On the road again...and off to the cliffs!

Another Irish breakfast started out our last few moments in Galway. This was a nice pit stop to get a bit refreshed and save Matthew some driving time. As mentioned in a previous post, a typical Irish breakfast so far has consisted of eggs (scrambled, poached or overeasy), ham, sausage and some kind of tomato that has been warmed up. Oh, and I almost forgot, tea is also part of every breakfast (and lunch, dinner, dessert also). Matthew is not a fan of eggs so he has also tried porridge and cereals. Breakfast is included in each stay at the bed and breakfast.

We left around 10:30, got some more petrol for the car and headed 45 km to the cliffs of Moher. Now since we didn’t do a lot of work prior to leaving Ireland, I spend some of my navigational time reading to Matthew from the various books we bought or the ones Aunt Leslie let us borrow. Travel books are so helpful to prepare you for where you are about to visit. The cliffs of Moher are these massive cliffs which jet out into the Atlantic Ocean and rise about 650 feet high. There are all sorts of birds living there as well as we could hear them squawking very loudly even from way above where they were.

Cliffs of Moher






Upon arrival, we immediately realized we werne't the only tourists attracted to this place. The place had loads of tour buses which reminded me of the various stops Grandma, Mona and I made on our trip to Europe years ago. The 1.5 hour drive from Galway was worth it. It was a beautiful sight and although there isn’t any historical significance to the cliffs (at least that we could find), they are a part of the beauty Ireland has to offer.

We ran out of time to visit the Aran Islands which are made up of three islands: Inis Mór (Big Island), Inis Meáin (Middle island) and Inis Oírr (East island). If we come back here, we will try to visit here. One of Mona’s friends had mentioned these to us, but with making the stop in Galway over night we had to get on to Ballybunion so we had to cancel the island trip. Even with the rain and fog we could make out at least one of the islands as we were riding to the Cliffs of Moher so at least we saw them, and now we have a definite reason to come back to Ireland!

We drove another 20 km after leaving the cliffs and drove to the Tarbert ferry which cost 18 euros but would knock over an hour off our drive time to cross the Shannon River rather than zig zaging south around it. The ferry runs very frequently throughout the day so we caught the 2pm ferry and it was only a 20 minute ride and we were on the other side. The Shannon River is the largest river in Ireland and was really pretty to ride across.

Tarbert Ferry


After 20 more kms of driving, we arrived in Ballybunion and we immediately loved this quaint town. The tour books say is has about 1,300 people so it’s very quaint and very easy to get around. We finally found our bed and breakfast called The Tides guesthouse only after a few attempts at locating it. We had to put in the actual longitude and latitude coordinates to arrive at the right place! One thing we have realized when we have asked directions…there is usually no road name or street number available to provide sometimes there are very vague directions that are very open to interpretation something we are getting more used to now.

Ballybunion's beaches





The Tides is a beautiful place overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Our host David is really nice Irishman with the thickest accent we have encountered so far. He helped us get settled in our room and we both immediately stared at our computers for about an hour (even though we were starving) because…we have free wireless Internet! I know it may sound so lame, but we are so used to having wireless internet in our everyday lives, it feels like a bit of a luxury to have it here.

We headed into the town of Ballybunion which is literally about a 30 second drive, ate a great dinner, walked on the gorgeous beach and headed to the reason we are here --- golf course! But before we headed to golf, we both commented this already was our favorite town.

Matthew originally had a tee time for July 1 early in the morning, but because we didn’t make it to Ballybunion in time, we went to see if he could still try to walk on for July 2. He can so that is great. Our host told us about these great hot seaweed baths that this area is known for where you get a private room and you sit in a bathtub of seaweed (obviously not for everyone) and it’s supposed to have some great rejuvenating effects. We tried to go tonight, but they were already closed so maybe I will go when Matthew goes golfing.

Today was a great day to be together. We got some rain and we saw such beautiful and stark differences in the landscape that we started to realize a little more deeply the great beauty of this realivitely small country.

Things we have noticed a lot of in Ireland:
Roundabouts
Bed and breakfasts
Sheep
Pubs
Beautiful coastal towns
Tourists

Pit stop in Galway

After the late night with our new friends, we slept through breakfast and our check out time. It was already apparent we were not going to make the 5 hour trek down to our next planned stop of Ballybunion. So we checked out, said our goodbyes to all our newfound friends (which included five beautiful dogs) and headed south to our newly planned pit stop in Galway. Along the way we enjoyed the scenic route as we left Delphi.

More beautiful scenes in Delphi






We arrived in Galway with rain all around. Since this was an unplanned stop and we hadn't eaten breakfast, we asked a local for a good place to eat. After getting a great lunch, we went to the Tourism Centre. These tourism centers are in each city and filled with eager college students or retired people who sole purpose is to help you navigate the city, find lodging, and provide great help (and no tipping is allowed). We had the nicest college student help us secure housing at Villa Maria (a bed and breakfast within walking distance to the city center).

We headed to Villa Maria and met our host Frances who set us up in a nice room. We got settled, rested and then headed out to the city center on foot to Eyre Square, Lynch's Castle (now a bank), pubs, and shops. We found a place to check internet in the city center, bought a calling card (which we have yet to figure out how to use) and strolled hand and hand in this vibrant city.

Scenes from Galway




There is a university here and you can sense a very youthful feel to this city. It's a beautiful place and we were glad we ended up with a night here.

Delphi, A Diverse Mix of Friends and World Class Fly Fishing

The Delphi Lodge & Fishery





The Dining Room

So another morning began with a delicious Irish breakfast. Ham, sausage, biscuits, cereal, porridge, and eggs (if you eat them). Then a walk around the grounds on what was turning out to be a beautful day. We met a couple of interesting characters right away outside the house. The first was a man with his knickers riding high and one of the goofiest looking dogs I ever seen (looked like a big ball of fur - he told us he was a Penkingnese). He was telling us that this dog (called Precious) just won 4th place in some dog show. I couldn't understand everything he said as he had a very thick English accent, but he then chuckled as he said "but my grandkids don't like him, because he is always biting there legs." I will never understand the faciation with people who have dogs who like to bite other people. He had another dog there that was a springer spanell. Almost at the same time he was talking with our fly fishing teacher how difficult it was to train Springer spaniels (although dog he and his wife brought with them to the lodge). David (our instructor said "Labs are are born half-trained and Spaniels die half-trained". After this, the older man blew a whistle around his necked, raised his hand his Spaniel stopped in his tracks and would not move. Keep in mind this was from about...50 feet. I thought that was quite impressive. He then told us the dog would not move until he blew the whisle again, or he walked to the dog and touched it. As we met David for a fishing lesson at 10:00 a.m., there were a few prep things to be done in the fishing room which was located off the side of the house. As we were getting our gear together, another interesting chap walked in - Mills (an 80 year old man with quite an active mind). We could not understand a word he said, but David felt the need to apologize for whatever it was he did say. Mills still runs around trying to catch the ladies and maybe he said something to that effect when he saw Angie. Anyway old man Mills is also quite a famous fisherman as we learned a few minutes later as David was teaching us about the different fly times that Mills has some of these flies named after him.

Fly fishing lesson with David







Following our lesson and lunch, we head about 9 km to our time to put our fishing lesson into practice at Peter's house. Peter has the best real estate we have ever seen and we spent the afternoon on the lake practicing fly fishing. Matthew caught all three of the fish (trout). Turns out since it was such a gorgeous day, it's not a good day for fishing for trout and salmon. The weather should actually be rainy and overcast.

Fly fishing practice with our gillie, Peter






After fishing we rested and then had another wonderful dinner of a full lobster and had another great evening of wonderful discussion with new friends. Matthew especially connected with several of the guys as they talked sports and Irish history and computers. He even played his first game of snooker (which is a type of billiards game). He was teamed up with the Scottish man nament Lament and played two Irish guys Padraigh (pronounced Poric) and Jerry. Matthew and Lament won the game with Matthew scoring almost all the points himself. The men were definitely impressed by this and then we all retreated back to the lounge. We talked lots more, listed to Lament play beautiful music on the piano (short clip included) and enjoyed reflecting our fishing adventure into the wee hours.

The Hangout room



Lament playing piano (video is very dark)