Day 3: Dublin to Galway

Day 3 began with the difficult task of leaving Dublin by car. It was almost as hard to get out of Dublin as it was to find the hotel the first morning.

Once we got on an actual highway, it wasn't so bad. I think I'm finally getting the hang of driving on the left and such.

The first place we stopped was the estate of the first Duke of Belvedere. There was some scandal involved in its history, which is sort of weird.


The guy's wife fooled around with his brother; she had his brother's kid, in fact. So, he had her locked up somewhere for like 30 years, and tried to kill his brother. Then he had a fake castle-ruin built on his property to block the view of his brother's estate.



Next, we stopped in Kilbeggen, which is home to the Locke Whiskey distillery. They don't distill there anymore, but they did for many, many years. They have a tour, which ends with a taste of their product.


Distilling whisky is a lot like brewing beer; doesn't sound too hard... perhaps we could try it someday.

Next we drove out to the middle of bu-fu nowhere to see an ancient monestary. I mean, we were driving through peat-farming country to get there. Some of these country roads are a bit intense. To begin with, the road surface itself is often in tough shape. The speed limit is often 80 to 100 km/h (about 50 and 62 mph), and the road is not even wide enough for two cars in many places. On the roads where the speed limit is 100 km/h, there are often passing zones, and the local drivers have no qualms about passing you on a narrow, barely two-lane road. Lots of blind rises and corners, enough to make me nervouse, and that's saying something. Especially since we have extra insurance on the rental, and we can total the car and only be liable for about $200.


To add to that, there's often "no verge" (no shoulder? wtf is verge and why do we need a sign to say we don't have any?)... the road might be 16 feet wide, with a thick hedge on each side. Or, maybe a steep bank on each side. We actually busted out the video camera today to tape a short chunk of one of these roads. To make it worse, you have to navigate by wayposts that tell the distance to the next town.


Anyway, we took a few shortcuts and somehow found Clonmacnoise, on the Shannon river. Essentially a monastery, started in the 6th century AD or so, that grew into a small town. The town was raided by the Vikings, the native irish, the British, and the Normans many times over its long life. There are a lot of partially-restored ruins, and a museum as well.



The main purpose of today's journey was to cross the country, to the Western city of Galway. Once we got here, we of course had trouble finding the hotel (they really don't believe in street signs in Ireland, apparently).

We then walked around town a bit, had some dinner, and ended up at a pub that had a great live band. The list of beers that I have sampled on draught now include: Guinness, Harp, Kilkenny, Smithwicks, and Bulmers (cider). It's tough to find other stuff on draught sometimes, since a lot of the pubs literally have 4 or 5 taps devoted entirely to Guinness.


Up until tonight, I don't think I'd actually seen anyone drinking Coors Light... heard about it, sure... but not seen it. There was one woman, though.... and she sounded Irish, too. Shameful!


Tomorrow we're off for a loop down by the Cliffs of Moher, and back to Galway City for another night.