Dateline – Adare, Ireland
I’m feeling a bit better thn last night after snoozing in the bus a good piece of the day. (The weather was foul – rainy and grey so there wasn’t all that much to look at anyway). I expected dreary grey weather when I booked the trip (but according to all of the locals the early part of May was absolutely lovely this year. Must have brought the grey skies with me from my Seattle upbringing).I’m hoping one more long night with nothing to do will get me over the hump. Not feeling well in strange hotel rooms in foreign countries is my idea of a good time.
We left Westport and county Mayo this morning, once more tearing across rural Irish lanes. Dominic, our driver/guide has been doing this for decades and seems to be an old hand at roads too narrow for passing, sharp curves, and blind corners. As we are a small group, we’re not in a full size bus. I can only imagine what mad skills he would need to handle one of those on some of the backroads we’ve been trundling down. Our first stop was a sheep farm which offers a demonstraction of border collies rounding up and maneuvering a flock. I wouldn’t want to try and train a dog for something like that. But Janet, our demonstration dog, seemed to be having the time of her life – the sheep not so much. The farmer running the place struck me as being out of the mold of Farmer Hoggett and I expected ‘That’ll do pig, that’ll do’ at any moment.
Back on the bus and heigh ho the wind and the rain and headed into Galway for lunch. Galway is a prosperous small city of about 100,000 which has made a name for itself in the biotech industry. (remember that your heart stents, insulin pumps, defibrillators and all the rest are imported when considering tariff policy. Some shopping, some lunch, a stop at the cathedral (which is younger than I am – it’s Romanesque in style but was built in the 1960s). Then on the bus to the village of Adare which is about seven miles outside of Limerick. The hotel tonight is the Woodlands which started out as a four bedroom B and B fifty years ago and which the family have steadily grown into a 100 room rural destination hotel/event space. Confirmation parties and a wedding in residence this evening.
The matriarch of the owning family came in to tell us a bit about the story of the hotel when she checked on our dinner. The kitchen is very much farm to table with their own organic gardens and orchard (Tommy would have loved that). And there’s a petting zoo and a number of walking trails, including one with some fairy scenes for the kids to explore (Steve would have loved that. Actually, he would probably have stolen a couple of table cloths, rigged himself up as Oberon, and run around popping out from behind trees exclaiming ‘Look at me, I’m a fairy’ giving a couple of three year olds life long psychological complexes and leading to a visit from the local constabulary).
Going to bed early. Nothing else to say tonight.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 