Clare and Mayo

Sunday, 2006-10-08 – Clare and Mayo

I won’t say that I was precisely dreading the flight to Ireland, but I knew it would be a long one, with connections in Chicago and Boston. I can rarely sleep more than a few hours on a long flight, so it was with great relief that I looked out the window and saw the green fields of Clare around Shannon airport. I hadn’t realized that Shannon was such a tiny airport, and by 9:00 am we were walking across the road to our rental car.

The guide books recommend that you don’t drive more than an hour or so your first day in Ireland. I didn’t learn this until our second day, when I read the guide book and also discovered that Ireland is considered the second most dangerous place to drive in Western Europe. Not knowing this, we had planed a full day of driving, with a stop at the Cliffs of Moher, and ending in Westport, in County Mayo. Jack’s four grand-parents came from County Mayo, and he wanted me to see it.

Since it was Sunday, we at least didn’t have to deal with very heavy traffic as we drove north. We stopped in Ennis for tea and coffee, and I was thrilled that I was actually able to get brewed coffee. I had expected instant coffee, which was the only thing I ever got when we visited England a long time ago.

The Cliffs of Moher were fabulous. The guide book had warned that it was very crowded during the season, so this was our first example of one of the benefits of traveling on the shoulder season. We were lucky during our trip that Ireland had been enjoying warmer than usual temperatures, and we even saw the sun occasionally. I never missed having forgotten to pack sun screen, though. (I was going to insert that we took lots of photos, but from now on, I will probably just mention if we don’t take photos. Jack brought along his laptop so we could download our photos, and we didn’t even have to worry about filling up our memory chips.)

After wandering around the Cliffs of Moher for an hour or so, we headed north through The Burren. We evidently missed some of the more exotic aspects of The Burren, but enjoyed what we did see. We ended up in Galway about 2:00, and stopped at a Subway so I could get a sandwich. I don’t normally stop at American export restaurants when I travel, but we weren’t seeing a lot available, and I wasn’t sure if anything else would be open on a Sunday afternoon.

Fortified by the sandwich and Diet Coke, I took over driving, with Jack navigating. I had a slight advantage over Jack, in that I am more used to driving a manual transmission due to our truck, but it was still a challenge. (We were both inordinately pleased to return the rental vehicle without additional dings, but it was a near thing once or twice.) We found our Bed and Breakfast near Westport for the night about 3:30, but no one answered. This was probably just as well, since we would have fallen asleep immediately given the chance, so we drove into Westport, and parked near the harbor.

Armed with cameras and umbrellas, we walked around the waterfront for a bit, before stopping to get a half-pint at a pub, which seemed to be one of the hangouts of the local fishing enthusiasts. We wandered around some more, and stopped at another pub and split an order of fish and chips, after checking out the serving size at another table. We decided the B&B should be open by then, and headed back. The landlord was there, served us tea, and we collapsed for the night.

Written Sunday 2006-11-05