Goodbye Paris, Hello Ireland

Having arrived at Travis and Marnnie’s home in Letterkenny, I have time to catch up on the past few days.

Thursday, 2 July –

We got the apartment cleaned up for departure, made arrangements to leave our luggage there until later in the afternoon, and headed for Sacred Heart (Sacre Coure’), a cathedral built by Napoleon. To uplift the spirits of Parisians he had it built on the highest hill in the city where it could be seen by all. The mosaics inside are remarkable with incredible detail.

We made our way back to the apartment via the Metro, stopping for some shopping and lunch along the way.

From there, we hit the Metro system for the airport… always an adventure with luggage. The Metro isn’t air conditioned and with all of the humanity crammed into such small spaces the heat and the fun smells were intense. We made it to the airport and though our plane ran behind schedule, we arrived in Ireland that evening, welcoming the much cooler temperatures.

Meeting up with Travis, we drove a short distance to the Bunratty Manor Inn, showered and changed, then enjoyed dinner. After several days of the Paris heat and street noise, the cool and quiet night’s sleep was welcome. We slept like the dead.

Friday, 3 July -

Having forgotten about the 1 hour time difference, I interrupted our slumber an hour earlier than I should have, but we used the time to get things packed up before joining Travis and Marnnie for breakfast… an interesting item called “the full Irish” consisting of an egg, roasted tomato, black pudding, white pudding, rashers and sausage (bangers). If you aren’t familiar with the term, pudding in this context is liver sausage (white pudding) or blood sausage (black pudding).

Kim developed a quick friendship with the feral cat that hangs around the Inn. But it was short lived since we needed to get on the road to our next destination.

Our first stop of the day was at Bunratty Castle, which is one of the very few such places that can be toured. Most castles had wooden floors that have long since deteriorated, but Bunratty, which controlled the mouth of the Shannon River, had stone and marble flooring which is well maintained allowing visitors to walk throughout the castle seeing the Earl’s quarters and commons areas.

Surrounding the castle is a small village of shops, restored to the time period, which we also visited picking up a few trinkets here and there, and petting a couple of very friendly Irish Wolfhounds.

After visiting the shops, we stopped at Durty Nelly’s Pub for my first pint of Guinness in Ireland.

From there, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher, a spectacular sight rising 710 ft above the ocean, running along the coast for 5 miles. We enjoyed an afternoon hike along the cliffs, and Marnnie and I took a picture of our feet dangling over the edge.

Just a short distance away was our destination for the night, a small B & B named Atlantic View House. From our window we could see the cliffs as we got cleaned up to walk up the road for dinner and an evening’s entertainment at Gus O’Connor’s Pub.

The pub was exactly what you’d expect an Irish Public House to be, with bar food and eventually a traditional Irish band that came in, sat in one of the central booths specifically equipped and reserved for this purpose, and proceeded to entertain us.

We returned to the B & B, and with the window open fell asleep listening to the sound of the ocean.

Saturday, 4 July –

Sleeping in just a little later this morning, we enjoyed another Irish breakfast and visited local shops. I purchased a hat and a couple of sweaters, since Ireland is known for its wool products. Kim didn’t find a sweater for her, but she did seem to start referring to the ones I bought for me as “our sweaters” later in the day, making me wonder how much I’ll actually get to wear them.

Driving North from the Cliffs of Moher to Letterkenny, a distance of about 180 miles, over roads that are barely wide enough for two compact cars to get past each other is actually semi-entertaining. Even more so since traffic moves in the “wrong” lanes according to those of us from the U.S. and most other places on the planet.

Having right turn lanes rather than left turn lanes, and having to watch the opposite direction as you cross the street is something that takes some getting used to.

Once in Letterkenny, Marnnie made a list and we hit the grocery store and then returned to the house to make dinner and enjoy an evening just relaxing and talking.