Home after a Soggy, Cold September 2011 Ireland Trip: Here is What we will CHANGE for the next trip!!!

Melissa5 · Guru

Home after a Soggy, Cold September 2011 Ireland Trip: Here is What we will CHANGE for the next trip!!!

Michele Erdvig · Host

Melissa,

Welcome home. Glad you had a safe (if wet) journey. When I was in Ireland in May I had the same weather. It seems that summer did indeed skip right over Ireland this year. Although the locals told me that April was splendid. I guess April was Ireland's summer! I too had lots of cold rain and gale force winds that could knock you over.

Each season has its own pros and cons. One big pro in May, June, July are the longer days. Toward autumn the days get shorter. You should see it at the end of Oct. The sun starts setting around 4:30. You wouldn't like that at all.

I'm glad you enjoyed my restaurant suggestions. How did your hip do?

We are looking forward to hearing all the juicy details. Get over your jet-lag and we will look for your trip report when you have recovered.

Michele

Melissa5 · Guru

Hi Michele: My hip did ok on the trip, thanks for asking. It turned out to be a good plan for me to cut out the longer drives, so that our longest drive from one b&b to the next b&b was a maximum of about 4 hours of drive-time. We also stopped frequently for me to get out of the car to stretch. This worked well.

When you returned from your May trip to Ireland, I could hear the rain in your trip report! Now I know what it felt like. I don't mind warm tropical rain...but a whole vacation filled with cold rain & cold wind is hard to enjoy. I have much admiration for the Irish because they live with this weather all the time, and they manage to stay in such good spirits, and are so welcoming and friendly and well-mannered!

I'll be back soon to post a longer trip report in the Trip Report section of your web-site with all the juicy details! It won't read like my previous trip report as I didn't write any poetry on this trip...but I enjoy sharing the details.

We already have a "preliminary" plan for Ireland 2015! We'd like 1 week in County Donegal and 1 week in the Burren area, County Clare. Not sure where we would fly into. And we will definitely go in June or July! Hopefully summer won't skip Ireland in 2015. biggrin And if we fly into Dublin, we will settle in there and enjoy Dublin for 4 nights. We liked Dublin!

tony2phones · Guru

In this photo left to right. Irish Import in a T shirt, Native Yorkshireman in a jumper, Tourist from unknown climes with his coat on. Sky Road veiwing point Sept 18th 2011.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60242816@N02/6189980218/in/set-72157627643450537

-- Edited by tony2phones on Tuesday 27th of September 2011 03:06:06 PM

Melissa5 · Guru

tony2phones: Funny photo...it's even funnier when I felt for myself how cold and windy Ireland can be in September! Thanks for sharing. Keep warm there in Ireland, tony2phones! Now that I am home in San Diego, I keep overdressing for our weather! Today I took a walk in the same pants I wore in Ireland and the same leather walking shoes...and I was roasting hot here in San Diego! I had to change into light capri pants, a t-shirt, and sandals to cool off! biggrin

tony2phones · Guru

The weather has been good since we got back last Tuesday and has been quite warm, warmest day of the year 27th September. Just shows you cant pick the Irish weather any time of year . Chris has done the grass again with it being dry enough to cut and we got the garden tidied for perhaps the last time this year. We have also been looking after the neighbours dog, cat and chickens again so kept busy. Off to Southport UK tomorrow for a long weekend hoping to see the Fireworks competition as it was cancelled last year due to stormy weather. Hope you enjoyed your time in the west, think Clifden was a little quieter than normal but we did find some good things going on.

Melissa5 · Guru

tony2phones: Glad to hear Ireland is at last getting sun-kissed! I hope the weather holds out for your holiday in UK. Yes I was surprised that Clifden didn't feel busier during the Clifden Arts Week...but we really enjoyed Clifden, the Arts Week, and the Connemara region, even though the weather wasn't too cooperative. We heard some great music in Clifden! I'm getting ready to post a more detailed trip report...as well as catching up on things here at home. Thanks, tony2phones, for letting me know that the Clifden Arts Week is worth attending, among our many choices...as it was definitely worthwhile and enriched our trip. Heard some great trad in Clifden during the Clifden Arts Week! biggrin Also met an interesting artist. Will be fun to compare notes with you about what were your highlights of the Clifden Arts WEek. I hope to post mine soon in trip report section.

louise · Newbie

Hello - this is my very first contribution despite being an avid reader for about 12 months! My husband and I jsut returned from 16 days touring beautiful Ireland - in September also and seemed to have missed the cold windy weather you experienced. Lucky us. Sure we donned the raincoats quite a few times for fleeting showers but I was pleasantly suprised at the mildness of the weather as we were quite warm (and that's coming from a person who really feels the cold). We flew Etihad from Australia , 8 hours, overnighted it then hopped on for a 14 hour flight direct to Dublin. Avoided the congestion and mayhem of Heathrow - yippee.As soon as we got off the plane we gathered our bags and caught the bus to Galway. I figured we were in travelling mode and didn't want to tackle Dublin traffic in a jetlagged state, so headed off.

Oh yes, I now remember (in a somewhat hazey way) it WAS jolly cold in Galway getting off the nice warm bus... but the next day was glorious. We wandered around the empty streets at about 7 am marvelling at the flowerboxes and colourful buildings, snapping lots of photos. Then at about 8.30 it became quite busy with people going to work etc but it was lovely having the place "to ourselves" so to speak.

Michele Erdvig · Host

Louise,

Thanks for going from a "lurker" to a member of our little community. We would love to hear more about your trip to Ireland, if you would care to share. That is some flight from Australia. And I complain about 8 to 10 hours! What a sissy.

We traveled to Ireland several years ago with friends who live in Miami. They were all bundled up in vests, sweaters, heavy coats, hats, scarves and gloves. My husband was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. How you "feel" the weather depends on what you are used to. They were used to it being 89 degrees F. every day. We were used to cooler weather.

Michele