Sunday, April 20, 2008--Ouch

I will start out by saying I had every intention of going to the local Roman Catholic church in Dingle on Sunday morning--the 9:00 am Mass--just for the experience. That was before Cora and Billy and our evening with them, which turned out to be Drink Fest 2008. When the alarm that Bob had set at 7:00 am went off (his cell phone blaring the theme from "Rocky"), I realized that there was no way in hell I'd be going anywhere, any time soon. Bob got up, showered and went down to breakfast at 9:00 am. He ended up not having to "kiss the porcelain God" the night before, but I was pretty close to myself at that moment. Ugh. Around 10, I felt a little more human and was able to stand erect and shower, so we said good-bye to the Bay Watch (tee, hee) and left town around 11:30 am.

We decided to take the Connor Pass on the way to Lehinch, our next golfing destination. The Connor Pass is kind of a shortcut from Dingle to Limerick. A shortcut that takes you over the top of a mountain on a narrow (single-lane narrow at some points), winding, twisting road where there is just a tiny hedgerow between your vehicle and the abyss. Fun. The top of Connor Pass was shrouded in fog, so I'll assume there were magnificent views to be had. 1/2 down the mountain there was a pull-off with a little waterfall. There was no fog here so we were afforded a beautiful vista of the valley, and Bob was able to accumulate several dozen or so more pictures (!).

The rest of the trip to Lehinch was uneventful. At the little town of Tarbert, we boarded a ferry to take us across the River Shannon, which was something I'd never done before. It was definitely advantageous to take the ferry versus driving around--saved us about an hour of drive time.

We entered County Clare and drove through various picturesque towns and passed many old castles in ruins. The one thing curiously absent? Sheep! After we crossed into County Clare the sheep had been replaced by cattle grazing here and there in the fields.

After arriving in Lehinch and checking into our B&B (the Auburn House--highly recommend!), we got back in the car and continued north to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher are the craggy cliffs you think of when you think of Ireland. They are magnificent in person, I can tell you. They're made of limestone and are entirely vertical to the sea.

After see the breathtaking views of the Cliffs of Moher, we drove a little further north to the town of Doolin. Doolin is supposed to be a Mecca for Irish musicians. I figured we’d see a lovely little main drag with plenty of pubs on it. Huh-uh. The town of Doolin is apparently spread out in 3 sections. We were unable to find the “main” pub section, but did find the part that ended up at the Atlantic, called “Black Head”—so named for the black rocks that lead out to the water. Atlantic storms have stripped the land from this area, so all that’s left are the black rocks. This area is actually part of The Burren (more on that tomorrow), so that explains the strange rock formations. Very pretty wildflowers were springing up in between the crack of the rocks. Bob took his requisite 100 pictures of the ocean spray against the various rock formations, and we headed back to Lahinch.

Our evening in Lahinch was uneventful—compared to the night before. We took a stroll around the town, and decided on a restaurant called The Shamrock Inn for dinner. I had chicken curry, which was very good. Just about every restaurant over there has some type of curry dish!

Following dinner, we meandered around poking our heads into the various pubs to see what type of live music they had. We finally decided on Flanagan’s Pub, which was one of my favorites of all the pubs we’d been in. The music of the evening was jazz, so we settled in at some barstools to hear the musicians for a bit. Finally, my tent was definitely folding, so Bob and I walked back to the B&B and hit the hay.