Day 14
Aran Islands in distance
The wind & mist picked up yesterday and seems to be continuing today. It rains, it mists, it gets clear, all in 10 minutes. The house is on a ridge and catches the wind, though it makes it sound worse than it is. Last night it was raining here but clear at Vaughan's, 20 minutes away.
Slept late and Jill is making eggs and French fries for breakfast.
Pretty dull day. Intermittent rain, clouds and mist all day. We've just about run out of things to do in Clare. If we had it to do again, it looks like Ireland is best done with less than one week in one place. It also looks like the maps in the Eyewitness Guide for each section cover the maximum amount of ground you could cover from one location - if the location was in the center of the map. Since our locations are on the edges of the maps, we can cover even less.
Drove to Ennistimon for lunch but didn't see anything very attractive and moved on to Lisdoonvarna since there was no parking. In Lisdoonvarna we settled on the Irish Arms pub ("Irish Arm's" on the brass beer pull cover at the bar.) Mediocre pub food; we sat in the back room with 2 tables that is a tribute to the Celtics football team. Signed jerseys, etc. The place looks like a real Celtics fan hangout. Dave had a "1/4 lb. burger" (kind of odd since everything is metric); Jill had a leek/potato soup and salad, Kristen a small pizza. With 3 sodas, 30€. At least the price was right and the ubiquitous fries good as usual.
On to Doolin to look around some more; we hadn't really done the town justice a couple of days ago. There's not much to the town though, it's kind of spread out. Kristen bought an Irish girl doll with a porcelain face (Marie) for 15€.
Exiting the town I saw a service station called the "Aran View", and sure enough, there was the closest of the Aran islands right off the coast. How did we miss it the first couple of times on this part of the coast?
Slept late and Jill is making eggs and French fries for breakfast.
Pretty dull day. Intermittent rain, clouds and mist all day. We've just about run out of things to do in Clare. If we had it to do again, it looks like Ireland is best done with less than one week in one place. It also looks like the maps in the Eyewitness Guide for each section cover the maximum amount of ground you could cover from one location - if the location was in the center of the map. Since our locations are on the edges of the maps, we can cover even less.
Drove to Ennistimon for lunch but didn't see anything very attractive and moved on to Lisdoonvarna since there was no parking. In Lisdoonvarna we settled on the Irish Arms pub ("Irish Arm's" on the brass beer pull cover at the bar.) Mediocre pub food; we sat in the back room with 2 tables that is a tribute to the Celtics football team. Signed jerseys, etc. The place looks like a real Celtics fan hangout. Dave had a "1/4 lb. burger" (kind of odd since everything is metric); Jill had a leek/potato soup and salad, Kristen a small pizza. With 3 sodas, 30€. At least the price was right and the ubiquitous fries good as usual.
On to Doolin to look around some more; we hadn't really done the town justice a couple of days ago. There's not much to the town though, it's kind of spread out. Kristen bought an Irish girl doll with a porcelain face (Marie) for 15€.
Exiting the town I saw a service station called the "Aran View", and sure enough, there was the closest of the Aran islands right off the coast. How did we miss it the first couple of times on this part of the coast?
Back to Lahinch after putting 30€ of gas in at the Top and picking up some Allsorts. Checked out some stores but didn't buy anything. Back home for a nap, and a movie for Kristen.
Kristen also continued her cleaning hobby. This morning she decided to tidy up the kitchen and it looks really nice; this afternoon it was the dining room where the big farm table gathers all our junk, just like it does in every other house we rent. I think we've found a new responsibility for Kristen on every trip!
Tonight we're going back to Doolin for a late pub meal and some more music. Like last night. Doolin has 3 pubs known the world over for traditional Irish music. We're going to hopefully claim a table for dinner and hang out for a little while to hear some tunes.
We had debated leaving the house and going in the direction (north) of Connemara for Sunday. In the interests of sanity, though, we're going to keep the house for 2 extra days, even though we're not in love with it. It will just be so much easier than relocating once up to Connemara and then again back to the airport.
So tomorrow we go back north to Dunguaire castle for our touristy medieval dinner and a few more sites. Sunday, we're gonna wing it. If we're up for a real long driving day we'll go up toConnemara and back on one day. If not, we'll just hang here in this area.
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Well this night ended up being one of the trip's highlights for me.
Made it to Doolin around 7:30 or 8 and got one of the last tables in McDermott's, one of the three trad Irish music pubs. A guy just handed us menus as we walked in and directed us to a table in the back. Looks like they know the drill. Also looks like the other tourists have the same idea as us, since we got one of the last tables. But it was in a back room; how were we going to hear music back here?
Kristen also continued her cleaning hobby. This morning she decided to tidy up the kitchen and it looks really nice; this afternoon it was the dining room where the big farm table gathers all our junk, just like it does in every other house we rent. I think we've found a new responsibility for Kristen on every trip!
Tonight we're going back to Doolin for a late pub meal and some more music. Like last night. Doolin has 3 pubs known the world over for traditional Irish music. We're going to hopefully claim a table for dinner and hang out for a little while to hear some tunes.
We had debated leaving the house and going in the direction (north) of Connemara for Sunday. In the interests of sanity, though, we're going to keep the house for 2 extra days, even though we're not in love with it. It will just be so much easier than relocating once up to Connemara and then again back to the airport.
So tomorrow we go back north to Dunguaire castle for our touristy medieval dinner and a few more sites. Sunday, we're gonna wing it. If we're up for a real long driving day we'll go up toConnemara and back on one day. If not, we'll just hang here in this area.
...
Well this night ended up being one of the trip's highlights for me.
Made it to Doolin around 7:30 or 8 and got one of the last tables in McDermott's, one of the three trad Irish music pubs. A guy just handed us menus as we walked in and directed us to a table in the back. Looks like they know the drill. Also looks like the other tourists have the same idea as us, since we got one of the last tables. But it was in a back room; how were we going to hear music back here?
Took 3 photos for the nuts at the table next to us - The guy reminded me of Phillipe from 20 years ago. Had an ok meal of Guinness stew - Jill, and fish and Chips - Dave, and Chicken nuggets - Kristen. We let her have chocolate ice cream even though she didn't finish her fries. She barely touched them actually, I think even she is burned out on them.
We were talking with a retired English teacher / headmaster and his wife at the next table who own a house in Kerry. The house is rented in July and August and is free to the 4 owners the rest of the year. They were making their way down to that area. They had their grown kids with them. He said how he had spoken to a waitress and we could bring our stools down to the main (music) room once things were getting started - and now was the time. So we picked up our wine (sick of Guiness too) and stools, and had Kristen lead the way - right to about 5 feet from the musicians as they were setting up. That's one great point about having a kid - they know how to do this stuff without getting yelled at!
We ended up next to a table for four, next to the musician's area. The table was occupied by 4 folks a little older than us, from Indiana, who just popped over to Ireland for a week in B&B's. The musicians soon got started and we had almost the best seats in the crowded house.
I had told Kristen we would only stay still till 10 or so, but the music was so good and the seats so good that we didn't leave till almost 12.
We were talking with a retired English teacher / headmaster and his wife at the next table who own a house in Kerry. The house is rented in July and August and is free to the 4 owners the rest of the year. They were making their way down to that area. They had their grown kids with them. He said how he had spoken to a waitress and we could bring our stools down to the main (music) room once things were getting started - and now was the time. So we picked up our wine (sick of Guiness too) and stools, and had Kristen lead the way - right to about 5 feet from the musicians as they were setting up. That's one great point about having a kid - they know how to do this stuff without getting yelled at!
We ended up next to a table for four, next to the musician's area. The table was occupied by 4 folks a little older than us, from Indiana, who just popped over to Ireland for a week in B&B's. The musicians soon got started and we had almost the best seats in the crowded house.
I had told Kristen we would only stay still till 10 or so, but the music was so good and the seats so good that we didn't leave till almost 12.
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The band was Caher, and I tried to buy a CD, but they sold out all 5 in about 3 minutes. You're not really commercially oriented, I guess, if you only bring 5 CDs with you. They consisted of the leader - a piper, 2 guitars (one with harmonica), a bodhran, and a girl on fiddle who seemed to be the piper's daughter and looked about 15. Age range from 15 to 60. The second guitarist also had a bodhran that he played intermittently and it looked about 150 years old. The music started fast, and to me, hypnotic. I find it easy to get lost in it, but many of the songs have the same structure. The leader would let out a whoop as they prepared to change from one part of the song to the next. Many instrumentals but all the players took turns singing also. The girl had a very nice voice that will improve with age, no doubt. She's still developing her confidence, but her fiddle playing seemed to me to be on par with any adult I'ver heard. They were amplified, which kind of surprised me... but I guess you need volume. As the night got older, the tourists got drunker and started babbling more, and needed to be drowned out. I can only imagine what the place must have been like when smoking was allowed - just the heat was uncomfortable enough. The leader played not only the Irish flute but a tin whistle (the deluxe model, not made of tin) that he was able to bend notes and get vibrato on. The bodhran guy really showed how complex the hand movements are, and used a combination of beaters and brushes, along with damping the back of the skin, hitting different parts of the skin, etc. The guitars basically played a fast rhythm, and the fiddle and piper led the charge. They started fast and had the audience clapping along, but then slowed it down with some ballads... that's around when we left, just before 12. I'm sure they built it into a frenzy later. It seemed that if these tunes were in a locals' pub, there would be some "sing-alongs", but too many tourists = no singing along. We could have had that front row table at 12 when the Indiana folks left, but we had to go to. After all, we did have a kid with us. A tired kid, but one who liked the music nonetheless. And one who hopefully was inspired by a bunch of folks of all ages, talented and playing just for fun, in the old style. Day 15 >>> |
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