There were always beautiful views along the coast, regardless of the weather.When we arrived in Newport, it was time for me to say goodbye to Aladin. He was on a tight work schedule and needed to be in Zurich the following day for meetings. I had two additional days to ride the Emerald Isle. I continued north while Aladin headed back to Naas to return his motorcycle.
One final parting shot in Newport.
In the late afternoon, I came upon this country house perched atop a hill near the ocean. I figured it was someplace famous so I turned off the main road in hopes of going to visit, but the house was privately owned and the gates provided clear warnings to trespassers. Nice weekend place nonetheless.It was much less fun riding without Aladin, but I made the best of it, continuing up the coast of the Connemara, through the town of Sligo, toward Donegal, where I planned to spend the night. When I arrived in Donegal in the early evening, a light rain began to fall and this was all the motivation I needed to go no further. I found a hotel on the main square in this beautiful but somewhat touristy town.
Like most such hotels, this one had a pub with good meals. I ate dinner (fish and chips with Guinness), read my tour guides, planned the following days journey, and waited for the band to start playing. I have been really enjoying traditional Irish music when I hear it in the pubs. While I was waiting, I walked around the town and saw the castle and cathedral, two major draws of this historic town. I called my grandmother and wished her a happy (Grand)Mother's Day, then called my sister, father, and some friends to let them know I was alive and well.
When I got back to the hotel, a guy was on stage getting ready to start playing. His first song was "King of the Road," following by a somewhat strained rendition of "New York, New York." The crowd was going crazy. Somewhat confused, I looked around and realized that I was surrounded by a large group of Irish senior citizens who were on a bus tour of the Donegal region. With walkers and canes they had made their way to the pub to hear all their favorite U.S. show tunes.
Time for me to go to bed...
1 comment:
Hi Bill,
I'm glad you had a nice visit to our fair Isle. I hope the weather did not put you off too much.
Your route took you to some of the nicest locations in Ireland but there are so many more that you have yet to see.
Apart from coping with driving on the left, I'm sure that you had to compensate for the change in pace (you got to witness this in the traffic..). There is a slight difference on how visitors from larger countries and ourselves view scale. To people in Ireland, your trip would have been considered huge! But to somebody coming from a larger country such as the US, it would seem less so. As you so rightly pointed out, you average a lot less mph. Maybe it's because of the fact that there are so many nice places to stop! :) All that considered, the pace of life in Ireland is multiples of what is was, say 10 or 20 years ago.
If you do get back to Ireland, I would recommend the northern coast also. It is simply breathtaking! From the hills of Donegal and the Atlantic coastal route to the glens of Antrim and the Giant'sCauseway route. You could easily spend a week on that spin.
Of course, that means that you would not have seen many of the sights inland! Newgrange, for example is one of our world heritage sites. You may have also taken in Skellig Michael while on the ring of Kerry. Newgrange is a neolithic tomb and is said to outdate the pyramids. Only on winter solstice, does the sunlight reach the innermost of the tomb. Amazing architecture of 5000 years ago.
Sorry for taking up so much space on your blog.
By the way, (and for Laura too) pudding was a staple part of the Irish diet years ago. As for what's in it? Sure if we told you that you'd want to know what was in the Guinness!!
If you want more information, contact Grace at Motorental.ie and ask jow to contact Johnny Bignose - AKA Johnny Goodlookin'!!
:)
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