Wow, we have been in Ireland for only four days but it seems much longer! What a great country -- we are so glad we decided to leave a little earlier and spend a few days here before heading to Wales and England. It definitely won't be enough, but it is better than nothing.
We really had made no plans for our time in Ireland except picking up a rental car at Shannon Airport when we arrived on Friday morning and dropping the car off at Dublin Airport on Monday morning. From Dublin we would take a train down the East coast to Rosslare where we would get a ferry to Wales.
We have found that if we travel with very loose plans and just talk to people along the way, we always get great ideas for places to go or stay and it always seems to work out (having internet helps too).
When we got to Shannon, we stopped in a little souvenir shop in the airport that also advertised tourist information. We talked to a young girl who worked there and asked for some recommendations. We told her we wanted to see the coast and she suggested we go to see the Cliffs of Moher and stay in the town of Doolin nearby. She even gave us the name of a good B&B. What great advice that turned out to be.
Bob had to adjust to driving on the left and shifting with his left hand (manual transmission) and the roads were so narrow that two cars could barely pass each other. There were no shoulders -- just tall bushes that grew right on the edge of the road. In any case, the countryside was beautiful and we were soon driving along the ocean's edge. We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher and walked around the trails, taking some pictures. It was cold and windy and occasionally raining but we were layered up pretty well.
Inside the visitors center we found an exhibit where you could pick your (Irish) family name and bring up a family crest so we put in Bob's mother's maiden name - Healy - and got to see their crest.
The town of Doolin was just beyond the cliffs and we were in love at first sight. What a lovely little town.
We found a room at the B&B our airport friend had recommended and Bridget, our host, welcomed us warmly and told us all about Doolin and what there was to do.
We strolled the town and went to Gus O'Connor's Pub for a late lunch/dinner and then, after a nap, returned to the Pub in the evening for some of the great Irish music for which it is famous.
On Saturday morning, we walked down to the harbor at Doolin and looked out at the islands off the coast. It was still cool and windy but we enjoyed the walk and the sights along the way.
When we got back, we got in our car and headed north along the coast and then east. We stopped in the central town of Tullamore (where they make Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey) and stayed at a hotel in town.
Our plan was to head to the east coast on Sunday, somewhere north of Dublin so we could drop the car at the airport Monday morning.
In researching the towns north of Dublin, we found a town called Skerries which had a lovely harbor. We decided to try to find a place to stay there and found Hamilton House B&B which was right downtown.
Our host was Siobahn, a wonderful, friendly woman who told us all about the places to see in Skerries.
The Stoop Your Head was the place to eat in town -- a seafood restaurant down at the harbor.
Siobhan also told us about "The Ras" -- a 1200 kilometer, 8 day bicycle race around Ireland that is held every year to raise money for breast cancer research. The race was concluding on that day here in Skerries -- once again we had lucked out!
We dropped our bags off and immediately headed down to the harbor where we saw all kinds of boats and lots of sailing going on. There were a bunch of kids dragging Optimists down to the water and launching them and then sailing off like they had been doing it all their lives.
There was also a race going on with larger boats, some beautiful traditional boats and fishing vessels.
There are 12 foot tides so many are aground at low tide.
We had a great time walking around the harbor and down along the waterfront, then headed back into town to watch the bicycle race festivities. The streets were lined with people and lots of different charity groups had booths set up selling cakes and cookies, cotton candy, raffle tickets, etc. The sun came out for the first time since we got to Ireland.
We made our way down to the finish line just a few minutes before the first bikes started coming in. These guys had been riding for 8 days and had done 1200 kilometers. They said that it had rained for the whole week -- this was the first sunshine they had seen. We got free Ras t-shirts and were there to see the winners pass the finish line -- very exciting.
After that we walked down to the other end of town to see a windmill there then we decided to walk back down to the harbor to eat at the Stoop Your Head before the crowds from the races came. We spent most of our evening walking around town -- everyone was friendly and celebrating.
Monday morning we had a fabulous breakfast of eggs and smoked salmon, then headed out in our rental car to return it to Dublin airport. We got a cab into the city to the train station. Our cab driver told us lots about Dublin and the Irish revolution and pointed out historic places as we drove by.
On the train from Dublin to Rosslare, we ran along next to the sea and then next to a river, and Bob finally got to really enjoy the scenery, which he couldn't really do when he was driving. It was a pleasant trip and we arrived in Rosslare around 4:30 and walked about 1/2 mile (uphill and carrying all our luggage) to our hotel. The clerk at the hotel told us of a pub with great food that was about 3/4 mile away and we walked there (without luggage) and had an incredible meal and our last Guinness/Bulmers/Irish whiskey in Ireland.
A couple of observations from our short time in Ireland:
Conservation and environmental stewardship are much more a way of life in Ireland than in the US. Our hotel room in Tullamore had a slot inside the door into which you inserted your room key when you walked in to make the lights work. When you left the room and took your key out, all the lights went out. There were lights on motion detectors in the hallways. We also noted that when we went into a store and bought a couple of things, we weren't even asked if we wanted a bag.
We did not see the commercial areas outside of towns with chain stores and fast food places that you see outside almost every town in America. The stores were mostly in the towns and, although we did see American fast food restaurants, they were in the towns as well. In the evenings all the people of the town from all generations were downtown on the street, walking and visiting with each other.
Tomorrow we take the ferry to Wales! We are vowing we've got to come back to Ireland...
