Back to our old stompin grounds… Clifden
Up early the next morning and enjoyed a full Irish breakfast of fried eggs, potatoes, sausage, black pudding, tomato, toast and of course, pork and beans! Van seats seem to be getting a little tighter since we started.
About 2 hours away are the Cliffs of Moher. For those who actually read our website (Barb) that’s the cliffs on our homepage. Always a cool picture opportunity and sometimes a wee bit windy. This time would be no exception, awesome views, partially cloudy skies and a wee bit of wind, so “wee” no one wanted to walk along the cliff edge to get a better look!
Just a wee bit chilly!
After all the oohhhs and aahhhhhs, we made a short drive to Gus O’Connors pub for, you guessed it, pub grub! Not a great deal of variety but hearty food and plenty of it. Especially if you like potatoes. Most dishes come with 3 types of potatoes, French fried, boiled and mashed, got to love the Irish!
About 1.5hrs away is Clifden, our home for the next 2 days. We rented a condo from Love Connemara, same rental agency we rented our home from when we stayed for a month. Good rates and nice properties. Ours is right downtown (if there is such a thing) in Clifden. Collette and the ladies went to the grocery store while I scurried down to Mannion’s pub to make reservations for dinner. This was Friday evening and Mannion’s, like most Irish pubs on Friday, has live, traditional music. If this place sounds familiar (Barb) its because it was highly rated in our blog the last time we stayed in Ireland.
Very nice condo, 4 bedrooms and 3 baths with balconies on both floors. Plenty of room to spread out and relax for a while before dinner. Collette and I frequented Mannion’s a lot when we were in Ireland for the month so it was no surprise when we walked in that not a single person recognized us or remembered us from our earlier trip. Guess the staff had changed…. Had a great meal, great service and listened to some wonderful Irish music. Its funny, someone in the US plays an accordion and they go to jail, here it just sounds right.
Saturday was a shopping trip to Galway while Chris and Russ went for a golf outing at Connemara Championship Golf Links course. Although it was hard for me to decide which to do, I settled for my love….shopping. Besides, leaving the driving of a 9 person van up to my beautiful bride may have resulted in trying out that 0 deductible insurance I bought! Everyone survived and we decided to stay in and relax for the evening. Tomorrow we have a lot of sight-seeing to do.
Kylemore abbey is probably one of the most beautiful spots in Ireland. Built by Mitchell Henry for his wife Margaret in the late 1800’s, the abbey had 33 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Mitchell was known to have coined the phrase, ”get a grip” in addition to being a well known doctor. Kylemore has a very tragic story, Margaret contracted a fever while in Egypt, that later took her life. Mitchell fell into hard times and ended up dying a penniless man in England. There was a good side, one of the Henry’s 9 children, Lorenzo (typical British name, eh) became a world class tunny fisherman. You want more…look it up.
Moving right along, we did a quick drive to Cong, home to the film set of, “The Quiet Man” starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. We’ve covered this ground before so I’ll just say this, if you haven’t seen the movie, borrow it, don’t buy it! Of course, we tried to have lunch at Pat Cohan’s pub but once again (3 times in 3 years!) the kitchen was closed. Never again.
No drive to Sligo would be complete without a stop at Knock, the site of a holy apparition of the Virgin Mary and her gang sometime in the 1800’s. 30 people claimed they saw this apparition so now Knock is an official Catholic pilgrimage site and National shrine. And of course, it was closed for renovations when we arrived! Oh well, still got the free holy water so not a complete loss.
Finally, we arrive in Sligo and our 4 star hotel! Well, maybe back in 1960 it was 4-star, today I’m thinking more like 3 but damn was it nostalgic! I haven’t seen florescent orange, green and yellow carpeting (with matching curtains and bedding) since my last donation to Harrah’s casino in Reno. Fortunately we have eye masks so sleeping wasn’t a problem.
Love that orange!
Beautiful Sligo Ireland.
Sligo at night.
Going out for some Italian food tonight, can’t handle any more fried food for at least a day.