Our Route: Landed in Dublin, bus to Galway and then up north to Leenane, Westport, Achill, and then back down south to Lahinch, and Loop Head, stopping off at a bunch of places along the way
There were some clear signs that we were back in Ireland
⬆ “Minerals” on sale at the supermarket
The direct Irish translation (deochanna boga) is the more commonly used term “soft drinks”
⬆ Priorities on display on this info chart in our hotel lobby
⬆ A “Tayto sandwich” is a “potato chip sandwich”
Don’t knock ’em till you’ve tired it. They’re yum.
We met a lot of animals
⬆ Nicholle is very fond of goats
⬆ This guy was too tough to run off like the others and seemed to be daring us to take his photo
⬆ Some animals seemed to pose for the camera at Kilfenora Cathedral
⬆ Others seemed a little shy
⬆ We made friends with many donkeys
⬆ They were usually in pairs
⬆ But this guy was alone and seemed lonely; he let us give him a good scratch behind the ears and seemed sad to see us go.
⬆ We met a lot of birds too, like this grey heron
We met family and friends
⬆ My mum
⬆ My Best Man Bob and me, almost 10 years to the day since our wedding, with Bull McCabe in the background
⬆ Declan from Clonakilty that I know from Kathmandu
⬆ Some of my buddies from back in school (two from 35 years back!)
⬆ My Dad, Aunt, and Uncle
⬆ Paula
We saw some curious sights and read some interesting stuff
⬆ Achill-henge: possibly the most bizarre structure I’ve ever seen.
⬆ This sign above a cafe entrance made me laugh
(In Ireland, and other countries, we use the term barrister to describe a type of lawyer).
⬆ We saw a lot of graves and headstones. This one stopped me in my tracks; Boulavogue
⬆ Nicholle and I went to a great trad session in the Crane and got chatting to a couple of Yanks.
Good times.
We ate a lot of this
and this
and drank a lot of this
We saw some beautiful places
⬆ The Clapper Bridge, Bunlahinch
⬆ Aesleagh Falls, where The Bull killled the Yank
And some places from the past
⬆ We went back to the quad at my alma mater
⬆ Where we’d taken or group wedding pic ten years before
⬆ and back to court 4, where I broke my ankle in 1997, putting a very long pause to my enjoyment of badminton
⬆ and back to the Leenane hotel where we’d stayed before, and woke up to this view
We saw some more sights
⬆ Centuries-old churches, with a round tower nearby built over 1000 years ago
⬆ this one, at 34m, the tallest in Ireland
We saw the beautiful wild Atlantic coast and had some fun along the journey
⬆ This is one of my favorite pics from the trip, taken from the inside of Granuaile’s Tower
⬆ And a lot of this beautiful (though invasive) crocosmia
It was a great trip overall but, due to COVID, we didn’t get to see some of the people we’d hoped to see.
We didn’t take too many pictures and the ones above are a selection of the best ones to give a sense of what we saw and did.
That’s all for now. We’re both heading into an exciting year. I’ll send on another update at Christmas.
Much love,
xK & XX