Ireland, part 4

Tuesday: The rainiest day of our trip – and windy to boot. We left Friars Glen and drove to Bunratty (just 2 hours away) in the rain. A bit of confusion, but no more than 5 minutes or so, trying to find our B&B ("Bunratty Castle Mews," which we had booked a couple days before when we realized that we had lost our voucher for a free night at Bunratty Castle). Bunratty was, by far, the least attractive area we visited on our trip; it's basically an excuse for a medieval theme park featuring what I assume to be amateurish performances. We didn't have any trouble deciding to skip it all and just drive to some nearby towns which, admittedly, didn't have much to offer, but at least they looked a lot less like tourist traps.

After dropping off our bags at the B&B, we drove another 25 km or so to the village of Quin; ate lunch (BLT and soup) at The Abbey Tavern (I think), and then walked across the street to tour the abbey ruins. Drove 10 km to the town of Ennis, toured the Clare County museum (not bad), and wandered the streets for an hour or so, before heading back to our B&B to have a drink in the the cramped little bar area.

Actually, the bar was a perfect match for our room, which was tiny (barely 9 feet by 9 feet), with twin beds, one not very comfortable chair, and a long, exceptionally narrow bathroom. As you may have guessed, not much about the B&B was good. One thing was, however: The manager, Delores O'Toole. Short, loud, wiry, hard working, full of life and good humor, and a very good cook, to judge from breakfast the next morning; I'm glad we met her and I wish I could say better things about her establishment.

Anyway, after our drinks, it was dinner (Irish stew for both of us) at the nearby Creamery , which I expected to be another tourist trap but which turned out to be pretty good, followed by an episode of Boardwalk Empire in our room. (Did I mention that we had put a season of Boardwalk Empire and a season of Pie in the Sky on our latop?) And so to bed. 

Wednesday. Clear skies for the wonderful wife's birthday. Drove to the Cliffs of Moher, where it was fabulously windy and cold. 

From there, to Lisdoonvarna for the Matchmaking Festival, but – it being the middle of the day in the middle of the week -- nothing was going on there. Thence to Ballyvaughan in hopes of finding the nearby stone fort.  But first, a couple good bowls of mussels for lunch at Monk's Restaurant, and then a drive up the coast to the lighthouse at Black Head. (I can't find a link for the lighthouse – Google offers me links to something in Northern Ireland, but we were still in County Clare.) Then back down through Ballyvaughan to the stone fort and the Dolmen. Both were moderately interesting.

Then an hour or so drive to Clayton Hotel on the outskirts of Galway. About 10 km of the drive was on a twisty, windy, up-and-down road barely wide enough for our tiny car. We didn't have any trouble, though – until we had gone about 9 ½ km, at which time we met a car coming the opposite way. What to do? I drove through brambles and bushes up onto the side of the hill and he managed to squeeze past (half off the road on the other side in equally thick brambles and bushes). Talk about tight quarters! No sooner did that encounter end, than we met another car coming at us. This time he yielded, and let us squeeze past. And then, thankfully, we were back on a normal, two-lane road. (A normal, two-lane Irish road, mind you, is a lot narrower than its American counterpart, but this one felt like I-95 after what we had been driving on for the previous 20 minutes.)

Clayton Hotel was wonderful; we had lucked into a mini suite, actually, with two queen beds on one side of the room and a couple straight backed chairs and a table in the other and a big TV that could be pointed to either side. Supper at Trappers Inn and Jacksons Restaurant; shank of lamb for the wonderful wife and bangers and mash for me. Both good. Our appetizer was potato skins with cheese and bacon bits.
Thursday. Drove into town, visited the interesting Galway City Museum and the Eyre Square shopping area. Back at the hotel, we finally got some information about the Aer Lingus international hurling festival, which we were hoping to attend. Opening ceremonies were to be held in a small town 30 KM away. We drove out there, but when we arrived, traffic in town was dreadful and we would have had to park miles from the venue, so we turned around and came back. Dinner again at Trapper's Inn. And so to bed.