Exploring the area around Galway

Sky Rd. map

After a good nights sleep, we went downstairs to have breakfast. We had coffee, Chris had pancakes and I had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and Irish Soda Bread. I think I got a little addicted to the Irish Soda Bread, especially Elizabeth's at the Bay Cottage B&B.

After breakfast we headed toward Clifden to find the Sky Road. The Sky Rd. is a beautiful narrow road with gorgeous views that leads to Connemara National Park.

It was rainy and overcast most of the way but still beautiful. Bright yellow shrubs filled the hillsides with sunny color. Ancient stone ruins dotted the countryside.

Clifden

Didn't take long to get to Clifden so we decided to park the car and poke around. It's a pretty cute little village. I took a few photos and we were on our way after visiting the local grocery store.

With a little help from Siri and google maps we found the Sky Rd. and continued on our way.

What a beautiful drive; water, wildflowers, more ruins and incredible views. I wish it had been clearer so we could see more but it was gorgeous as it was.

By the time we reached Connemara National Park we were beginning to get pretty hungry. They have a little café at the visitor's center so we decided to have lunch there. Worst food we had on the whole trip! That's all I'm going to say about it.

We were given information regarding where we could pick up the trail head to do the hike we had decided to do and we headed out.

Me on the trail

It wasn't a really long hike just over 3 miles but it was really nice to be hiking on a trail instead of riding in a car. It was still drizzly and there were very few other people on the trail, it was nice. 

There was a longer hike but we had a lot to see before returning to our room in Galway. 

After our visit to Connemara we headed on toward Kylemore Abbey in Connemara near Cong. We had a couple exciting moments along the way when we lost cell service and weren't sure which way to go but it all worked out.

Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey and Gardens was built by Mitchell and Margaret Henry. The story goes that Mitchell and Margaret visited Connemara while on there honeymoon and decided that they wanted to live there someday. The castle is built on the site of the Kylemore Lodge where they used to stay.

We got there too late to visit the walled gardens but the abbey, mausoleum and church are magnificent. 

Kylemore church

We self-toured the Abbey's restored rooms and then took the path up to the church which was built in honor of Margaret Henry and designed to look like a mini cathedral. 

Mausoleum

Margaret Henry, Mitchell's beloved wife and the mother of their 9 children, had tragically died of dysentery 16 days before her 45th birthday on a trip the Henry's had taken to Egypt. Mitchell loved her so much  that he couldn't bear the thought of her being buried in the "cold, hard ground" of a foreign country. He brought her embalmed body back to her beloved Connemara. 

Ryan's Hotel and The Crowe's Nest

We had to leave Kylemore, go in search of food and head back to our B&B in Galway. We found a lovely little bar in Cong to have our dinner. It was called The Crowe's Nest and was part of Ryan's Hotel. We each had the salmon with chips and salad which was quite good and a Guinness.

After dinner we made our way back to Marless House.

On to Galway for 2 nights!

After breakfast at the Lough Rynn we went up to our room, finished packing and checked out. Next stop Galway and the Marless House B&B.

Street artist in Galway playing the
traditional Irish Uilleann Bagpipes.

We arrived at Marless House and were met at the door by Tom who welcomed us and checked us in. After we had settled into our room we started thinking about lunch. We went downstairs and were met by Mary who gave us directions and recommendations regarding where to eat and the best way to get into town; don't drive, take the bus. Since the restaurant we planned to have lunch in was close by we decided to walk. After a great lunch we walked back to our room for a short rest before heading into Galway City.

Galway City  is very colorful with lots of people sauntering around and a few street performers. The photo at left was taken with the permission of this talented young woman playing the Uilleann Bagpipes. I've never seen them played before. The bag is pumped using your elbow against your body.

Years ago I had decided that if I ever got to Ireland I would buy an Irish wool sweater.

Galway city street

We thought Galway might be a good place to look. We walked into several shops along the main street until I found just the sweater I wanted. It's a green wool cardigan with leather bound buttons down the front. I love it.

After walking all over town we were ready to go back to our room. It was too early for dinner so we wandered into a sandwich shop and bought a couple of interesting salads to take back with us to our room.

Last day in Northern Ireland but first, on to Armagh

Armagh city with the Roman Catholic
St. Patrick's Cathedral in the background.

It's May 12th and time for us to move on to the Republic of Ireland for the rest of our trip.
Not before visiting Armagh, the most historic city on the island. To quote the authenticireland.com web site;

It was the seat of the ancient Kings of Ulster, who were crowned at nearby Emain Macha (Navan Fort). 

That's pretty cool! We decided to make a stop at the Navan Fort as well.

The drive to Armagh began in the rain but by the time we arrived the sun was peeking through. We needed diesel by that time so we stopped at a gas station before parking the car. After filling up, Chris went inside to pay and discovered that they only accepted pin and chip type credit/debit cards not the less secure strip cards that we still use in the states. The bill was £63 and between us we had about £45, we did have some Euro so she agreed to take the balance in Euro since that's all we could do. That was the first time we'd run into a problem with our strip cards but after that we always asked.

On the way into town we'd seen a large cathedral so we decided to find a place to park and walk over to see it. We actually found a spot near the protestant Church of Ireland which is said to be on the same spot chosen by St. Patrick to build his stone church in 445 A.D. We thought we would walk over to see the Roman Catholic Cathedral first and then on the way back visit the Church of Ireland and the Armagh public library.

By this time it was warm and sunny so I elected to leave my jacket in the car. We headed over to the cathedral but first stopped in the visitors center to get information and a map of the area.

Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The cathedral was a short 2-3 blocks from where we were but by the time we got there the sky was looking black and stormy again.

It's a stunning Italianate style cathedral begun in 1840 but the building was postponed because the church wanted to spend it's money to help the Irish people during the potato famine.

Pews and Pulpit in the
Roman Catholic Cathedral

Inside it's absolutely gorgeous with stained glass windows, sculptures and archways on either side of the pews. Chandeliers hang between the archways to light the interior.

By the time we were finished touring the cathedral it had begun to rain. Since I had left my jacket in the car we waited outside under the cover of the entrance to the cathedral.

The rain soon stopped and we headed for the Gothic style protestant St. Patrick's cathedral, the Church of Ireland, on the other side of town. The present cathedral, dates from 1268 and was last restored in 1834.

We entered the cathedral and were directed via signs to the place to pay our entry fee. The gentleman there was quite friendly and told us all kinds of stories about the history of the area as well as how unusual the weather had been this past year.

protestant St. Patrick's cathedral,
the Church of Ireland

The remains of the
old Celtic cross.

The cathedral was gorgeous inside, full of Celtic and medieval carvings.

 One of the artifacts inside the church is the remains of the old Celtic cross dating from the 11th century.

We left there to visit the oldest library in Ireland founded in 1771 by Archbishop Robinson, located on Vicar's Hill across from the Church of Ireland.



 Unfortunately by the time we got to the library they were just closing for lunch. We were unable to see much but they did allow us to take a few photos. 

We found our way back to the car and headed for the Navan Fort. Not easy to find as the road is small and hidden in the trees. Siri and google finally managed to get us there.

Since it was lunch time we decided to have lunch in the restaurant there. Not our best meal but it was filling.
After lunch we went over to the visitor's area and paid the fees for our self-guided tour. We were given directions and headphones. We wound our way through the displays and headed for the docent tour. By the time we were finished with that it was too late to see the actual Emain Macha. We were very disappointed in the tour and thought it better suited to children.

Lough Rynn castle

Time to head for Lough Rynn Castle in Mohill, Leitrim county, Ireland our lodging for the night. Lough Rynn Castle sits next to Lough Rynn amid beautifully landscaped lawns, gardens and natural trails. It's very peaceful as it's not near a town, fortunately there is a very nice pub in the castle that serves food as well as drink. 

Since we hadn't been able to visit Bushmills Distillery I was anxious to try the different ages of Bushmills Irish Whiskey. Wouldn't want to make a habit of drinking it but I liked the younger of the ones I tried. We ate a very nice dinner at the bar and headed up to our room to relax and get some sleep.

The room was smallish but nicely furnished. The bathroom floor was heated, can you believe it!?  From our window we had a lovely view of the grounds and the lake. Our bed was pretty comfortable too. The only slight glitch was the heating, I couldn't seem to turn it off. I opened the window and called the front desk, they sent someone up and she was able to turn it off.

It just so happened that the night we stayed in Lough Rynn was the eve of my birthday so I woke up in a castle in Ireland on my birthday! What a treat that was!

Carrickfergus Castle, Torr Scenic drive, Carrick-a-Rede, Giants Causeway and...

The morning started out rainy so a drive out onto the Torr Head was a tentative plan. It was still raining when we got to Carrickfergus Castle but we paid our money and wandered around anyway. We were in Northern Ireland and not about to let a little rain deter us from our castle ruins.

From wikipedia: "Carrickfergus was built by John de Courcy in 1177 as his headquarters, after he conquered eastern Ulster in 1177 and ruled as a petty king until 1204, when he was ousted by another Norman adventurer, Hugh de Lacy. Initially de Courcy built the inner ward, a small bailey at the end of the promontory with a high polygonal curtain wall and east gate. It had a number of buildings, including the great hall. From its strategic position on a rocky promontory, originally almost surrounded by sea, the castle commanded Carrickfergus Bay (later known as Belfast Lough), and the land approaches into the walled town that developed beneath its shadows."

We plotted our next stop into Google maps and set off for Carrick-a-Rede. On the way we noticed a castle and an adorable village associated with it. We pulled into the town which was called Glenarm. We parked and got out of the car and started walking around in the almost empty little village — it's pretty much off the tourist grid — and discovered a stone bridge. We walked across and were taken to what looked like the entrance to a castle.

The Barbican Gate Lodge

As we stood in front of it the door opened and a woman appeared. We asked her if we could come in and she said no it was a B&B and only guests could come in. We expressed how beautiful we thought it was and she started telling us about how it had become a B&B and it is currently leased by the Irish Landmark Trust. It was originally built in 1825 by Anne Catherine, Countess of Antrim.

She then told us that, on second thought there was an empty room and she would take us through so we could see it.

The room is a true castle tower with narrow circular stone staircase but it has been modernized inside a bit with a bathroom,  kitchen facilities, running water and electricity. Each room — bathroom, sitting room, bedroom, etc. — is on it's own floor in the tower. The views are gorgeous.

Glenarm Castle

When we exited the castle gate she continued to tell the history of the Barbican, castle gardens and Glenarm Castle. We walked down a dirt road to stand in front of the gorgeous Glenarm Castle. The castle is the home of Randal, Viscount Dunluce, son of the 14th Earl of Antrim, his wife Aurora, their son Alexander and daughter Helena. It is not open to the public.

However the walled gardens are and we decided to have lunch at the Tea Room and visit the gardens.

Walled Garden

We had sandwiches at the Tea Room and then paid our admission to the gardens. They are truly spectacular and if you are in that area don't miss them.

When we finished enjoying the gardens we got back in our car and continued in the direction of carrick-a-rede. The sun had broken through so we decided we should take the Torr scenic drive.
We turned onto the drive at Cushendun. It's a one lane minor road and as such can be dangerous. We loved it, the road goes around tight corners and up steep hills than down the other side with fabulous views of old cottages, ruins, green hills, blue ocean, wildflowers and plenty of sheep dotting white against all that green. We stopped several times to take photos but getting out of the car wasn't as pleasant as staying in it. The wind was blowing at least 40 mph.

Herding sheep on Torr Scenic Drive

At one point we came around a turn and there were several sheep in the road, 2 adults and 2 babies. We slowly followed them until they ran into the open gate a short way down the road.

Torr Scenic Drive

The views were just spectacular, not like anything I've ever seen before.

We continued on to Ballycastle, a beautiful little fishing village that is now pretty popular with tourists. In 1898 Guglielmo Marconi tested his wireless system between here and the Rathlin Island Lighthouse. Rathlin Island is the only populated island in Northern Ireland.

Sheep painted pink in honor of the Giro d'Italia

When we got to the fork where the more main road went off toward the Carrick-a-Rede and Giants Causeway we stopped to take a couple of photos of the pink sheep. They had been painted pink in honor of the Giro d'Italia bicycle race.

We continued on toward the bridge near the small town of Ballintoy. By the time we got to the bridge the wind had calmed a bit from the 40 mph out on the Torr and the sky was still brilliant blue.
 We pulled into the parking lot and bought our tickets. There is a walk along a trail for about 2 km before you get to the rope bridge. It takes you along the cliff where you look down into turquoise blue water with wildflowers jutting out from between the rocks. Birds, mostly Seagulls, nest on the cliffs in droves. You continue down some flat rock steps that lead you to the metal staircase that leads to the bridge. There is a person at the top of the stairs who meters how many people are on the bridge at any one time and she also keeps people moving since everyone wants to stop on the bridge and have their picture taken.

Carrick-a-Rede

No one has ever fallen from the bridge but a number of people have gotten too scared to come back across the bridge and had to be talked back or helped in some other way. We didn't find it to be that scary. I'm pretty sure you couldn't fall off unless you wanted to. It is incredibly beautiful from the bridge and from the island of Carrick on the other side.

We hiked back up the return trail which takes a slightly different route and brings you to a spot above and across from the bridge, where I took this picture. 

We got back to the car and continued on to the Giants Causeway. We wound around the entry road until we came to a large parking lot and a gentleman who pointed us in the direction of the Visitor's Center where we could buy our tickets and collect our headphones.

Giants Causeway

There is a short walk down to the Causeway itself where you can scramble around on the basalt columns. The way there is also very pretty and worth paying attention to. We ran out of time and had to return before we could walk the entire trail.

We continued on to Dunluce castle which is just a short distance away. Unfortunately it was closed but you could still walk down the trail and get some nice views of the castle and the area around it. 

In 1639 the entire kitchen area fell into the sea killing all but one of the kitchen staff, who happened to be sitting in a back corner of the kitchen. The wife of the owner and all the rest of the staff moved out immediately after that and refused to go back. It's been vacant ever since. 

We took a few pictures and headed off to Bushmill to visit the Bushmills Distillery. Well dang, it was also closed.

It was getting very late by then and we decided to head back to Templepatrick and the Templeton Hotel for dinner. We were very lucky, this being Sunday they were very close to closing, in fact we got our dinner and watched the staff do cleanup as we ate. It was another very good dinner and I was able to get a shot of Bushmills Irish Whiskey, which by-the-way is very good.

Dunluce castle

Belfast to see the Giro d'Italia start

Titanic Belfast and the Giro d'Italia jumbotron

Today, after a beautiful breakfast of farm fresh perfectly scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and homemade brown Irish soda bread, we headed off to Belfast to see if we could see some of the Giro d'Italia. It was raining off and on when we left. We chose our route in google maps and started the navigation. By the time we got into Belfast the rain had begun to slack. We found the parking area for the Giro and Titanic Belfast. It had begun raining again and we realized we didn't have any pounds only euros, oops. I got out to talk to one of the fellows manning the parking area. He was very informative and helpful, regaling me with stories of Belfast and The Troubles as well as other knowledge about the area. Turned out he was a tour guide when he wasn't volunteering to park cars. He also told us where to find an ATM and that the other gentleman would accept Euros. Yay!

We parked the car and wandered over to the Titanic Quarter to join in the Giro event. It was still raining lightly so there weren't as many people enjoying the booths as there normally would be but there were still quite a few. Northern Ireland was extremely thrilled to host the start of the Giro d'Italia and it was evident everywhere you went. Everything possible was draped in pink or painted pink.

Seen along the road well outside of Belfast

We decided to take the Titanic Belfast tour since it was raining and there wasn't much to see with regard to the Giro. It's an informative tour of the history of the Titanic and the Harland & Wolff Shipping Company who were the builders of the Titanic in 1912.

By the time the tour was over we were starving and bought lunch at the bistro there. It was surprisingly good.

We had paid for the self-tour of the slipways and cranes but it was raining so hard by then that we became soaked just walking a block or so away from the building. We decided we wouldn't be able to enjoy that and went back in for coffee and drying.

Victoria Shopping Centre

After drying off we went back to the car to head to an Apple Store for a car charger. My iPhone was really sucking down the battery being used for GPS and navigation. It turned out that the finish of the Giro was on the way to the shopping area we were headed to so we did get to see some of the soaking wet Giro finishers. It was still really coming down.

Back in the car, charger in hand, we programmed in our next destination which was a return trip to the Bay Cottage. Other than managing to come out of a roundabout into the airport parking in Antrim and having to pay a pound to get out we made it back with no problems.

That night we went to dinner at the Templeton Hotel in Templepatrick, Antrim Co. and had a delicious dinner. I had baked salmon with lentils, rocket, goat cheese and walnuts with a drizzle of pesto oil. Chris had the seafood chowder, which was also delicious.

Day Two in Northern Ireland

The Old Library Long Room

After breakfast at the hotel we decided to do some exploring around Dublin. We ended up over at Trinity College. It's really beautiful and very old, founded in 1592 by Elizabeth 1 of England. We wandered all around the campus and then into the Old Library.

The Old Library was constructed in the 18th century and holds the Book of Kells, a 9th century gospel manuscript famous all over the world. Upstairs is the Long Room which houses over 200,000 of the libraries oldest books. Visit The College Dublin web site for more information about The Old Library and The Book of Kells.

After our tour of the Trinity College and The Old Library we walked back to our room and packed up to leave for the Bay Cottage B&B in Antrim County Northern Ireland where we were spending 3 nights. Our plan was to enjoy a stage or so of the Giro d'Italia and do some exploring around Northern Ireland.

We asked the desk to call a taxi to take us to Hertz in Dublin to pick up our car. We rented an Audi A4 diesel. Chris had to learn very quickly how to negotiate from the righthand side of the car on the lefthand side of the street in a strange city. Fortunately we had our Garmin. We managed to miss the turn onto the ramp anyway and spent the next hour or so driving around trying to find a way onto the motorway we could see "right over there". 

We had planned to do some sight-seeing on our way to the B&B but we were so happy to be on the right road, headed in the right direction that we didn't want to chance any side-trips. We had lunch at an Applegreen at an M1 North service area. It was really pretty good!

Bay Cottage B&B on Loughview Rd.

It had begun raining by the time we crossed into Northern Ireland and continued to rain off and on for the rest of our drive to the B&B. When we reached our B&B the sun came out and I took this photo.

Our Garmin got us to Loughview Rd. but than turned us in the wrong direction. I entered the address into google maps on my iPhone and Siri talked us in the right direction and to the door. After that we put away the Garmin and used the iPhone for directions. It worked perfectly even when we went the wrong way or missed a turn. A lot of roads in Ireland are tiny "goat paths" with no signage. Siri and Google guided us through it all. International cell data is expensive so you have to be willing to pay for it. I turned off the data whenever we reached a destination and saved as many places offline as possible. 

Our first night's dinner was at Fiddlers Pub in Crumlin. The food was alright and the Guinness was great. It's amazing how much better Guinness tastes in Ireland. 

After dinner we went back to our room and chatted with Elizabeth about our plans for the 3 days we would be there. She was a wealth of information and even provided some maps.

Not completely perfect but darned terrific

After nearly 11 hours in the air we were pretty happy to arrive at CDG in Paris. We looked at our boarding passes for the connecting flight and thought, cool we're landing at gate L and connecting at gate K. Little did we know how far from each other they were. A lot of walking and a couple of escalators later we arrive at the train that will take us to gate K and another several security check points. We finally boarded our tiny plane and headed to Dublin.

 When we arrived in Dublin we went straight to the luggage carrousel to collect our luggage and get to our hotel, nope.

Dublin from our window at the Brooks Hotel.

Several of us made our way up to the lost luggage counter and found out our luggage hadn't made the connection. It could have been worse, Air France knew where it was and assured us they would bring it to us at our hotel when it arrived and they did.

 Turned out Air France had emailed us regarding the missing bags earlier as well as what their plan was for getting them to us. Since I didn't have wifi or phone service at that time I didn't get the email.

 We took an Air Coach into Dublin from the airport but got off at the wrong stop, we were told what stop but decided to choose an earlier stop. Very bad idea. We spent about an hour wandering the streets of Dublin with me rolling my carry-on worried about tripping someone. It was pretty funny. We finally decided to go into a pub and ask for directions. We were only about 3 blocks away but we both swear we'd still be wandering around if we hadn't asked for directions.

Neary's Bar in Dublin

Chris's sister had told us about a bar named Neary's in Dublin so we walked to it and had a pint of Beamish. Dave the bartender told us stories of the origins of Neary's — it was founded in 1645 — and also recommended a place to eat that was just across the street.

We're at SFO

Already the upgrade on Air France to Premium Economy has been worth it. When we got here all we had to do was look for the Sky Priority signs and we were directed right up to the Checkin, no waiting in line at all. We also went right up to security, again no waiting.

We got into the Priority Boarding line and got to go to our seats with the Business Class passengers. Our seats were a little larger than economy with larger armrests and a leg rest that popped out when you pushed a button, there was also a foot rest. The seats reclined quite a bit but stayed in place so you weren't intruding on people behind you. We also had our own flight attendants and our own menus, plus free beer and wine. 

Oh yeah, it's worth the couple hundred dollars more.

We're leaving for Ireland in the morning

I'm mostly packed for our trip. Chris will pack this evening. It's so hard to figure out how much to bring. I don't want to be lugging a bunch of luggage all over Ireland but I don't want to run out of clothes either. So many cameras, phones, chargers and adapters to find room for. They all have to go into the carry-on.

One checked bag, 1 carry-on and 1 messenger bag; I like to pack light so I can manage all of my own stuff. I've printed our boarding passes and our Air Coach confirmation so we're all set. I'm beginning to get very excited and anxious to leave.