Spanish Point

Here I am again, fighting for a decent network connection. While most of the B&B's advertise that they have WiFi, the fact is that unless you are directly connected, the wireless is mostly less than necessary. Last night, here is Westport, Rita was working away on answering emails and was kicked off and could not get back on. We're lucky if we can get one bar of reception.

We leave our computer time until late at night, or early in the morning – as it is now – since during the day we are traveling, or sightseeing. We don't want to spend precious touring time on the computer. Besides we all know how fast time goes when you are busy on the computer.

Now I am catching up on what's been going on the last few days. As I stopped last time we arrived in Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, for a 2 day stay at Berry Lodge. We were just a bit off the main road but could still look out our upstairs windows and see the ocean. More than once as we passed by, we stopped at the beach to watch the surfers and swimmers. The weather was beautiful.

The reason we chose the Berry Lodge was because besides being a very nice B&B, the owner, Rita, also runs a cooking school there and we were scheduled to take a cooking class with her. We had to rearrange schedules as she had just found out that the electricity would be turned off the first day we were there – isn't that just the way it always is?- so we changed plans and took off for the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren for the day. On the way we found some great ruins of an old church and graveyard to explore. There are plenty of old ruins from old stone homes that were just left at the famine times, but we found this 15^th century church ruin very interesting as it was overlooking Liscanoor Bay and partially covered with ivy growth. I will upload some pictures as soon as we have a better signal. I've been to both the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren before, but the beauty of it all and the starkness of the Burren still amazes me. One minute you are in this lush green country and the next it's like you have transported to another world. And yet all this starkness is truly beautiful also.

We also made a stop at the Ailwee Caves. Not as impressive as I had imagined, but it was interesting walking 300 plus feet under the Burren and seeing a few stalactites and stalagmites along with some underground waterfalls. At the entrance to the road for the caves there is a farmhouse cheese shop with the best cheese. We stopped to taste and purchase some cheese before we left.

The next morning was a leisurely one as we sat by the window watching across the yard to the field beyond with the donkeys and cows. Rita Meade, the Berry Lodge owner, has trained her staff to prepare some amazing breakfasts as we strayed from the Irish breakfast and tried some porridge with honey and cream that was so thick you could almost spread it. Fresh fruit compotes before, and we were some happy travelers.

At 11:00 we started our Irish cooking class. What fun! We made a salmon and leek quiche, date nut loaf, brown bread, and scones. As we mixed and measured and talked about how to perfect these dishes Rita told us how she had been a home economics teacher for many years before opening the B&B and cooking school. After all was done and cooled – at least for the breads – we sat down the enjoy the results of our labors. YUM!! Can't wait to try the quiche and scones at home. I'll wait until the weather cools down for the date nut bread and brown bread.

After that the rest of the day was mostly driving with a few stops here and there to get to Spiddal. We did stop in Ballyvaghan to see where they had taken the famous sign post down. Unfortunately while we were in the Tea Shop for a smoothie and a cookie, some one who doesn't know how to judge how close they are to parked cars sideswiped us on the passenger side taking out the passenger side view mirror and scraping the car from the back door to the tire area. I did call Thrifty and they were more concerned about if we were injured than how the car was damaged. All is well and we are just missing that side view mirror for the rest of the trip.

On to Galway, the Salthill Prom, and to Spiddal we went. Traffic was a mess when we got to Galway City and all along the coast road at the Salthill Prom. It finally thinned out around Barna and we arrived at Rosin Dubh, Philip and Maura's, safe and sound. We had a great visit with them since I've met them before and finally got sorted out and off to dinner at Padraicin's on the water.

I'll close for now as I still have to post a blog for the last 4 days since our arrival in Spiddal.