Doolin, Ireland (08-26-19)

  There are tons of things to do in the Doolin area.














 We started with the Doolin Cave.  I was not a fan.

After crawling through a man made tunnel (I am claustrophobic) we continued on through a narrow cave, ducking down to avoid head injury along the way.  By this time, I was trying to control my breathing. However...once we arrived in the cavern, and saw the main attraction, I was in awe.

Although it's hard to get perspective, this 23 foot long stalactite, is one of the largest in the world, and is still growing. It was spectacular.

This picture puts it a little bit more into perspective:

The Cliffs of Moher are a well known feature of the area, and are stunning... We first saw them from the top down, as we paid the entrance fee to walk along the cliffs.

Quite a few movies have used these cliffs, including Star Wars and The Princess Bride.

For years, the Irish didn't believe in safety fences, just natural selection, but eventually, there were so many accidental and deliberate falls, that they installed fences, and have Rangers keeping an eye on people...

Looking at the weather forecast, we picked the best day for our day trip to the Aran Islands.  We chose to visit Inis Oirr, (the name means Eastern Island) the smallest and closest of the 3.  After a short ferry ride, we explored the island by hiring a pony and trap.

Trevor, our driver, talked about life on the island as he drove us up the small roads.  Irish (Gaelic) is the first language of the inhabitants, although they all speak English as well.  His brogue was so thick I had a hard time understanding what he said.

One of the things he talked about was all the rock walls.  They are all over Ireland, but more so in this area.

The ground is covered with limestone, and in order to grow any grass or crops, they pick up the stones and build them into rock walls.

Once that is done, they make a combination of seaweed, cow manure and sand, which turns into arable soil.

He dropped us at the top of the hill, where we could explore O'Brien Castle, a tower castle built in the 1400s as a refuge, and ruins of the 10th century St. Cavan's church. 

After a nice lunch outdoors, it was almost time to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

As we had pulled in to the island, we noticed that the ferry crew asked people standing on the dock to grab the lines, so Paul and Mike were at the ready when the ferry pulled in to pick us up.

The trip back to the mainland included a short stop along the cliffs, for a different view of them.  The cliffs are 700 feet tall. In the 3rd picture you can barely see the people standing on the cliff.

The music scene in Doolin is pretty lively, although as usual, it starts later at night than we like. 

Because Ireland's drinking and driving laws are very strict,  we hired a taxi to take us to and from McGann's Pub for dinner and music.

Being a weekend, the pub was very crowded, and unlike Sligo, where most of the patrons talked quietly while listening to the music, on this night in Doolin, the patrons talked over the band.  If the music got louder, the talking got louder as well.

For our Doolin stay, we chose a self cater cottage, and were able to cook many of our meals.  This cottage was by far the best place we have stayed at on this trip.  Everything was top notch, high quality, and the space was well thought out.








The particular area we were in is called the "Burren" which, not surprisingly, means barren.  The ground is covered with limestone, right up to the ocean.  The morning we left, Paul and I went for a walk on the Burren.

Sligo, Ireland (08-25-19)

The small town of Sligo was a last minute addition to our itinerary, and we spent a short two days there before heading to Doolin, where we were spending 4 days.









Along the way: We stopped to take a tour of Marble Arch Cave. When there hasn't been much rain, there is a boat tour to take, but on the day we were there, it had rained, so we walked into the cave to look at the features.

This cave has a river that runs through it, so at times, the walkway has water on both sides.

 My favorite part was when we walked near a section of river, where the water was so still, the reflection looked like it was the actual item it was reflecting.  Very hard to capture in a picture but very cool to see in person.

 

We came to Sligo for the music, which is good because the weather was not great while we were there, so no outdoor activities were on the table.

 Its a very walk-able town, with many pedestrian walkways, and restaurants and pubs along the way.

Happily,  our visit coincided with Heritage Week, which meant more music, more often.
Looking at the schedule, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the Snug, a very small pub with (early) traditional music being played.

Being a small pub, it got crowded fast, but the music was incredible, and we met quite a few of the locals.

Robbie introduced us to several of his friends, via iPhone.

The musicians knew their audience, and threw a few Pink Floyd songs in the mix.

We thoroughly enjoyed the place and the crowd participation. We went back the following night, and felt like locals when the bartender remembered what we drink.



















Once the music was done there, we headed to Thomas Connolly Pub, the oldest pub in Sligo.
There we heard totally different music, but very traditional, performed by young artists.


















During the day, it pretty much rained all day, so we were happy to hang out, recoup and get ready to go back out on the town.

Our final night we made sure to get to Thomas Connolly early, so we could get a seat at the very popular pub.  Seamie O'Dowd and his two sons, Stephen and Rory were performing, and Seamie is one of the most well known musicians from Ireland, who just happens to be from Sligo.










We could have spent another few days here,  but it was time to move on to Doolin.

Along the way: Julie and Mike went ahead, and Paul and I stopped in Galway.  I think staying in this city would be a lot of fun, but we were here just to shop.

 Parking was an absolute nightmare.  Most garages were full, and would have signs letting people know which garages spaces available, but we didn't know where they were located and had a hard time finding them.  The parking garages were so tight that most people had to do 3 point turns to go to the next level.








After shopping, and a decent lunch at a pub, we continued on our way.

Northern Ireland (08-20-19)

After 3 very enjoyable weeks in Scotland, it was time to fly off to Belfast. Our flight was at 7 am, which meant getting up at 4:30 to get to the airport on time. 

The morning was a tad stressful- security took longer than we expected-as did getting our baggage checked in. Looking up at the board to see what gate we needed to get to, we saw our flight was flashing “final boarding”. 

Ugh. Mike and Julie had gone ahead of us, so Paul and I had to sprint to the gate. At least we made it!

The flight was only 35 minutes,barely time to catch our breath.

We had booked a cottage at the beach for 3 nights, and thoroughly enjoyed walking the beach collecting sea glass in our spare time.

Our plan for our first day completely fell apart, as we all know sometimes happens. We piled in the car to take a scenic drive along the coast, with our first stop being a rope bridge that connects an island with the mainland.

Or, I assume that's what it is. When we arrived we discovered that use of the bridge is a timed entry system, and the earliest we could cross it was in almost two hours.








We decided to leave it to the thousands of other tourists who were waiting their turn. Continuing our drive, we arrived at Giant's Causeway- a natural, seaside rock formation. Or, I assume it is. It was so packed with people that they were shuttling people in from a parking lot 2 miles away. Again, we passed.

Just a little further down the road we stopped for lunch at a beachfront seafood restaurant and planned our next move while we ate fish and chips.  

It turns out that it was the site of some filming for Game of Thrones.

Decision made, we left the coast to drive up to Glenariff Forest Park and walk one of the trails.

The reviews of the waterfall there call it spectacular- I guess everything is relative- but we enjoyed the walk, anyway.

Part of the reason we wanted to visit the Belfast area is because some of Paul's ancestors lived here in the 1800s, so he and I explored on our own the following day, while Mike and Julie explored one of the oldest pubs in the area.







We were looking to find either grave sites or whatever records we could get at the archives, but had no luck.

Area where Paul's ancestors lived

We did find the area where they lived, and noticed that in this area, many of the towns begin with “Bally”: Ballynure, Ballycastle, Ballygalley etc. It turns out that Bally means “place of” -so sort of like a town but not quite.

Originally our plan was to head northwest to visit another area of Northern Ireland but we decided its too far to drive for just two days, so we are headed to the Republic of Ireland sooner than planned (Northern Ireland is part of the UK, The Republic of Ireland is not).