Holiday 2012. I am back
with Irish Cycling Safaris. I’ve been holidaying with this group since 2000.
Some years I have done doubles with them-so obviously I like them.
And legend has it that friends of Ernest Hemingway bet him
that he couldn’t write complete story in six words.To cut a long story short-he
did, and believed this was his best work . What did he write?..”For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never
Worn.” Why am I telling you this? I have no idea. Think Hemingway would love
Twitter. F Scott Fitzgerald, on the other hand would love Facebook. Wished I
could do this blog in six words-“Cycling Holiday.Met Carolyn.Magic Time”
Right where was I? Oh yeah-are you sitting comfortably?
This year the holiday was the Clare/Burren one-oddly enough
I have met some of my favourite people on this one, each time.This is my third
time doing this particular one:-great pubs,great music,great pubs,great scenery
and great pubs.
It starts in Ennis.There was a big group, 21 I think it was.
After dinner the whole bonding thing quickly started.There were 3 others there
I met last year and it was a kind of planned reunion. An American woman called
Carolyn was singing at the end of the dinner table-with a rather large
songbook.
The next day our destination was a place called Spanish Point-which
was basically a beach. There was a village near to it called Milltown
Malbay-which is famous for being the village in Ireland with the most pubs per
head.
Our lunch spot was in a little village called Creegh in a
pub, that did not have a license for soup. YEAH! Outside there was a sign
saying “sandwiches, tea and coffee” The coffee was instant as I saw the barmaid
sending a child out to the shop to get another jar-as the rush was on!
The sandwiches were:- cheese, ham, cheese and ham, and ham,
cheese and onion. Oh! The special that day was ham and cheese. The craic in pub
that night was great. The American woman Carolyn responded great to two of my one-liners,
so I decided to home in on her for my jokes, and our little drinking group got
a new member-Christina. One member of the group kept calling her Chrisitne and
it was amusing getting him to remember her name .I suggested that we call her
Martha,saying at least we would have the last letter right. I then decided that
the next day we should all call her Martha to confuse everyone else.
Next day weather was not great and that was much the way it
would remain for the rest of the week. The next day the target was Doolin-which
is famous for the trad music. We had lunch at a lovely seaside town called
Lanhich. My room mate and I decided that we would give the Cliffs of Moher
(which are used for the Cliffs of Insanity in the movie “The Princess Bride”) a
miss as we saw them before and wanted to do a boat trip round them instead-but
the weather got bleaker,we gave the cliffs a quick look and got to Doolin to
find out that the ferry was cancelled AND we got to the b&b before the
guide-so we could not change.Oh! in lunch place at Lahinch I was explaining to
rest of table how bill was sorted and halfway through I realised I was talking
too fast for them, so i stopped-apologized and restarted. Night in pub was
eventful. The dinner pub was packed and food orders had got a little out of control,
and people who came in after us were getting served before us and orders that
had no owners were appearing. There was a great group playing and despite the
crowd the talented Carolyn was up jigging, must admit I was scared I was going
to be kicked by her. Joerg and I decided to go to another pub-think a 3rd
person came too-but this pub was dead compared to the first one and one of the
items on their menu was spelled wrongly (I think-must check it out).
Next day the weather was, well worse-and this was the day that we caught our first glance of the
magnificent Burren. But when you see the pictures-when I get them sorted,
you’ll see how bleak it was.Lunch was in the famous Lisdonvarna,had a pretty
good seafood chowder there. Joerg and I were pretty keen to get to hotel to get
showered and have a couple of Irish Coffees.
Craic in pub that night was great. I got singer to do
“Teenage Kicks” Carolyn was in her element here and was dancing all night-she
even did a costume change and got the singer to do a Spanish type song and she
was up there,fan in hand,rose between her teeth giving it all she had.And good
it was too.
Next day was rest day and some of us booked a guided tour
over the Burren.The guide was a local person, and halfway through the walk one
of the members of my group said that it was only because they were getting use
to my talking could they understand some of what he was saying. I told them
they were lucky we were not in Cork
as they can do a full sentence as one syllable. One of the American’s in our
group approached a woman in the other group and said to her that she looked
like the woman who played the barmaid in cheers and she said that, that was
because she WAS the woman who played the barmaid in Cheers-no kidding the very
same Rhea Perlman-unfortunately I did not get a photo or a chance to talk with
her. Walk was great, but sudden heavy shower we all got soaked, I had to get my
trousers dried out in drier in hotel.Carolyn and I had planned to go up to see
the Ailwee Caves but we were recovering from walk-and
we lost contact- so we/I decided to give
it a miss. Pity as I was hoping the two of us could get lost in the cave. Great
night in pub-packed.Carolyn sung and danced.
Next day weather was a bit better. Billy the guide took us
to a round fort and gave a most interesting and informative story about it. Then
we saw the Poulnabrone Dolmen-thankfully not that many people about, so got
some good photos.
THEN on route was the Burren Perfumery-the smell here was
overwhelming, but despite that, the grounds outside were most relaxing.It’ll
come as no surprise that the men in group could only withstand 5 seconds of the
aroma inside the perfumery.We were staying in a very picturesque village called
Kinvara-the owner of the place we were having dinner was not the most
socialable and was a bit annoyed when I asked for the full menu as opposed to
the abridged version on our table. That night due to a little chaos the group
got split up –and I managed to withhold Carolyn from singing and dancing –but
she did have an elastic band war in pub- and despite what she says-I won.
Last day weather was great.Three of us got a bit
diverted-well Christina the Swede said she was good at map reading and knew
where she was going-and Richard and I did not want to argue-turned out the
route we took was wrong,but when guide came back to find us, told us our new
route was better than the official one. We passed the Father Ted house that
day. The craic on the last night was great. In pub Carolyn sung and danced and
a local girl did a great version of “Me and Brownie Magee” and “Caladonia”.
I had stayed on a extra day in Ennis-and coincidentally so
did Carolyn-she asked me if she could spend the day with me as I was going out
to Bunratty to see the castle and folk park. We had a great time together and
the day just flew in.That night we could not be bothered “dining” so we just
got a sandwhich and a bottle of water from Dunnes and sat on a park bench and
had a great chat-about life and things.
We looked for a pub with music-found a
fairly quiet one –and Carolyn sung and danced-unfortunately she did not bring
her dancing shoes. We met a Thai guy from USA
who said that he was in Ireland
checking out his Irish roots-and he sung and danced with Carolyn. I couldn’t as
I had a sore leg. OH! apparently his Mother is Irish.
I walked her to her Hostel-then she walked me to my hotel
and walked back to hosel on her own (ha ha only joking).
Next day we spent a couple of hours walking round town
before making our way to bus station-Carolyn had to walk on almost every wall
she saw-did not fall in river-drat! At bus station we had an elastic band
fight, and deservedly got strange looks from other people in the general area.And
I won again.
THEN I was off to Galway –caught the start of the Arts
festival-in heavy rain I watched a
spectacular parade-my little compact camera drowned-but survived, I
think.Missed Carolyn during Parade as she would have loved it.
Tuesday headed back home-great holiday! And Carolyn got up
and sung and danced.
For the record this was a really good group-or I say
strange? as they got most of my humour. Questons? Fire them at me. And Caroyln
sung and danced.
