour when we got back. We went to a little restaurant on the harbor to continue the chowder challenge and I think I found the winner. This chowder today was head and shoulders above everything else I’ve had since I got here and I’m willing to put a steak in the ground that I think this is the best one we have but, there’s still time we still have three more days, so let’s see what happens. If you find yourself in Dingle, Ireland, I can’t recommend enough the harborside restaurant called The Boatyard.  Great views. Great chowder. Worth your time to visit and eat here.

Aftr the chowder lunch, we got in the van with a new driver. Shane is allowed to take a day off in the middle of the tour so we are swapped in with the new driver named Oisin. I’m not gonna try to pronounce it, but you can look it up on Google and find the whole backstory of how he got his name interesting guy, but he’s not our favorite Shane so we’ll be happy to have him back tomorrow.  We went to the Dingle Crystal factory to see how cut crystal is made.  It was pretty fascinating.  The artisans did not wear any eye or face protection which I thought was odd given all the dust that was produced.  The shop dog drank out of a crystal water bowl. 

When we got back to the hotel around five, I went upstairs to lay down a little bit hopefully knocked down the cold.  No such luck so about seven or so. I went downstairs and I had posted a few invitations out to our WhatsApp chat group to see if anybody was interested in some traditional Irish music I didn’t get any responses so I just posted that I was gonna go to a pub around the corner named Danny Mac’s. They had a sign out front saying that it they have live music, but I didn’t see any instruments showing up. They don’t have food there so I just had one pint and then I decided I would start to walk back to the hotel.  The laundry I sent out was supposed to be ready by this evening, which means that I have to repack my suitcase all the way from the beginning, so that’s kind of a big job. But on the way back I stopped in to Foxy Johns, which is hysterical. It’s a hardware store, bike rental shop, and pub. Hysterical again they also didn’t have food but they did have traditional music so I got a pint and I went into the back room where there was room to sit down and listen to a couple of songs, but then I got tired and I knew that I had, repack my suitcase again so I wanted to get back while I still had some energy. So I spoke to some people in the lobby and they said they were staying in the hotel and eating there not going out. Everyone is just wiped out from the fresh air and the wind and the sun, nothing to complain about, but it does all kind of catch up with you.

I got back in my room about 8:30 to retrieve my laundry from the front desk one load of laundry, regardless of how big it was was €20 which I thought was a great deal since I have been accumulating dirty laundry for almost a week and a half.

We saw some amazing sites today. Often the distance we could see Skellig Michael, which is an island where druid monks lived on it. It was also the site of where one of the Star Wars movies was made so if you’re Star Wars fan, if you remember the scenes where there were sort of like beehive stone houses buildings or whatever you wanna call it from Michael those are dating back to fifth century just crazy.

Well, I’m really running out of gas here so I’m gonna conclude this log and I’ll add to it later when I get home when I sit through all the pictures that were taken by myself and others what are the great things about our that’s called PhotoCircle is that I get to see all the pictures that all the people take and I can cherry pick the ones that I want for my website and also use those as memory joggers for writing the narrative part of the website these logs that I’ve been sending you are just scratching the service of what the website will actually explain once I’ve had time to get back and get into the editor software.

Thanks for coming along on my journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed it reading my entries and just let you know that they’re gonna get better and also to remind you that these are just dictated through OneNote without much editing so there could be some crazy stuff in there that doesn’t make sense, but I’ll tune it up later when I get home.

Cheers

The Route: Dingle Benners Hotel to Eccles Hotel & Spa, Glengarriff, Ireland

The Plan:

Keeping to the coast, we’ll take a scenic drive along the Dingle Peninsula.  Hopefully it will be a scorching hot day because we’ll be taking a stroll along the beach at Inch Strand.  Push out beyond the town and you’re faced with an incredible 6,000 years of history and the Kerry coastline with its pounding waves, salty winds, dramatic cliffs and wide racing skies. There’s Gallarus Oratory, an Early Christian church overlooking the rippling blue waters of Smerwick Harbour; there’s Coumeenoole Beach, with its haunting views of the Blasket Islands; and there’s the Conor Pass, the highest mountain road in Ireland. Exceptional is everyday here.  I know this would be my wife’s favorite activity to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the Killarney National Park.

Later in the day, we’ll arrive at The Eccles Hotel in Glengarriff Harbour.

Pubs nearby are:

Coasties: Situated approximately 0.6 kilometers away, Coasties is known for its American and Irish cuisine, including fantastic toasties (grilled cheese).
Casey’s Bar and Restaurant: Just 0.8 kilometers from Eccles Hotel, this spot offers wonderful Irish and European fare.
MacCarthy’s Bar: Found at Glengarrif Park Hotel, it’s about 0.7 kilometers from Eccles Hotel. Enjoy Irish pub vibes here.
Jack’s Restaurant: Located 0.8 kilometers from Eccles Hotel, this Irish pub is known for its seafood and cozy ambiance.

What Actually Happened:

It is actually June 20 as I write this log. I’ve had a relatively bad cold the last couple of days and last night. I was just two weeks to sit down and our adventures for the day so here goes the events of June 19, 2024, out ninth day.  Only two more days left!

This morning started with our second breakfast at the Dingle Benners hotel. That doesn’t mean that we had two breakfast on the same day. It’s just that we stayed for two nights at the Dingle Benner’s hotel.  After packing and repacking my suitcase after my laundry came back it was time to bring my bags downstairs and have some breakfast. I had an Eggs Benedict and some fruit from the continental breakfast buffet with coffee and orange juice all in all I’m pretty reasonable.

We were then back on the bus and heading towards Inch Beach. This beach was pretty massive for Ireland. Tide was out and it was actually a long walk to get to where the water was from where the parking lot was. I guess it’s supposed to be pretty famous for surfing, but it looked too flat and shallow compared to what we have in Maine for surfing. We stood on the beach for a while, took some pictures, but nobody really wanted to go in the water and have to deal with all the changing etc.. So after we visited the bathrooms, we got back on the bus and headed to our next location.

There is a very famous waterfall in Ireland call Torc waterfall. It was truly beautiful with very clean water. We only stayed for a few minutes before we crossed the street and got into iconic Irish jaunting carts. Our horse was named Sally and I can’t remember the drivers name.  Great guy though. FULL of information.

Just to show that Maine is filled with crazy people and miss no opportunity to embarrass us, there was a Sugarloaf ski area sticker plastered onto the information board at the waterfall. Graffiti is never in good taste.

It cost €20 to ride on the jaunting cart but I think it was worth that. I know that my wife Mary likes to ride in a horse drawn cart so I did this experience so that I could take some pictures and videos to share back with her because I know she would like it on top of that we were having some of the best weather that we’ve seen in this tour.

On the grounds of the state park is Muckross Abbey. This is actually an active cemetery with some of the dates from just this past year combined with other headstones dating back 500 years.

And then re-boarded the jaunting carts and rode back to our tour bus at the visitor center. It was very pleasant experience. The horses are well-behaved. The driver was hysterical, and the views were again exceptional.

Along the ride, we spotted some Irish red deer so we stopped the van to quietly get out and take some pictures. There were fawns mixed amongst them, which were quite cute.

The next stop is the Stone Circle in Kenmare. This is an ancient Druid worship site and we were given the history of it from our driver Shane, who is quite knowledgeable of the history and purpose of the Stone circle.

We arrived in County Cork on our way to the Eccles hotel

Stopped for a group picture along the road.

My cold was getting worse in each exit and reboarding. The van became uncomfortable to the point where unless it was something really special I stayed on the van for a few other stops. I didn’t miss much and we’re operating with this app on our phones called PhotoCircle where I can see the pictures that other people take if they volunteered to post them up to the app so I’ll be, capitalizing on that in those pictures but mostly I participated and everything that was available to me.

The Eccles Hotel is kind of old. Built  in 1745. It’s just a rabbit warren of stairs and hallways and more stairs and hallways and there’s only one elevator and it went to floors that still required you to go upstairs and go on hallways to get to your room, this probably wasn’t the best room of my trip even though most of the other ones were pretty fantastic. I had a room that looked over the backside of the hotel and not on the water side.

Out in Bantry Bay at was a mega yacht that was owned by the Willy Wonka of candies. This Italian billionaire was responsible for selling Mentos and another candy brand that I can’t remember right now. The yacht was about 350 feet long while we were there we saw multiple helicopter, landings and takeoffs. It was actually quite active. The helicopter pilot looked pretty skilled.  He was in completely calm waters so it wasn’t like a pitching deck out in the middle of the Atlantic. It was still pretty cool to see.

By the time we were supposed to go down for dinner, I was pretty weak from all of the various hiking and my cold was affecting my breathing a little bit. I had a pretty regular cough and some pretty raspy breathing, but I tried to go down for dinner anyway, but I didn’t eat much and went to bed and that was the end of that day.

 Cheers

The Route: Eccles Hotel to Gougane Barra Hotel, Derreennacusha, Ireland

The Plan:

We’re almost done with our trip and I expect it will be amazing.  Since I’m writing this in February of 2024, all of the planning sections of these entries are hopeful as  opposed to experienced.  From all that I have read, seen, and heard, I’m in for a fantastic trip with whatever is remaining of my lifetime of memories.  This will be the last night staying in lodging associated with the tour.  After today, it’s back to Dublin and the Grand Canal Hotel as a base of operations.

At this point, we’re south of Dublin, traveling north.  We’ll use our luxurious travel van to navigate the rugged roads of the Beara Peninsula.  Although the Beara Peninsula is one of the most beautiful places to visit in West Cork, many visiting the area tend to skip it. Which is a shame for them, and great for those in the know. The Beara Peninsula is much quieter than many of its neighbouring peninsulas and the scenery is just as good (if not better!).  I have tried not to draw too many comparisons to Maine, but “heah” we say, “You can’t get theyah from heah.” because of all the peninsulas that jut out into the Atlantic.  The rugged coast of Ireland is similar to this.

One of the optional activities is to take a boat trip to Garnish Island.  The island is a horticultural paradise with stunning gardens, pools and shrubs planted 70 years ago by owner Annan Bryce and landscape architect Harold Peto. It was bequeathed to the Irish people in 1953 and now beautifully maintained by the Office of Public Works.  Credit cards are not accepted on the island, so you’ll need to carry some cash with you for the admission fee and for the café on the island.

After this boat trip, we’ll cruise through Healy Pass.  To drive the serpentine-like road without stopping will take most people between 20-25 minutes. However, the drive is very scenic and it’ll take longer. It’s one of the Ireland’s greatest drives with beautiful views over Bantry Bay and the Kenmare river. The mountain landscape is breathtaking. The road winds through a desolate, otherworldly landscape, passing between two of the highest summits in the Caha mountain range. It is a very nice road that winds through the mountains at the west coast of Ireland. Well worth a visit. Views are great on both sides of the pass. It’s difficult to drive around Beara and not want to take lots of panoramic shots.

We will visit the stately Bantry House before going to our hotel.  Bantry House and Garden is a stately home overlooking Bantry Bay in the south west of Ireland. The House has been home to the White family, since 1739 and was opened to the public in 1946. They have an important private collection of furniture and objects of art. The Estate is a popular wedding and events venue, visitors can explore the formal garden, visit the House, enjoy a picnic basket from our Tearoom, have Afternoon Tea in the Library and stay in the East Wing. The Estate is unique since it is still lived in and managed by the family.

Our options for lodging are the Gougane Barra Hotel in Cork or the Macroom Castle Hotel in Macroom village.

Gougane Barra Hotel is a fifth-generation family-run hotel well known for its warm welcome, great team from all over the world, wholesome food, personal service and welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. Tucked away in a romantic, glaciated valley in the south-west of Ireland and surrounded by mountains, the hotel is situated in a breath-taking position on the edge of Gougane Barra lake, right next to St Finbarr’s island oratory.  If the pictures on their website do it any justice, this will be breathtaking.

Pubs nearby the Gougane Barra Hotel are:

Cronin’s Bar & Cafe: Located just 36 meters away from the Gougane Barra Hotel!  Cronin’s offers a cozy atmosphere and serves Irish cuisine. It’s a lovely spot for a meal or a drink.
Gougane Barra Restaurant: Situated approximately 200 meters from the hotel, this restaurant offers both Irish and international dishes. It’s a great place to enjoy a meal with scenic views.

What Actually Happened:

Well, I’m all caught up with my logs. My cold seems to be getting a little better. I had one episode of a hacking cough today, but it didn’t last long and my nose is running a little bit so I keep a handkerchief in my pocket and in my hand almost constantly. I admit it’s not the condition I’d like to be in for enjoying my trip to Ireland but at the same time I’m not going to sacrifice the experience just because of a little cold.

To to another stately house called Bantry house and toured that this house is unique and that some of the original family still lives in the house even though it’s a museum so that they can recover some of the cost to keep it running. It was very impressive unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures indoors per their request but I did get some nice shots from outside. 

Our guide Shane booked us for lunchtime The Snug in Bantry. Continuing the chowder challenge, I ordered a bowl of their local chowder, which was unique tomato cream based or something I’ve never tried in a chowder, but I’m willing to do anything once.

From there, we continue on to the Gougane Barra hotel.  This hotel is iconic and that there’s a little chapel in the front yard overlooking up pond and it’s one of the most photographed places in Ireland and it’s literally like 150 feet from my room which is very nice. Most of our accommodations, these weeks have been iconic locations places that you would want to come back to if you were making a retreat visit but at the same time if I was to make a retreat visit, I don’t wanna try new places or different places that I hadn’t tried before just to have the experience.

At 6:30 the whole group met for a cocktail that was sponsored by the Vagabond Tour Company. It was very nice of them, and then after that cocktail we retreated to the dining room. We had a fabulous meal, which was again more than I usually eat, and I came away from it feeling quite stuffed so to doctor my cough we went to the main living room for hot toddies.  That drink did the trick and I was ready for bed. A thick fog had rolled in and I thought it make for interesting pictures of the little chapel.

The “midges” as they are called were out in full force so I shot my pictures and ran back into the building and basically was itching all over. These midges are similar to the no see ems we have back home. Just brutal.

That pretty much does it for day 10 of our 11 day tour tomorrow we have about a 5 1/2 hour combined ride up through Cork and Blarney through to Dublin where our journey ends.

I really enjoyed Shane‘s entertainment and leadership on this trip and in addition to a tip that I had planned to give him I think I’m going to give him my Leatherman tool that I bought for this trip which is a special version of Leatherman tool that has no fixed blade in it. Fix blades are legal in Ireland in general and I didn’t want to get into any kind of problems with having one on my leather man tool. When I had to repair my CPAP machine, which I absolutely need to sleep at night and I could not imagine if I had to go through these two weeks without it but everything went well.

I have another Leatherman tool at home that I use on almost a daily basis so I’ll continue to use that and will not really miss this.

Well, tomorrow’s another day, a final day, and probably a great day.

More tales from the road coming up. Stay tuned. Live long and prosper.

The Route: Gougane Barra Hotel to Grand Canal Hotel, Dublin, Ireland (3 hr 38 minutes by car or 55 minutes by plane!)

The Plan:

Can we turn around, I think I lost something in Dingle?  Do you think the tour will retrace our route for an excuse as weak as that one?  I’m seeing a light at the bottom of my pint.

It’s both sad and exciting that our tour is coming to a close.  This is the last official day of the tour, but not my last day in Ireland.  As we head back to the city, we’ll go through the River Lee valley. Geographically, the area that known as the Lee Valley comprises the catchment area of the River Lee, incorporating within its borders the distinct valleys of its major tributaries including the Sullane, Foherish, Laney and others. The Lee rises in the hills above Gougane Barra, the spot that St Finbarr chose for his 7th century hermitage which today remains a centre of pilgrimage. After many riverine adventures the Lee joins the sea below Cork City which was also founded by the Saint. The journey of the river mimics the saints own life-journey from a hermetic and idyllic setting among the Shehy Mountains – one of the most spectacularly beautiful settings in Ireland – to the busy, people centred city of Cork, also known as the ‘real capital’ of Ireland.

The Cork to Dublin distance is 260 km or 162 miles. The journey should take around two hours and fifty minutes.

We’ll then visit Blarney Castle to kiss the famous Blarney Stone. The term ‘blarney’, meaning beguiling but misleading talk, gained currency during the 16th century as the MacCarthy of the day attempted to fend off the demands of Queen Elizabeth I. Legends about the Stone’s origin emerged, each as plausible as the next. It was said to have been the stone used by Jacob as a pillow when he dreamed of the ladder extending up to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it, and that it was brought from the Holy Land after the Crusades. Kissing the Blarney Stone is a popular tradition that has been around for several centuries. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of eloquence and persuasiveness . The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446 by Dermot McCarthy, king of Munster, on the site of a demolished 13th century castle.

As one of our last experiences, we’ll enjoy a self-guided tour of the Rock of Cashel .  Set on a dramatic outcrop of limestone in the Golden Vale, the Rock of Cashel, iconic in its historic significance, possesses the most impressive cluster of medieval buildings in Ireland. Among the monuments to be found there is a round tower, a high cross, a Romanesque chapel, a Gothic cathedral, an abbey, the Hall of the Vicars Choral and a fifteenth-century Tower House. Originally the seat of the kings of Munster, according to legend St. Patrick himself came here to convert King Aenghus to Christianity. Brian Boru was crowned High King at Cashel in 978 and made it his capital.

The end of the tour will occur back at the Grand Canal Hotel around 17:00.  I hope I have the energy to head back out after checking in.  I will only have the next day, Saturday, June 22,2024 to squeeze in as much as I can.

Pubs nearby the Grand Canal Hotel (for starting or ending points) are:

1. Kennedy’s Pub & Restaurant: This 150-year-old, family-owned city centre pub is located a stone’s throw from Trinity College.
   2. The Gasworks: Founded in 2009, this independently owned and operated brewery is based in Galway.
   3. The Ferryman: This hotel offers a charming environment alongside many helpful amenities.
   4. Slattery’s D4: Located in the heart of Beggars Bush, Slattery’s Pub is passionate about providing an enjoyable experience to everyone that walks through its doors.

What Actually Happened:

Today marks, the end of our 11 day Discover Ireland tour. The tour company was called Vagabond Tours and this was part of their driftwood tours collection. I must admit I probably walked more steps in the last 11 days that I have and maybe the last 11 years but it was just awesome. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t use the word awesome lightly.  You’ll never hear me say, “ the peanut butter and jelly sandwich was AWESOME  man!”  That word just doesn’t exist in my vocabulary.

On this tour, I struggled every day to figure out ways to describe things that didn’t include the word awesome. It was, in a word, awesome! Today we woke up on the shores of  Gougane  Barra which is  the source of the River Lee and includes a lake with an oratory (small chapel) built on a small island. It is a national Irish historical site.

We have had mostly good weather on the trip but today it was rainy. We had a nice simple breakfast in the lovely inn  and the help was very, very social and friendly as were all of the people in Ireland that we encountered. They truly are special people. It’s 7 PM on Friday night and we’re back in Dublin. I’m staying at the grand Canal Hotel, which is where I spent my first night when I arrived almost 2 weeks ago. I checked in into the hotel tonight about 6 o’clock.  The lobby was full of all these fairly young ladies who were here to see a performance of pink with a P. There’s a very large stadium just down the street from here and I think this might’ve been a staging area for people to meet up before the concert and have a drink and sit in the lobby and see and be seen. I did not have the energy to go downstairs and mingle I am just absolutely wiped out.

Today was a lot of driving to get from Cork all the way to Dublin. We only made a couple of stops along the way. The first stop we went was the Blarney Woolen Mills. It’s sort of Ireland’s answer to L.L. Bean. It’s a sprawling complex in an old historic Irish woolen mill and it’s on many levels and there are restaurants, pubs gift, shops, coffee shops, all kinds of touristy attractions. We had early intelligence that the Woolen Mills were not too crowded today because there were only a few buses there early this morning.  When we got there, we found out that there was a ”Surprise Cruise” that landed somewhere in Ireland and they were sending bus loads of cruise passengers to the Woolen Mills and Blarney Castle to kiss the stone. We were kind of sandbagged by this information when we got here there had to have been 10 or 15 52 passenger buses in the parking lot disgorging their cruise ship passengers. They were a pushy lot. I made my way through the displays and purchased a few items to send back to America. I finished my purchases and filled out the shipping information and went downstairs to get away from the crowds and sat out on the patio undercover to protect from rain. I got a cup of hot water for Diane Guff, who is the oldest member of our tour. She’s from New Zealand and is 80 years old. She is a lovely and interesting woman and I ended up spending a lot of time with her on this trip I think and I hope that I was helpful to her.  Diane was traveling with her daughter Deborah, who was in the Woolen Mills doing a little shopping. I think Diane and I found ourselves paired up a lot in the situation since neither of us were really there for the shopping experience. This was her second trip to Ireland. She had been here about 15 years prior with her husband, Russ, who she thought I would get along with swimmingly. Based on that, he sounds like a great guy.

On the other end of the parking lot from the Woolen Mills is the famous Blarney Castle.  Well, even though it is a real castle,  It had a kind of carnival atmosphere due to all of the tour buses that were there. There was a line that wrapped around the castle and up the stairs and when you got to the top of the stairs where you would actually position yourself to kiss the Blarney Stone, the line was an additional 30 minutes long. It was raining and we had been in so many castles are in the last two weeks that I didn’t feel like getting in with the “freshly washed” public.  From the beginning of the trip, I have been extra careful about climbing some of these thousand year-old castles on rain, swept steps and worried about twisting an ankle or injuring myself so I would become a burden on the rest of the passengers. Unless it was something truly life altering, I would sometimes defer. People arrive back at the van at the appointed time and we all did our last bathroom breaks for a while.

Today’s lunch was probably the most disappointing of the whole trip. We were on a big rush to get back to Dublin so we ended up stopping at one of the rest stops/gas stations on the motorway. They had a McDonald’s in there and some other fast food stands I didn’t wanna come all the way to Ireland to eat McDonald’s so I got a local sandwich which was OK for a gas station restaurant, but not what I was hoping would be a more memorable, final group meal.

Our next stop was another famous castle called the rock of Cashel. Again it was still raining and it was up a very steep hill to get to, and I was at the point of our trip with my head cold and sort of compromised breathing from the cold that I just didn’t need to see this thing up close there are plenty of pictures available on the Internet and, detailed information about the history  of the rock of Cashel that I opted to remain dry in the van, only about half the people in the van went up to see it anyway because I think everybody is just burned out and we wish the trip would never end, we were also looking forward to getting to our respective hotel rooms for the night.

Like any large city, we ran into traffic issues trying to get to the downtown side of Dublin with a Grand Canal hotel was located. We wound our way through many small neighborhoods and back alleys, kinda like the western promenade of Portland if you can imagine that. We went down all that were just for garages I guess in London you call those mews.

Our tour guide driver Shane recapped the whole week by describing what we had seen starting from day one all the way through day 11.  I opted to record the  recap using the iPhone voice recorder.  We went around the bus, and everybody said what they thought was the most memorable event of the tour.

We rolled up to the Grand Canal Hotel and had to unload the van in some pretty heavy traffic so for everyone’s safety, we quickly retreated to the sidewalk where we were able to just say quick goodbyes as some people needed to get to their hotel reservations for the evening, which were not at the Grand Canal Hotel as was mine.

I could honestly go a lot longer recapping many events and thoughts and sites taste smells and sounds and just the whole experience but I think I will take the time more to reflect on the trip when I record these logs into my pelagic zone website when I get back home and I’ve had time to synthesize the pictures in the stories and make any spelling mistakes that you’ll see in these logs which again I just claim is that they’re dictated and not really well thought out they’re more of a first pass, trying to remember the events of the day which were always quite full. So Friday night June 21, 2024, I bid you good night from Dublin.

Cheers.

The Route: Walking around Dublin, direction of travel TBD

The Plan:

There are “plans” and there are “reservations.” Plans are fluid and can be what you stumble upon as you stroll through the town. Reservations are fixed appointments and commitments.  For today’s schedule, I’ll identify where I have made reservations and then plan for attractions before and after them that make sense.

Morning:
Start your day with a visit to Trinity College and see the Book of Kells.
Take a stroll across the iconic Ha’Penny Bridge.
10:00 Head to the Guinness Storehouse St. James’s Gate, Dublin 8, D08 VF8H, Ireland for a tour and a pint. Stoutie tour – Booking reference: 901776575

Afternoon:
Jameson Distillery?
Visit the General Post Office (GPO) for a tour.

Evening:
End your day with a walk around the Temple Bar neighborhood.

The Irish Pub Guide

Pubs nearby Trinity College are:

O’donoghue’s Bar: Located at 15 Suffolk Street, Dublin, 2. It’s open from 10:30 to 23:30 from Monday to Saturday, and from 11:00 to 23:30 on Sunday.

O’Neills Pub & Kitchen: Located at 2 Suffolk Street, Dublin, D02 KX03. It’s open from 11:00 to 23:30 from Monday to Thursday, from 10:30 to 00:30 on Friday and Saturday, and from 11:00 to 23:00 on Sunday.

Davy Byrnes: Located at 21 Duke Street, Dublin, D02 K380. It’s open from 12:00 to 23:30 from Monday to Thursday, from 12:00 to 00:30 on Friday and Saturday, and from 12:00 to 23:00 on Sunday.

The Old Storehouse Bar & Restaurant: Located at 3 Crown Alley, Dublin, D02 Cx67. It’s open from 12:00 to 00:00 from Monday to Thursday, from 12:00 to 02:00 on Friday and Saturday, and from 12:00 to 00:00 on Sunday.

J.R. Mahon’s: 1-2 Burgh Quay – Traditional Irish Pub. North of Trinity College towards the River Liffey

The Palace Bar: Also near Trinity College, 21 Fleet Street, No TV or Food!

Mulligan’s: 8 Poolbeg Street, Traditional Irish Pub

Pubs near the General Post Office are:

Darkey Kelly’s Bar & Restaurant: Located on Fishamble St, Dublin 2, this pub is known for its traditional Irish music. It’s situated in one of the oldest parts of Dublin city.

Neary’s: A UNESCO City of Literature Bar, Neary’s has a long connection to the arts, thanks to its proximity to the Gaiety Theatre.

Grogan’s: Located on the corner of South William Street, Grogan’s is one of the more famous pubs in Dublin and it’s been serving locals and tourists alike since 1899.

John Kavanagh’s (The Gravediggers): Established in 1833, John Kavanagh’s is one of the more unique pubs Dublin has to offer, and you’ll find it in Glasnevin.

McGettigans Pub & Townhouse: This pub is perfect for groups exploring Dublin’s culture or for businesses planning an event.

Pubs nearby Temple Bar (but maybe not IN Temple Bar):

The Palace Bar: This is one of the oldest pubs in Dublin, dating back to 1823. It’s located on Fleet Street and is known for its whiskey bar, the ‘Whiskey Palace’.
The Foggy Dew: This Victorian pub, located on Fownes Street Upper, dates back to 1901. It’s known for its great live music and impressive collection of rock memorabilia.
The Auld Dubliner: Located in the heart of Temple Bar, this pub is known for its lively music sessions and traditional Dublin dish of boiled streaky bacon, sausages, and potatoes.
The Porterhouse Temple Bar: This pub is located in Temple Bar and is known for its beer.
Bad Bobs: This pub is located in Temple Bar and is known for its spaciousness.
The Ha’penny Bridge Inn: This pub is located in Temple Bar and is known for its authentic Irish pub atmosphere.
Merchant’s Arch Bar: This pub is located in Temple Bar and is known for its cozy and welcoming atmosphere.
The Bankers Bar: This pub is located on Trinity Street off busy Dame Street.
The Brazen Head: 20 Lower Bridge Street, Meeting place for historic rebels, this brass-filled, lantern-lit pub hosts live music each night.

Pubs North of the River Liffey:
Murray’s Bar: 33 O’Connell Street North of Ha’penny Bridge
The Oval Bar: 78 Middle Abbey St., Near the O’Connell Monument
Cobblestone: 77 King Street – Near Jameson Distillery Bow Street – Ticket Required

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From the itinerary, here are the recommendations for the best Irish pubs in Dublin.    I’ll probably make my plan to tour Dublin based on the proximity to one or more of these pubs.  My dream plan is to stop, have a pint, get out and walk around, stop in another place, have a pint, lather rinse repeat.

What Actually Happened:

It’s Saturday in Dublin. I got up at a reasonable hour. Had breakfast around 830 or so and got ready for the day. This is a day I’ve been planning for more than six months. I purchased my ticket online for the Guinness Storehouse tour and tasting, and I’ve been carrying that paper ticket around with my travel documents waiting for just this day to arrive. Everybody always says Guinness tastes better in Ireland and to be 100% completely transparent I didn’t notice that it was any better. I have been drinking a lot of Guinness over the last year or so and that the quality of this Guinness is on par with what I have been having so that’s fine since what I have been having has been great!

I took a cab over to the Guinness storehouse because it was going to be about a 30 minute walk and I’ve had enough walking over the last two weeks. It was a nice sunny day and I got there about half an hour before my 10 o’clock reservation and stood around with some people who are also on tours and talked with them. I took pictures of them with their phones so they have some memories. I’ve determined that our tour group was better than what they were experiencing. I would highly recommend the Vagabond Tour group company.

Guinness storehouse is a very cool and well thought out experience. You basically enter it on the ground floor and then you go up the levels on stairs and then escalators passing through displays about Guinness marketing and their Guinness brewing techniques which are basically standard. You know they follow the four ingredient role and they obviously have a lot of money to spend on this museum because it’s loaded with all kinds of high-tech cool stuff. Eventually, you arrive on the seventh floor, which is what’s called the Gravity Bar.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention the coolest thing. About halfway up to the seventh floor I think it was the fifth floor. There is a room where they do what are called Stouties. This is where they take a picture of you on an iPad then they go over to the tap and do a perfect pour of a Guinness, leaving a perfectly flat head of foam. The Stoutie machine then prints your picture on the foam head. It’s kinda like a 3-D printer that you have seen before only this time it’s putting the image on the  head of the Guinness. This isn’t meant to be a permanent picture on the head of the Guinness so I took some pics with my iPhone camera and made that my profile picture in Facebook. It’s pretty funny because that is not meant to be permanent and the foam picture is food grade. I was able to drink that Guinness and then proceeded upstairs to the gravity bar.

When I got to the gravity bar, I had another Guinness with the complimentary drink ticket you get with your admission. So that was my second Guinness of the day and it was only about 1030.  My new friend Deke Schroder from our trip had given me two drink ticket vouchers because neither he nor his wife Mimi liked Guinness. Of course I couldn’t disrespect his generosity so I had another one that makes three and it’s only about 11 o’clock. So as I was sitting at my table, A woman passed by and they were heading out of the gravity bar and she just put a drink ticket down on my table and I thanked her of course being the gentleman that I am but now I had two drink tickets left. Now being the fine Irishman that I am, I could’ve just left and not used the remaining two tickets that I was in possession of. That would be heresy! The solution to my conundrum is a Guinness product called Guinness 0.0. Brilliant! I was in no hurry to go anywhere else that required a commitment or reservation, so I spent quite a bit of time up there in the gravity bar and I had, a couple of non-alcohol Guinness was part of the whole experience part of what will be a great memory.

Try to guess what my next experience was? It was called the bathroom! I don’t know how big a person‘s bladder is but in under two hours, I had, five 20 ounce vessels of liquid.  That’s just a regular day out at a pub in Dublin. Finishing up with the Guinness 0.0. I really didn’t even have a buzz on so I went downstairs back out on the street and I found another cab to take me to the Jameson distillery. I know what you’re thinking, but I didn’t have anything to drink at the distillery. I didn’t even take the tour. I just went to the gift shop to get a few things that I was planning to get for the unfortunate people left back in America.

Well, that was over. I walked around the neighborhood of Bow Street Where Jameson is and tried to search for a place to have some lunch I wanted to a couple places that were recommended in my research of Dublin, and the first one called the Cobblestone was closed! Door locked! I went a little while further and went to Delaney‘s where they said, they don’t really have food during the day so I sort of had to have a pint there since I was out wandering around the streets of Dublin plotting my next move.

I decided to jump back in a cab and go to a place called Darkey Kelly’s. Don’t get your PC panties in a twist that’s the actual name of it and I’ll look looking up later how that name came to be, but it was a classic traditional Irish pub just what I was looking for. I sat at the bar and ordered another Guinness, 0.0 this was about 2:30 PM. They had a complete menu, but I wanted to try their seafood chowder. seafood chowder is real popular all around Ireland.

Imagine seafood chowder that has about half pound of mussels just dumped right on top of it in the shells. You have to fish (excuse the pun) the mussels out of the chowder broth so you can pick out the mussel meat and then you got the problem with what to do with the shells. I had a bread plate on the side so I made that my boneyard for the mussel shells. It was pretty good but messy. I finished my pint, went to the bathroom again. And then went out and stood on the sidewalk to hail a cab. I was very far from my hotel at this point so I wouldn’t of been able to walk back anyway. The cabby was very interested in my tour and we talked a lot about all the different things that I had done and he filled me in on a few other things, it was good conversation.

When I got to my room, I watched a little TV laid down for a little rest, and I was watching the Irish version of C-SPAN. They’re having their own immigration problem here with people coming over from Africa through Spain across the channel to England and then over to Ireland And they don’t know what they’re gonna do about it because they’re not the same as United States can absorb these aliens. They might’ve taken in about 30,000 of them so far and it’s a huge deal here that’s about one day in the US Southern border. Because they’re in the EU, they also have been taking in refugees from the Ukraine. Real estate capacity here is totally used up so they don’t know what they’re gonna do with all these people that I’ve just arrived. Our driver. Shane told us about a month ago. They were only 38 apartments or living spaces in the whole country available! People queued around the block to bid on renting a place. One guy actually rented a space under a staircase and someone’s house like Harry Potter! The Irish solutions is that they’re gonna have to build more apartments. Let’s see how long that takes!

One thing that was critical to my success and happiness tomorrow was to repack my entire suitcase. I literally took everything out of the suitcase. I have so much stuff that I brought that I have to be very surgical and how I put it all back in the suitcase I finally got that done and I have a plan for what I’m gonna take with me in my day pack on the carry-on. I think I’m good to go tomorrow Sunday.

It’s about 7 PM on Saturday night and I think I’m just gonna stay in and bank some sleep because I didn’t sleep on the plane on the way over and I’m pretty sure I won’t sleep on the plane on the way back so I might as well strike while the iron is hot.

Tomorrow, I’ll get up. I have another regular breakfast. Nothing too crazy and then make my way to the airport. I’ll fill you in on what happens tomorrow in tomorrow’s log. But I think that will be it for now.

Some people might say I went a little overboard on the Guinness today, but as I said, you can balance it with the 0.0 and then all I had to deal with is bladder capacity.

Cheers everybody!!!