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Sunday,
Nov 24, 2002
We took a detour on
our way to Galway because we wanted to see the Burren, an area
unique in Ireland. Once a glacier-covered tundra, it today
offers an ecosystem found nowhere else in Ireland, with
glacier-gashed limestone peeking from the ground, a network of
tunnels that once housed bears, and various archeological
sites, including the one we really wanted to see, the
Poulnabrone Dolmen. Believed to be a "druid's altar"
a couple hundred years ago, today we know it is a stone-age
portal-style grave, possibly a chieftain's though no one knows
for sure. While a center is promised for the future, today the
dolmen stands alone in the middle of a field, and it takes a
200-meter hike to reach it. As you can see in the picture, we
got there just before dusk (meaning at around 4:00 pm), but we
had enough light and time to really marvel at this ancient
artifact still standing after four thousand years. The Burren
is supposed to be incredible in the summer, with flowers
bursting out of the limestone all over; I guess we'll just
have to come back and see. Very carefully we picked our way
back to the car and then drove for another two hours to reach
Galway.
Poulnabrone
Dolmen, a 4000 year-old grave, still captures the imagination.
Nov. 24, 2002
In Galway, we stayed
at the Cill Cuana B&B, a place we reserved that morning
before leaving Dingle (had it only been one day?). In fact,
from here on, all our accommodations would be booked
on-the-go, one of the perks of traveling in winter. Cill Cuana
was decent, but not a place I would go back to; it was just
good enough for the night. In fact, Galway felt pretty much
like that.
Galway is a
university town, and you can't miss it. This would have been
great if we had been with our friends, but on our honeymoon,
and especially after the quiet solitude of Dingle, Galway
simply grated on us. We walked the pedestrian part of town,
dipping into the King's Head Pub, there since the 16th
century, for a pint and some music (rock covers, not bad).
Galway is full of street artists, buskers, and on our way back
to the car, we passed by a young woman with her guitar,
strumming along in the chilling wind. She started to sing
after we were about 10 feet past her, and her voice made us
turn around simply because we had to know who it was that was
singing. She was amazing, and we purchased her CD right there.
Her name was Orlagh De Bhaldraithe
(see the Links). After this
it was back to the B&B and to sleep.
Monday,
Nov 25, 2002
We left Galway early
and headed up to Connemara, the wild western area of Co.
Galway. In the early winter, Connemara sported a yellow-orange
color scheme that made everything seem stark and lonely.
Actually, Connemara was pretty lonely; we hardly saw any cars
or people as we drove around. The peat bogs are amazing, and
as you drive around you can see the peat "quarries"
and the piles of peat logs or bricks left to dry.
The
Connemara landscape is beautiful in its starkness.
Nov. 25, 2002
We wanted to see two
things in Connemara. The first one was the village of
Roundstone. We are both fans of the movie "The
Matchmaker" (rent it if you haven't seen it), and it was
filmed in Roundstone, so we wanted to see this town. It took us a
while to find it, mainly because it is all the way in the
southwestern tip of Connemara. Roundstone is a one-street
town, literally, right on the water. We walked around for
about a half-hour, identifying all the locations from the
movie, and drawing glances from the locals who for sure don't
see tourists in their little town in the middle of November
(in the summer Roundstone hosts a big folk art festival).
Main (and
only) street of the village of Roundstone.
Nov. 25, 2002
We
bid goodbye to Roundstone and headed back into the main road
to see Kylemore
Abbey.
Kylemore
Abbey, star of so many Ireland calendars.
Nov. 25, 2002
Built in the
mid-1800's as a neo-Gothic country mansion, it was taken over
by refugee Belgian nuns during World War I, and today it
serves as an exclusive girl's boarding school. Every single
book we had read told us that it was a waste of time to take
the tour, not to mention it was pricey, so we decided to heed
the overwhelming advice and skip it. Besides, the true beauty
of Kylemore is the incredible setting. The house was built on
the idyllic site of a fairy tale, a lush spot in front of a
clear lake, surrounded by the wilderness of Connemara; there's
a reason why Kylemore Abbey is included in pretty much every
Ireland calendar ever printed.
Yvette
& Danny at Kylemore Abbey. Perhaps this photo
could one
day read
"Welcome to our new home!" (We wish!)
Nov. 25, 2002
About noon we hit
the road north again, passing by Croagh Patrick, the fabled
mountain from which St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of
Ireland (there have never been snakes in Ireland, by the way)
and which the faithful climb every July, and the haunting
Coffin Ship, a memorial to the victims of the great famine who
died by the hundreds in coffin ships--so called because they
were rickety and because so many died in them--on their way to
the promise of a better life in America.
It was the early
afternoon when we pulled into the town of
Westport to rest, eat and find accommodations in Sligo. What
better place to do all this than at Matt Molloy's Pub, owned
by the flutist for the world-renowned Irish music band, The
Chieftains. Westport was cute, a large town almost pretending
to be a small city. At the pub we just people-watched; the
Irish are great subjects for this good-traveler sport.
Everything they do, they do with gusto, with passion. There
was a group of three old men at the bar, all having a pint of Guinness, agitatedly discussing something. By the time we
figured out what it was, we laughed: they were arguing about
the proper way to drink a pint, and that one of them had seen
someone else actually remove all the foam from his Guinness before drinking, at which point they all groaned out loud
their incredulity. We will always remember this scene.
Our bladders empty,
our stomachs full, and our reservation in Sligo made, we set
out for Yeats' Country.
Next: Sligo
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