Enough football--yay Sooners!

Tuesday, September 25

Drove to Strokestown and spent a good while at the house, famine museum and walled gardens. This was very sad and informative. As Bit said, I'm sure the gardens would be even more impressive in the spring. We had a light lunch in the tearoom.

Our next B&B, Lough View House, was hard to find but really nice once we got there. Peggy very kindly called to see about the Viking Cruise and wouldn't accept a cent for the call. We went back into Roscommon Town to mail back the key from Abocurragh Farm (Eason's has just the right size padded envelopes, should you ever need to know this.), do some window shopping and pop into an internet cafe to check on things back home. On the recommendation of Peggy, our hostess, we ate at La Trattoria, an Italian restaurant so authentic that our waitress had an Italian accent! Really good food. We had checked out the menu board at Gleeson's but it seemed a little pricey for our flattened wallets this close to the end of the trip.

On our way back to Lough View we drove down to the loch so that we could say we had had a view of it! Perhaps the upstairs rooms do overlook the water but our downstairs rooms did not. This was the B&B with the extreme water pressure. Also the only one that didn't have a hair dryer. Tip: if the hair dryer isn't sitting out somewhere obvious, check the dresser drawers. Fortunately, Babs had brought hers along so we didn't get pneumonia.

Standard full Irish breakfasts, with very generous portions of brown bread and toast. This was the B&B that had asked for a deposit so it wasn't too expensive on checkout. We would stay there again.

Cool, sunny day.

Wednesday, September 26

Much to our dismay, Michael was not sailing the Viking Ship to Clonmacnoise today, only tomorrow, so we had to make do with our little Fiat. As I said, we had very limited success with boats.

Clonmacnoise is very beautiful and spiritual, even with busloads of foreigners milling around! We entertained ourselves by sitting in the chair used by Pope John Paul II when he visited in 1979. We also shopped in the gift shop (of course).

We had lunch in Ballinasloe at The Bakery--good pita sandwiches. We changed our pound sterling notes at a bank for euros, but not the coins.

What can we say about Bunratty Lodge that hasn't already been said? Mary is just too nice. When we tried to tell her not to make the beds or change the towels she said she would not have it; we were on holiday and should be pampered! We had the very handy triple room with two bathrooms, ideal for three women who need to spread out and repack everything. And on the ground floor, no less. Mary agreed that The Red Door was the place to go for dinner and called in a reservation for the early bird seating for us. We had a choice of two or three courses, entree, and starter or dessert or starter and dessert. We recommend the stuffed pork steak. They brought far more side dishes of vegetables than we could possibly eat, although the foursome at the next table polished everything off. Maybe they hadn't had lunch at The Bakery, or purchased too many Cadbury's.

Cool day, started out cloudy but the sun came out.

Thursday, September 27

Mary doesn't take breakfast orders the night before as so many do, as she says she doesn't know the night before what she will want for breakfast so why should we? Hers is the only B&B I've ever stayed that doesn't have cereal, juice and yogurt set out. But the food was delicious.

We went out to Craggaunowen and really enjoyed the history and the pleasant woodland walk. I visited with the young lady who was spinning wool and she told us about the molting sheep. The crannóg has been rebuilt.

Back in Bunratty we parked in the Folk Park parking lot (considering ourselves visitors since we had tickets for the Irish Night) and shopped at the Folk Park shop, Bunratty Woolen Mills and Avoca. Light lunch at the Woolen Mills restaurant upstairs. We also visited the ATM a couple of times, just in case.

On the way back to the B&B we stopped at Bunratty Winery, expecting a tour but we just looked around a bit and then were offered a taste of mead and poitín. I passed on the moonshine since I don't drink much and was driving, although I'm sure people observing some of my maneuvers must have thought I had had a drop or two.

We finished our packing (no fighting over the jams; we all got our share) and then went to the ceili in the Corn Barn. It was lots of fun. As a party of three we were lucky to have a table for six all to ourselves. The folks at the next table were very loud and obnoxious but we ignored them as best we could. I felt sorry for the young lady who played and sang while the food was being served as almost no one paid her any attention and we could barely hear her. I have had the same experience and vowed never again. But the whole evening was just like Irish karaoke for many people there as we knew all the songs and sang along as best we could. I wish someone would tell the waitresses/entertainers that a smile goes a long way. While most seemed to enjoy the singing and dancing, while they were serving they all looked totally bored. Well, there was the Obnoxious Table who passed their dinner plates to the wrong end of the table, and the waitress told them "no apple tart" with a smile.

Back at the B&B, Mary brought us a tray with tomorrow's breakfast and we settled up the bill with her, and left the 2 for 1 coupons and other things that she could pass on to someone else. If you have an early flight and Mary is bringing you a breakfast tray, and she asks if you like blueberry muffins, say yes. Of course, we would stay there again.

Cool sunny day.

Friday, September 28

The thermometer in the car read 3ºC when we left at 6:15. I'm not sure exactly how that translates to fahrenheit but our teeth were chattering. No problems turning in the car, finally changing those pound sterling coins, doing final shopping at duty-free. I didn't find Crested Ten or Green Spot for my husband. Without thinking it through, we decided to take our VAT forms with us and mail them in. Little did we know that we should have had them stamped at Customs. Expensive mistake. But just a couple of days ago a credit for $2.85 from EuropCar showed up on my credit card statement. A little bonus, I guess.

We all arrived home, with luggage intact (except for the BearJaw tool), exhausted but happy.

Small Rants
Will someone please tell the B&B hostesses that we need an electric socket near a mirror for the hair dryers? The men have their special little shaver plugs but we had to (gasp) dry our hair sight unseen.
Some people in Ireland as just as rude about using cell phones loudly in small public spaces as people in the US, and other people in Ireland are just as annoyed by other rude talkers as we are here, also.
A pox on the real estate company in Co. Donegal that decided it would be cute to make "House for Sale" signs that look just like direction signs. As a protest, let's not buy any real estate from the company whose logo is an F in a circle. Franklin Brothers, perhaps?

All in all, a wonderful trip, thanks in great part to the help we received from our friends on this forum. Thank you, thank you!