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