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.