Ireland-Scotland day 1- Ennis to Castlegregory (posted Nov. 2013)   

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fall sunset at NYC

On the descent to Newark, N.J. passengers could see the recently completed World Trade Center, at 1,776 ft.   

The long flight over the Atlantic - when four of us compared notes upon landing - was mostly a sleepless journey. I glanced at the map-screen again & again as we slowly crawled across the planet. 

Maximum data values occurred about two hours from landing when the plane reached elevation 38,400 ft., was going 680 mph, and the outside temperature was minus 75 deg. F. This is probably as close to being in orbit or to breaking the sound barrier, as I'll ever get, I mused, in a half-awake, half-asleep state. 

I had a window seat & every time the visor was lifted, I could see the same immense cloud cover, far below, sitting atop the north Atlantic, illuminated by a full moon, a beautiful sight. 

On a Saturday morning in late September 2013, Mary, Doris & Paul (all from Colorado Springs) and I converged at Shannon Airport around 6:30 am. The airport is near Limerick, a small city in southwest Ireland. 

Approaching baggage we noticed a large poster proclaiming 2013 to be an "Irish Homecoming Year".  Last year was the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic disaster and supposedly brought in huge numbers of tourists.   

We drove north to the nearby town of Ennis, in County Clare, and had breakfast on the 2nd floor of an old building with a lot of character, like ancient floor planks. Good food & coffee was just what the doctor ordered ! 

Destinations - below is a map of southern Ireland. Freeways shown were never used; it was all back roads for us.      

look for Shannon and Ennis, and then Tralee, which is near Castlegregory, our first destination.

Ennis is the largest city & source of Hurling players in County Clare. Hurling players ? I knew nothing at all about Hurling, but, in a week's time we'll be watching the nationwide final hurling rematch at a bar in a Castle ! 

The first game between neighboring Counties Cork & Clare ended in a 24-point draw, on the afternoon of the day we arrived, while we were walking on the beach at Castlegregory, blissfully unaware.         

Each of Ireland's 32 Counties sponsor a hurling teams, and none of the athletes are paid, nor are the managers, nor are players or coaches allowed to do paid endorsements. In addition, players' names are not shown on their jerseys and players' numbers are determined by the position they play.

Sounds like 'true sportsmanship', to me. There's an old saying that Hurling "is a bastion of humility".   

Professional hurling teams require an immense amount of dedication by the players and managers and support staff. More about the game later....it turns out that Mary & I had an amusing final Hurling match-related experience, one week later, when we returned to Ennis.

As we walked the streets of Ennis, the intensity of local sports feeling was evident. County Clare's Hurling Team's colors are blue & yellow. 

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

	Ennis				winners 14 years ago		Ennis' main street
		the hand of fate brought us here		looks like Ireland		sailboats at Killimer
	on a ferry to Tarbert, see note 1		the drive to Castlegregory, see note 2				Tarbert lighthouse

note 1 - Killimer and Tarbert ferry terminals are a mile apart, directly across the Shannon River from each other. We crossed from County Clare straight south to County Kerry. Using the ferry saved a lot of driving time in getting to Tralee, on the way to our first night's stay at Castlegregory.

This area is where the Shannon River, Ireland's longest river, merges into the north Atlantic 

note 2 - in this photo Mary and Doris and I are all "out of it", after losing a night's sleep. Being on a ferry and crossing the mile-wide Shannon River thus was a tad dream-like. (Paul took the photo.)   

The B&B at Castlegregory was a short walk from a modest beach, where we took an afternoon stroll, after checking in.    

	Castle House B&B		walk to the beach		lay of the land		advanced rustication
		recovering  from long flights		warm enough to bathe

Later in the evening we drove to the far north end of the peninsula for sunset dinner at Spillane's Restaurant, highly recommended by the B&B owners and about to close for the season, in a few weeks. The family-run place had amazing seafood & service. 

	at Spillane's Restaurant & Bar		across the street is the North Atlantic		Mary said "we finally made it to Ireland"
		locals

Near the end of our meal, at dusk, a boisterous set of young lads arrived followed by some girls, all high school age, so a Saturday night gathering of some kind was getting underway. I noticed a few hostile glances from the young men, essentially willing us tourists to 'get the hell out'. We were the last ones there, too.    

Prominent among them were pale faces, ruddy cheeks & freckles, and pale blue eyes, healthy looking Irish lads and lasses ! We got the non-verbal message & skipped dessert.

Appro

ximately one nano-second after we vacated our seats, the boys began to re-arranged the tables, the restaurant morphing into a community center of sorts, for over-energized kids. I'd guess a lot of fish & chips and ketchup and sodas are consumed as part of the ritual feast.        

Well, it appears that the four of us did pretty well on our first day in Ireland !

The Castlegregory B&B was comfortable and above my bed was a crank-out window which let in cool coastal air, as well as the sound of waves breaking in the distance. All of us crashed around 9 pm.    

go to day 2 - Dingle Peninsula

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