Bunratty Manor Hotel

Hello Everyone…Happy November!

Where has the time passed, I've been here a month already!

The Sligo Live festival was a great weekend! We saw some great bands and some not so great ones. My favorite of the whole weekend was Mr. Tea & The Biscuits….they were hilarious. Here is their website to check out some of their rock/comedy music: http://www.mrteaandthebiscuits.com/inde x.htm

We also both got to see Martha Wainwright play 6 months pregnant ...

Our dear friend Helen from Kelowna, BC came to visit us…. I believe it was the week we were finishing school. So it was the end of May.

Just before she came, we got a new little car. Well, its not new, but it was for us. After a year of hitching around Ireland and using the worst public transport system I've ever come across, we thought it was about time to find some wheels. So it was good timing when Helen came, cause we were just ...

... at the heritage center to get maps and information. We walked into the shops and found a beautiful sweater for John and a lightweight jacket as well.

We had lunch at the Blue Door Cottage, which did indeed have a blue door. The tomato basil soup was fantastic, and John had his ham and cheese sandwich. We walked around a bit and then drove to Adare Castle, which we really wanted to see. The gates were closed, however, because tours ended in ...

... towards Sligo, our stop for the night...we stopped on the way at a church in Drumcliffe where Willam Butler Yeats was buried and took photos in the rain before reaching out hotel, the Southern in the middle of Sligo around 5pm.
The hotel room was pretty fancy, we ended up with a double and single bed again, so this time the double is mine. I swear I am going to come down with the bus cold tomorrow but hoping an early night will ...

... sheep and the things that come with them (watch your step!). The hill of Tara was an interesting first glimpse of the Irish country side, rolling green hills and such, very cool. It was a place that has alot of pagon roots. It was an important place here in ireland for the druids and such and is still today fairly popular with lovers of the occult and the pagan religion, its supposed to be a junction for some magnetic ...

... this has for me in terms of income levies, increased prsi, increased pension contributions, rental property levies, dramatic decrease in the value of my home and lack of potential buyers... is it any wonder I couldn't settle and was eager to hit the road again?


I spent frantic weeks emptying my house; watching the weather in disbelief; packing shipping ...

Meteo: pioggerella

Saremmo rimasti a Clifden, ma non c'era posto. Andiamo a Sligo, tappa intermedia per il trasferimento nell'Ulster.
Ci fermiamo alla Kylemore Abbey, bellissima villa sul lago. Scattiamo qualche foto senza entrare, piove. Percorriamo il tratto fra Leenane e Cong, consigliato dalla nostra guida per una gita in bicicletta. Facciamo molte foto, il paesaggio invita. A Cong consumiamo un pasto frugale, c'è un bel parco sul lago. Facciamo un ...

Nice day of sun and cloud for cycling today. We decided to continue to take it easy considering Brian's health the last few days. Finally had some views of mountains while we rode. Even got to do a bit of sight seeing along the way. We passed through 'Yeats Country' where he never lived, but visited and wrote about, and is buried. So we did the tacky tourist thing and went to see his grave. I don't know too ...

... the roof has not been repaired and yet remains waterproof to this day.

So after our journey back in time it was back to the visitor centre for some lunch before we headed off on our way to Enniskillen to find somewhere to stay for the night.

We were hoping to get to the Marble Arch caves as well today, but time got away from us again, so it was straight to the Tourist information centre to book into a local B&B.
We decided on The Arch House ...

... that you can pick up a free phone to ask for a free ride (they run a shuttle). Again, how brilliant! The very nice man (everyone said that the Irish would be nice) who picked us up put our bags on the van, carried them into the hotel, and later down to our room, and then wouldn't take a tip! UnAmerican, to say the least! (General impression, by the way; the kids are all pink-cheeked and cute; everyone has that Irish accent (of course - but it's so charming ...