My husband and I
traveled through Ireland this summer, starting in Dublin and working our way
west. We started our trip by taking the overnight ferry from Oslo to Kiel,
Germany, and then spent the following day driving through Germany to Rotterdam,
Holland, where we boarded the overnight ferry to Hull, England. Once in England,
we drove from Hull to Holyhead in north Wales, where we got the afternoon ferry
to Dublin. We stayed two nights in Dublin, living at the Sandymount Hotel, in the
Sandymount area of Dublin that is quite close to the ferry ports. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats (a favorite poet of mine) was
born in this area of Dublin, a happy fact that I was not aware of when I booked
the hotel. But that is the nature of my travel planning; I happily discover
things that I was not aware of and they become an important part of the overall
nature of the trip. We did the standard tourist-type things in Dublin--visiting
the Temple Bar district to eat Irish food at one of the pubs there, and listening
to some live music which I love. There is so much live music at each of the
pubs in this area, as well as many street musicians. Lively and fun. We also
took the Guinness Brewery tour, which I had done once before, but which my
husband wanted to do. We also visited the Christ Church Cathedral, with its
crypts in the cellar containing a number of treasures from medieval times.
From Dublin, we
traveled west to Galway, but stopped along the way to visit the small town of
Banagher, in the county Offaly. From there we drove through the town of Birr,
through pleasant Irish countryside, and then on to Adare in County Clare, where
my mother's relatives were from. Adare was recently voted as one of the
prettiest towns in Ireland, and I can understand why. On our approach into the
town, we passed an old castle and an abby, a golf course, and many green parks
and open spaces. The town itself was filled with pubs, shops and small bistros;
quite charming. The day we were there was 'Market Fair' day, and I ended up
buying a lovely green wool cape that was knitted by one of the local
craftswomen in the village. We ate lunch at a small bistro, and I had a salad
with warm goat cheese and strawberries--just excellent. After Adare, we drove
on to Galway, a city on the west coast of Ireland. My husband's colleague had
highly recommended it, and we were not disappointed. It was a lovely quaint
city. We stayed at the Nox Hotel, and spent the evening walking around. I took
pictures at the local cemetery with gravesites marked by the tall Celtic
crosses--a quite striking sight. We ate dinner at one of the city pubs, where I
had a hamburger that was just so good, as was the beer. We ended up watching one
of the World Cup soccer matches, and it was fun to experience that in a pub
setting. We then walked around the city, along the harbor and into the city's
Latin Quarter, with many street musicians and young people milling about. It
was a warm and nice evening. The weather was sunny and warm for most of our
trip; it was only when we were driving in Germany on our way home that we
experienced pelting rain for some hours.
After our stay in Galway,
we drove north on our way to Sligo, stopping to visit the Knock Shrine in the
town of Knock. This is an internationally-known Catholic shrine where in 1879,
a group of townspeople saw apparitions of Our Lady, Saint Joseph, and Saint
John the Evangelist. It was a peaceful place in a lovely setting, and I’m glad
we stopped to visit there.
Our arrival in
Sligo brought us into William Butler Yeats country. When I was fifteen years
old, I was introduced to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats by my high school
English literature teacher, who was Irish-born himself (from Banagher). Yeats was his favorite
poet, and he soon became mine as well. Yeats imparted a sense of the Celtic
influences and the magic of Irish culture, in a romantic way that appealed to
me at that time. All these years later, it still appeals to me, and now I see
the true genius of his talent even more clearly. I also understand his importance to Irish
culture, literature, and even politics (more by association with his circle of
friends). But it is the man who interests me. This was a man who bore an
unrequited love for a woman named Maud Gonne; he asked her to marry him seven
times, and she refused him each time, but they did remain friends throughout
his life. She is considered by many to be his muse. His romantic longings are
reflected in some of his early poems. She married the political activist John
MacBride (Irish republican) who was executed by the British for his
participation in the 1916 Irish Easter Rising in Dublin. Yeats eventually
married a woman named George Hyde-Lees, considerably younger than him, who bore
him two children, and who was also a great supporter of his writing. She is
buried together with him in Drumcliff Cemetery in Sligo, Ireland. We arrived in
Sligo in the early afternoon, and stayed at a hotel very close to the center of
town. The Garavogue River runs through Sligo, and the river banks are dotted
with one charming pub or restaurant after another. Again there was live music
at many of them, which is one of the many things I love about Ireland. Sligo and the surrounding area
were Yeats (and his family's) favorite places in Ireland, as I found out from
the guide at the Yeats Memorial Building who told us the story of his life.
Their mother was from Sligo, and they spent their childhood summers there, with
fond memories of their stays there. Yeats is buried in Sligo, at the Drumcliff
Cemetery surrounding St. Columba church, a ten-minute drive north of the town. From the cemetery, you can view the Benbulbin rock formation; you can also see it from Sligo as well. We visited Yeats' gravesite—plain and simple, no fuss surrounding it, probably as
Yeats wanted. His epitaph reads 'Cast a
cold eye on life, death, Horseman, pass by'. At the end of his life, Yeats
had found the objective eye he had perhaps sought. Or even if he had not longed
for objectivity, he had attained a certain amount of it after a long life. He
was no longer the romantic poet and man of his youth. We become more objective
as we grow older, at the same time as our romantic longings become a treasured
part of our past.
We drove from Sligo
to Monaghan along the scenic route, a narrow winding road that led us past
several lakes and through idyllic countryside. Ireland is dotted with small
farms and houses, but all of them are on roads that lead to main roads, even if
they have what appear to be rural locations. You can be certain that you will
eventually meet a main road even if you think that you are lost in the middle
of nowhere. Once we got to Monaghan, the search began for the Castle Leslie
Estate in Glaslough, County Monaghan. My husband had seen a culinary program on
the National Geographic or Discovery channel that included the Castle Leslie,
and his interest (and mine) were piqued. So I checked it out on google, and
sure enough, you could book an overnight stay as well as your wedding reception
if so inclined (this is where Paul McCartney and Heather Mills got married and
had their wedding reception, as we discovered). The Leslie family own the 1000
acres that make up the property, and have renovated the 'castle' so that it can
house paying guests. I had booked the 'Green Room', which had been the room of
Sir John Leslie, as we later found out. This room overlooked the lake on the
property and had a fairly complete view of the surroundings. Before dinner, we
took a walk around half of the lake, meeting horseback riders as we ambled.
After dinner, we had coffee in the garden with the fountain, and then walked
down to the lake's edge to look at the lake and the boathouse. Fishing is
allowed, so boat rental is not a problem as long as you know how to operate the
rowboats. There were a lot of pike in the lake, some quite large as we saw from
the photos of one man who had caught a few of them. It’s hard to describe how
lovely this place really is; you have to experience it. It is definitely a
place to stay for couples who want to get away from the stresses of the modern
world and relax, if only for a few days. There are no TVs in any of the rooms,
and the entire place has a calming effect upon the soul—no stress, no worries,
no hustle and bustle. Just peace and serenity.
The following day,
we drove back to Dublin and spent the afternoon relaxing, before we found
another charming pub where we ate shepherd’s pie and drank a few beers. The
food in most of the pubs is very good, from shepherd’s pie to beef stew (with
Guinness beer in it) to hamburgers. I love it all. It reminds me of some of the
food I ate growing up, since my mother made shepherd’s pie and excellent beef
stews.
We then made the
trip home, taking the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, the ferry from Hull to
Rotterdam, and then driving to Frederikshavn in Denmark (instead of to Kiel),
so that we could get the day ferry to Oslo. The trip went as planned, with no
hitches, and it was a good to know that there still exist car ferries that will
take you to England and Ireland from mainland Europe. It’s also possible to
drive through the Eurotunnel (the Channel tunnel) from France to England, which
we did a few years ago. It’s nice to have your own car with you, as we’ve
discovered, rather than renting one, which of course can also be an option if
you want to drive around Europe as we enjoy doing. Perhaps in a few years, we
will be traveling through Europe in an RV; it’s something we’re talking about.
But for now, it’s good to be traveling the way we do; we learn as we go, and
tackle new challenges and experiences as well. Some photos will follow in my next posts.......
