Black Friday in Ireland

This morning we woke up at 7am and it was very difficult getting out of bed! The only thing about this Friday that makes it black is the darkness outside! There are no people driving madly to and from the stores because there is only two grocery stores in the little town of Clifden. And the gift shops and clothing stores are experiencing black Friday because they are still dark because they are still closed! I believe the insanity of Black Friday is an American Icon, of course it is...

Travis told us to skype on Thanksgiving Day so we did! It was great to see Travis, Carleigh, Shelly, Tina, Cassidy, Haley and Emma!!!! Missed you all and  missed the Turkey! Sounded very good!

We did have a Thanksgiving dinner are Misty's house while we were in Pittsburgh and it was delicious! Sitting around the table with Thomas, Misty, Elyssa, Jackson, and McKenna was so very nice! So enjoyable visiting back and forth!  I also cooked a Thanksgiving dinner on the Saturday before we left and My brother and his wife Jo and my niece Teea and her boyfriend Bryce and last but not least my nephew Adam came over and ate with us and we played a couple of games! So maybe that is why I didn't really miss Thanksgiving! We had it early this year!!!

But the only reason we are up at 7:15 am is because we have the longest drive of our time in Ireland, 150 miles , which is going to take us 3 hours and we need to get to the castle to enjoy our time there!

So we go down for breakfast and this morning there aew no pancakes or french toast or eggs benedict, so I ate porridge! Healthy!

Porridge and brown bread and tea!

 Breakfast room!

 This is a house behind our B&B, I thought it was so cool!

 On the road again,,,as you can see we had a little rain and it is a little cloudy!

 But beautiful it still is!

 How would you like to live here!

  In Ireland and Scotland, lakes are called lochs.

Pardon the fuzzy pictures, Bud was driving and I was taking pictures! We didn't have the time to pull over, because we wanted to get to the Castle. When one is planning a trip such as this, one doesn't take into consideration for potty stops, hunger stops, gift shop stops, gas stops (not very many of these, small car) and photops! So this drive I said to myself no stops for pictures or shopping!!!

It worked!

But the pictures are not as good and I don't get the souvniers that I normally do! But that is good cause I am on the first leg of the journey still time for shopping!

But as you can see Ireland is green no matter where we go.

Kylemore Abbey was built as a private home for Henry Mitchell and his wife. He was a wealthy doctor and his family owned a textile manufacturing company in Manchester England. It took 4 years for 100 men to build it! It has 70 rooms, 33 which are bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a gunroom, library, ballroom, billiard room... It is 40,000 square feet. In 1920, the Benedictine Nuns bought it when there Abbey in Belguim was destroyed in the First World War. They continued to  offer education to Catholic girls, opened up an International Boarding School and established a school for local girls. They were forced to close the school down in 2010. They still own the property for tours and such.

The town of Donegal!

Donegal Castle

It was built in 1474 by Hugh O'Donnell wealthy chief of the O'Donnell Clan. This castle was regarded as one of the finest Gaelic Castles built in Ireland. It is right in the center of town!

Happy Thanksgiving from Clifden, Ireland!

Ireland doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. They never had Pilgrims. Some of the restaurants serve Thanksgiving dinners because there are American tourists. We just were not in those areas today. But, we found a wonderful Pub that had on their menu, Sesame Crusted Chicken stuffed with Goat Cheese, served with mashed potatoes and gravy and stewed tomatoes (salsa) and carrot mash! It was delicious! We of course missed being with our family and friends! But it was a delightful day of driving from Doolin, Ireland to Clifden, Ireland! So enjoy your turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing and cranberries and pumpkin pie for me!!!

This is Clifden where we are spending Thanksgiving Day!

 This is the restaurant we ate Thanksgiving Dinner in! The bottom two buildings, the green and the read are one restaurant!

 Bud and I enjoying our Thanksgiving Dinner!

 We each had one of these Sesame Coated Chicken Stuffed with Goat Cheese and mash potatoes and gravy!

 We went to this bakery and had dessert!

 We split a pastry filled with Whipped Creme and Strawberry Jam! Delicious!!!

 And we enjoyed this beautiful view while eating!

 La Altaithe Shona dhuit!

Drive through Galway into Clifden

If you have noticed one thing about most of the pictures what would it be? What would be the most outstanding color, say...Green! Yes there are other colors but they all go back to green, lots and lots of different colors of green. It just catches the eye. And white on green just goes together, white houses and white sheep! That is the two things that go so well together here. Lots of fields of green green grass with sheep on it. And then color in old stone fortresses, and stone houses and castles in ruins and stone fences and add lakes and rivers and oceans and brightly painted town buildings all in a row and you have Ireland. It is so very pretty so very pretty.

Oh and I forgot, gift shops! The owner of this gift shop we stopped in was painting his shop and it was closed but he let us in, and another couple and gave me a discount because he isn't normally opened this time of year!

Thank you!!!

Drive Through The Burren to the Lighthouse!

This morning we had a great breakfast at Doolin Hotel! I had Eggs Benedict without the eggs and Bud had scrambled eggs with bacon. We actually got an early start about 9am. We asked the hotel clerk where to see part of The Burren, which means great rock. The Burren is composed of rolling hills of limestone pavements with criss-crossing cracks. Lots of grass and flowers grow between the cracks and open spots bereft of limestone. During counter guerilla operatio

ns in The Burren in 1651-1652 Edmund Ludlow stated; Burren is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him...and yet the cattle are very fat for the grass growing in turfs of earth of two or three foot square that lie between the rocks, which are of limestone, is very sweet and nourishing.

Leaving Doolin, Ireland

How would you like to be these cows, living right on the beach?

What is this cow doing?

A farmer's field overlooking the Cliffs of Moher!

Sheep living it up at the beach!

Into the Burren!!!

We found this tackle/gift shop in a very small town, in fact the only other building was a little store run by the same people who had the tackle/gift shop! Of course we went in and shopped! Bud found some flies that were made by a local man! Score!

Then we saw this group of cows that Bud talked to and mooed to and this was their reaction!

What is the cow doing?

And then we came upon the much anticipated Irish Lighthouse!

Oh Well! It is cute, isn't it?