Yesterday’s return trip from the Aran Islands not only gave us a wonderful perspective of the Cliffs of Moher, the boat ride also give us a preview of the landscape we would soon be driving through, the unique rocky terrain of the Burren in County Clare. This section of the coast is where Ireland goes from green to gray. Its limestone hills remain largely uncovered by vegetation — it is as clearly visible from the ferry as the cliffs were. Up close, the landscape is supposed to be suggestive of walking on the moon.

But, we wouldn’t get to see it too closely. We would drive through the Burren, but not stop for any appreciable time. Today’s time has been doled out in such a way that there would be a fair bit of driving to get us to Killarney with little time for stops in Clare.

Economics factored into our planning: We selected our major stop of the day based on the fact that it would provide us with three separate and varied experiences. How separate and varied? Here’s what the Aillwee Burren Experience offered:

1. Cheese tasting (the cheese is made right there on site)
2. Bird/raptor education and entertainment show
3. Guided tour of the Aillwee Cave

That’s not a bad list of options, and none of them disappointed. Though, one might expect there to be a greater presence of sheep milk cheese in the line up of locally made cheeses. The farm shop here did sell sheep cheese, but it was not included in the tasting, and we played it safe by getting two of the standard cows’ milk cheeses, which were pleasant to eat with a Gouda-adjacent flavor. We had some with crackers for lunch.

The bird show was unexpectedly interactive, with kites flying inches above the audiences’ heads, and caracara birds hopping around in the stands browsing among our feet. Selected audience members got picked to put on a glove and hold the birds (the lineup also included a snow-white barn owl), but none of us got selected, even though someone else in our section of the stands go called on the hold birds twice.

The last part of the trinity was a standard caving tour experience, and as such was reminiscent of earlier family trips when we were going into caves practically every other day.

There was a chance for a fourth adventure here. Above the cave complex rose the rocky landscape of the Burren. The Aillwee cave is actually inside one of the rocky hills. A trail led off between the bushes of the lower level and onto the limestone striations above, but we knew we had a long drive and we didn’t feel like we had the time to wander around too much. Unfortunately, the Burren was not ours to explore.

One of the reasons we were eager to be on the road was because our inkeeper in Killarney seemed to be an interesting character. He texted Jen a few days ago to let her know that he was baking us a loaf of bread. This is fairly singular in our experience with inkeepers. We texted him this afternoon to ask about a restaurant that we might make a reservation at (we’ve recently had trouble getting into places amid the crush of the Galway Races crowds, so we wanted to be careful). Our man was on the job.

So we set off from three-pronged adventure park (I do consider cheese tasking an adventure — a culinary adventure), and drove through that mysterious landscape.

Until we couldn’t drive any more because we had developed a flat tire. This situation seemed somewhat dire — we were rather in the middle of nowhere (not a lot of cities, or even houses on the lunar Burren landscape), and there was not flat tire in our boot. Cars just don’t have them anymore.

There was a substantial good fortune involved as well, though. The blowout happened only a few meters from an expansive parking area for a section of the Burren National Park. Several people were parked there and offered us help — though none of them had a tire or even a spare to lend. Jen called the roadside assistance number that rental car company offered and we waited.

Hey, here was our chance to explore the Burren! It’s pretty rocky!

This episode ended up taking several hours to remedy (even though Jen told the assistance person on the phone that we had no spare and our current tire was likely unusable, they sent someone out in a van to confirm those two points — there’s two hours waiting right there), but we eventually got back on the road. We texted our inkeeper to let him know that we no longer needed the reservations, as there was no longer any chance that we would reach Killarney during dinner hours. We actually had to be quite direct in our driving to make it there at a reasonable hour at all. The innkeeper had noted that he would need to show us around the place when we got there, and we didn’t want to keep him awake any longer than necessary.

We ended up getting food for a snack/dinner at a convenience store, and we were surprisingly happy about it. We’ve been eating in a lot of restaurants lately; convenience store food was a rare treat. It was right around 11:15pm when we finally rolled into Killarney.

Note from Jen: Bob is being very kind here by not mentioning that the flat tire was likely caused by me hitting a rock or something while veering off onto the shoulder of the road, when an oncoming car came zipping around a hairpin turn very close to, or maybe over, the center line. The roads here are quite narrow and it’s hard to avoid the impulse to veer too far to the left, given that the bulk of the car is on the opposite side than what you’re used to.

Today we were up and at ‘em earlier than usual, as we had a boat to catch. After a 40-minute walk into the seaport area of Galway, we boarded the Aran Island Ferry to travel to Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands off the coast. These are known for their ancient sites and more traditional Irish way of life. Gaelic is still the primary language here, and we overheard plenty of snippets of it when the locals were talking amongst themselves.

Once on the ferry, I had some moments of doubt about the wisdom of this plan. The ferry company’s website is rather cagey about how long the trip takes, and we discovered it was going to be 90 minutes out and up to three hours on the way back (because of a side trip to the Cliffs of Moher). Once we got out of the harbor, the ride got pretty choppy, and between the wind and the rain it was freezing cold. Despite this we were sitting outside on the top of the boat, because we felt that would be the best way to avoid seasickness. (This plan mostly succeeded, though Nadia was a little unhappy. Miraculously, I managed to avoid nausea despite normally being very susceptible. I think we made the right choice because when I went downstairs to the bathroom, the pitching of the boat seemed much worse from within the stuffy cabin, and I saw multiple people being sick. Those of us up on deck all managed to hold on to our breakfasts.)

So anyway, there we were, cold and damp and a little queasy, wondering what on earth we’d let ourselves in for. As we approached the island, we came into a cloud and it suddenly began to downpour. All those on deck raced for cover, but we didn’t really make it. Fortunately the downpour was short-lived, and as we docked on the island the rain abated and we even saw a little sun.

We picked up our rental bikes and set off down the road and immediately our troubles were forgotten. It was so lovely biking down the narrow road, blue sky now above us, old stone walls and rolling hills on all sides and the blue-green ocean sparkling below. There’s not a lot of car traffic on the roads here (though quite a lot of bikes and the occasional horse and buggy), so biking is the perfect way to get around. A stop for some hot drinks (and observing the nearby seal colony) completed the restoration of spirits.

Our eventual destination was Dún Aonghasa, an ancient fort (going back to 1100 BC) built in an absolutely stunning setting at the edge of the island’s 330 foot cliffs. We parked our bikes and walked the last section uphill, then couldn’t stop taking pictures of the beauty all around. I traveled here once before, when I studied abroad in 1993. My friend Julie and I took a weekend trip to Galway and visited this island, and I have a photo of myself standing at the edge of the tall cliff, which we attempted to replicate. I seem to remember (possibly inaccurately) that last time I was here it was raining and we were the only ones there. This time we were abundantly grateful for clear skies and have learned to soak up the sun whenever we can get it.

After some lunch and a little shopping — there is a little cluster of buildings near the entrance to the fort with food stands and an Aran sweater outlet, where Lanie bought herself one of the lovely sweaters she’d been eyeing — we got back on the bikes. A short way back we’d passed a beautiful beach, and we’d promised Zoe a stop on the way back. (She carries her bathing suit with her everywhere, and has yet to miss an opportunity to swim, regardless of the weather.) The water was an amazing shade of brilliant aquamarine that made us think we were in the Caribbean, but the water temperature most definitely did not. Nevertheless Zoe plunged in, and probably would have stayed much longer if we didn’t have to pull her out for fear of missing the boat back.

We were not really looking forward to the long boat ride back, but from the start, it somehow had a more pleasant feel (at least to me). It was probably something to do with the sunshine and somewhat warmer temperatures, but there also seemed to be more to look at. The trip back had us passing by the other two Aran Islands, which were lovely to view from the water. Better yet, as we were passing the smallest island, the boat captain announced that it was the setting for Craggy Island in the opening credits of the old Irish TV show “Father Ted”. I was introduced to Father Ted — a hilarious comedy about rogue priests exiled to a remote island — many years ago by my Aunt Kath, and Bob and I have long been big fans. Seeing Craggy Island in person was an unexpected treat.

A little while later we were starting to approach the other side, so Zoe and I got up to station ourselves at the starboard rail in preparation for the Cliffs of Moher siting. It took a while to get there but we enjoyed standing up in the fresh air and watching the rolling seas. Eventually Bob and Lanie joined us. (Nadia, most prone to motion sickness among us, was sticking with her seat.) We hadn’t really thought a great deal about this portion of the trip — it was just kind of a nice extra thrown in on the Aran Islands journey — but it was truly amazing. The boat traveled the whole length of the cliffs, fairly close to land, and the views were spectacular. (So spectacular, in fact, that we decided not to bother visiting from the land side, which we had previously planned to do the following day.). We saw the place where the cave scene was filmed in Harry Potter 6, and the site of the “Cliffs of Insanity” from The Princess Bride. Zoe said this might have been her favorite part of the entire trip. The remaining sail back to Galway was uneventful and we even arrived half an hour earlier than scheduled.

We’ve been having some trouble getting into restaurants here — everywhere we’ve been, there have been crowds of people and we’ve often gotten turned away. So, especially with this being a Friday night, we’ve learned our lesson and made a reservation (or as they call them here a “booking”), at a Persian restaurant. (We didn’t learn our lesson all that well, because we made the reservation rather late in the day and consequently had very few choices.) The restaurant was excellent, however, and we were glad we’d made the booking when we saw all the fancily-dressed young people out celebrating the Galway Races. Too tired for the pubs tonight, we made the long trek home after dinner. (It was not actually that early, but it felt like it was — it stays light here until 10pm or so.)

This would have been a good day to get an early start. Our fourth-floor balcony showed blue skies out above the aquarium (which is immediately beneath our balcony), Galway City (which is off to the left, a little in the distance), and Galway Bay (which makes up most of the rest of our view). I could study a lot about the lay of the land from the balcony, but we could not really get into it until we had a quorum of people who were awake and ready. And yesterday we did climb a huge mountain, so everyone feels like they have the right to sleep in today.

The early morning hours hint at a remarkably favorable weather day — it’s even hot on the balcony from the direct sunlight at 7:30 — but we cannot take this sort of thing for granted. Sure enough, by the time four of us are ready to go out and explore, clouds are slowly starting to gather.

Fortunately, we are steps away from the Salthill Promenade, which stretches for miles along the shore of the bay, and we are able to pick out some a few must-do activities as we explore. Here’s a truth about Galway, though, if you don’t plan your time wisely, you’re not going to be able to do all the things you want to.

And we’ve already gotten off to a late start!

Stop 1 (as soon as all five of us are ready). The aquarium, which is very few steps from the door of our building. It is also a nice way to spend an hour or so. Interesting fish and such.

Stop 2. The downtown, which is well-visible from our balcony and only a 20-minute walk from the aquarium. The downtown that we find is bigger than Westport and Sligo, more tourist friendly than Limerick. There is an intricate canal/river system that meets the bay right about where we enter the city. A multi-colored row of houses lines one edge. A very festive pedestrian way branches off in the opposite direction. Which way will we go? We’ll do both, of course. Walking around cities is one of the things we do best, and Galway is a great place to walk around. We even sat outside a pub with some snacks and drinks and watched as most of the city seemed to pass us by.

This happens to be the time of the Galway Races Summer Festival, which is a week-long event where the fun includes, but is not limited to, horse racing and betting. Today was “Most Stylish” Day, or perhaps “Ladies’ Day.” There were many well-dressed people walking around either on their way to or after having visited the race track. It was rather like prom night, but on a larger scale given that it was people of all ages dressed up.

Step 3. The mysterious island at the end of a long causeway into the bay. We could see the causeway this morning from our balcony. It might be the only slight disappointment that Galway had for us today. The mysterious island at the end of the causeway is a water treatment plant.

Stop 4. We’ve never done an escape room on a boat before. What’s that like? It’s pretty cool, though we can’t share too much about it because someone reading this might want to try it for themselves some day. I can say that there are a lot of cool props in this one, including an entire tank — on a boat! Is that giving away too much? I don’t think so. We got a certificate for finishing in such good time. I don’t think they give those to just anyone.

Stop 4. Dinner. We got Italian, and wasn’t the restaurant filled with dressed up people — mostly groups of young women in all styles of dresses. As the evening progresses, there is ever more style on the streets. We’re practically getting run over by style by the time we’re walking back to Salt Hill.

Step 5. Jump in the water off a large tower. We found the Blackrock Diving Tower during our morning walk, but Zoe and Lanie had to wait all day for the tide to come in. It did not look like a good idea at low tide. Of course, the sun was mostly a memory by the time we came back this evening, so it didn’t look like a good idea to jump now for a totally different reason. But this reason did not stop them.

This morning we set off from Westport into the wilds of Connemara, a region of western Ireland strewn liberally with mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and dramatic coastline. Our ultimate destination is Galway, but we’re taking the scenic route to get there. Prior to getting in the car, we had to fortify ourselves with a visit to the town’s tea house, which the girls had been eyeing the day before. It proved to be an excellent breakfast spot and a wonderful bakery (so that some members of the party purchased breakfast desserts for themselves).

Our first stop was Kylemore Abbey, a beautifully maintained manor house sitting on the edge of a lake in the most stunning setting imaginable. In addition to the house itself, there’s a 6-acre walled Victorian garden and lovely grounds surrounding it. We started our visit at the paddock, to meet the resident Connemara ponies during feeding time. (This may have been Nadia’s favorite part of the day.) Interestingly, the gardens were about 1.5 kilometers from the house, but it was a very pleasant walk through woodlands and along the lake. The ponies did not disappoint, and the gardens were amazing — a mixture of very manicured English garden, woodland walks featuring more natural landscapes like ferns, and kitchen gardens that grow produce for the complex.

The house itself was almost a mini-museum, covering the history of the place from its construction through to the present day. It began its life as an aristocratic home, but eventually transitioned to being a Benedictine abbey. Nuns still live here today. It also served as a school until remarkably recently — the doors closed in 2010. We were all trying to imagine what it would be like getting to live here. On our way out we had some snacks at the excellent cafeteria. (We’ve found that all the tourist attractions here actually seem to have good quality restaurants, unlike what you’d find at home.)

Our next stop was only 15 minute away — a welcome respite for Nadia, who has been getting motion sickness amidst all the winding narrow lanes. Connemara National Park isn’t on the scale that you’d see for a US national park — there’s just one parking lot and a few trails — but it gets no complaints from us. We hiked a 6.5 km loop up a mountain that we’d been able to see towering above the Abbey (they all it “Diamond Hill” here but having climbed it, I definitely feel that it is a mountain). The hike was a challenging one — the last couple kilometers, in particular, were extremely vertical — but the views throughout were amazing. There’s not a lot of forest here, so we were able to see the spectacular scenery throughout our ascent. When we eventually reached the top (after several false summits), we had 360 degree views around the landscape, from the rolling hills in one direction to the rugged coastline in the other. Those of us who are regular hikers immediately moved it into our top 5 lists.

It only remained for us to make our way down to Galway. I’d read about taking the “Sky Road” for its beautiful scenery, so we set off in that direction — which likely proved to be a mistake. The scenery was indeed striking, but the narrow two-way road required us to stressfully squeak by other cars with centimeters to spare, and occasionally back up down the lane in order to find a slightly wider area. Bob got stuck driving this leg and was in no mood to appreciate the scenery; nor was Nadia, with her motion sickness. Fortunately we soon emerged back on the main road.

We made one last stop at the seaside village of An Spidéal for dinner, close to Galway. I’d read about this as a worthwhile spot to visit, but we didn’t find a whole lot there. Zoe would have happily gone for another swim at the beach, but with the general mood we decided to stick with just dinner.

It was a good thing too, as our arrival in Galway was a bit stressful. We’re staying at a lovely apartment right on Galway Bay in the little town of Salthill. We had some struggles with finding the parking area (counterpoint: when we eventually did find it, it proved to be both very convenient and free), with locating the building (for some reason we were only provided with the street name, not a number — fortunately the photo of the outside saved us), and with getting into the apartment (with no instructions provided on where the key would be). But eventually we overcame these hurdles and settled in to appreciate our expansive ocean views.

Today, while most of County Mayo slept off its second day of championship hangovers, we set out to maximize our remaining time here in this lovely and inviting section of the country. Our itinerary took us to the island of Achill, whose windy roads constitute some of the best views along all of the Wild Atlantic Way, particularly when it’s not raining and fogged in.

It did rain today, though, so we had to settle for more dramatic mist and speculation for much of the drive. During periodic breaks in the weather, though, we could see quite well, and we made several stops at pull-offs to explore seaside fields, peer over cliffs, and converse with roadside sheep.

This is all leading up to two big Achill Island finales.

The first, rather breathtaking one was the beach at Keem, declared by some to be the most beautiful in the world. We didn’t even catch it on its best day — the lifeguard hut’s whiteboard posted the water temperature at 14 degrees C — and it was still a stunning place to visit. The approach, via a cliff-hugging access road that seemed to be an engineering marvel in the same way that bungee jumping seems to be a good way to see the underside of a bridge, definitely added a sense of adventure.

The fact that sheep were grazing mere feet from the beach reminded us it was Ireland, but the stretch of sand leading to teal-colored water in a protected cove suggested more tropical climes. There was also the advertised prospect of seeing a basking shark, a species that frequents the waters here, or some dolphins. Of course, there was the mist and the water temperature reminding us where we actually were. How cold is 14 degrees C? Google translates it to 57 degrees F. Zoe, who decided this was another good swimming opportunity, said, “It’s very cold.” For reasons unexplained, she decided not to use the sauna located in the parking lot to recover from her dip.

She recovered in her own way, and was back in her regular clothes for the trip back up the cliffside as we back-tracked to Achill Island finale number two, Gielty’s Pub, the westernmost bar in Europe. If we missed this and just kept driving, we wouldn’t have found a bar until Greenland. How can one beat that for adventure and excitement? Before you answer, I’ll tell you that their cod and chips, with the cod fried in a seaweed tempura and possibly scooped out of the waters across the street minutes before we arrived, was the best meal I’ve had in Ireland so far.

We were wet and maybe a little cold — even those of us who had not gone swimming, but we were also pretty happy with the trip. Plus, after the pub adventure, there was one more post-finale stop. A few miles back towards civilization is Slievemore, or at least the remains of it. Slievemore had been a sizable village a few centuries ago, but it was ravaged by in the mid-1800s by the Great Famine, and it was deserted completely by the early 1900s. Many walls still exist and sheep keeps pathways nibbled clear. We spent a good 45 minutes there and might have lasted longer had the rain let up. (The village was on a hillside and small streams seem to have taken over many of the walkways, so our feet were pretty wet by the time we had hiked up to the site.)

This constituted a full day for us, and, anyway, after lunch we were not even interested in taking a meal in any establishment wasn’t superlative in some manner or form. So Jen and Zoe ran out for a few pizzas and they came back with an array of ciders to sample. We hooked into the tv’s streaming menu, and were happy to find we could watch The Sheep Detectives using our amazon passwords.

Today it was time to say farewell to Sligo and start heading back south. Our next stop is Westport, an extremely charming city near the coast in County Mayo. We got out of our hotel at the semi-reasonable time of 9:45, and were pleased to discover that our luggage fitted marginally better into our marginally larger rental car. Alas, the weather was still cool and rainy.

Our Airbnb in Westport is in the heart of the city, amidst picture book Irish pubs, shops, and restaurants. Also amidst much traffic. Bob did a valiant job steering us through the narrow one-way streets until we found the parking lot near our apartment and snagged the last possible space. (People park creatively here. There were cars in every possible place, including up on the stones surrounding a central statue. In order to get into our space, Bob had to ease past another car parked on the curb just in front of it.)

We set out to explore the town a bit, enjoying the abundant petunia displays and the quaint shops. Plan A for today was to rent bikes and set out along the Great Western Greenway, a renowned bike path running along the coast and part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. Plan B was to climb nearby Croagh Patrick. Plan C was to rent kayaks on the bay. Unfortunately, the cold and rain made all of these somewhat unappealing. We went with Plan D, which was visiting nearby Westport House. This is a historic estate originally owned by the Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen of Connacht. It was only a 1 km walk away, mostly through a park that surrounds it. Unfortunately upon arrival we found that the house is closed for renovations, so Plan D was also thwarted. But we were still able to take a long walk around the estate, through lovely woodlands and along the lake and rivers, so it was still a worthwhile trip.

Plan E (which would have been Plan A for Nadia all along) never fails us — we found a local escape room. The rain finally relented so we were able to stay dry during the half hour walk. (Once our car is safely parked, especially in a place like busy downtown Westport, we are very reluctant to move it again.). The room was very fun and the proprietor Karolina was so kind and welcoming (like many people we’ve met here). We managed to escape in 31 minutes, thus earning our family a spot on the 2026 leaderboard. And astonishingly, since we escaped in roughly half the time, Karolina only charged us half price! Never had that happen before.

For dinner Nadia had her eye on a Thai place in town, and it did not disappoint. Despite Ireland’s not exactly having a reputation as a food mecca, we’ve had excellent meals here all along — both more traditional (fish and chips, Irish beef, etc.) and non (Korean and Thai). The restaurants have been packed, too — for this one, we had to leave our names at 6:30 and return at 7:30.

One thing we learned when we arrived in Ireland was that the Gaelic football finals were being held on that Sunday, Mayo vs. Kerry. And Mayo emerged victorious, for the first time in 75 years. As we drove to Westport (in the heart of Mayo), there were green and red flags and signs everywhere, and about 50% of the populace were wearing green and red jerseys. Even though it was now Monday, the following day, the celebrations weren’t over. As we had dinner and walked around the town, fans were streaming in. We’d planned to go to a pub for some Irish music, but it took us a while to find one that had any space at all. Eventually we were able to squeeze in and have some pints at a place that was playing the Saw Doctors on the stereo, which made Bob very happy.

The fans outside set up an impromptu parade ,with cars driving by bearing Mayo flags and hanging out the windows to cheer. By the time we left the pub, the streets were filled with revelers, drinking and singing. It was quite a scene. Our apartment is set a bit removed from the main street (in an interesting warren of apartments called The Kiln), so luckily it wasn’t too noisy — but Bob and I did hear occasional snatches of chants and songs well into the night. It was reminiscent of the time when we coincidentally ended up in Paris on the night that France won the World Cup.

People probably don’t need a primer on Irish weather. It’s rainy. Our first day in Sligo suggested otherwise, but our second day of soggy mountain climbing and drizzly beachgoing proved the original postulate.

Of course, Ireland is also said to be quite a magical place, and in between the raindrops on day three we got proof of this as well.

We took to the road again on a slimmed-down version of Jen’s original itinerary, which had us traveling farther north. That was partly due to yesterday’s heavy driving to Shannon and back, and partly due to a general late start as our bodies are all still processing the marathon travel day that started this trip.

Our inkeeper, who has been spot on with his restaurant recommendations so far, was very positive about a few of the closer locations on the spread sheet. He also said one of the places on our spreadsheet also had a good restaurant connected to it.

That’s how we ended up first at the Glencar Waterfall just over the border in County Leitrim. It was a short walk, overseen by a curious army of sheep, and we managed to coordinate the end of our walk with the opening of the excellent tea shed near the car park.

Another waterfall was reported to be just a few minutes up the narrow, narrow road, but there were no parking spaces and also no tea room in evidence, so we kept on going to our next featured stop: Streedagh Beach on a fine finger of land only 20 minutes drive away.

Here we found plenty of surf and sand playing host to a healthy community of kite surfers. At this point we also discovered today’s particular brand of Irish magic. It rained fairly steadily while we were in the car, but at both of the first two distinations, the rain stopped as soon as we parked. This was a pattern that would happily hold for us the entire day.

It was so sunny and non-rainy that Zoe decided it was time for a swim. None of us came to the same conclusion.

Not that the rest of us were opposed to the sea. The sea is good. So when clouds started to roll in at the beach, we scurried Zoe out of the waves and got back in the car for the next leg of our trip, a driving tour of the Mullaghmore Peninsula. This lovely section of what is now known as the Wild Atlantic Way (it was previously just known as the west coast of Ireland) gave us our first real taste of the drama that awaits every time the ocean comes into contact with this particular land mass.

There is a castle here, but they are smart about it and keep it in the distance so it doesn’t compete with the sea foam and rocks and such. The area is peppered liberally with sheep, which is also a good call because their aloof demeanor seems to fit into any setting. Add to the picture some improbably placed stone walls and a needlessly thin ribbon or roadway and you have a good idea of what it looks like.

It looks even better when the rain stops and the sun comes out as soon as you pull over onto the meager verge.

Once again in transit as soon as the rain re-appeared, we found ourselves in the last attraction of the afternoon, the Gleniff Horsehoe. Here we navigated a winding half-loop into a canyon with steep green sides and seemingly no peaks. Everything ended in the day’s low clouds, until, of course, we stopped a particularly dramatic location with a waterfall, abandoned farmhouse and sheep clinging to impossibly steep hillsides way, way above the valley floor.

Then, the rain stopped and the clouds gradually thinned, unveiling craggy mountain tops with drama. The drama rivaled that of the sea earlier in the day. .

After that, there was little else to do but return to the lodge (by day three, the driving part is becoming less of a story) and find a place for dinner. An interesting note: tonight’s dinner was remarkable not because the recommendation came from our inkeeper. Jen’s Korean fried chicken was very proudly advertised as “As seen on TikTok.”

Score one for the socials.

The plan for today was to have a nice relaxing day wandering around Sligo, to recover from our long travel day. The reality was that, due to the previously mentioned rental car snafu, Bob and I had to drive back to Shannon airport, two and a half hours away, to return one rental car and pick up another. It had to be back before 10, so this also involved a 6:45 am wake-up time — also not what we would usually prefer on our first day after a night of missed sleep.

Fortunately, due to being somewhat more rested and not stacked in the car like sardines with three miserable children and piles of luggage, the drive didn’t seem nearly as long and torturous today. It was exciting driving on the N17, the road made famous (to us) by a well-loved song by Irish band the Saw Doctors. We each drove one way, and exchanged the car without difficulty. Our new car is marginally larger so we have hopes that we won’t have to ride with our luggage on our laps. Both cars we’ve rented here have had the feature of beeping madly anytime you exceed the speed limit, so there’s little chance of us getting a speeding ticket.

By the time we got back around 1:15, the girls had only slightly roused themselves. Zoe and Lanie had made it out for breakfast and a short walk, and Nadia hadn’t even left our lodge. The weather was not entirely inviting — the blue skies of the previous day had given way to a steady drizzle. Nevertheless, we bravely got back in the car and set out for Knocknarea, a mountain a short distance away that was sacred to the people who lived here in 4000BC. The top is a huge monument of stones covering a tomb, supposedly of the legendary Queen Maeve.

The weather did not improve. By the time we’d climbed a bit of the mountain, we’d ascended into the clouds and the light drizzle had changed to a steady rain. The glorious ocean views that had been promised were nothing but gray mist. As a consolation, the trail was lined throughout with many cows and sheep, which proved to be considerably more popular with the girls than the cairn that we eventually reached.

After Knocknarea, we decided to forego additional outings that promised vistas, and instead headed to a nearby beach. Sligo is surrounded with beaches, famous for their large waves and popular with surfers. Strandhill Beach, recommended by the host at our lodge, was not short on drama. Sadly for Zoe, there was no swimming, but we could see line after line of breakers rolling in off the Atlantic and crashing on the shore. We took a walk along the water then went for snacks and gelato at the cute seaside restaurant that our host also recommended. This did much to lift dampened spirits.

Dinner was a pleasant stroll into town. Sligo is so beautiful and inviting. We walk in along the river, huge bright clumps of petunias hanging from every lamppost and charming footbridges stretching across. The downtown is vibrant and quaint, with any number of Irish pubs featuring live music and high-quality restaurants. Most of us were ready for bed after dinner, but Zoe and Lanie were intrepid enough to head out again for an evening pint.

A scheduling snafu left us in Shannon Airport without a reserved rental car for 24 hours. We are quick thinking people and we thought of a work around that led to at least two significant consequences:

1.) We ended up getting a lot of practice over our first two days in Ireland on how to drive here. I’ll mention more about this later.

2.) We got to go off-script and visit the closest major city, Limerick, which happened to have a rental car available for us for the day. Here’s how that went:

We took the #342 from right outside the airport door to the Limerick bus/train station. It was a lovely bus with a second floor that the girls (mostly) enjoyed, but it took a convoluted, stop-riddled path. That is one of the reasons we need a rental car here — there are few direct buses. They’re always stopping to pick people up and drop them off. Downtown Limerick is about a 20 minute drive to the airport, but it took an hour for bus #342 to get there.

Not to worry, our one-day rental car would not be available for a few hours, so we were able to wander the town. What do we like better than wandering the town? Very little.

Limerick, like a lot of Irish cities, I bet, is well set up for wandering. The downtown area surrounding the station features several parks and lots of narrow streets that are easy to cross. There are lots of things and people to see and look at. Despite a name that might conjure thoughts of poetry and whimsy, Limerick is a little grittier than many of the more touristy towns we’re going to visit during this trip. It was very welcoming, though.

We have been warned by Jen that the people we meet in Ireland are likely to be extremely kind and courteous. This matches the welcome we received here, particularly by the gentleman who gave us a tour around the inside of St. John’s Cathedral. He was careful to point out the elaborately painted pipes of the organ in the choir loft, and he showed us the location of three of the five bishops buried under the church floor. It is unclear if the man works for the church — maybe he is a bishop himself, only off-duty. He was certainly knowledgeable and very kind.

It was not difficult to fill a few hours in Limerick, but we were eager to get ourselves back on track. This city was not on the final spreadsheet of tour locations, so it was an extra benefit, but there was still a lot that we had to see.

The plan had been for us to pick up our rental car at the airport and drive two and a half hours to our lodgings in Sligo City. We were able to pick up this trail from Limerick, a few hours later and several kilometers farther away than originally intended. Still we were enthusiastic about finally being in Ireland, a place Jen has been promising to bring for years — some of us for decades.

There was a small army of helpful people waiting for us in the downtown rental car office — they even provided us an excellent breakfast recommendation. More importantly, they actually had a car we could use. We have been conditioned to recognize the major difference between a rental car reservation and an actual car to drive. The agents in Shannon asserted that there was a serious lack of cars available.

A lovely employee lead us out the back to a small lot with two five-seaters, and helped us wind our way with our luggage between them. There, previously invisible from our view, hid a tiny Hyundai earmarked for our use.

Seeing the subcompact with our name on it was not exactly a record-scratch moment, but we were all instantly able to do the spacial arithmetic to figure out that we were in for a tight ride.

We should take a minute to examine our emotional and physical state. Our previous transportation plan had not worked out and we spent considerable energy finding a plan b. We were generally unsettled by the situation, and we were working on very (if any) little sleep due to our red-eye flight the night before. Some of us might have still been a little nauseated by the hour-long bus ride from the airport — particularly those who didn’t factor in that the top floor of the bus rocks around a lot more than the bottom floor. Another thing — and this may or may not have been a factor — Aerlingus will give you two cans of wine even when you only ask for one.

Positivity still ruled the day. We used Tetris skills to fit as much baggage as possible into the minuscule hatch area; then we used similar skills to work our bodies and the rest of our baggage into the somewhat meager (for our needs) passenger portion. Thus settled in, we were ready for the almost-three-hour drive to Sligo.

Here comes the bit about driving in Ireland, are you ready?

It takes flexible thinking and a clear acknowledgement of the differences and similarities to normal driving.

Differences:

— drive on different (left) side of the road
— driver sits on opposite (right) side of the car
— shifter is to the left of the driver
— rearview mirror is up and to the left (not up and to the right, like we’re used to)
— traveling lane is on the left, passing lane is on the right
— direction of travel in (omnipresent) roundabouts is clockwise in order to facilitate driving on the left

Similarities:

— foot pedals go in the same order: clutch — brake — gas
— pattern of shifter — location of gears 1-5, plus reverse — is the same as we’re used to (with the slight exception that our car at — home has a six-speed transmission and it’s possible that if we really tried to put a car here into sixth gear we might end up putting it into reverse by mistake)
— directional signal and windshield wiper control are the same as we’re used to

Driving here is a lot about focusing one’s mind and keeping track of what is the same and what is different. Reserving courage to deal with extremely narrow roads also helps. We have been helped by the fact that the people here seem to be patient drivers and that we have a good navigation system and passengers/copilots who are helpful and encouraging. Also, it seems that we are not the first people to struggle with adjusting to Ireland’s rules of the roads. Ireland itself has taken some ownership of this situation and posts frequent reminders, including the on the inside of our rental car that says, “Drive on the left.” This is a new mantra for me. They even post arrows in the crosswalks to remind pedestrians that the first direction they should look is right because that’s where the first traffic will be coming from.

By the end of day one, we were able to cross streets throughout Sligo City safely and comfortably, though very much wearily because we had barely slept during our flight over (it left Boston at 6:30 pm and arrived at Shannon at 5 am local time and we had a meal and two snacks in between to keep us occupied). Still, we managed to stay up long enough to approximate a normal bedtime here. A fine dinner a downtown pub, featuring Guinness, cider, and live traditional music helped us stay awake through the afternoon.

Sligo itself was also very helpful. We came with eyes open to the realities of Irish weather, but the afternoon here was clear and bright. The city does seem more visitor-inclined than Limerick. That’s too harsh. There were lots more flowers hanging about — this and the sunshine made everything seem cheerier here than they were this morning.

That’s not to say it was difficult to pull ourselves from the lively scene in favor of having a 6 pm bedtime. But is was good to know that this all will be waiting for us when we eventually wake up tomorrow.