MUSINGS ON IRELAND

Sure enough, as I’d heard, the Irish countryside is simply breathtaking with its brilliant green rolling landscapes dotted with gorgeous wildflowers, miles of stone walls, and farmlands filled with multi-colored cows, goats and sheep. The people really are friendly, and the US flag flew next to the Irish flag in many places we visited…apparently, they are very dependent on US tourists for their livelihood.

We all loved the pub food which I actually didn’t expect to like that much. One night Cindy and I walked about 2 km from our house down to a pub in Doolin to hear Irish music, but first we ordered their Irish beef stew made with Guiness beer. We both agreed that it was the best beef stew we’d ever had. All the restaurants served this amazing brown bread which was so tasty we always wrapped up any leftovers and brought them back to the house. I even bought a book on making brown bread and will give it a whirl. Simply delicious. We also loved the fish and chips (bar none the best I’ve ever eaten anywhere, including England, Australia, and New Zealand). Totally non-greasy mild white fish with a crunchy batter and crunchy fries on the side. It must have been very fresh fish caught locally. I will definitely miss that. But the fresh oysters and smoked salmon were my favorites. Cindy and I both ate smoked salmon (served with the large caper berries and brown bread) for lunch or dinner multiple times and never tired of it. The texture and taste was definitely superior to anything you can buy here.

Our rental house was beautiful and had everything we needed for the four of us. From the back of the house, we had scenic views of an ancient round stone tower called Doonagore Castle, the Atlantic coastline, the nearby Aran Islands, and, when really sunny, the village of Doolin in the distance. Cindy and I each sketched the view with her markers.

On Tuesday we drove to Connemara, taking the picturesque coastal route with its narrow windy roads loaded with massive tour buses and their fearless drivers that blasted quickly by us with only inches to spare. Quite the experience. Along the way, we stopped in a beautiful little village called Clarinbridge so Marie (an antiques dealer) could shop at an antiques store there, and happily, she scored several nice old paintings. On the drive back to Doolin the next day, we stopped for photos of the famous Kylemore Abbey, took lots more photos of the sheep and Connemara ponies for Cindy to paint, and then stopped in Galway for a bit more antiquing in the shopping and restaurant district called the Spanish Arch. Galway was a lively small city with a great pub atmosphere and I would have liked to have had more time there.

On Thursday, Cindy and I did a 2 km guided walk of an area near our house called The Burren, a limestone-covered landscape with an amazing “melange” of wildflowers, as our guide Tony Kirby said. I had found Tony online, and he turned out to be a highly educated, funny, delightful Irishman who was a great storyteller. He often quoted us Irish poetry about The Burren by heart as he led us up and down the uneven, rocky terrain. Tony was the perfect guide, but I can’t believe no one turned an ankle as we tried to keep up with him. It was like following a sure-footed goat!

That afternoon, since the week was slipping quickly by, Cindy and I decided to also tackle the famous Cliffs of Moher walk…8 km uphill along the cliffs. We thought we’d expire before we finally got there, but managed to continue until we reached the other end where the Visitor’s Centre is located. All the other hikers must have thought we were odd though since they were doing the walk downhill rather than up. Once we realized that was the smarter option, we had to laugh at ourselves…but who knew?

On our last day, the four of us took a 30-minute ferry boat ride to Inis Oirr (pronounced Inisheer) which is the first of the 3 Aran Islands. When we arrived, we hired a driver of a beautiful Clydesdale horse and cart to take us around the island, and then stopped for a pub lunch…our last pub meal in Ireland. The ferry ride back to Doolin took us below the Cliffs of Moher and we could see how high they really are and just how far we had walked.

In short, I think I could live in Ireland if the sun just came out a wee bit more. We were quite lucky with the weather though since the week before it had been cold and rainy every day…in mid-July no less. But luckily we had a variable mix of mist, wind, rain, overcast skies, and brilliant sunshine (usually all in the same day)! – Kathy, July 2016

 

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