Seeking the Sun on the Emerald Isle - Western Ireland (June 21-25) - Euro Adventure 2024
- Stephanie
- Jun 25, 2024
- 8 min read
I just love traveling in Europe! Although we'd spent three months last fall, immediately upon retiring (See Adventure One Overview: ... Euro Adventure 2023) bouncing around 15 different countries, we skipped Germany and there's always more to see, right? And so, when our presence was requested in Hamburg for my Swedish nephew's 30th birthday party, we built a second European Adventure around it. Our itinerary would include Ireland - London - Hamburg -Berlin and home.
(SIDE NOTE: When I was in 8th grade, my family hosted a Swedish exchange student. While in different life stages when 17-year-old Gesine lived with us, we've kept in touch and grown increasingly closer as we've aged.
We've found we're quite similar in so many ways and appreciate the same qualities in friends. We exchanged letters for years, then emails, and now we talk once or twice monthly thanks to What's App.
We have an unwritten agreement that if I make it to Europe, she travels from Sweden to wherever I am for a visit; likewise, if she makes it to North America, I travel to her location.
And so:
she visited Minnesota for my 40th birthday party/engagement (2004)
she brought daughter Thomasine for a family vacation in Northern Minnesota (2006)
I met her in Berlin with my daughter Alexandra, and she again brought Thomasine and son Vincent (2007)
Chris and I met Gesine and boyfriend in New York City for the marathon (2012)
Chris and I met Thomasine and Gesine in Paris (2013)
Chris, Alexandra and I attended Thomasine's wedding in Sweden (2015)
Alexandra spent 3 weeks in Sweden with Gesine (2016)
Alexandra and I met Gesine and Thomasine in New York City for a 5k (2016)
Chris and I met Gesine and boyfriend in London (2018)
The surprise visit for Vincent's birthday, was just one in a long line of connecting with what I consider my Swedish family!)
We departed Denver Thursday afternoon, headed to Chicago and on to Shannon Airport. We flew United Airlines (not our first choice as we are often disappointed by their service). Our flights were mostly on time (shocker!). We booked economy using a travel voucher received as a result of a complaint from flying first class to Hawaii in March and experiencing unacceptable service, including lost luggage on a direct flight (how does one do that?!).
My big takeaway from this flight: Economy seating is best left to the young and limber, passengers with shorter legs, who have no dietary restrictions. There is a possibility they might find economy seating acceptable. The rest of the population is out of luck.
An adorable 15-month-old girl, Isabella, screamed more than two hours straight of our six-and-a-half-hour flight. I felt such sympathy for the parents. I’ve been there. As with most flights in today’s travel environment, it was full. We occupied the window and center seats, just past Economy Plus seating. After attempting to sleep sitting straight up, following a semi-edible pasta dish, and the adorable screamer mellowing to a dull whimper, I leaned over to Chris and said “we’re never flying economy again.” He didn’t argue.
(SIDE NOTE: When we discussed retiring with our financial planners, they asked us if we expected changes in our spending habits once we left full-time work. Naively, I said no. I couldn't imagine veering too far from our frugal, practical habits. That was before our neighbor upgraded our flights last fall to Polaris class, before we met John and Amy from Cincinnati, before we fully appreciated luxury travel experiences. At the very least, Economy Plus has become a must.)
June 21, 2024
We landed at 7:15 am having slept less than two hours. We connected with my friend and former work colleague, John, from Minneapolis, who relocated to Ireland after retiring a few years earlier. He generously drove the two hours from his home in County Galway to the airport to collect us, in the rain.
Since John's relocation to Ireland he's had multiple visitors, so much so that he has a prepared itinerary of activities. Leading up to our trip, we connected via What's App on several occasions to select hikes and sights of greatest interest to us, and purchased advanced tickets to high-volume tourist attractions.
From the airport, John took us straight to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most iconic and picturesque locations on the western coast of Ireland. Fences and signage clearly state the danger of getting too close to the cliffs. Unfortunately, even as recently as a few months ago, a young woman disregarded warnings and stepped beyond the security fences and signs for a closer view, ultimately falling to her death.
After hiking from one end of the park along the cliffs, to the other, we drove the very narrow, two-lane roads of rural County Clare past the ruins of castles, quaint villages and miles upon miles of farmland dotted with the white wool of Scottish black-faced sheep. We stopped for a pint of Guinness and fish & chips at Powers, before heading back to John's to catch up on sleep.
John shared how he was required to take driver's education classes, including "behind-the-wheel" training, to secure his Irish driver's license. Every time we turned onto the road, I was tempted to scream in surprise at the on-coming traffic, until I remembered the Irish drive on the left side of the road. The on-coming traffic was in the right lane.
The roads are narrow, and when I say narrow, I mean there are no shoulders, no place for pedestrians or bicyclists to co-exist on the road. This doesn't mean they don't, it just means as a driver, you must remain hyper-vigilant as to the size of your vehicle and the space it occupies on these narrow roads. We were extremely grateful for John's chauffeur services!
June 22, 2024
Today we visited Kylemore Abbey, touted as a 1,000 acre oasis in the heart of Connemara, County Galway. While honeymooning in the 1850s, Mitchell Henry and his new wife, Margaret Vaughan Henry fell in love with the area known as Connemara. When they saw the Kylemore hunting lodge, Margaret commented on how beautiful it would be to reside in the area.
Once Mitchell, an eye surgeon came into his inheritance upon his father's death in 1862, he left medicine and took up the family's cotton business while participating in politics. It wasn't long after he purchased Kylemore Lodge's 14,000 acres, that construction began on the 40,000 square foot private home. Upon completion, Mitchell, Margaret and their nine children took up residence in the 70-room, granite and limestone Kylemore Castle.
At the foot of Duchruach mountain, facing Diamond Hill on the warmest and brightest spot of the estate sits a 6-acre Victorian Walled Garden, recognized at the time as Ireland's most impressive walled garden. The garden once contained 21 glass greenhouses, kitchen gardens, flower gardens, a head gardener's house and thousands of exotic and native trees introduced to Ireland before 1901. The glasshouses were heated by boilers and a complex system of hot water pipes allowing exotic fruits such as bananas, melons, grapes and figs to grow alongside other fruits.
Sadly, Margaret died in 1874 from dysentery acquired while traveling in Egypt. This prompted Mitchell to build a gothic chapel and family mausoleum as a memorial to his beloved wife, though he spent much less time at the estate and eventually sold it to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903. The Manchesters lived in the Castle for several years, until gambling debts forced them to sell.
When the Irish Benedictine Nuns were forced to flee their abbey in Ypres, Belgium, during World War I, they were evacuated to England and in 1920 purchased Kylemore Castle and grounds converting the estate into an Abbey. In 1923, they opened a boarding school for girls. The University of Notre Dame in Indiana began a partnership with the Abbey to offer academic programs to students in 2016.
After touring the castle, visiting the church and mausoleum, and walking the spectacular grounds of the gardens, we grabbed lunch at the Purple Door Cafe in nearby Leenaun. We had time to kill before our Killary Fjord Boat Tour, so we hiked to Aasleagh Falls in County Mayo, near the mouth of the Erriff River, and learned about their salmon and trout fishery programs.
The Killary Fjord Boat Tour provided little visibility from the catamaran into the surrounding area and watery border between counties Mayo and Galway, but the audio tour describing the people and community existing along the fjord was educational. A salmon farm breeds fish near the mouth of the Killary and mussel rafts and other evidence of shellfish farming line the banks of the fjord.
June 23, 2024
It's 4:45am on my third day in Ireland and I am sitting on a cold outcropping of rock atop Diamond Hill, an isolated peak overlooking the Village of Letterfrack. While Diamond Hill reaches just over 1,400 feet, it's location in the Northwest corner of Connemara National Park in County Galway, amidst the Twelve Bens Mountain Range showcases Ireland's stark and rugged beauty, assuming you can see it. At this point, I'm struggling.
We awoke at 3am and were on the trail by 3:30 to reach the summit in time for sunrise. Except the illusive sun had other plans, as it was hidden in a layer of fog. As the landscape slowly lightened we were able to see Kylemore Abbey (where we visited yesterday) and Pollacapal Lake serenely nestled into the base of Duchruach Mountain from above. Sheep dotted the trail and surrounding farms below us. It wasn't until we returned to the parking lot at 7am that we saw our first fellow hiker. Given our recent trek through the Andes to Machu Picchu and regular hikes in the Rocky Mountains, Diamond Hill was not challenging, but the views were worth the elevated heart rate, even if the timing was not my preference.
With an early hike completed, we returned to the house, showered and I returned to bed. So did Chris. Our host, did not. He took his dog out for a run and went into town for a big breakfast. When we finally awoke for a second time, John took us into Clifden to explore the shops. In the photo below is a bronze statue replicating one found at Heathrow Airport, honoring Alcock & Brown (see June 24, 2024 post).
There is a lovely glass and gift shop where we were gifted a Christmas ornament by John's friend Tash, at Connemara Blue. While the skies may be gray and weather often wet, the people of Ireland are warm and inviting. We enjoyed a delicious meal at Guys before returning to John's along Sky Road, shrouded in mist.
June 24, 2024
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at a well-known, local bakery that supplies bread to most restaurants in Clifden (Walsh's Bakery), before checking out more of the area. The capital of Connemara, County of Galway, was founded by landlord John D'Arcy (1785-1839) in 1818, with construction of Clifden Castle, the remains of which are accessible off Sky Road. He later built Abbeyglen Castle, which today functions as Abbeyglen Castle Hotel. On a hill overlooking the grounds of the hotel sits a monument honoring D'Arcy.
Clifden is also known as the area where John Alcock and Arthur Brown, from Manchester, England, landed their the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in a modified WWI Vickers Vimy bomber. They flew from Newfoundland, Canada to Clifden, County Galway, Ireland in June, 1919. Pictures from our June 23, 2024 post of Clifden show the replicate bronze statue of the two aviators in the town center.
June 25, 2024
Last day in Ireland! Our fantastic friend, tour guide and chauffeur, John, showed us yet another castle - Aughnanure, a typical tower house from the late 15th century, this one built by the O'Flaherty family, before a final lunch in Galway. After John headed back to Clifden to tend to his sweet black lab pup, Chris and I wandered around the Latin Quarter, home to many of the city's family run shops, pubs and historic landmarks, buying gifts for our hosts in London.
Known as Ireland's festival capital and "Cultural Heart", Galway was established by the King of Connacht in 1124, where the River Corrib meets the Atlantic Ocean in Galway. It's often referred to as the City of Tribes, a reference to the Middle Ages when the city was dominated by an oligarchy of fourteen merchant families, who prospered through trade with continental Europe. Christopher Columbus visited the city in 1477. Today is boasts nearly 85,000 residents and hosts many festivals, celebrations and events.
From Galway, we traveled to Shannon Airport for the next leg of our adventure.
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