Malin Head

On our last day in Donegal Town, we took a journey along the Wild Atlantic Way to Malin Head, the northernmost point in Ireland. It's a stark contrast to the Atlantic Ocean as I know it, on the New Jersey coast.

Granted, it was a cloudy day, but we had the entire beach to ourselves other than one young lady with a child and a small dog. This was in the height of summer and the tourist season. There were several more people on the paths along the cliffs, but I chose to sit that part out so I could take more photos.

It's hard enough keeping up with the husband wandering through city streets, but send him off in the countryside and there's no way my short legs will keep up.

Apparently this spot looks otherworldly enough to be featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That would never work with the Long Beach Island I remember in New Jersey.

 

Donegal—the bay, the music, and the castle

Driving north from Galway to Donegal was as hair-raising as all of the rest of the driving. There was no good way to tell my Irish guide, Siri, to keep us on the highways and off the back roads.

We aimed to take a boat tour of the Slieve League cliffs on the way to Donegal, they are supposedly even more amazing than the Cliffs of Moher, but it was too cloudy and foggy when we got there.

It was still cloudy when we got to Donegal, so we took a short tour of Donegal Bay. It was just touristy enough to be amusing. There was not a whole lot to see, but our tour guide sang some silly songs, and told some even sillier jokes for the ride back to the dock.

Our hostess at the guest house aimed us toward The Reel Inn for a good dose of traditional music. We went after dinner for the 3 nights we were there. Not all of it was traditional (we heard some John Prine and Bruce Springsteen), but it was certainly easier to hear the music than in sports-crazy Galway. One night these 3 young ladies appeared with some traditional Irish dance. The lady on the left looks a whole lot like my cousin Kathleen O'Brien!

I did not take many photos of the town itself, but I did take quite a few of the castle, right in the middle of town. Lots of new construction everywhere, and then, when you least expect it, a castle from the 15th century.

The alarm clock is set at 6 a.m.

I'll get to Donegal in the next post...

Early Monday morning, just after our long flight home from Ireland, the construction crew arrived to replace the rotting white trim on the house and garage. They're still here, which makes life that much more difficult for Miss Jess, just coming back from Doggie Day Camp that same morning.

She did surprisingly well at camp, except for the first 2 days where it was stormy. Girl doesn't like storms. Or the noise of construction crews. 

By the end of her 10-day stay, she was out of the smaller outdoor pen and playing with the other dogs in the big pen. Since being home, she is more willing to play with Cyrus, but I still need him to come out and chase her back inside. 

She did well coming in at Breezy Acres, even with no Cyrus and no long leash, but she still needs to wear it here.

I was hoping her daily wake-up schedule might improve after her stay at camp, but no, she still wakes me every morning, usually before 6 a.m., by putting her dainty little paws up on the bed and doing her best to look adorable.

I can ignore her and she will go back to bed, but she comes right back a few minutes later because she knows I'm a sucker for her cute face.

Fly into Dublin, ¡¡¡drive!!! to Galway

Our only mistake on the whole trip was in thinking that I could operate a vehicle on the wrong side of the road AND the car after an overnight flight where I couldn't sleep. My Irish angels must have been guiding me...

We went directly from the airport to Galway, about a 2 and a half hour drive. The motorways were easy. Even the roundabouts were easy after the first one by the airport. 

What was not easy, even at the end of the trip, was the narrow roads in towns with parked cars, and the little country roads barely big enough for one car.

We arrived in Galway in the height of tourist season AND on the weekend of the all Irish soccer match—Galway against Armagh. We couldn't tell if the crowd noise was louder from the tourists or the sports fans, until the night when Galway lost...by 1 point. It was an exciting time to be there.

The Galway Cathedral, on the River Corrib, looked beautiful and old to the tourist eye, but was only built in 1965. It is described on Wikipedia as "the last great stone cathedral to be built in Europe" and also a "squatting Frankenstein's monster". You decide.

We spent a good bit of time wandering the city in search of traditional Irish music. Tig Coili turned out to be our favorite, but it was hard to hear the music over the conversation in this tiny pub on a noisy weekend. Our new friend Chris, from Galway, was kind enough to buy us 2 pints!

Mostly beautiful weather had all kinds of people in the streets (some closed to traffic to keep people like me out. :)

Next stop—Donegal.

Driving, eating, and drinking our way through Ireland

We made it to Ireland and back with our marriage intact, and no major disasters to report.

Driving — I managed to return our little hybrid Toyota Yaris in the same perfect condition as when we started in spite of a very rough beginning on the first roundabout. I blame Siri for his confusing directions, but it was really all my fault. 

Cousin Tony convinced us to turn the car in 2 days early at a different agency in Dublin so I wouldn't have to drive it back to the airport. Thank you Tony! What a relief to have no car for the last 2 days!

Eating and Drinking — We did plenty of both, all within walking distance of the 3 hotel/guest rooms. For our first night's dinner we shared some fantastic mussels from John Keogh's Gastropub in Galway. Of course we washed it all down with a pint or 2.

Many pubs were visited, many pints were drunk, many great meals, including the famed Irish breakfasts, were eaten. Further details and photos to follow once we get settled in. We've been home since Sunday, and 4 days hasn't been enough to get settled in.

Thanks to Claire for the intermediate blog post. And thanks to Greg, Claire and Lorenzo, and Brian and Eve for holding the whole farm together while we were gone!