Irish Adventures

After a long slumber, we got a bit of a late start and headed out of Cork to visit Drombeg Stone Circle. I'm a big fan of Outlander and although this is Ireland and not Scotland, I was eager to see one in real life!

I have to hand it to Aaron, driving on the left we knew would be different but we never realized how narrow the roads might be. Views like this made it fun to take the back roads. 

Charlie is always ready to climb!

In the distance you can eee the ocean.

 

Our rental was a Ford Focus wagon that we named Franny because we were spending a lot of time with her. We left the stone circle and followed GPS to navigate us to the Cliffs of Moher. It navigated us down a really narrow road next to a farmhouse and Sarah Graves told Aaron that the lady was waving at us and she thought she wanted us to stop. Aaron drove on. Quickly we realized the road was only somewhat paved and very narrow. Not long after, we found our front wheel in the ditch and Aaron's efforts to get it our just made us more stuck. 

We thought we would call the rental roadside assistance, but the number printed on the card was no longer in service! Unsure of what to do, we got out of Franny and decided to start walking back to the farmhouse where the lady had been waving. As luck would have it, the lady (we learned her name was Noreen) and her husband (his name was Cornelius) were out for a walk and we found them pretty quick. They were so very kind and followed us to take a look. People get stuck on this road often and there is a better road a little ways up but the GPS doesn't route to it. Cornelius quickly surmised we would need the tractor to get Franny out. 

Noreen waited with us while he went to get his brother in law and the tractor. She chatted with us a bit and we came to understand that when her parents passed away, her brother inherited the farm and she and Cornelius live there too and help work on it. They have another sister in Canada that Noreen went to visit a while back. Even with the tractor it took a lot to get the car out. Cornelius and his brother in law spoke in Gaelic mostly, not sure if that was because it was easier or so they could complain about the annoying tourists! Finally, Franny was out and the decision was made that it would be best to back up off the path and turn around to use the main road. Thankfully Aaron was the one driving because there would be no way I could back up that far and not run us in the ditch!

They were so very nice! Even when we made it back to their house Cornelius cleaned all the mud splatter off the car and offered us to use their restroom. We offered money as a thank you, but they turned it down multiple time. So grateful for their kindness and what a wonderful experience with Irish people. 

When we made it to the main road we encountered a tractor parade that we drove behind until we reached the village! We stopped at the first pub we came to for lunch and a breather after our adventure! Charlie was quite chuffed that his coke came served in this beer glass looking like Guiness. The pub in this small village was very cozy with local families coming in for food and football. 

We went on our way hoping to reach the Cliffs of Moher, but our late start, roadside adventure, and slow driving on the narrow roads through the countryside meant it was dark when we arrived. You hve to love Aaron's perseverance to keep driving there even when the sun was setting and the GPS said we were 45 minutes away!

We headed to our hotel in Donegal and had the most harrowing driving experience driving on a road that was two lane, but only wide enough for one car! It was dark and if you saw headlights, you looked for the driveway to a pasture to pull to the side and let a car pass. One time a car was close behind us with another car coming over a bridge toward us. We had no choice but to back up as much as we could to let the oncoming car pass. Aaron was a hero! 

We made it to Galway for the night and one bonus was our lost luggage finally made it to us and Sis and I had fresh clothes!

The kids loved how the hotel rooms mostly had two twin beds for them!