From Rosleague to Delphi - UPDATED

Up at 6:30 – can’t believe it! Downstairs for breakfast, we quickly noticed that hot food was not served until 8:00 a.m. so we went ahead and ate anyway and decided to come back at 8:00 as well. Hey we are on vacation – why not?! I couldn’t miss the fresh salmon and scrambled eggs! So good! We checked out and headed to Connemara National Park which was about 2 km from where we were staying. The park is free to
all visitors and has a really nice visitor center and beautiful walking trails. We opted for the 1.5 km trail which took about 30 minutes.

After leaving Connemara, we head to the KyleAbbey Manor which a really wealthy man built for his wife back in the late 1800s. It now serves as a convent and sits on the most incredible mountainside. We toured inside the main house, but there wasn’t a lot open to the public. There’s actually way more to take in from the outside. There is actually a lot to see there with a Gothic Cathedral, mausoleum, and walled gardens. We only saw the manor and the gift shop and were ready to hit the road again. We did notice a few tour buses parked here so I am pretty sure it’s a spot often visited in this area although it didn’t seem to have a long standing Irish history as many of the other things we had seen or read about the first few days.

Then back into the car for the trek to Delphi through Leenane. More windy roads and sheep everywhere. They are in the middle of the roads, on the sides of the roads, everywhere. They seemed to be painted on in red, blue, green, etc. which I suspect is so that people know who they belong to. On our way, we stopped at the Carrig Pub in Leenane and talked with a local pub owner for quite awhile. We had another Bulmers cider and just enjoyed the view.

We arrived at The Delphi Lodge which is rich with fishing which we will spend a half day tomorrow learning how to fly fish for salmon. Each night the menu is unknown until the chef arrives and knows what the catch of the day was. We all eat together at 8pm with all the other guests at one long table. Tonight we will definitely have to get to know some people.

UPDATE: So, The Delphi Lodge, it really deserves an entire post to itself. Apparently, people come from all over the world to stay, eat, and fish. When we first arrived we were greeted with tea and cookies in the library. We started to explore a little bit and walked into the room where fish are cleaned and a Swiss man who looked scrufffy (to say the least) had just caught a 7lb salmon. I couldn't figure out what stuck me more - the smell of the room, the smell of the freshly caught salmon, or the smell of him. Which ever it was, I suposed when you catch a 7lb salmon you can smell like you want. We then took our massive bags upstairs to our room. We went outside for a bit, but realized that if we didn't take a nap that we would be worthelss for dinner. So, we went up watched a movie and fell asleep.

We were then woke up around 7:30 for dinner at 8:00. We started to assemble at what is known as the Honor bar (drink what you want and just write it in the little book at the bar). We met the other guests of the lodge. We then sat down for dinner and the converstation started to flow as well as the wine and food. The guests included a lawyer from Scotland, a group of Boeing employees (3 American, 1 Norweign) who were there meeting with some Royal Bank of Scotland employees (both Irish), and a husband and wife from Manhattan. We were fascinated by the conversations that emerged from this diverse group of highly educated and well cultured people. They (we chimed in occasionally) talked about politics, education, religion - you know all the stuff you are not supposed to talk about with people you just meet. Everyone, despite differing opinions was very respectful to each other and seemed to value the differing thoughts.

Occasionally the Scottish guy would crack a joke that no one could understand (mostly because we actually couldn't understand his thick accent), but he always thought his jokes were really funny. It reminded me a lot of my uncle, and just like my uncle he was generally the only one laughing.

After the exceptional dinner, we headed back in the living room for more drinks and conversation. We headed to bed pretty quickly as we had fly fishing lessons in the morning!