The breakfasts at the Band B’s are a story by themselves. The hosts at the B and B’s were very friendly and accommodating. They were quite happy to introduce you to their town, providing maps and directions to sights, and steered you towards favoured pubs and restaurants. They seemed genuinely grateful for your patronage. Most of the B and B’s served breakfast from 8:30 to 10:00, and if you needed to depart earlier, arrangements could be made to do so. Breakfast was not to be missed or hurried. The sideboards in the breakfast rooms groaned with dry cereals, yogurt, fresh fruit or fruit salad, baskets of bread and jams and juice. In addition to this, there was a menu of hot items which included a full or mini Irish breakfast consisting of sausage or bacon, black or white pudding, toast, eggs, tomatoes and occasionally beans. Menus also listed eggs with salmon, porridge, pancakes, potato waffles, variations of eggs. One of my favourites was at The Towercrest Inn, Dingle, a wonderful cheese and fruit plate.  

Mary Gibbons, a Dublin guide on one of our tours, told us that due to the current economy, the dairy farmers have had to diversify to survive. They now produce excellent ice cream and cheese. From our samplings, we could not dispute this. In fact, Ireland’s cheese production now surpasses France, in quality. 

At the second Band B we were totally spoiled. Orla and Aileen at The Cloisters in Kinsale, were absolutely charming hostesses. Upon our arrival, they welcomed us with coffee, tea and fresh scones, which was lovely after a two hour drive in the rain. At breakfast, they apologized that there might be a bit of a delay for breakfast as all of the food was made fresh to order. The food was wonderfully presented. One morning I ordered a bowl of porridge and it was delivered with a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream, because as Orla said, “You are not driving today”. I must say that these ladies spoiled us for the rest of the trip. I held up all of the other B and B’s to them for comparison.

In Dingle, we spent three nights at the Towercrest Inn. Mary Griffiths runs this spot which is about a 10 minute walk from town along the bay. Her husband runs the adjacent farm. It was kind of neat to walk out to the carpark and see sheep and goats grazing in the fields behind our car. This B and B was purposefully designed and beautifully decorated. The rooms were very large and bright. 

Breakfast was a feast, commencing with fresh hot scones served by very friendly staff. It was lovely and quiet, away from the noise of the pubs.

In Galway, we stayed at the Petra House. Frank and Joan have a lovely home with a very formal dining room. Breakfast, as we had come to expect - was exceptional, with Joan even sharing her recipe for scones.

   

 In the Aran Islands, we stayed at the Seacrest Inn, on Inish Mohr. Geraldine, our hostess was warm and inviting. It was a very comfortable stop for two nights, like spending the weekend at the cottage. Her Irish breakfast was number one on our list. 

Angela at the Boulevard House in Westport runs a bright and cheery place situated near the bridge, around the corner from Matt Molloy’s pub. Her fruited porridge hit the spot on what was another dull and damp Irish morning. 

Antrim House in Portrush, a seaside resort town in Northern Ireland was a centrally located Victorian Mansion with it’s own private carpark. The rooms were huge and comfortable. The full Irish breakfasts were certainly a good to start the day.

I honestly don’t know what I appreciated more, the quality of the food, or that fact that I didn’t have to prepare, serve and clean-up afterwards. 
Bed & Breakfast's are a great choice for lodging. You can share your travel experiences with the other guests and benefit from their input. The hosts are also good ambassadors for the local area.

Not your basic pub grub!!

I hadn’t given any particular thought as to what we would be eating on our vacation. I guess I assumed we would have the traditional pub fare of fish and chips, shepherd’s pies and variations served to us in the pubs. We were in for a surprise. From our first lunch to our last dinner were were treated to great meals. I decided to start snapping photos of our plates, because I didn’t think people would believe how well the food was prepared and served. We sampled everything from duck springrolls, goat cheese tarts, lobster, to fishy pie.

goat cheese tart

 

duck spring rolls

 

The sandwiches which we often enjoyed for lunch were constructed of big slices of fresh homemade breads with thick fillings.

 Our favourite bowl of fish chowder was at Ladyswell in Cashel, County Tipperary. A creamy golden broth held spoon sized portions of salmon, white fish and mussels in the shell. This was accommpanied with warm slabs of brown bread. This feast inspired me to sample the chowder as we crossed the country. The bowls of chowder varied slightly in each county and every bowl was good to the last spoonful. 

In Westport, we dined at The West, a pub famous for it’s award winning chowder. We decided to order the fishy pie which uses the chowder as its base. It wins the award for the best fishy pie. It had a toasted crust of parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and was smooth and creamy. One evening we dined on salmon that was so rich and buttery, it melted in your mouth.

According to our internet search, the fish at Leo Burdocks, Temple Bar, Dublin is the best you can get. Of course, we had to sample it. The fish platter arrived with a massive order of chippys. We also tasted the fish and chips at Ti Joe Watty’s on Inish Mohr. It was excellent and the chips are served in their own little metal fry basket - too cute. 

Leo Burdock's fish & chips

Ti Joe Watty's fish & chips

I was really pleased with the amount of salads and vegetables that were available with our meals. In previous trips to Europe, fruits and vegetables were severely lacking. I remember after having been in London for 2 weeks, stumbling upon a Pizza Hut with an all you could eat salad bar. We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Another positive food note, was that the majority of the menus in Ireland listed items that catered to customers with gluten free dietary requirements.

We shared a few desserts along the way. Most notable was Irish ice cream, banoffee pie from the Harbour Inn, Portrush, and a hot fruit crumble served at The Smokehouse, in Dingle.

hot fruit crumble

The quaint cafe at Dun Aenghus served a good coffee cake which we enjoyed after a long hike up to the fort on Inish Mohr.

cafe at Dun Aenghus

Too much Irish cream, Guinness, gourmet food and Irish craic - that simply adds up to a memorable trip to Ireland.

Canadiana

Since Maryann is the cultured half of our marriage, I am going to give her the keys to the blog to raise the level a bit. This is her first of many posts.

Ireland is a 6 hour direct flight from Toronto. During our road trip across the Emerald Isle, we often discovered that we really weren't too far from home. Upon our arrival in Dublin, our first stop for a quick lunch was a quaintly decorated tea shop, "The Queen of Tarts". Beside our table we spied something familiar and sweet - a display of jugs of maple syrup for sale, courtesy of la belle province, Quebec.

Later that evening, in our hotel pub, Darkey Kelley's, the beer coasters on our table were advertising Molson Canadian Beer. The bar had just installed a Molson's tap and were promoting their new beer. Also, while listening to a pub band announce their set list, they introduced music originating from Cape Breton.

In Kinsale, we were greeted with a huge familiar sign, advertising Tim Horton's coffee, available from a vending machine in the local Spar supermarket. What a surprise to get a quick fix of Timmy's coffee for our road trip. We set our radar for Tim Horton's at Spar markets for the remainder of our trip and were not disappointed.

Later that week, we encountered a group of students from High River, Alberta on Inish Mohr, Aran Islands. We commiserated and shared stories of how the Calgary floods were affecting our families.

In Derry, the common room of Paddy's Hostel was decorated with flags from around the world. A previous employee and resident had crafted a Canadian flag from scraps of calico and it was proudly waving from the window.

At Leo Burdock's, a Dublin fish and chip shop, we found a fish fryer who had an interesting sign on his tip cup. It said" Help send Justin Bieber to the moon". Apparently, this cook was not a big fan of our young Canadian popstar.

 
On our last night in Dublin, Bob met two little Dubliner girls who, upon learning we were returning home to Canada, exclaimed that they wanted to move to Canada. Why? Because that is where Justin Bieber lives. Ah, true Beliebers.

 I hate to say it, but it truly is a small world. Ireland became a home away from home.

Where's the pub??

Hello. Is there anybody out there reading this? I know there is. I can hear you breathing.
Please comment to feed my ego.

WOW!! What a culture shock!
To go from a town like Dingle where there are 8 churches and 36 pubs, all but 3 have live entertainment nightly, to Portrush where there are about 5 pubs and only 2 have nightly entertainment.
Plus the majority of the stores & businesses have garage door type shutters that they roll down to completely cover the store front at 6:00pm. The streets are nearly deserted here after 8:00 pm, except near restaurants and the 5 pubs.
Portrush is a resort town and this is the off season. There is a beautiful beach. It looks to be about 3 km long. Think Grand Bend. There are 3 amusement parlors on the main street and a small amusement park near the harbor with rides for the kids.
Today was rainy (surprise, surprise) so it was a bit of a down day. We got caught up on some reading and e-mails etc and just relaxed after a few busy days of hiking and driving.
We did, however, go to the Carrick-a-Redde swinging bridge. The bridge was originally built so fishermen could get to the small island to check their salmon nets.

The original bridge was the foot bridge with no sides and a single rope to hang onto as the fishermen crossed with a load of fish slung over their shoulder. They only used it in the summer and pulled it up in the winter.

Maryann conquered her fear of heights and crossed the bridge 100 feet above the surging water. She even looked down. There are absolutely no guard rails or barriers on the island. So you are on your own to stay safely back from the edge of the cliffs.

The weather was crappy and the grassy knolls were slippery so we didn't hang around for long.
Tomorrow we head for Belfast. Only two more days then home.
Imagine that - we've been together 24 hours a day for 16 days and are still speaking to each other!!

A visit with Finn McCool!

At breakfast this morning in the hostel in Derry, we saw this flag. It was made by a visitor from Canada and hung in the window. There are flags representing other countries as well.

 

Then it was off to Portsrush and the Giants Causway.

Legend has it that Irish giant Finn McCool built a causeway across the sea to Scotland so he could challenge Scottish giant, Benandonrer, to a fight. When he arrived in Scotland he discovered that Benandonner was much bigger than he first thought. So he ran home to Ireland with Benandonner at his heels. He asked his wife to hide him. She told him to put on a baby bonnet and get in bed. When Benandonner arrived, he looked at the baby in the bed. He thought "If the baby is that big, his father must be huge". So he got scared and ran back to Scotland breaking the causeway as he went. All that is left is the part by the shore of Ireland.

The Little Red Dog has a whale of a time climbing on the rocks. 

We hiked all the way up to that point of land. I know what you're thinking "Patterson hiked all the way up there! He must be some kind of machine!!!" Well, I have to burn all those Guinness calories somehow. And the wife won't let me stay in the bedroom all day.

Here's the reverse view. That's the Giants Causeway way down there.
That's the closest I've been to Scotland. It's only 14 miles across the sea.

A nice Bushmills goes down easy after all that exercise.

Reliving history

Today we headed to Derry (or Londonderry, if you are Unionist).
We passed by Crough Patrick. Apparently, St Patrick spent the 40 days of Lent on this mountain. It is from here that he rang his bell and drove the snakes out of Ireland. Every year, on the last Sunday in July, 30,000 pilgrims climb to the summit in his honor. But the trail is open all year long for anyone who wants to hike up. We did not!! (You see, we were pressed for time! Ya, that's it. pressed for time)
Across the road from Crough Patrick is a memorial to the people who died at sea trying to escape the potato famine in the late 1840's. This bronze ship sculpture is one of the most powerful famine memorials in Ireland, with silent skeletons swirling around the ship's masts.

We popped into Donegal for lunch. It has a nice downtown area. We found a carvery near the main  square. It is like cafeteria style serving. The offered a full meal for 10 Euro's. I had a massive piece of roast beef (very tender), mashed potatoes, a roast potato, vegetables & brown bread. All for 10 Euro. What a deal!! I'm sure this would be a $24.00 meal in Ontario.

Derry/Londonderry has a split personality. The British, who want to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, call it Londonderry. The Nationalists who want to be part of the Republic of Ireland and a distinct nation, call it Derry.
There is a lot of history here. From 400 years ago when some young apprentices protested during the Industrial Revolution to more current times when the IRA protested against British rule. I remember hearing about the troubles when I was in high school, but was to busy with other more interesting things to pay much attention. It was interesting to walk the streets and put everything in perspective.
Old downtown Derry is surrounded by a 30' wide wall. We walked the top of the wall and learned about the history from a few hundred years ago.

Derry is also where the IRA had many of their confrontations with Britain. I won't go deep into the history. (You can check Wikipedia) On Sunday Jan 30, 1972 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association held a peaceful but illegal march for Civil Right. An elite parachute regiment was ordered to stop the march. They opened fire on the unarmed marchers, killing 13 and wounding 15 more. One of the wounded later died. The tragic clash is known as "Bloody Sunday".
In 2010, Britain finally apologized to the families of the victims, thus starting the peace process.
A peace bridge over the River Foyle now joins the mainly Protestant east Derry with the mostly Catholic west side. There is also a metal sculpture entitled "Hands Across the Divide" shows two figures extending their hands toward each other. It is inspired by the hope of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The hands don't quite touch, indicating that the peace process is not yet complete.

"Bloody Sunday" took place in the Bogside area of Derry. The events are memorialized in 12 murals painted on the ends of residential flats. A very powerful statement.

"Bloody Sunday" - A small group of men carry a body from the ill-fated march.

"The Death of Innocence" - A young girl stands in front of bomb wreckage. The girl, Annette McGavigan, 14, was the 100th victim of the Troubles. She was caught in the crossfire in 1971.
Note the butterfly in the upper left corner. It was left as an empty silhouette until the artists felt confident that the peace process had succeeded. It was colored in 2006.

"Bloody Sunday Commemoration" - This shows the 14 victims surrounded by 14 oak leaves, the symbol of Derry, to signify the 14 wounded.

After a very moving walk through the murals, we lightened up with a quick trip to Boston "where everybody knows my name"

Above the door of our hostel is a quote from Mark Twain " Travel is fatal to hatred, bigotry and prejudice."

And the sun goes down on another day of our vacation.

Northward bound.....

The ride back from the Aran Islands was much less eventful than going over. We were on a bigger boat and the sea was calm and smooth. We were able to relax for our Drive up to Westport.
This is a beautiful drive up through the mountains. Lots of winding roads. This road, barely 2 car widths has 100 km/h speed limit. But it is smooth and well maintained so the driving was good.

There were also unexpected obstacles.

There are  no fences in this part of the country. The farmers mark their sheep with paint and they all just run wild together in the hills. We had to drive very carefully to avoid insurance claims on my rented  car.

The highlight of the day was stopping at Kylemore Castle. It was completed in 1871. Mitchell Henry, and his wife honeymooned here and were enchanted by the beauty of the landscape. On the death of his father, a Manchester cotton merchant, and on receipt of a sizeable inheritance, Mitchell chose to abandon his career in medicine and turned to business and politics. He used the money to buy Kylemore Lodge and construct the magnificent Castle for his wife Margaret, complete with gardens, walks and woodlands which eventually covered 13,000 acres of land at a cost of little over £18,000.

There is a beautiful 6 acre walled garden that once contained 21 glass houses. They were connected and heated so the ladies were able to walk through the gardens during inclement weather.

 Unfortunately, Margaret only lived there for a short time. While on vacation in Egypt in 1874, she fell ill and died 16 days later.
Kylemore is now an Abby and is the residence of the Benedictine Nuns.
This part of Ireland is also the home of huge bogs. Peat is cut from the bogs, dried and used as fuel for heating.

It is a bit weird walking on the bogs. The ground is very spongy. If someone jumps up and down on the bog the vibration can be felt more than 20 feet away.
Westport is our overnight stop today. This is the home of Matt Molloy's pub. Matt is a member of the Irish band The Chieftans. You may have heard of them.

 Matt Molloy's hosts nightly "sessions".  This is a common occurrence in Ireland. We saw a session several times while here. It is a jam session with local musicians. A couple of musicians are hired by the bar to play. Anyone who wants to is invited to join in. The night we were there the session started with a banjo and bohrain. Soon to be joined by a guitar, then another guitar and finally by two fiddle players. There were two ladies from Switzerland. The host said that they come to visit 3 or 4 times a year and join the session. One of the ladies played guitar, the other sang.

As you can see, the very small room was packed. I'm sure that the fire marshal in Ontario would not have allowed it.

Time for sleep. See ya later.

"Please kill me now!!"

We arrived in Galway with more rain. We walked to the closest pub for some comfort food. By the time we had finished eating the rain had stopped so we went for a walk to downtown Galway - about 15 minutes. Bieing Friday night the entertainment district was buzzing with university students. They close off a couple of streets to automobile traffic over night. We walked to the Spanish Gate. This is where Christopher Columbus set sail from to discover the new world.

After a lovely breakfast, we headed for the ferry to the Aran Islands.
OMG!! The ferry ride was something else. The boat had an enclosed lower deck and an open upper deck. There were so many people onboard that some people had no choice but sit on the open deck. But once we left the cozy shelter of the harbor, the swells were about 6 feet. When we hit the first big one it sprayed water up to the upper deck and soaked everyone. People tried to scramble into the lower deck but there were no seats, so they ended up standing. It was a very rough 45 minute ride. One lady was sick. At one point she shouted "Please kill me now!" Then she lost her breakfast. Several other people looked very peaked. Maryann & I managed to keep breakfast down.
Little Red Dog spent most of the trip in the WC so I don't have any pictures of him on the boat.
We checked into our B&B and went for a walk. Ya, I know. Bob hiking again. This is getting to be a habit.

Remember I told you that we visited the smallest church in Ireland. Well, I lied. This is actually the smallest church in all of Europe. It is only 6' x 12' and was built in the 10th century.
The weather was funny! It started to drizzle while we were at the church, but ended after about 20 minutes. The wind picked up and the sun came out so we were dry by the time were back on the main road. A half hour later another 10 minutes shower. And, again, as we walked we dried out. When we got back to the B&B we were almost dry.

See that road? Believe it or not, that is a 2 way, 80 kmh road that we walked along. This is typical of the roads in Ireland. I'm actually surprised that I've gotten along so well with the driving here. There have only been a few times where I was concerned about the narrow roads. The tightest spot was on the Connor Pass on the way to Dingle.
Back in town, we saw a short fictional documentary about life on the Aran Islands that was shot in the 1930's. It was filmed with local people, not professional actors. The theatre is on the 2nd floor of a souvenir coffee shop. When we came out of the theatre, the fellow who ran the shop asked if we had any questions. When we had none he went into a long sprawling explanation about the making of the movie. We only escaped when someone came into the shop for a coffee. When we walked by the shop later in the day, this sign was in the window.

The B&B also offered horse and cart tours, so we started the second day with a ride to Dun Aenghus, the stone fortress perched on the cliff, 300 feet above the Atlantic.

Christopher & his buggy

LRD at Dun Aenghus

On the way back from the fortress we stopped at a little roadside stand. Maryann made a new friend.

After lunch we rented bicycles to tour some more of the island on our own.

We went to a really neat geological formation. Called "The Wormhole" it was formed by the tides flowing into an underwater cave and wearing away the limestone. This is a real hidden gem. Very well hidden and the path is not well marked. Fortunately, we met some people also heading there that had good directions.

It looks man made because of the straight sides and square corners. But that is a property of limestone. They held a diving competition here last year. Drivers jumped from the cliffs high above the wormhole. of course, it was sponsored by Redbull. Much to my lovely wife's dismay, I got a birds eye view.

LRD was still tired from the ferry ride so I don't have any pictures of him at the worm hole.

All that biking, hiking and touring gives you a hearty appetite so we headed for Ti Joe Watty's for fish & chips and a pint.

We met 2 nice families from Dublin who were there to visit their daughters. The girls were at an Irish school to learn traditional Irish language (Gaelic). Only well-to-do families can afford this schooling. Three weeks costs about 1000 Euro's. Of course, I had to make some balloons.

As a thank you a couple of pints arrived at our table.