Galway to Leenane

28^th April

GALWAY TO LEENANE

After a night of luxury in the Radisson Blu Galway & enjoying breakfast overlooking Galway Bay it was time to explore the sights.

Raddison Hotel

We packed the rucksack & walked the city firstly to the Spanish Arch where we saw a flock of white swans being fed & a couple of fellows learning to juggle.

Spanish Arch

Walked along the River Corrib to the Galway Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven, this is the most opulent church that we have seen so far filled with gold, large pictures made up of very tiny mosaic tiles, marble alter, floors all of granite slabs & a marvelous painted dome ceiling. The wealth of the Catholic Church was evident in this cathedral.

Galway Cathedral

After we left here still in awe we stumbled upon fishermen up to their waists in the freezing river fishing most likely for salmon, it seemed like they had the attention of the whole town we assume they were American to command such an audience. Later we found that this spot was named Salmon Weir.

Walking back to the car we crossed Eyre Square with the Padraic O’Conaire Monument. The square seemed to be the gathering place of an odd assortment of misfits. One local spotted us tourists & came to talk to Johnny giving him a 3 page dissertation on the square & Galway history & how it was all being destroyed by council. I snuck away & took photos of all the flags.

Eyre Square

Leaving Galway we followed the coast road to Spiddel & had our best lunch yet at the café Bulin Blasta in the craft village, taking a photo for the Combi fans as we left. Here I found a perfect gift for one of our girl’s ssshhh! I cannot say what here as they read the blog.

Cafe Bulin Blasta & the Combi

We followed the lovely coastal road through Inveran,Carna & other pretty little towns as it looped around Kilkieran Bay & Bertraghboy Bay then turned inland to drive along the edge of the Derryclare Lough to the Kilemore Lough as we crossed this lough were it joined Pollacappul lake we could see in the distance Kilemore Castle sitting snug into the mountain & taking up the whole space.

One of the many Loughs

It was late for Castle entry but we had an hour so we went on in not realizing what a treasure this place was. It was my choice so naturally I chose the walled garden Yes, another walled garden. We rushed past the Sacred Heart statue & caught the last shuttle bus which drove us through the tree lined woodland passing lakes, a grotto & children’s play trail. 

Kylemore’s Walled Garden just made me stop in my tracks as we passed through the gate. It is huge 6 acres in total, built on a bog, dived by a stream into two sections the Kitchen Garden & the Flower garden. Not knowing which way to walk I just took a million photos from the top of the rise then, conscious of the time took a stroll around the outside trail.

The Flower Garden

The Flower Garden looking over kitchen Garden

Looking inside ‘the Bothy’ a tiny house astounded to read that in the day it accommodated 6 under-gardeners, today it has two beds & I cannot see how more could fit in unless they slept standing. In contrast the Head Gardeners House was a lovely elegant villa style home filled with furniture & household items from the early 1900’s.

This used to sleep six Where?

The Bothy outside

Ensuite anyone? Old world poe in case of emergency. 

Head gardeners Dining Room

The garden is built on a slope back into the hillside so has good drainage & sunshine. There were ruins of 21 glasshouses that were used to grow exotic fruits & flowers they have restored 2 with no plan to restore any more. The Flower garden was filled with many plants that I just love & some I have had in my Sydney garden. Perennials that were bursting with new growth, roses my favourite, annual flowers mainly pansies, a fern garden, woodland, bulb’s by the 1,000’s huge herbaceous border that lined the centre path in both sides to hide the kitchen garden that they believed should not be seen.  

Rose arbour

 

Herbaceous border

Perennial Borders that hide the Kitchen garden

Fern & palm garden that followed the creek

Suffice to say I hope the pictures tell the story but it was my dream garden taken straight from the pages in the books I have on my spare room shelves. I was in love but forced to leave as they closed the gates for the day. We walked to the car last to leave passed by staff in their cars heading for home as we walked to the car park.

And they did it all with these tools & sheer man power

The Irish have been cutting peat out of the bog for centuries.  It is cut wet and laid out to dry in rows for a season.   The following year the dried out peat is gathered up and used for fuel.   Sharon was amazed to see these little monuments of peat spread out along the mountain landscape in various places on our journey.  Although it is now not as widespread due to modern processes which compress the peat into brikettues a lot of people still use the old fashioned method of using a spade to cut the turf by hand.

More sheep this one so cute curled up on the side of road

Peat dug from the & bog & stacked to dry for the season 

After driving around the local area looking for a place to stay for almost an hour finding there was very little & what there was had been booked or was just not somewhere we wanted to sleep we finally decided to head to Clifden & found lovely accommodation at Leenane Hotel. Settling in quickly having dinner & finding the lounge for a night cap.

Tralee to Galway

April 27^th 2012 

TRALEE TO GALWAY

How can something be 5000 years old?  I find it hard to imagine this or as they say in Ireland -

“Jesus that is older than Christ”

Poulnabroune Tomb

Yet there it was right in front of me in real life.  We were In the Burren in the north west of the Clare coast and had sort of stumbled on the fort.  The Poulnabroune tomb looked very eerie in the setting light and I managed to get a photo of the sun setting behind it.  They have linked all sorts of devil worship and witchcraft with this thing as some dead bodies have been located on the site and the weird comings and goings have played on people’s superstition over the years.  Over 90 of these tombs exist in this area

We had set off that morning from Eileen’s place Denton B&B in Tralee and after breakfast as we were walking out the door with luggage in hand I made the mistake of telling Eileen that we had a B&B in Australia.  Well around 45min later we managed to extract ourselves from the front door As Eileen engaged us in conversation and every time we made a move to go she would bring up another topic and we would be off on another subject.  Finally after about 30min Sharon said “my arm is getting sore” and handed me the load of topcoats and rucksack she had been clinging to. 

We have found the hospitality of the people and their inquisitive nature and endearing way of talking is quite amusing and fun to be around. 

When we left Tralee we made our way north to Listowel where we parked the car in the middle of town and set off for a walk along the river.  It was just what we needed as after so much driving and eating you begin to feel bloated and listless behind the wheel. 

Listowel

River walk

Listowel is a famous literary town boasting some of the greatest literary writers in Ireland's History and has a festival which brings literary people from all over the country and overseas every year. We visited the markets & the Europe gardens where Rotary have planted a garden for each country that was involved in the wars. The garden is a beautiful place just about to burst into bloom for spring & filled with thousands of flowering bulbs along the walks.

Now Listen to ME

From Listowel we made our way to Tarbert where I managed to get out a book for the first time on this trip while we waited for the ferry.  The ferry crossing over the legendary Shannon Inlet to Kilmer took around 20mins and was very smooth.  Reminded me of the many crossings we have made to Fraser over the last few years.

From Kilmer we passed through Kilrush and stopped to view yet another walled garden, Vandeleur where I attempted the maze and quickly thought the better of it.  

Yes another bloody walled garden

Then out to the coast again to follow the road along the magnificent Clare west coast. 

When the sun decides to make an appearance it is a very special place and just a pleasure to experience sights. 

I was not prepared for the Cliffs of Moher which near the end of the day turned out to be one of the most exciting places of our entire trip.  

Cliffs of Moher

The landscape seems to stretch like a canvas with no trees or buildings to separate the land from the sky and then these huge cliffs tower into a haze in the distance.  There is even a little castle there which I wrongly assumed was a modern re-creation as it looked like it had been built about a week ago as it was in such good condition.  Surprised only to find it was almost 200 years old.  

We entered the discovery centre which is a modern building cut into the side of a cliff complete with grass roof and 4 levels serviced with a lift and fitted out with all modern electronic gadgets and light and video shows.   But this is modern Ireland laced with so much primitive Ancient history combined with the latest cutting edge structure, electronics and technology.

When we finally reached the Burren it was quite late in the day.  At this time of year the sun starts to set around 6.30pm in the day and unlike Australia where it sets in about 15 minutes the sun is still low in the sky and does not get dark until after 9pm.  I knew the Burren was some kind of a sightseeing place however had never spent very much time thinking about that when growing up here.  It presented itself as what appeared to be a series of huge cliffs almost white in colour. 

The Burren

“My god’ Sharon exclaimed, as we got closer.  “What is that” pointing off into the distance.  Then we were there and suddenly it was all around us.  Solid formations of limestone rock stretched off into the distance, laced with millions of holes and indentations as far as the eye can see.   Strangely the area is full of livestock (sheep and cattle) and apparently this is crucial to the survival of the local fauna.  How the hell can cattle or sheep live up here? Was our first response but then we realized we were in the magical place that fairies and bumble bees inhabit and it is just reasonable to imagine the magic.

By the time we reached Galway it was starting to get dark and we were both exhausted from what has probably been the longest day so far.  We kept driving toward the city and no likely accommodation places presented themselves.  Then we spotted the Radisson Blu Hotel and I wheeled the car into reception.  I thought it time for us to get some luxury after all the little pokey B&B rooms we had stayed in.  We booked in and quickly got seated in the beautiful restaurant just in time to watch the sun set over Galway Bay.  That night we crawled into a king size bed with luxurious sheets, feather pillows & a  room with a big ensuite and all the modern TV and heating etc.  What a great way to end a truly memorable day

Killarney to Tralee

26^th April 2012

After a great sleep Johnny was feeling a little better mainly because I kept him drugged ha ha. The Killarney B&B included once again a huge breakfast before we set off on a cold, wet & windy morning to drive the Ring of Kerry & the Dingle Peninsula. The weather was not looking kind but we consoled ourselves with the fact that most of the day would be spent in a warm car driving & enjoying the scenery.


Moss on everything.

As soon as we turned out of town I was amazed to see the moss everywhere covering everything that lay in its path. On one side of the road was moss covered forest & on the other a spectacular drop that looked out over Killarney Lakes. Lakes everywhere you looked - large & small.

Johnny Killarney Lakes

View from Ladys Well

Round the bend up the hill we stopped at Lady’s Well View braved the icy wind & crossed the road to admire the view. Not disappointed I took a couple of photos & raced back across the road to the warm car. It was a pretty stop with an old church, ruins & a shop/café.



Lady Well Church Ruins

The mountain roads were narrow & windey, I spent a lot of time gripping the seat & holding my breath. A sudden stop & sheep are on the road. A mum & baby lamb just so cute. The sheep hare are I swear crossed with mountain goats as the places that you see them with the lambs is death defying.  The cows are fat & happy looking all this bought relaxation back to the shoulders as I adore cows.



Sheep on the road



Sharon's favourite animal Cows

Continuing down the side of a mountain we came to Carroll’s Cove a beautiful sandy wind swept beach the home of Ireland’s only beachside bar & restaurant. Surfing is big in this area with surf schools in every little town. There were holiday houses dotted everywhere & even a couple of caravan parks this was obviously a place that came to life on summer but not today.

Carroll's Cove



Beach side bar |& restaurant sign

The Ring of Kerry & The Dingle Peninsula are famous areas for scenery it just takes your breath away. I took lots of photos but I was disappointed that they could not really portray the real scene.

Coves, Blue Ocean with white caps, tall green hills, real green grass of every shade & paddocks divided by low stone walls full of happy cows & sheep with many lambs. April is lambing season just perfect timing for our visit.


Views Ring of Kerry

Views Ring of Kerry

At the top of Óconnors Pass we came across a large statue of Lady of Lourdes, Johnny deemed it photo worthy I deemed it his job. The car was moving in the wind when it gusted - scary. Out he went camera in hand braving the wind & the rain that started the minute he opened the car door. Fighting being blown away he took a couple of photos & blew back to the car struggling to open the door to get back in all of which I found rather entertaining.


Our Lady of Lourdes statue

We stopped for lunch at a character filled pub The Anchor Bar. Warm soup & my new favorite brown soda bread with wine for me & a Guinness for Johnny & we were refreshed & off to explore Dingle town.  

Dingle is  Gaelic speaking. An Caleitha town where everything is written & spoken in Gaelic even the local Chinese restaurant this amused Johnny & then I found the local Indian Restaurant “Indian Paddy’s”. (spelled Indian peddies)

Dingle Peninsula

On the home road to Tralee to find another B&B for the night we encountered a lovely waterfall & the narrowest road to date the sign read - no passing road only 6 foot wide. I have to say I closed my eyes for this section which seemed way too long.



The 6 foot wide road

Settled into our B&B we headed next door to yet another character filled pub for a great meal to end the day.