Craig and Robbyn's Adventures in Ireland
May 29th, 2005, 06:06 AM
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Thank you all for you’re nice replies! I hope you will have a wonderful time on your upcoming trips Mel and Italian. Italian Chauffeur, thanks for your suggestion of the Carriglea House. We loved staying in an older home, it had such character. We were lucky to have liked every B & B that we stayed at. All of the beds we slept in had heavy woolen blankets. I was worried about being cold so that was nice. I’m just proof reading my next entry and will be adding it soon.
Robbyn
Robbyn
May 29th, 2005, 07:42 AM
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FRIDAY
We set the alarm for 7:00 a.m. got up, showered, went down to eat and found the breakfast room was locked. Hum, we couldn’t figure this out. So we decided to load our suitcases in the car and saw by the clock on the dash that our clock in the room was set an hour later. We decided to walk around town and stopped for coffee. We talked about what we were going to do that day and killed time until 8:00 when the breakfast room would open.
We drove back through Moll’s Gap, stopped at a sheep farm, walked along Inch Beach and drove to Dingle. Now, everyone has different opinions about what they like and don’t like, but we were very disappointed in Dingletown. We had planned on staying there over night, but to us it looked like a run down carnival type town. Obviously a lot of people did like Dingletown as it was very crowded. We walked around, had lunch and still felt the same way. Unsure of where we were going to stay that night we decided to travel on and tour the rest of the peninsula.
We saw a painted wooden sign saying “Bee Hive Huts Just Ahead”. Now, I don’t know if we stopped at the real bee hive huts or if there are a lot of them and we went to the wrong ones but there was a little entry shed with a man sitting inside with his dog perched at the window. Craig petted the dog and the man said, “Two euros please”. The rest of his comments were indistinguishable. I looked off to the side and saw that laundry was waving on a line while at the other side we noticed an outhouse like building.
Gee, this is a funny way to visit a national landmark. I thought we would be stopping next to a large field or at an entry gate or maybe even see a large historical marker. I asked Craig if he thought these bee hive huts were on farmer McGee’s property and he profited on a few foolish tourists visiting them. Maybe he built them and we missed the real ones, I don’t know. Anyway, the farmers little dog followed us up the hill and when we saw the huts they looked real to us, so we took the usual pictures of us waving from the doorways.
Just passed the huts the road got very scary again, worse than Healy Pass. Now, I love to travel but am deathly afraid of heights and this was not a good road for me at all. At one point we were on a curve when another car came from the other direction and we both came to a standstill. I was in the passenger seat; and all that was between me and the drop off to the sea was a little stone fence. We were so close I could have touched the stones. I didn’t of course because by this time I was in Craig’s lap having a panic attack. I knew my actions we not helping the situation so I tried to calm down. Using hand signals, I motioned to the other driver to back up a little as I could tell they had space in back of them. This way we would have room to pass. He just threw up his hands. “What a creep” I thought. Then I told Craig I though we might have enough room to get by. “Just go slowly and who cares if we loose a side mirror,” I told him in my most positive voice. We did it. Whew. Okay now I was shaking so badly I was happy to see a little café just up ahead.
Next stop was the beach where Ryan’s daughter was filmed. We stopped there and walked around for about an hour. What a dazzling spot it was. We saw a tour bus as we were leaving and I asked Craig to ask the driver if he was going to drive down the road we just came from. What if it had been a bus we tried to get around instead of a car? We surely would have been trying to roll down car windows and swim to safety from the bottom of the sea if we had. The driver told Craig the bus travels the other way around the peninsula. That was good news.
Looking at the map it seemed that there were more cliff roads ahead and so we (I) decided we should cut through the middle of the peninsula. We stopped in a little town called Ballyferriter. It was really charming and after a few minutes of looking around, we decided this is where we would spend the night. Happily, we checked into a hotel called Ceann Sibeal which was a new hotel built to look old on the exterior.
There was a lot of confusion at the check in. It seems just before we walked in another American asked about their rooms. He said he was going to find his friends before making any decisions. Well, it seems just as he left we pop up and the lady at the desk thought we were the American’s friends. I asked if there were any rooms with a king sized bed. She showed us a room with two queen sized beds and said we could push them together. I was confused and said we didn’t need to push any beds together. Long story short…she thought we wanted a big bed for all three of us to fit in. I laughed and after a few minutes we got it all straighten out and I think in the end she felt assured Craig and I were not going to be sleeping with the other American.
We visited two more beaches, one which had a little stream running down to the ocean and primroses growing everywhere. The tide was coming in and the waves were crashing against the rocks. We were the only ones on the beach and it was such a relaxing and serene spot.
Dinner was at Smerwidh Harbour Hotel and then we went to the Bhric afterwards for music, again this was a new building that was made to look old on the outside. We listened to 3 musicians, while I kept looking around enjoying the atmosphere. We sat at a thick wooden table; there was a fireplace burning peat, lots of Irish relics hanging everywhere, beautiful paintings on the walls, and stained glass windows hung from the ceiling.
This was really a neat town, well planned out and growing fast to become another tourist destination spot. We will defiantly stop here again if we visit Ireland.
We set the alarm for 7:00 a.m. got up, showered, went down to eat and found the breakfast room was locked. Hum, we couldn’t figure this out. So we decided to load our suitcases in the car and saw by the clock on the dash that our clock in the room was set an hour later. We decided to walk around town and stopped for coffee. We talked about what we were going to do that day and killed time until 8:00 when the breakfast room would open.
We drove back through Moll’s Gap, stopped at a sheep farm, walked along Inch Beach and drove to Dingle. Now, everyone has different opinions about what they like and don’t like, but we were very disappointed in Dingletown. We had planned on staying there over night, but to us it looked like a run down carnival type town. Obviously a lot of people did like Dingletown as it was very crowded. We walked around, had lunch and still felt the same way. Unsure of where we were going to stay that night we decided to travel on and tour the rest of the peninsula.
We saw a painted wooden sign saying “Bee Hive Huts Just Ahead”. Now, I don’t know if we stopped at the real bee hive huts or if there are a lot of them and we went to the wrong ones but there was a little entry shed with a man sitting inside with his dog perched at the window. Craig petted the dog and the man said, “Two euros please”. The rest of his comments were indistinguishable. I looked off to the side and saw that laundry was waving on a line while at the other side we noticed an outhouse like building.
Gee, this is a funny way to visit a national landmark. I thought we would be stopping next to a large field or at an entry gate or maybe even see a large historical marker. I asked Craig if he thought these bee hive huts were on farmer McGee’s property and he profited on a few foolish tourists visiting them. Maybe he built them and we missed the real ones, I don’t know. Anyway, the farmers little dog followed us up the hill and when we saw the huts they looked real to us, so we took the usual pictures of us waving from the doorways.
Just passed the huts the road got very scary again, worse than Healy Pass. Now, I love to travel but am deathly afraid of heights and this was not a good road for me at all. At one point we were on a curve when another car came from the other direction and we both came to a standstill. I was in the passenger seat; and all that was between me and the drop off to the sea was a little stone fence. We were so close I could have touched the stones. I didn’t of course because by this time I was in Craig’s lap having a panic attack. I knew my actions we not helping the situation so I tried to calm down. Using hand signals, I motioned to the other driver to back up a little as I could tell they had space in back of them. This way we would have room to pass. He just threw up his hands. “What a creep” I thought. Then I told Craig I though we might have enough room to get by. “Just go slowly and who cares if we loose a side mirror,” I told him in my most positive voice. We did it. Whew. Okay now I was shaking so badly I was happy to see a little café just up ahead.
Next stop was the beach where Ryan’s daughter was filmed. We stopped there and walked around for about an hour. What a dazzling spot it was. We saw a tour bus as we were leaving and I asked Craig to ask the driver if he was going to drive down the road we just came from. What if it had been a bus we tried to get around instead of a car? We surely would have been trying to roll down car windows and swim to safety from the bottom of the sea if we had. The driver told Craig the bus travels the other way around the peninsula. That was good news.
Looking at the map it seemed that there were more cliff roads ahead and so we (I) decided we should cut through the middle of the peninsula. We stopped in a little town called Ballyferriter. It was really charming and after a few minutes of looking around, we decided this is where we would spend the night. Happily, we checked into a hotel called Ceann Sibeal which was a new hotel built to look old on the exterior.
There was a lot of confusion at the check in. It seems just before we walked in another American asked about their rooms. He said he was going to find his friends before making any decisions. Well, it seems just as he left we pop up and the lady at the desk thought we were the American’s friends. I asked if there were any rooms with a king sized bed. She showed us a room with two queen sized beds and said we could push them together. I was confused and said we didn’t need to push any beds together. Long story short…she thought we wanted a big bed for all three of us to fit in. I laughed and after a few minutes we got it all straighten out and I think in the end she felt assured Craig and I were not going to be sleeping with the other American.
We visited two more beaches, one which had a little stream running down to the ocean and primroses growing everywhere. The tide was coming in and the waves were crashing against the rocks. We were the only ones on the beach and it was such a relaxing and serene spot.
Dinner was at Smerwidh Harbour Hotel and then we went to the Bhric afterwards for music, again this was a new building that was made to look old on the outside. We listened to 3 musicians, while I kept looking around enjoying the atmosphere. We sat at a thick wooden table; there was a fireplace burning peat, lots of Irish relics hanging everywhere, beautiful paintings on the walls, and stained glass windows hung from the ceiling.
This was really a neat town, well planned out and growing fast to become another tourist destination spot. We will defiantly stop here again if we visit Ireland.
May 29th, 2005, 11:47 PM
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Hello Marlie, being afraid of heights too (especially in a car) I can really relate to what I am sure was your white knuckles and finger nail dents in the palm of your hands) I will always remember the movie "Ryan's Daughter". One of my favorite films.
What a wonderful report. And how funny the innkeeper thought you two wanted to share the room with the other American. Confusion reigned I am sure! Thanks for sharing!
What a wonderful report. And how funny the innkeeper thought you two wanted to share the room with the other American. Confusion reigned I am sure! Thanks for sharing!
May 30th, 2005, 09:23 AM
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SATURDAY…our last full day.
We talked to the hotel clerk and she suggested we drive up to Kilrush and have lunch at a famous pub that she couldn’t remember the name of, but said it was in the center of town and we couldn’t miss it. We laughed again about the mix up the night before.
So we decided to go through Tralee, take the ferry and see some castles and visit a round tower along the way. We got lost again (what else is new) in Tralee and asked two ladies on the street for directions. One of the ladies was about 60 and the other must have been 80. The 60 year old said she wasn’t sure and added that Clare would know the way. The 80 year old said, “Oh, Clare doesn’t know nothing.” I don’t know what that was all about, so I smiled and said thanks anyway, and hoped that they weren’t going to suggest we go with them to find Clare.
After getting lost two more times we finally found Ratto and the round tower. Then we stopped at Ballybunion, visited Carrigafoyle Castle, which was going through construction so closed at the moment (This should have been the title of our trip) and then took the Tarbert Ferry to Kilmer. It was raining real hard while we went across the river so we stayed in the car. It was nice actually to just sit and listen to the rain pound against our roof. We soon fell asleep.
Once in Kilrush Craig saw a little stand with a young boy selling Winkles. Craig remembered that Rick Steve talked about eating a Winkle and so he had to try one. According to Craig Winkles taste terrible. He said it was some sort of barnacle that he had to pick out of a shell with a nail. I can’t believe he would have eaten it after seeing what it looked like. Anyway it was time for lunch and Craig said he had to get the taste of Winkle out of his mouth.
We found the famous restaurant that the hotel clerk told us about but guess what…they didn’t serve food on the weekends. I guess we should have figured that. It was really neat inside though, so we walked around and peaked in corners before leaving. We saw a man at a table eating a sandwich and I smiled at him as we were about to leave. He said, “I brought in my own sandwich.” Gee, I didn’t even think anything about it. I just smiled again. Did he think I thought the bartender was lying to us?
Since we knew we didn’t want to stay in Bunratty, and had to be somewhat close to the airport that night, we started looking at towns while driving north along the coast. We went through Kilkee, Lehinch, and finally ended back up in Doolin. It was about 6:00 and we were tired. We tried 3 B & B’s and everyone said they had no vacancies. We should have expected this for a Saturday night in Doolin.
So we decided to try one more place, The Aran View Hotel, before going on to Ennis. I stayed in the car while Craig went in to check it out. When he came back again he told me they had a room and that it was € 45 a person. Craig asked if I wanted to stay there and before I could answer he quickly added, “I do.” Of course I did, we were tired and I surely didn’t feel like being in the car one more minute.
Aran View Hotel was a beautiful place. It was on top of a hill, where between us and the green fields you could see the ocean, the Aran Islands, and the Cliffs of Mohr. I couldn’t believe the price, what a bargain. We went for a walk, had dinner, used a late night internet café, and meet some people we had seen at O’Conner’s earlier that week.
We were all packed and ready to leave for the airport the next morning. Before going to bed I pulled open the curtains. There was an almost full moon and I looked out to see the beam of the lighthouse in the distance then turned off the lights. What a perfect ending to a mostly wonderful trip. Good night Ireland.
THE END
Oh, I almost forgot. When we picked up our luggage once back in Chicago, my green flowered suitcase looked like a truck had run over it sideways.
May 31st, 2005, 11:59 AM
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Hi Marlie,
I also am afraid of heights when in cars with steep drop offs and no guardrails, so I'm a bit nervous about Dingle, even though I will be the passenger. We will be coming from the north (Doolin) so I think it may be better for us, since we can take Connor Pass on the way to Dingletown, which means we won't be on the outside edge driving on the left (Correct?)
I've heard Healy Pass mentioned numerous times but can't find it in my guidebooks. Where is it? Near Kenmare? We're also going there, after Dingle. I'm going to buy a map before we leave.
I also am afraid of heights when in cars with steep drop offs and no guardrails, so I'm a bit nervous about Dingle, even though I will be the passenger. We will be coming from the north (Doolin) so I think it may be better for us, since we can take Connor Pass on the way to Dingletown, which means we won't be on the outside edge driving on the left (Correct?)
I've heard Healy Pass mentioned numerous times but can't find it in my guidebooks. Where is it? Near Kenmare? We're also going there, after Dingle. I'm going to buy a map before we leave.
May 31st, 2005, 03:03 PM
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Sorry to be so slow to respond, I've been pretty busy. While a relative of the rhubarb family, I understand that gunnera is not edible. Some people would tell you that rhubarb isn't edible, either, but in a pie by itself or with strawberries, and enough sugar, it's pretty hard to beat.
May 31st, 2005, 05:10 PM
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Bucky,
I don't want you to be afraid just because I was afraid. Again, for me Healy Pass was scary, but not as scary as the outside lower Dingle Rd. (Slea Head Drive.) We did not go on Conner Pass. I would hate anyone to miss out on these roads because of me.
Yes, coming from Kenmare you you would be on the inside if you did the Conner Pass and Sled Drive from N to S.
Let me know how you liked it.
Robbyn
I don't want you to be afraid just because I was afraid. Again, for me Healy Pass was scary, but not as scary as the outside lower Dingle Rd. (Slea Head Drive.) We did not go on Conner Pass. I would hate anyone to miss out on these roads because of me.
Yes, coming from Kenmare you you would be on the inside if you did the Conner Pass and Sled Drive from N to S.
Let me know how you liked it.
Robbyn
Jun 1st, 2005, 05:13 AM
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Don't worry, Robbyn, I was nervous about it before your report. When we were in Tortola and St John (Virgin Islands), we drove on the left on some very scary roads with sheer drop offs to the ocean. My husband had no problem, but it was very hard for me to relax and enjoy the scenery. At one point, I seriously considered getting out of the car. My kids still tease me about it. Also found the coast of California scary at times, but I think there were guardrails there, which helped.
We'd actually be coming into Dingletown from Doolin, not Kenmare (We go to Kenmare after two nights in Dingle). But that's still from the north, so I guess we'll be on the inside lane if we take Connnor Pass coming in. I think we won't do the Slea Head drive until our second day, since we have a long drive into Dingle from Doolin. So for Slea Head, we will be on the outside if we start at Dingletown and tour in a clockwise direction as Rick Steves recommends in his guidebook.
I guess I'll just have to do a lot of deep breathing!
We'd actually be coming into Dingletown from Doolin, not Kenmare (We go to Kenmare after two nights in Dingle). But that's still from the north, so I guess we'll be on the inside lane if we take Connnor Pass coming in. I think we won't do the Slea Head drive until our second day, since we have a long drive into Dingle from Doolin. So for Slea Head, we will be on the outside if we start at Dingletown and tour in a clockwise direction as Rick Steves recommends in his guidebook.
I guess I'll just have to do a lot of deep breathing!
Jun 1st, 2005, 06:43 AM
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Hi Bucky,
Just wanted to wish you a great time and please let me know what you thought of cliff roads. They are beautiful and you will love the scenery.
Kenmare is such a wonderful, clean, little, real town.
Doolin is beautiful too. We didn't get to the beach there, but have heard that it's real nice. You should try and see it.
Again have a great time.
Robbyn
Just wanted to wish you a great time and please let me know what you thought of cliff roads. They are beautiful and you will love the scenery.
Kenmare is such a wonderful, clean, little, real town.
Doolin is beautiful too. We didn't get to the beach there, but have heard that it's real nice. You should try and see it.
Again have a great time.
Robbyn
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