Ireland Day 1 - 24th Nov. 2004

I think I need a new spine…

Urbana to Dingle (via Chicago, Dublin and Shannon)
Ireland Weather: Partly Sunny – upper 50’s

^ Courtyard and Passageways at Askeaton Friary ^

Well, the trip from Urbana to Chicago to Dublin to Shannon was relatively uneventful…for most of us. David had the misfortune of drawing the Ace of Spades right away with regards to his seat. All day he had been talking about getting a window seat so he could lean against it and sleep most of the way to Ireland. This would leave him to wake up refreshed and ready to go once we hit the ground.

Alas, while Fortune smiled on David, Karma did not. He was placed in the window seat – next to Josh. Sarah managed to change to a seat across the aisle from Laura…one row AHEAD of Josh. So David traded seats with Sarah so she and Josh could sit next to each other. This put David on the aisle.

Long story short, aside from being bumped hard and often by casual (and inconsiderate) passersby, the drunkard next to David spilled a full glass of red wine on him and the nitwits behind him used the table attached to Dave’s seat as a surface for the card game War (lots of slapping and slamming in that game). Dave finally got some sleep, and once we landed – and he had an opportunity to change his winey pants – he was a new man!

Everything was worked out ahead of time with the car rental company, so we merely had to catch a shuttle out to the rental pens and pick up our car…a minibus.

The minibus turned out to be a glorified delivery van. What the Blue Mercedes Benz Vito Diesel lacked in style, it equaled in comfort. This 9-person van was obviously the product of a board room meeting where heavy drinking had occurred. Only one of the seats was adjustable in any way – the driver’s seat. However, it fit all of our luggage and passengers, it was automatic transmission and so we removed the front center headrest (for visibility) and we were off.

In the interest of clarity, and sanity, it’s important to know that Irish roads are generally not so good, but they DO have an organized system: Roads numbered N49 and below are major national roads…N50 and higher are minor national roads…R### roads are glorified goat tracks, but generally turned out to be much nicer than most high numbered N roads.

We took the N18 east to Limerick where we changed to the N69 towards Tralee. We wanted the coastal road in the event that we might see something pretty to look at.

Approximately 45km from the airport, we found it.

The Askeaton Friary is a very lovely little ruin of a church that had no roof. We were all alone and allowed to walk around it at our whim. Founded in 1389, it remained in use until 1740.

^ Exterior of Askeaton Friary ^

Afterwards, we jumped back in the car and puttered west down the N69 to Foynes. Foynes had nothing noteworthy other than it was where we had our first meal in Ireland. The Shannon House is a mom-and-pop type of place where they serve food cafeteria style…you simply tell them which of the items you’d like.

I had Chicken Curry – Laura had smoked ham…all of it was delicious and very filling.

The N69 took us southwest directly into Tralee and the signs for Dingle took us through town and spat us out the back side on the N86.

The first 15km on the N86 weren’t too bad – nice scenery, straight roads – very pleasant…it was just a tease. The next 34km would be the longest of our lives. It was very hilly and curvy (3-axis curvy!) and by the end of the day all of us were groaning at the millions of potholes…every one of which David managed to find in ways none of us knew was possible. Needless to say, we were very glad to have reached our destination.

We got to the B&B at approximately 3:15pm. By 3:45, everyone was sleeping. The machismo from other quarters boasted of staying up all afternoon and just going to bed at a reasonable hour…they were the first to sleep. I suggested a brief 2-hour nap and then up for dinner and an early evening. After the fact, everyone was totally on board with that plan.

We had two rooms at the Killfountain Farmhouse, Josh and Sarah took the double room…David, Laura and I stayed in the triple. The bathroom was something to behold in the triple…it was literally so small that you couldn’t stand directly in front of the toilet. And when I got out of the shower the next morning and put my underpinnings on, I had to hold them carefully in my left hand while I brought each foot in turn up to the appropriate opening. My right hand was occupied holding on for dear life.

For our evening meal our first night, the lady of the house suggested Flaherty’s in Dingle. Our first local suggestion couldn’t backfire – unless of course she didn’t know that Flaherty’s doesn’t serve food in any quantities larger than a packet of pork rinds…so we went around the corner to Murphy’s where I had relatively mediocre Fish and Chips. Good news though: the beer works!