Back from Ireland!
 

And thanks to all of you, it was better than I hoped it would be. I'll have to do some of this later because I need to catch some zzzzz's tonight, but here goes:

To start, I got very lucky with the weather, although you wouldn't have known it to hear me wonder/whine about where the sun was. Except for rain late on my arrival day and a brief period the next day, it was dry until late this past Saturday night. However, it was very cloudy for most of the time..though mild. My driver, Liam, kept reminding me that this was exceptionally good weather for October, as the visibility was fine and it was dry. As I thought about it, I did consider myself lucky. I had perfect visibility for the Cliffs of Moher as well as the Slea Head drive. In fact, it was perfect throughout. I kept thinking about how others have had their share of bad luck, rain and mist ruining their one day at the Cliffs. The sun tried to break through the clouds but, LOL, those clouds are THICK and they hang VERY low. You could reach out and touch them. It seemed like the whole country was under cloud cover, which as Liam explained to me, wouldn't be too unusual this time of year - Ireland is only approx. 417 miles long. It's a dot in the Atlantic. It's also the most incredibly beautiful place I've ever seen.

I'm sad that I'm home for a number of reasons, one being that I won't get to find out what happens on The Clinic. LOL I got hooked on Irish dramas/soaps (B&B's didn't have many channels ), including Ross na Rune, a Gaelic soap opera. I hope there is a web site for The Clinic -it's good! Much better than a lot of the garbage aired in the U.S.

I also got hooked on McVitties Digestive Biscuits - Plain (dark) chocolate, but I went on a quest the last few days in Ireland and I found every variety except! Plain, light plain, caramel, milk chocolate, light milk, fruit and nut..........sob. I never found the plain chocolate again. However, I found a new favorite term, because I love saying digestive biscuit. Cookie is no longer in my vocabulary.

Just a couple of other points. I'll probably post the rest tomorrow.

Regarding the Shores: Bill, Budman - wow, you were soooooo spot on about this place. The location is spectacular but Annette was even more so. What a wonderfully nice person she is, so accomodating and friendly. I mentioned Bill and Felicity to her (sorry Budman!) - you guys are famous! More details to come, but just had to say that.

Cliffs of Moher - words can't describe how utterly breathtaking and awesome they are. They blew me away......and the wind almost did, too. I have a story about my day here, but I'll tell it when I get to that point.

Kylemore Abbey - wow and double wow. Incredible location, most peaceful place I've ever been.

Slea Head drive - not sure anything can top that, whoa that was spectacular.

Derrynane - wonderful self guided tour of Daniel O'Connell's home. I think it's a must do, but then, I love this kind of stuff.

Sky Drive- more wow! More details to come......

-Loved the ocean and how it was sapphire and turquoise blue- just gorgeous.

-The wind (and it got VERY windy at the Cliffs and more so at Coomakesta pass) was actually invigorating; I loved it. If felt like Ireland should feel, and I felt sometimes like I was at the end of the world.

More tomorrow, and thanks again for your help!

Welcome back. No doubt you had a wonderful time. Waiting to hear more.

The Shores? Oh, yeah, a very delightful place to stay. Annette is such a sweetheart. Did you have dinner with her?

Thanks to Bill & Felicity (that's how we learned about the Shores), we'll never be able to ever get a room there in the future. ((a)) ((b))

Hi Budman

Nope, one of the things I was disappointed in with my B&Bs was that none of them had communal tables for guests to talk to each other; tables were all seperate. However, Annette did chat with all of us.........

Day 1 - 9/29/05

Smooth plane ride from NY to Shannon on Air Lingus; surprisingly, I was able to doze off a bit. It helped that the flight was not fully booked and I was able to stretch out on three seats. The weather was cloudy upon arrival and it turned rainy later on. Unfortunately, I was unable to really explore the grounds of my hotel, Ballynahinch.

Ballynahinch was a beautiful place, but I'm not sure I would stay there again, mostly due to the lack of sleep I got over the last 2 days of my three day stay. The keys were very jangly and the people next door to me were extremely noisy. With 40 rooms, it's just a lot of people to be dealing with; it wasn't quite as quiet as I'd hoped. However, the pub food was very good and the restaurant was delicious. I also loved the crackling fires in the public rooms.

Day 2 - 9/30/05

Passed through tiny, tiny Leenane on the way to taking boat ride on Killary Harbor. It was chilly and gray, but nonetheless, the fjord was beautiful. Decided to stop in Oliver's (Cleggan) for lunch before heading for Kylemore and boy was it worth it. I loved Cleggan, which is an adorable little fishing port. Checked out a memorial to a 1927 fishing disaster (celtic cross gravestone), watched some children playing in the yard and had a delicious meal at Olivers (yummy seafood chowder and fish and chips). I loved the atmosphere of the little pub. The sun did come out for a bit and the waters were gorgeous shades of sapphire and acquamarine blue. Patted some horses at the Cleggan Riding Academny and made our way to Kylemore Abbey.

I was blown away by Kylemore - the setting is spectactular and utterly serene. The weather forecast had predicted gray skies, but the sun came out and that made the surroundings even more beautiful. The Abbey itself is lovely, and while I was touring, I could hear choir practice going on - such a nice touch. The mini-cathedral was stunning and so was the walk towards same. It was so peaceful; I could have stayed there all day. Beautiful victorian gardens as well.

The sunny skies held for the next couple of hours, thank goodness, because the beauty of the vistas from the Sky Road was overwhelming in the sunshine. I literally felt like I was at the very ends of the earth; it was very windy, but that made it even better as it completely invigorated me.

Saw forests of pine and my driver advised me that some farmers grow them for Christmas trees!

More later!

Here's the website for the Clinic. I've heard it's excellent but haven't been following it myself!

http://www.rte.ie/tv/theclinic/index.html

Thanks, Cailin!

Oops, and I forgot to mention that I had an excellent dinner at Mitchells' that night.

Day 3 10/1/05

Not a good night's sleep due to the racket from the people next door. Day started out cloudy and rainy, then alternated with sun in the afteroon.

Decided to drive up to Westport today, via Cong. It's a cute town (and I know nothing about the Quiet Man); the ruins of the Abbey were beautiful, unfortunately they are right next to a bunker-like modern church. Continue to see lots of sheep and cows.

Stopped at Ashford Castle for a quick look around. It's immense and spectacular on beautifully landscaped grounds. I was perfectly glad to just be walking around and not staying there (for 600 euros a night?!).

I loved Westport, especially how all the shops are painted in such bright, bold colors. Had lunch at a little cafe above an art gallery then bought a necklace and connemara marble necklace and earring set. Also bought a CD of live Irish music from Matt Malloys. Ironically, the CD was playing in the store while I was in there, and the name of the song had Ballynahinch in the title! I had been undecided as to which CD to buy and figured this was a sign, so I bought it. As we left Westport, the clouds threatened ominously. Soon we were passing through Louisburgh to the Doo Lough Valley. I do need to comment on Croagh Patrick; it's like the mountain of every kid's imagination. When kids draw mountains, they draw them like upside down like such ^(upside down "V's"). That's exactly what Croagh Patrick look like to me.

The Doo Lough valley was spectacular in a very desolate sort of way; I actually enjoyed the fact that it was cloudy and rainy, as the area seemed to warrant that type of weather. The mountains were shrouded in fog and it was very atmospheric; when the fog came in, it was so thick that you would have had no idea that there were actually mountains there. It rained extremely hard for about 10 minutes, then stopped completely. The famine memorial was very poignant; the valley just has an air of sadness about it.

On the way back to Clifden, the most incredible rainbow appeared. It was was a complete arch of vivid color and below it lay a solitary house. Spectacular and magical! Clifden was very cute, but I didn't spend much time there.

Day 4 - 10/2/05

Left Ballynahinch on my way through to Berry Lodge in Milltown Malbay.

The Burren is a very odd, beautiful landscape of 200 square miles of limestone. Saw the Dolmen which was neat, and basically jumped around on the limestone like a kid playing hopscotch. At this time of year, there weren't many flowers growing, but the few that there were were beautiful specks of color in a barren landscape.

Lunched in Vaughn's Anchor Inn in Liscannor - very atmospheric pub with wonderful food. I had pan fried plaice (whitefish) with amazing onion mashed spuds - so creamy and smooth.

The day was cloudy, but there was very good visibility for the Cliffs, thank goodness. My jaw dropped when I saw them - wow! As I said above, there are no words to describe them. It's cliched to say they are awesome and spectacular, but they truly are. It was very windy, but that just made the scene more dramatic as the surf was crashing against the cliffs. Interesting story - I didn't know it cost 1.50 euros to climb O'Brien's Tower, so I left my pocketbook in the car with the driver (didn't want to be weighed down). I asked the guy in the Tower if I could just go up and take a pic, but he wouldn't allow it, since everyone else was paying. I was disappointed, so I left. Later, I asked this woman if the view was worth it and she said yes; she also gave me her ticket. The guy wouldn't let me go up, said I needed to buy my own ticket. I asked again, saying that I didn't know when I would be back in Ireland again - couldn't he make an exception? "No", so I left, but I was a little annoyed...and surprised that he didn't relent. I actually thought about asking people to lend me the $ to go up, but I couldn't get up the nerve. Anyway, it was getting really windy, so later I went back to huddle under the arches where it was not so chilly. The guy saw me ( don't know if he thought I was hanging around to see if he would change his mind - I wasn't) and let me go up!

I really hated to leave the Cliffs - I just couldn't draw myself away, and when I finally did, I walked backwards part of the way.

Loved the Berry Lodge -very cute and charming and a nice, quiet place to relax after the noise of Ballynahinch.

here is betsyp's reposting of her report under a new title

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34690478