In a cabin in a wood

Today was a leisurely day. Slept in. Full English Breakfast at 9A. Cab picked us up at 10:30A for a drive around. Our Hungarian driver could have been Irish for as chatty as he was, but he was certainly knowledgeable about the area. We spent 5 hours touring about and talking about everything from Brexit to sheep farming to stone circles to the pyramids in Bosnia. (Note to self: gotta look into those.)

Clearing skies all day. Perfect weather. Lovely vistas. And Michael didn't have to drive. It was a win win all around.

 

 

Pre dinner drinks outside

On to the Lake District

Our last overnight in Wales was in Llandudno having stopped at Conwy Castle on the way. Even though there was a very impressive city wall still standing, I won't bore you with more pictures of castles. Llandudno itself was more like Bantry than Swansea which was nice, and as you can see, the weather continues to hold.

Yesterday, we headed on to the Lake District to a lovely B&B in home previously owned by Beatrix Potter

with the cute little sheep and lambs in the field

and took a nice stroll into the nearby town of Hawkshead for dinner

Michael needs a break from driving and needs to be able to enjoy a drive around the area to take in the views so we have hired a driver to take us around. We are hoping for some spectacular vistas as the forecast is 60 degrees and sunny.

Another day, Another Wales

After a full English Breakfast we high-tailed it out of Swansea in search of something, anything else. Specifically, Pembroke Castle. But we took a quick detour when, having seen signs for a Carriage Market we realized that didn't mean a place selling carriages but rather people selling things out of the backs of their cars - or in the American vernacular, a flea market. In reality, I think it was actually a dog park with something for the humans to do. I swear we could have been at an AKC show. There were so many different breeds of dogs it was crazy. Michael was looking for walking sticks and wooden spoons while I just walked along calling out breeds: Bulldog, Jack Russell, Greyhound, Collie, Miniature Schnauzer, Cumberland Spaniel, and so on. And then we realized the most amazing thing....with all of these very social dogs walking around....nobody was barking. British dogs, I guess, stiff upper lip and all!

We detoured again when we saw a sign for Carew Castle.

And then finally got to Pembroke Castle.

And then made our way to Aberystwyth where there was another castle.

But most importantly there was this.

In retrospect I only wish we had taken a picture of Swansea for comparison. Here were two beach towns. Two beachside hotels. Two rooms on the second floor. Two rooms both with two chairs in front of little bay windows. But if Swansea was Dracula's Castle then Aberystwyth is Cinderella's. Just world's apart.

So we strolled. And we ate fish and chips on a bench (or in Michael's case a battered and fried sausage) and came to the conclusion that Wales is not so bad after all.
 

The End of the Rainbow

Writing now from Swansea. Now Saturday night. Sadly when the high point of your day is your Ryanair flight, things have not been quite up to snuff.

In a nutshell, nice last morning in Galway yesterday. Leisurely. Relaxed. Hung around until 2P. Then drove to Dublin. Dropped off the luggage at the hotel. Dropped off the car. Shuttled back to the hotel. Quick dinner and then asleep by 9P to wake up at 3A to catch the shuttle back to the airport. Flight to Bristol. Drive to Swansea. More than one person told us to skip Wales. So far, they may have been right. But I refuse to judge the whole place based on Swansea. We drove for over an hour trying to find a place to park, but in all fairness a beach town with one main road on a lovely Saturday in early May in this part of the world.... could have been a poor choice from a planning standpoint. We quite nearly abandoned the hotel and the cost of it and moved on. But here we are in a beach front guest house of very modest means. Oh well, it is only one night of our lives....and it is still not raining!

Meanwhile, just a couple of tidbits...

Met a Swedish couple at dinner in Dingle. He reminisced about his first trip back-packing around Ireland 47 years ago. Was wearing the sweater he bought back then. They just don't make them like that anymore, he said. I got to thinking, I believe my brother, Gregg, still has the "Starsky and Hutch" patterned cardigan I made for him, gulp, 43 years ago. And that was made from the cheapest, Sears, knitting worsted crap yarn money could buy. (Nothing but the best for my bro.)

Lastly, during our leisurely morning in Galway, sitting in the sun, drinking coffee, Michael suggested that he could live there. For awhile at least, he said. For this week, perhaps, I countered. Let's face it, it is rarely like this here. Chamber of Commerce Weather, you know. But, he said, you could wear those pretty sweaters that are in the stores. But, I said, I would HAVE to wear those pretty sweaters that are in the stores.

Holidays can make people temporarily insane.

It's a long way to......Galway

Thursday was a long day especially for Michael driving. We left Dingle early before even availing ourselves of the breakfast part of our B&B, and it was a lucky thing we did. Which leads us to the quiz portion of this trip’s blog (if you don’t care for mathematical word problems feel free to scroll ahead):

You are traveling from Dingle to the Cliffs of Moher. Your navigation system calculates the time to your destination as 3 hours and 15 minutes. Assuming that this estimate is based on your traveling the speed limit the entire way, if you, however, do not feel comfortable driving at 100km/hr through narrow, winding country roads and instead creep along at the veritable snail’s pace of 70km/hr, how long will the trip really take you?

Add in a quick sandwich stop (declining even waiting for the bread to be toasted), spend an hour at the Cliffs and then wind your way on to Galway with a few castle stops along the way and you’ve got a full 10 hour day.

Here is a recap:

At the Cliffs of Moher (was I confusing them in my mind with the Cliffs of Dover? Because I was a wee bit surprised when they weren’t white J), it was overcast and CRAZY windy but thank god once again that we have not seen rain since Dublin. In fact, when I mentioned how horrible it would have been to view them in the rain, Michael assured me that if it had been raining he would have never gotten out of the car. Pretty rock. Pretty rock.

Driving through the Burren…an area of surprisingly barren, rocky terrain apparently limestone from the days when Ireland was equatorial then stripped of soil by the glaciers and then burnt free of trees by the first human inhabitants. We stopped at the Poulnabrone Dolmen an ancient “druids altar”. I ran ahead to get photos before the incoming tour bus of people which left Michael vulnerable to starting a lengthy (as all conversations with the friendly Irish seem to be) but interesting conversation with one of the Irish versions of a forest ranger. It turns out the conservation regulations against defacing national monuments and public parks are sadly similar to, say, Planning Permits in Anguilla…nice in writing but impossible to enforce. So this fellow is eternally frustrated with being tasked to protect this amazing piece of history when there is no real risk of retribution against anyone who might chose to destroy it. Pretty rocks.

Then off to Galway via Kinvarra and the Dunguaire Castle. More pretty rocks stacked on top of each other.

 

Once in Galway, we were pleasantly surprised. What an adorable little city center. Music and pubs and people everywhere enjoying the break in the weather and the long daylight hours. Strolling and drinking. Why DOES Guinness taste so much better in Ireland than in the U.S.? And how adorable that they serve gin and tonic by pouring the gin over ice in a big, round bowl of a wine glass topped with cucumber and then handing you the bottle of tonic to be added (or not) at your own discretion? Lovely.

Dinner in a tiny little place where a Bulgarian waitress served us Shepherd’s Pie and Bangers and Mash with enough potatoes (multiple mounds of them) to keep a small village alive through the next (heaven forbid) famine.

All in all, a really wonderful day.











Alive in Dublin

Just a quick fyi. We are fine. I composed a witty and informative blog post in the car today as we were driving back to Dublin airport for the night since we fly out very early tomorrow. Unfortunately I cannot even open a website on the computer with the wifi at this hotel. So

(1) the post will have to wait and (2) poor Internet connectivity is not only an issue in Anguilla. 

More from Wales.