Ballard House Castlebar

... brother in Cleveland. It was fun to talk with them for a while before we went back to the lodge. Because it had wireless, I was able to upload my blog, and I worked on that for a while. We had some tea and biscuits and went down to our room to finish watching some TV. I had told Bernie not to turn the heat on for just the two of us, and there was a little chill in the room. Once we got under the very heavy duvet, though, we were more than warm enough, and knew we would sleep well.

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 ...

2nd on our list was Turlough Park,

This was a place where we got to see how landlords lived in the 19th century while taxing their people into poverty. This one was a bit different than most English landlords because this house belonged to the Fitzgerald family who were Irish. They were removed by the english from their home in wexford Ireland where they held 70,000 acres of great land and moved to ...

1st stop Ballintubber Abbey...

This Abbey has been around for a while to say the least....It is here that St. Patrick baptized the people of the area in 441 A.D.. There is a bit of lore to how it came to be
in the modern state it is now. It was said that the clergy of the church took in the prince of Turloch because he was fleeing the vengeance of Turloch's queen who wanted her own son to sit the throne. The clergy of the ...

Guess who's is here??? The positive thinker...ME..sister Katie...I get clean clothes tonight..although I can honestly say I wish it had been Dad's that had arrived.. I can wear Care's clothes and he looks funny in them.

Great time today...I am definitely going to look into being adopted by the Irish..Love THEM.

Got to hear Irish music and see the countryside. Eating an drinking our way...just like the Irish have done for years..all 3 sisters tried ...

... 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!

... 8217;s bulky and uncomfortable for cycling. The last few rains have been light enough to go without. I’m always torn as I get hot very quickly when cycling and a rain coat gets just as wet inside as out! But the rain persisted and we needed not only jackets, but pants too. Eventually I was glad I did, as the rain become stinging needles against my face, and despite pedaling hard I just was not ...

We didn't reach Westport as we planned. A car accident in Derry had the road close for an hour. The rain also joined us for the rest of the journey. It was getting late and we had no booking for this day's B&B, so when we got in Castlebar we start looking for one ...

... set without so much as an ‘excuse me’ or ‘sorry, dear’ coming from their lips. Once I’d been shoulder-charged back outside by a running maul of old ducks, I was going to take issue with Nanna about the disgrace of her generation but I just couldn’t keep up with her – the wind was pushing her along so fiercely she was power walking like an Olympian.

After another ...