Back to Ireland!
Upon my return to Houston, I immediately switched out our clothes and headed to Minneapolis to meet Barry after his flights. Arriving early, we decided to take the train from the airport to Mall of America to take advantage of the “$5 Tuesdays” deal. The mall theater has reclining leather chairs with attached tables. We got cocktails/food and sat down to enjoy “Rocket Man” After the show, we headed back to the airport to catch our red-eye to Amsterdam. Ireland here we come… again! Six days of fun before my work season begins…
We flew standby to Amsterdam and waited a short time for a flight to Dublin. While roaming around drinking coffee, window shopping and eating, I decided it was time for the “sitting in the engine” shot! So here it is…
The weather was perfect and the airport as slow as I’ve ever seen it. We took this opportunity to continue the tourist photos by posing in front of the iconic “I AMsterdam” sign. Every time I’ve tried, my picture has a gazillion people in front of it. As soon as we took our picture, several people decided to do the same. Apparently, they hadn’t thought of it?
Due to our late arrival into Dublin, I decided to drive a short distance to at least get us on our way to our final destination of Connemara. The goal was to find a place, outside of Dublin, in a small town with pubs within close proximity. Score! I found the cutest hotel called Harry’s of Kinnegad (https://www.harrysofkinnegad.com/). It was a forty-five minute drive from the Dublin airport car rental agency to this quaint town. Once there, the check in went smoothly, we dropped our things off in our room**s and headed straight across the street for a Guinness! Well… I had a Merlot since I can’t have Gluten. Talkative me, told the bartender that I loved his little town… his response, “Why?” Let me count the ways…
*** Just a note on car rental in Ireland… insurance is handled differently from any other European country in which we’ve driven. You can get an amazing rate (ours was $5/day for SUV) but the insurance could not be waived due to credit card coverage. First, most CC’s don’t cover international, specifically Ireland. Therefore, the level of insurance dictates the hold put on your card. If you take no insurance, they put a hold for the replacement of the car. If you use a World Mastercard for the CDW, you will get a two thousand euro hold on your card. Only if you purchase their full coverage (which cost us $300), do they waive the hold. Ireland is a mandatory insurance company… considering we had a manual transmission and drove on the opposite side of the road, we always factor that in for Ireland.
After a fantastic nights sleep, we ventured downstairs in search of food. When booking the room, I didn’t realize that breakfast was included! And what a breakfast it was. A steaming cup of coffee, Gluten free toast! Eggs, fresh fruit and bacon. After filling our bellies, we got back on the road and headed toward Connemara on the west coast of Ireland.
We rented a Hyundai Tucson which is a little big for driving on the opposite side of the NARROW roads. For the most part, our drive was easy because we were on highways. Then as we got closer to Connemara, the roads narrowed to barely fit one car! Our drive for the day was about two hours and forty minutes. The scenery became more beautiful as we neared the west coast of Ireland. Because I was driving… no pics until we reached our destination! This was the house we were looking for…
Our goal was to visit with our friends Tom and Jessica, who we met on the 2017 cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Santiago, Chili. They continued onto Buenos Aires without us but we definitely had enough time to make a strong connection. You know how you meet some people and you feel as though you’ve always known them? That’s what happened. In fact, my first blog post was inspired by Jess. They have been traveling for seven years nonstop. Sold everything to make planet Earth their home. Each day, we can count on a new post from wherever they are in the world by checking their website: http://www.worldwidewaftage.com/
My first post explains how we met and exactly what inspired me to start on December 4, 2017 with the title “Black High-heeled Shoes”. Though not nearly as diligent as my dear friends, I try to post often and will continue to recreate past travel via posts.
(First post: https://www.duelingtimezones.com/duelingtimezonesgmailcom/2017/12/4/black-high-heeled-shoes )
SO happy to see these two… we spent the afternoon catching up. Talking and laughter, laughter and talking. We realized, though the sun was still shining brightly, it was definitely getting to be dinnertime. Our options were limited in the small area of Carna Bay so we headed to Tigh Mheaic. Starting at the bar, the boys talked over Guinness, while Jess and I caught up over a bottle of wine. The waitress let us know what time the kitchen would close so we wouldn’t miss our chance! The food was AMAZING! After dinner, we drove the very short distance to our hotel for a much needed rest… more tomorrow!
Our darling accommodation, Carna Bay Hotel, was a stone’s throw away from the restaurant and just a few minutes drive from our friends house. It was perfect! Though we were tired, we couldn’t resist a nightcap in the lively hotel lounge. When we walked into the reception area, the Irish music was playing to a full house. We found a couple of stools and enjoyed the jovial crowd until we could no longer keep our eyes open! This hotel had good sized rooms with very comfortable beds. We enjoyed breakfast (again included) on property in the beautiful dining room. More later...
