SUMMARY AND FINAL THOUGHTS

Our first trip to Ireland was everything we had hoped for and more, although some of that more was a bit unexpected.  Here’s the final summary, with a few thoughts and observations.

Length of Trip:  22 days, May 5 through May 26, 2015

Miles Driven: Approximately 1300

Itinerary: Arrive in Dublin, drive a clockwise loop around the island, and back to Dublin as follows:
    Day 1:      Denver to Dublin
    Day 2:      Dublin to Glendalough (St Kevin’s Monastery)
    Day 3:      Glendalough to Kilkenny (Kilkenny Castle)
    Day 4:      Kilkenny to Waterford (dinner with Anne)
    Day 5:      Waterford area (hike along River Suir)
    Day 6:      Waterford to Cashel (Rock of Cashel)
    Day 7:      Cashel to Kinsale
    Day 8:      Kinsale to Glengarriff (Kinsale town walk, Kinsale Head)
    Day 9:      Glengarriff area (Garnish Island, Beara Peninsula)
    Day 10:    Glangarriff to Kenmare (Molly Gallivan Farm)
    Day 11:    Kenmare to Cahersiveen (Ring of Kerry fogged out)
    Day 12:    Cahersiveen to Dingle (Ring of Kerry)
    Day 13:    Dingle to Ennis (Dingle Peninsula, River Shannon ferry)
    Day 14:    Ennis to Galway (Cliffs of Moher, Dunguaire Castle)
    Day 15:    Galway to Westport (Knock Shrine, Ballinrobe)
    Day 16:    Westport and west Mayo (Croagh Patrick, Kylemore Abbey)
    Day 17:    Westport to Derry/Londonderry (Donegal Castle)
    Day 18:    Derry/Londonderry to Portrush (Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge)
    Day 19:    Portrush to Dublin
    Day 10:    Dublin (city tour 1, Trinity College, Book of Kells)
    Day 21:    Dublin (city tour 2, National Art Gallery, National Library, dinner with Maurice and Martha)
    Day 22:    Dublin to Denver

Our final itinerary

Accommodations: We stayed almost exclusively in small bed & breakfast inns for the entire trip.  The only exceptions were one night in a hostel in Kilkenny, two nights in a small hotel in Waterford, and three nights in an upscale hotel in Dublin.  The B&Bs were, without exception, pleasant and comfortable, run by friendly and charming hosts.  One or two had rooms on the small side, but otherwise they were comfortably large and well-furnished.  The breakfasts were delicious and filling, as noted below.  We never reserved more than 24 hours ahead, and only on a couple of occasions did we have to settle on something other than our first choice.  We spent the one night in the hostel at Kilkenny thinking that, hey, we slept in hostels for six weeks in Spain and that worked out just fine.  But I guess our mindset was different on this trip, because the even the private room we had seemed cheap and the bed like something out of a used furniture store.  The hotel in Waterford was a 2-star at best, and was altogether forgettable.  We spent way more than our budget allowed for the hotel in Dublin, but we wanted to stay close in to the city center and we were lucky to find it at all on short notice.

Driving: It took about a week to get comfortable with driving on the left-hand side of the road and the extremely narrow roads, both in the rural areas and in the towns and villages.  Our car, a Skoda Fabio, worked out well. (Skoda is a Swedish company which is part of the Volkswagen group, and the Fabio is basically a VW Golf with a different body.)  I would not want to drive anything larger.  I didn’t keep accurate records of fuel cost, but on average it was around €1.45 per liter, or approximately $5.50 per gallon, if my math is correct (correction - make that more like $6.00 per gallon).  We drove approximately 1300 miles and averaged somewhere around 35 miles per gallon

Our humble chariot

Weather:  It was much colder and wetter than we had anticipated.  The temperature averaged in the high 40s/low 50s at night, and high 50s to low 60s most days, with a few days reaching the mid-to-high 60s.  It rained or drizzled for at least a portion of most days, and being so near the coast most of the time, the strong on-shore breezes made the chill factor uncomfortably cold.  We took mainly our quick-dry Camino clothes, which are lightweight nylon/polypropylene blends, and not very warm.  At the last minute I threw in a pair of corduroy jeans, which I ended up wearing almost every day for warmth.  I had taken a primaloft jacket, a rain jacket, and rain pants, thinking that would be sufficient, but we both ended up buying sweaters, plus I also bought a pile vest.  There were days when we wore it all.  The hardest rain was in Waterford, and the strongest wind was at the Cliffs of Moher, where there were gusts up to probably 40 mph.

Cold and wet at Croagh Patrick

Cold and windy at Cliffs of Moher

Highlights: The beauty of the green landscape was probably first on the list for both of us, followed closely by the warmth and friendliness of the Irish people.  I particularly enjoyed exploring the ruins of the medieval castles and churches, and the Stonehenge-like stone rings and ring forts of the pre-Christian era.  And of course our dinners with Anne Conway in Waterford and Maurice and Martha O’Connell in Dublin were highlights.  Anne is a friend of our friend Elnore Grow, whom we met while she was visiting Elnore a couple of years ago, and Maurice (pronounced “Morris”) is friend from or 2013 Camino walk in Spain.  Our hike along the River Suir with Anne and her friends Paschal and Josie, their son Connor, and niece Rosie was a favorite as well.

Paschal, Anne, and Josie, along the River Suir

Martha and Maurice, Dublin

Irish Music:  For me, at least, the music was not what I expected.  I was looking forward to hearing some of the “traditional” Irish music we hear in the US around St Patrick’s Day, but the typical pub music is more of a jig, and can get pretty repetitive sounding after a while.  The typical musical group included at least a banjo, a guitar and/or mandolin, and a concertina or small accordion.  In addition, most also have varying additional instruments such as Irish drums, fiddles, flutes, and occasional bagpipes or harmonicas.  The biggest problem, at least for us, was that the pub music usually didn’t start until 9:00 or 9:30 PM – too late for us old-timers.  The best music we found was in Kinsale at a pub I believe was called the Greyhound and on our last day in Dublin at Gogarty’s Pub in the Temple Bar area.

The Greyhound Pub, Kinsale

Gogarty's Pub, Dublin

Food:  I’d have to say that the beef and Guiness stew that I had on multiple occasions was my favorite food.  We had fish and chips on several occasions, most of which was quite good.  Our best meal, however, was a 2 for 2 special at a very nice restaurant in Derry.  It included two 2-course dinners and a bottle of wine for £29.  I had a Caesar salad and grilled salmon with vegetables in a delicious white wine cream sauce and rice, and Jeanette had a greens salad and lamb shank with mixed vegetables and potatoes.  The wine was a Chilean sauvignon blanc.  The Irish aren’t skimpy on their portions, especially at breakfast, where we typically had porridge (oatmeal) or cold cereal, fruit, eggs (fried, scrambled, or poached), with bacon (Irish bacon is more like what we call Canadian bacon), sausages, grilled tomatoes, and a variety of breads and toast – what a way to start the day!

Surprise Finds: Being on a free, unscheduled itinerary, some of our best experiences happened in places we never heard about beforehand.  For instance, we did not have Kinsale or Glengarriff on our tentative itinerary, but bypassed Cork and Blarney to go to these two small towns on the recommendation of Paschal and Josie.  Kylemore Abbey was recommended by a couple we met at one of our B&Bs, and the beautiful, remote mountain pass and lake at Doo Lough where we stopped to watch the bicycle race was just something we happened on.

Bicycle Race, Doo Lough

Kylemore Abbey, Connemara

Don’t Ever Say No:  I resisted going to Northern Ireland and the Giant’s Causeway until, finally, Jeanette’s persistent hints and the reports by other travelers we met convinced me to bypass parts of County Donegal and head on up there.  The city of Derry, or Londonderry as it’s called in the north, turned out to be a delight, and worthy of a longer visit if we ever get back to Ireland.  The Giant’s Causeway turned out to be better than I expected. We had never heard of the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede until we were having breakfast at our B&B in Derry and decided to stop by since it was so close to the Giant's Causeway.

One Last Surprise: On the flight home, the entire North Atlantic was shrouded in clouds.  Just as we reached the southern tip of Greenland, it cleared and I could see the mountains and deep fjords that define this rugged coastland.  The ocean was filled with icebergs, large and small.  As we passed over the Labrador Sea, the stretch of water between Greenland and Labrador, the ocean currents swirled, with the countless icebergs creating huge spirals and chains on the surface of the water.  Then, as we passed over the vast wilderness of Labrador and northern Quebec, the crumpled, linear ridges of the landscape below went on and on.  It made me wonder how many people might live in such a place, still covered in snow and punctuated by frozen lakes, so far from civilization as we know it.  I only had my iPhone with me in the cabin, so I took several photos through the airplane window at 36,000 feet.  None of them are particularly good, but I’ll post a couple here anyway.

Southern tip of Greenland, from 36,000 ft

Wilderness of northern Quebec, from 36,000 ft

DONE DRIVING

NOTE:  Due to poor internet connection at our last hotel, this is being published after our return to the U.S.
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We completed the driving portion of our trip and we're now back where we started, in Dublin. We'll be here playing foot tourists until we depart for home on Tuesday morning. But first, a recap of the past couple of days...
We left Westport Thursday morning and drove through the mostly forgettable north Mayo countryside. I say mostly forgetable because it was misty and drizzly almost the entire time, which limited our visibility. What we did see was primarily open ranch country, although I doubt thats the term they use here. Farther north, beween Bangor and Ballina, we passed though some wooded hills were therre was some logging taking place. Rounding the bend at Sligo, we headed north to Donegal, where we stopped long enough to tour the 13th-century Donegal Castle. From there it was up the road, pretty much paralleling the border between the Republic of Ireland (or just plain Ireland to most of us) and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. We crossed the border just as we came into Derry, which is known as Londonderry to the Northern Irish, and found our B&B, in a delightful old Victorian townhouse just a block or two from the riverfront and the old townwalls. Derry is one of the few European cities whose town walls are totally intact, and after a delicious dinner (salmon for me and a lamb shank for Jeanette), we took a stroll around to walking path along the top of the wall, which took a half hour or so. At one point, the wall looked  down on the neighborhood called Bogside, where the tragic Bloody Sunday events took place, setting off the unfortunate "troubles" between the Catholics and Protestants in the 1970s.
The next morning we were up early and on our way to see the Giant's Causeway, an interesting geological formation of basalt columns that juts out into the sea toward Scotland. I won't go into folkloric legend that explains the origin of the formation, but if you've ever been to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming, you know what really created the Giant's Causeway, because they're geological similar.
Leaving the Giant's Causeway, it was a short drive a few miles up the coast to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which as the name implies, is a rope bridge about a hundred feet long that spans a narrow gap between the mainland and a small rocky island. It was originally built by local fishermen, but is now used to add pounds (the Sterling type) to the till of the National Trust for Tourism.

Going home - May26

We are here waiting for the hotel cafe to open and our cab ride to the airport. Highlights yesterday include our visit to Gogarty's Bar and St.Patrick's cathedral. We also visited the National Gallery.

Portrush and Giant's Causeway

More incredible Atlantic ocean views from Portrush and the Giant's Causeway. Murph crossing the rope bridge. Tomorrow we head for Dublin and then home on Tuesday.

Derry - May 21

Drove most of the day from Westport to Derry. Stopped in Donegal to see yet another castle. Derry is a very historic town with lots of churches and old buildings. And the sight of Bloody Sunday. Today (May 22) we visit the Giant's causeway.

A BUSY DAY

We started the day with a bit of uncertainty, mainly because of the weather. This was the day for climbing Croagh Patrick, which is located just a few miles west of the town of Westport in northern County Mayo, which, by the way, was the home of my Prendergast ancestors. The forecast was for clearing skies, but as we pulled into the the parking area, the cloud level was only about 400 or 500 feet above the ground - the mountain was totally socked in (see Jeanette's photo of St Patrick, which is just a few yards up from the trailhead). Some locals discouraged us from climbing in those conditions, so decided instead to do a 4 km loop hike that started up a little past the St Paddy statue, then drive on down to Kylemore Abbey for the remainder of the day.
As we got to the trailhead for the loop hike, it seemed like the cloud ceiling was lifting a bit so we decided to see just how far up the mountain we could go. It was a steep and rocky trail, but we made it up about 2/3 of the way - about 2000 feet up - before deciding to call it a day. The trail at that point became decidedly steeper, at least a 45 degree slope straight up over loose scree, and the top was still in the clouds. Of course by the time we got back down to the car, the clouds had broken and the summit was clear...oh well.
The drive down to Kylemore Abbey took us through a remote glacial valley with virtually no other cars, and free-range sheep wandering all about. We crossed a small rise overlooking a beautiful lake, and were suddenly confronted with a gaggle of cars, truck, and vans parked on the side of the road, with a small throng of people dressed in brightly colored bicycle garb. They waved us down and told us to pull off the road - the Irish equivalent of the Tour d'France was coming our way and due in about ten minutes or so. We spent the next half hour or 45 minutes watching some of the world's best professional bike racers whiz by in several large  and small waves. Finally, the sweep van came along, clearing the way for us to proceed down the once-again quiet country road.
We reached Kylemore Abbey, a castle-like, 19th century country estate with a large formal garden. After wandering around this Irish Downton Abbey setting, it was time to return to Westport to keep a dinner engagement with a couple from Bozeman, Montana who were staying at our B&B,

Westport May20

We made it a little over half way up Crough Patrick -- a tough climb and a bit cold and foggy as you can see from the picture. It took 2 1/2 hours and we wanted to have time for Kylemore Abby. On the way to Kylemore we came across a beautiful lake set beneath majestic mountains and then got stopped as a big bicycle race came through. All in all it was a well appointed day.

Westport May 19

Today we toured Galway Bay for a bit, then drove to Knock. We arrived in time for the Consecration and Communion of 12 o'clock mass. It was a lovely experience. Then to Ballinrobe where Murph inquired at the ancestry center about his heritage. Need more info to follow up on that. Tonight we are staying in Westport and tomorrow, if God is willing, we will attempt to climb Crough Patrick.

A little Irish music May 18

Last night at Tig Coili Pub we enjoyed some good Irish jigs.

A FEW MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS

DRIVING: It's getting better, particularly on the open roads. My palms are no longer sweaty, and I'm not freaking out every time we come to blind corner and suddenly face an oncoming car in what I still perceive to be the wrong lane. Driving in the cities still is more than just bit nerve-wracking though. However, neither of us can imagine  doing this trip in any other way than having our own car and our own schedule.
IRISH COWS:  It seems like at least 95 percent of the cattle we've seen are those black and white type from the "Eat mor chiken" commercials. Being basically a city boy, I've always assumed that kind of cow to be dairy cow. But if that's where the Irish are getting their beef, they've cracked the code - Irish beef is the best I've ever tasted. It's tender it almost melts in your mouth.
SHEEP: And speaking of livestock, I should mention the sheep. As you can imagine, they're everywhere. Looking up into the emerald green hillsides, they look like  randomly scattered white dots. Up close, you notice that they  have brightly colored spots of dye in their coats, which is the Irish way of marking ownership.
SHOWERS:  So far, no two have been alike. I could never have imagined so many different control configurations could exist. Some use instant electric heaters, which require you to pull a string hanging from the ceiling like an old-fashioned light bulb, to turn on the heater before you set the temperature. Otherwise, they all require a minute or two of head scratching to figure out how to get started before you step in. One thing they do have in common, though, is that they all are SMALL. I didn't think it was possible to design a shower smaller than the one in our motor home, but some Irish genius has done it - a couple of them can't have been more than two feet square!
WEATHER: Before I leave the topic of showers, I have to take a moment to mention the other kind. It seems like every place I've ever been has the same tired old comment about "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change,"  Well, in Ireland, at least for the past few days, that statement is literally true. It seems to go from full sunshine to a brief, and sometimes heavy, rain shower which lasts only five minutes every half hour or so.
RICK STEVES: God bless him. Just follow the recommendations in his guide books and you can't go wrong.

Cliffs and Castles- May 18

Today we visited the cliffs of Moher. Oh, so windy up there we could barely stand up. Intermittent rain and cold, but we are now acclimated. Made it to Galway where we will spend the night. More beautiful land and seascapes and castles.

RING OF KERRY, TAKE 2 AND BEYOND

Jeanette has already posted photos from our successful second attempt at the Ring of Kerry, so I won't go into much detail other than to say that it was well worth the stayover to wait for the weather to clear. But that's old news now -time to move forward...
First, a brief geography lesson for the sake of orientation. If you look at a map of Ireland, you'll see that the southwest coast consists of four jagged peninsulas jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, looking somewhat like the claws on the foot of a giant bear. The southernmost is the Mizen Peninsula, which actually terminates in two narrow rocky fingers. The other three are the Beara Peninsula, the Iveragh Peninsula - which is best known for the highway known as the Ring of Kerry which circles its perimeter, and finally the Dingle Peninsula. In fact, all three of these have roads around them - it's just that Iveragh, a.k.a. the Ring of Kerry - has the best publicist. They all terminate in spectacular rocky headlands and cliffs up to a thousand feet high, with the endless surf pounding the age-old rocks below. It was against these rocks and cliffs that the Spanish Armada, on its way to attack England in 1588, was wrecked after being blown off course in a storm.
We missed the Mizen Peninsula, but we did drive around the other three. We did the Beara Peninsula a few days ago from our base in Glengarriff, the Iveragh Peninsula/Ring of Kerry yesterday and the day before, and the Dingle Peninsula this morning. The Dingle Peninsula is noteworthy for three things: first, its tip is the westermost point of land in Europe; second, it was the first point of land passed over by Charles Lindberg on his epic, trans-Atlantic flight in 1927; and finally, for you movie buffs, it was the filming location for the Robert Mitchum movie "Ryan's Daughter."
We spent the rest of the day driving northeastward, taking the ferry across the River Shannon into County Clare. We're spending the night in the town of Ennis, then heading for the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow - more scenic cliffs with the ocean crashing below. I'm sure Jeanette will have more photos to post from there.

Dingle Coast

Scenic views along the Dingle Coast. Today was another day in Paradise. Incredible views everywhere you look. Tonight we will stay in Ennis and tomorrow we go to the Cliffs of Mohr. So much to see and do! The hut is a 1300 year old Christian church called the Gallarus Oratory.

What a difference a day makes!

Weather was beautiful today! Enjoyed some nice views along the Ring of Kerry. Tonight we are in Dingle Town. It is a very upscale town with lots of nice shops and bars. Hope to hear some good ole Irish tunes after dinner and mass at 8. Ireland is sooooo beautiful!!

Ring of Kerry - rained out

Not a good day for the Ring of Kerry -- overcast, foggy and cold. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day. If so we will try again. If not, on to Dingle. We did see some amazing things -- castles and stone forts, and had a restful afternoon at the B&B.

RING OF KERRY - TAKE 1

I'm too acclimated to the dry Colorado weather.
Today was another of those days which give Ireland its reputation. We had high hopes as we went to bed in Kenmare last night; after an overcast, cloudy day, the sky cleared to brilliant blue. Surely this was the sign of a  bright and clear tomorrow for our drive around the Ring of Kerry, the 100 plus-mile loop around a spectacular mountain peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean - one of Ireland's most famous attractions. But alas, a peek out the window as we awoke in our cozy B&B this morning revealed more grey skies.
We packed our clothes and, after a hearty breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, and toast, were on our way by 8:45. All went well for the first hour or so, then we noticed the clouds getting lower and lower. Soon we were enveloped in fog and mist, and I kept cranking the windshield wipers up notch by notch until they were beating back and forth continuously. By the time we reached Coomakesta Pass, with its normally spectacular views, visibility was down to less than a hundred yards. We inched our way down to the village of Waterville, where we stopped for hot chocolate and a scone and to check the weather forecast. The young lady at the small cafe did not have good news - the forecast was for more of the same. At that point, we were undecided as to whether we should blow off the Ring of Kerry an simply proceed on to Killarny, or should we look for place to stop for the night and see if things look better tomorrow. By then we had reached the town of  Caharsiveen, where we found a reasonably nice B&B, so here we are.
The fog and mist finally let up enough late in the afternoon that we were able to visit a couple of ancient stone ring forts and the ruins of a 15th century castle just out of town. Later, we had delicious seafood dinner and are now back at the B&B with our fingers crossed for good, or at least better weather tomorrow. If so, we'll retrace our steps back out to the end of the peninsula. If not, it'll be on to Dingle.

Kenmare-May 14

On our way to Kenmare we stopped at this charming cottage and traditional farm. No rain -- yet. Charming town - Kenmare. Hope to catch some Irish music tonight and on our way to ring of Kerry tomorrow.
Second photo is the surrounding countryside.

Near Glengarriff-May 13

Boat ride to Garinish Island -- beautiful gardens! Then a car trip around the Beara penisula with breathtaking views.

RANDOM THOUGHTS -WEEK 1

WEATHER: Today (Tuesday May 12) has been the first really good day, weather-wise. A couple of days, especially Friday in Waterford, have been really rainy, and two or three others have been mixed - partly cloudy to scattered showers. I guess that's typical Irish weather, though. The next few days are supposed to be good, which is good for us as we'll be hitting some particularly scenic areas. After that, who knows?
DRIVING: Driving on the left side has not been as easy as I had hoped. On the open road it's not bad, but when getting started or when making turns I still have a tendency to want to get in the right lane. The worst part, though, is the narrow roads, both in the cities and in the country. Many of the roads are little more than a single lane, and shoulders are non-existent, with stone walls, dense hedgerows, or curbs right at the edge of the pavement. As my friend Marty warned, being unfamiliar with driving on the wrong side makes it really hard to judge where the left wheels are and where the curb or the edge of the pavement is. And God forbid when a large truck or bus approaches from the other direction. This all results in a great deal of stress.
One generally positive note, however, has been having our GPS. It has been a great help, particularly in the roundabouts, where it tells us which exit to take. Of course it is not without the usual foibles of generating strange routes and identifying many roads by local names rather than highway numbers as shown on maps.
HIGH POINTS: I'd have to say that our drive over the Wicklow Mountains on our first day was, in spite of being our first experience of left-lane driving, narrow roads, and rainy conditions, was a unique adventure. For the most part, we were traveling along high, treeless ridge lines, through sepia-colored moors punctuated by goldenrod-yellow gorse (a low, sage-like shrub that seems ubiquitous), under lead-grey skies spitting waves of rain. When we dipped into occasional hollows, the fir trees were whipping in the wind. All in all, it felt like we were driving through the setting for "The Hounds of the Baskervilles."
Secondly, our hike along the River Suir near Waterford with Anne Conway and her friends was a most enjoyable experience, in spite of the high water conditions that resulted in wet feet. It was a real introduction to the Irish countryside, with verdant green fields, wooly sheep, herds of black and white cattle, and a castle or two to boot.
We had an entertaining walking tour around Kinsale this morning. Our guide, Barry, mixed facts, history, and humor as he described this delightful small city. His description of the sinking of the Lusitania one hundred years ago this week was especially poignant.
WHAT'S NEXT: Tomorrow we'll explore the Beara Peninsula, then over the next few days we'll be heading up Ireland's west coast, taking in the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula, and points north. Stay tuned for Jeanette's photos and maybe another word or two from me.

May 12

Near Kinsale and on our way to Glengarriff. Beautiful countryside as well. Weather was great today. Driving still pretty hairy, but we're still married.

May 8

Dinner with Anne Conway in Waterford

May 9

Had a lovely hike today (14 km) with Anne and friends on the river Suir near Waterford.