Abbey Court B&B Westport

... twinned” with Achill, and the woman wanted to know how anyone from Achill would wind up in Cleveland.

We continued our drive along the north coast of the island and into the hamlet of Bunnacurry. We decided to look for a b&b, and we saw one as we drove by. The Hillside B&B was next to the Achill Hill Lodge, and I found they were joint ventures. Instead of putting us in her “old fashioned” home, Bernie took us into the lodge that is owned ...

3rd stop Croagh Patrick,

The mountain of Croagh Patrick is supposed to be where St. Patrick climbed and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights like Jesus. There is a church on the summit and hundreds of people a day climb to its peak. It has become a pilgramige to the people of Ireland and it is an especially big ordeal to the people in Mayo. Every year on one day in July about 30,000 people climb to its summit! Many of these people do it in ...

... and given 7,000 acres. Still a lot, but not nearly as much or as good of land as they had. The Inside was furnished as it would have been in the 1900's (we werent allowed to take pictures inside) and got to see how the landlord would conduct business with his tenants...by hiding behind a secret bookcase and having an agent do everything! The grounds were absolutely beautiful too. There is a large lake ...

... priests of this church have never stopped preaching. They would tell the king that they had shut it down, but every day they still held mass. When The church was in too poor shape to use they held mass in the fields. The priests even had to dress like women at times to go out and bless graves and such in public...now thats perseverance! It was a good first stop on our weekend journey

click on the pictures to view captions about them!

... them....taught us all a lesson that day...castle tomorrow night. saw our first peat bog today very strange...lots of fat livestock, sheep and cows....not me and kt....saw a church where an appariton appeared 100 years ago, mary, joseph and sheep, church deemed it true, now evrone comes there to pray. we prayed someone was reading this blog and for the suitcases to arrive. saw a 200 year old farm house, hasn't changed at all everything the same as is was back then ...

... We walked the grounds, in the rain. We saw a tour boat and decided to tour Lough Corrib. It's 43 miles long and full of islands. We arrived at the boat just before it was due to launch to find we were the only people interested in a tour. We hung around talking to Captain Patrick and a couple from Zurich arrived. Well Captain Patrick liked our spirit and took us out even though he would have liked more passengers ...

My bag has been packed. And re-packed. And unpacked. And squished.
I've informed the hotel of my late arrival.
I've got (some) foreign cash.
My electrical batteries are charged.
My print outs are in a waterproof folder in a waterproof bag.


Agh!

... foto. Il posto è incantevole, peccato essere così esausti. Di fronte a noi l'isola di Inishbofin, che la guida ci ha consigliato. Sarebbe bello visitarla, ma il tempo non sarà un granchè nei prossimi giorni, meglio evitare. Ritorno all'ostello, non prima di un merendino con torta, riposino e cena con un pollo pronto.
Alla sera usciamo e assistiamo al concerto più bello di tutta la vacanza!
Per caso, ascoltiamo musica uscire da un pub ...

... can feel the ground vibrate. Very strange stuff here. We stayed at the Westport Plaza Hotel; www.westportplazahotel.ie. I really like this town. It's really small, charming, has beautiful bridges over water, everything is in walking distance, and it has lots of character. We were really hoping to get a coffee at 5PM tonight, but like Irvine, things shut down early.

... of her/him posing between ducks... The sweet lady then made us dinner (Oliver begged and told her we were starving) - it was wonderful! We read for a while in the living room - I finished my 4th book of the trip, while Oliver was still reading his 1st... It was a perfect evening! We got up the next morning and had breakfast - the sweet lady made us pancakes from scratch - we certainly are eating well while in Ireland! We packed up and headed out!