Monthly Archives: May 2026

Friday, May 22

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About that power outage: it’s fine now, but it did last a while. I’ll have to check and see just how long, since we may end up tossing anything in the freezer. Apparently a damaged semi truck was near a power pole and if it had overturned there would have been a bigger issue, so PG&E opted to shut off power until things were resolved. Or so I’ve read.

We had no specific plans for today other than walking to Salt Hill, which I’d read was a nice walk. There were a few other things we might fit in, but nothing like a tour or museum. So it was to be a relaxed day.

I had read a blog by a woman who fell in love with Galway and said she would be happy to move here. So far Dan and I aren’t feeling that, though. The Latin Quarter is fun but clearly a tourist area. Maybe today would be the day we find out what she’s writing about …?

First, though, coffee. Of course. But look … no sweet roll this time! I had no idea my bagel would be so huge, and who knew crisps were served at breakfast?

Once we finished our breakfast we went toward the Latin Quarter: Dan had seen a cap yesterday he wanted to buy, and I had decided I needed a lighter cap for days when it isn’t cold. Rumor has it we will encounter warmer weather quite soon. My hat was found and gosh, for only a bit more € we could get two so Dan opted for a baseball cap as well. Here I am with my new Guinness hat. (I had to show the back as well, since I do love the harp logo.)

We continued on our way to the place where Dan could buy his linen hat as well. The funny thing is that he now has SIX hats with him: his Mucros wool cap, the new linen Mucros cap, a rain cap, a trail hat, beanie, and his new Guinness baseball cap. Me? I “only” have three: my new Guinness baseball cap, my rain cap, and my little hot pink beanie. (Yeah, really — I’m NOT a pink person, but it came as a free bonus from Woolx.)

Here is Dan modeling just three of his six hats!

Then it was on to find the way to Salt Hill. As we neared that path we saw a lot of booths set up so we wandered a bit. There was one cool stand that had faux leather items made from cork and I was tempted by the keychain. Then Dan said, “Do you have any keys?!” Heh. Well, aside from a mail key I don’t even use keys, so never mind.

While we were there we saw a huge dog. I’m not an animal person, really, but this dog was so sweet … and huge! The people were quite friendly as well.

We found our way to the “long walk” (which is what the walk to Salt Hill is called I guess), and headed out. I won’t write a ton, but I will show photos of things we saw on the way.

We arrived at Salt Hill, seeing the place (from a distance) we might have opted to stay, and while it would have been less expensive we did think where we are is more central and better.

Then it was time to turn around and head back.

We opted to go a slightly faster way, and eventually landed at a place to buy a little bite to take back to our room. I had what was sort of like a pasty, but not quite, of mushroom and sauerkraut, and Dan’s was mushroom and cheese. They were small but tasty.

After a brief respite (is there any other kind of respite?) it was time to go back out. Since we missed out on the live music yesterday, we planned on getting somewhere early enough to grab a spot where we just might hear and see the musicians.

We walked back to the Latin Quarter, looking for the place Dan remembered. Or did he? I guess we’ll never know for sure! He thought he saw something that said music began at 3:00, but we sure couldn’t find it. He also had read about a place that had two floors and we weren’t sure about that either. We did get to see some buskers, as well as a bride and party parading down the street which was kind of fun. (We weren’t sure if we were seeing the father of the bride or the groom … heh … funny how one can’t always tell!)

Eventually we went to a spot to have a couple of “zero zeros” to begin our little adventure.

From there we continued to search, and finally went into a spot that already had musicians playing. I’m not sure how “Irish” all the music was, but it was fun to hear them.

That group of musicians left and another was setting up, but we were planning on heading back out. BUT … well … then were heard what I think were uilleann pipes. That kind of caught our attention. I saw the guy who was playing that then pull out a few recorder-like instruments (Irish whistle?) and we had to stay a bit longer to listen. (Sound is probably bad and too loud so maybe turn the sound down!)

It was fun to hear them. Loud, though!

But then they played “Folsom Prison” and moved on to more contemporary music. I heard a guy nearby saying, “That isn’t Irish!” Heh. No kidding. And it was just too loud, so we then left.

Then it was time to search for actual dinner. We walked almost all the way to our hotel when we found a place that looked like it would do. And it did. Except … there was a group of what appeared to be students (two young men and maybe four or five young women) and an older man who we figured was their professor. Oh. My. Goodness. He was loud. He was annoying. And one of the young women was playing up to him and he had his arm around her. He was clearly drinking a lot. It was pretty darn sad and frustrating to see what was going on.

Okay, enough of my whining. For now.

I had a nice seafood chowder and Dan did the turkey roast thing. It was tasty and, for me, just a nice, smaller meal. I need to do more of those! The place was interesting and I wish I’d thought to take photos, but all I got was the ceiling. Ah well!

Back in our room I am finishing up this entry and then it will soon be sleepy time. Tomorrow we have our one and only bus ride to our next destination. We’ll see how that goes!

Goodnight!

Update:
19,484 steps, 7.79 miles, 0 flights climbed

Thursday, May 21 — Moving Day

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We had a lazy morning: our train was to depart at 11:30 and we didn’t have to check out of the hotel until 11:00. We aren’t so brave as to check out that late, though, for an 11:30 train. Odds are that would work fine, as it’s just a 10 minute drive away, but we like to allow time for any problems that might arise.

After hanging out in the room for a bit we went out to get breakfast. (Since I normally don’t even eat breakfast I sure wonder how much weight I’ve already gained!) Cinnamon rolls and coffee were enjoyed.

We walked back to the hotel to check out and had them call a taxi. Said taxi didn’t seem to show up in the one minute they promised, but another cab dropped some folks off so we grabbed that. The driver was a nice guy and he asked how soon our train was leaving. We told him we had plenty of time and he proceeded to talk about the people who head to the airport with no time to spare. We assured him we always allow time for either train or plane. (Dan knows me well enough to know I’m not a risk taker, and I think he is also quite careful about making it to stations with time to spare.) I took a couple of photos as we said goodbye to Dublin.

We reached the train station, entered knowing we had extra time, and went to a store there to grab something to eat on the train. This particular train had no food to purchase, but I’d prefer picking things up in any case since it’s less expensive off of the train. We waited only a short time for our track number, and when it seemed as if it should have been announced we went up to the spot I thought would scan our tickets but the man there looked at them and pointed us on to a further walk, telling us we were on track 7. As we walked Dan said he thought it was actually track 8 since he saw that on a board and, sure enough, it was 8. It was a good reminder to always double check!

Our car was the second to last. Of course! I told Dan, since we were in car B, that we’d either be right near the front or all the way back. Figures it was the latter. Our seats were in the row right by the door so that was easy, but there was no luggage rack there (I’m guessing I chose those seats because I thought our luggage would be right behind us!) so Dan had to lift the suitcases into the space above us. Even his large suitcase fit there, but lifting it? Well, that was a challenge … but a young man was behind us and offered to put it up for us. Whew! Sometimes it’s not fun to realize we are unable to do things like that any longer, but as Dan said, he’d lifted luggage for other so much so this was just okay.

Soon the train was departing. As it went I did shoot a few photos, including the stops we took.

And then we arrived. Hello Galway!

Oh — and hello rain. Not at all surprising: it seems our trip has been full of rain.

We had to get our rain jackets out of our luggage, but then we took a very easy three minute walk to our hotel. It’s sort of on the edge of the main part of Galway that people visit, and it’s a fine spot. It’s also very expensive. I was rather shocked at prices here for lodging, but maybe it’s because people come here to then go to the Aran Islands. (When we left our room to investigate the area we saw a van advertising eight minute flights — yes, really — to the Islands.)

We are back to the smaller “king size” bed, but so be it. The view from our window … well … see for yourself!

Once we were somewhat settled and got anything of value we didn’t want to cart around in the safe we went out. I didn’t bother with the Fuji camera due to rain. We eventually got to the Latin Quarter (yep, in Galway). I’d heard that you could find a lot of Irish music spots there. We walked through the area looking in at shops and pubs and a rather amazing bookstore, and also ambled into less populated areas. Street art is all over the place.

From there we walked over to the water, where what I think is an estuary (thank you, Dan!) goes to the sea. It was racing out pretty wildly! We crossed over a bridge and read about and saw what used to be a lock as well.

At that point it was nearly dinner time, so we went back to where the crowds were now gathering and tried to find a place we could hear some music and enjoy a meal. Two places were impossible to get into, and we then went to a place where music had yet to start and, toward the very back, found a place to sit. Dan ordered a couple of beers while I held the seats. What we didn’t know until he returned was that it wasn’t a place for dinner. So we sat, enjoyed piped in music until whoever played arrived, and then barely heard the musicians since they were so far away and the place was packed so it was quite noisy. Ah well. Tomorrow we will plan better!

After our beers we left and went to find a place to eat. Nothing really worked in the Latin Quarter (crowds!), so eventually we just opted to eat at the hotel restaurant. First we went to our room to drop some things off. But what did we find? Um. The “safe” wasn’t so safe since we neglected to close it. Hah!

The restaurant downstairs was quiet, which was nice, and we sat and ordered: Dan ordered salmon and I ordered chicken. When they brought our meals both of us had chicken. Oh well! He opted not to tell them, and the food was actually quite good. Typical of me, I forgot to take a photo until I’d eaten most of the food so I think I’ll skip sharing my meal here. Just imagine a nice plate of chicken, peas with pearl onions, and mashed potatoes. (I must say we are getting more than our fill of potatoes and I am actually getting tired of them, which I wasn’t sure was possible.)

And now we are back in our room. I’ll finish up this blog entry and get ready for bed. (But meanwhile I just received a notice that we have a power outage at home. Sometimes I wish I didn’t get these messages, as there’s not a thing I can do about it.)

Tomorrow I think we’ll walk to Salt Hill, as I’ve heard it’s a lovely walk. I think we have seen much of what there is to see in the center of Galway.

Goodnight!

12,404 steps, 4.79 miles, 3 flights climbed

Wednesday, May 20

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We woke to begin our second and final full day in Dublin. We also woke to the prediction of no rain today!

First up, after getting out of pjs and into street clothes because we are just smart enough to know walking around in pjs might look odd, was breakfast. We opted today to go for something much lighter than yesterday’s delicious but large breakfast and instead bought our coffees and we each had a pastry (Something with apple for me and what I assume was a chocolate croissant for Dan.) The place was small but we found a seat and enjoyed our treats.

While there I realized it would be good to have our AirPods for our next destination so our “next destination” actually turned out to be our hotel to collect those. I thought, too, I should share the magnificent carpet in our hallway. I really should take photos of these at every hotel they are so … um … interesting. Heh.

Then it was back out to walk to Christ Church Cathedral. It’s “Don’t Mow Month”. Seems like we’d be smart to have that where we live too. Good for wildlife and the flowers popping up were pretty.

With our tickets we could get the audio tour (thus the AirPods). So inside we went, and I did listen to a lot of the audio and wandered. (The “Musicians’ Corner” was sadly blocked by a grand piano (fitting, I suppose): I would have liked to have seen things better.) I did shoot a good number of photos. (Or if you are bored and don’t like them I guess it’s a bad number of photos. You choose.)

Then we took the stairs to the crypt (and gift shop but I don’t take photos in gift shops).

After the cathedral we walked through a bit of Temple Bar again, but only took two shots.

Then it was on to Trinity College where we walked around briefly. We didn’t enter any buildings, though. I guess dogs aren’t allowed to attend the college.

Our next destination was what claims to be the oldest pub or some such thing. But we’ve seen “the oldest” claims a few times. We’ve also seen “the best” and, for Guinness a pub that claimed to have “the creamiest” Guinness. So who knows? But we walked toward the pub.

After a bit of walking we landed at The Brazen Head. I wasn’t sure we’d eat there, but they had room and we figured we might as well. We decided that would be our large meal of the day. Dan went for the bangers and mash and I ordered fish and chips. I must say my meal doesn’t photograph very well! (And I’m now thinking that should be my final fish and chips of the trip … so darn filling and I know they aren’t exactly healthful. But we’ll see if I stick to that.)

Following lunch it was time to cross the Liffey River and go to another place we’d seen recommended. For the first time I saw the “green walking man” lit on the sidewalk. Cute! (I can’t remember what a “sidewalk” is here, but I know they don’t use the same word. Maybe I’ll come up with it later.)

Eventually we arrived at EPIC — The Irish Emigration Museum. I was hesitant after looking at photos, as it seemed like yet another “experience” place and they just seem odd to me, but I’m extremely glad we went! I learned a lot, and it was quite well done. I didn’t take a ton of photos, but I did take some.

I also took some videos. In one of the music sections they showed how Irish music was then brought over to America.

One song was sung and I recognized the tune, and then another person in the video sang “Streets of Laredo”. Sure enough the tune was nearly identical. I managed to get the original version on video:

I found this so interesting because when we were eating lunch they had Irish music playing and suddenly I heard what we would call “Simple Gifts” — the Shaker tune that Copland then used as well. So perhaps that, too, was actually from a folk tune here.

EPIC handed us our “passports” as we entered the museum, and at each of the sections we had them stamped. Now normally Dan and I are just not into things like this but somehow this one worked and we HAD to get our stamps!

We had purchased our tickets as we entered the building at 2:50 or so (noting that we did NOT buy them at the ticket desk because it was €4 cheaper to purchase online!). We didn’t leave the building until 5:50! I think that shows just how interesting it was — and we didn’t even do all the things we could have done there.

At that point it was time to go back over the river, and I wanted to be sure and go over the ha’penny bridge for that. (The toll at one point for this pedestrian bridge was a ha’penny.) I wish I’d taken a better photo of it, but if you want to see it I’m sure you could google it. There were so many people crossing and I just didn’t have a good shot.

We ambled and went in search of a light meal. Typical of us it took a while to find a place. One pub seemed nice but there were no seats. Another would have worked but there appeared to be a long wait.

Finally we spotted the Bruxelles pub and not only did they have room, but they had a very small room with not one other person in it! Perfect for my ears and no loud music! (Eventually one other couple entered but they were quite quiet.) I ordered a toastie again. I could have done without the fries after lunch, but the toastie did hit the spot. Dan’s “light” meal turned out to be a bit larger. We both had our “zero zero” Guinnesses. These alcohol free beers are actually not bad (we had them at lunch, too), and I was happy to have an alcohol free day.

Speaking of alcohol, on our walk home we saw this place … look at all those barrels!

Once back in our room I packed as much as I could pack tonight, set out tomorrow’s clothes, and got started on this entry. Tomorrow is, once again, moving day. This time we go by train and I tend to enjoy that kind of travel the most. For the first time we are on Irish Rail and of course we’ve never been in the Dublin Heuston station so I’m sure we’ll be there plenty early so yours truly doesn’t stress.

For now, though, goodnight!

20,016 steps, 7.99 miles, 0 flights climbed

Tuesday, May 19

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Our day began sometime very early in the morning. An alarm went off that could not be ignored. I thought it was somewhere on Dan’s side of the bed, but of course being pretty deaf in my left ear meant I have no sense of direction. Dan checked his side and he said it wasn’t his phone (the only way it could have been would have been one of those national emergency alarms and even those aren’t that loud — at least I don’t think so!), and he thought it was on my side. Nope. Eventually we just went back to sleep because the alarm was quite brief.

Then at 4:00 AM it went off again. Just this horribly loud noise that lasted for maybe five or ten seconds. Well, this time we did more investigating. The bathroom fan, which had been on since Dan had some laundry hanging there, was no longer working. Hmm. Odd. We smelled no smoke, and of course the alarm had stopped and I doubt it would have done so had it been a fire. Still, Dan looked out the door and he said the fire doors had closed. Finally he called downstairs. They said someone had an issue with their shower and there was no problem at all. Meanwhile there was this periodic extremely low hum — almost like a foghorn — and we wondered about that as well. (Later I started to wonder if the person in question had run very hot water in the shower to get wrinkles out of clothing, but had left the bathroom door open: I had taken a hot shower some years back and left the door open and it triggered our smoke alarm! So maybe …? But who knows?)

I was just relieved it was not a fire. Going outside in cold temps wearing pjs is not my idea of a fun way to spend early morning, and I suppose if it were a fire that’s what we’d have had to do (although, as always, my clothes were sitting out for the day already).

But back to sleep we went, and didn’t rise until well after 8:00.

Once we did get moving (slowly) we went in search of breakfast. I’d located three possibilities. We chose the one with the higher ratings (although who knows what ratings mean!), and went inside. We were quickly shown a table, and soon ordered and paid for our food and coffees via Dan’s phone. That’s getting more and more common, it seems. Our food was quite yummy. When we first went in there was room for more people, but when we finally left there was quite the line to get in. I guess it’s popular!

Next up was St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around. I have to roll my eyes sometimes at what they might write about someone who is laid to rest there, or at least has a memorial plaque. They always sound like such flawless men and women! I do hope that, should I even have a service when I die, people are honest and say, “Well, she could sometimes be a handful and could definitely be annoying!” I mean … the truth is just fine by me. Just be sure and mention my incredible wit.

Or not.

I enjoyed reading about Jonathan Swift. (I think I might need to reread him sometime.)

From there we started to make our way to the Guinness location. We managed to make a few wrong turns, but it’s really not a big deal since we like seeing more of the city.

Finally there it was.

We purchased the self-guided tour tickets and made our way inside. I took far too many photos and don’t want to bore you too much, but I might bore you a bit. So it goes!

This water thing was rather cool!

There was a lot of information and parts of the tour were what Dan and I refer to as an “experience”, but really it was interesting and fun. It took much longer than I’d expected, too.

There was a section on an artist who did a lot of work for their advertising that was cute.

When I saw this particular display I cracked up. I had a t-shirt with that saying on it (you have to watch the full video) back in the later 70s. (My dad sure didn’t like that shirt!)

We were taken into a room to do a small tasting, but I didn’t do photos there. We walked a bit more and eventually wound up on the top floor where we were given a pint of Guinness. It wasn’t easy to find a place to sit, but eventually Dan nabbed a spot and we enjoyed sitting, drinking the beer, and I had saved a few packages of shortbread so we also ate those. Who knew shortbread and Guinness would work okay together? (Or maybe we were just hungry enough we didn’t care.) There were good views on that top floor.

We eventually left Guinness and planned on finding a light bite to eat. We walked a bit but didn’t find a place that appealed.

I had to shoot that last photo for my friend Bernie Sheehan!

So on we walked, through St. Stephen’s Green. I loved the sight of all those schoolboys squeezed on a bench!

At that point it did seem like perhaps dinner was in order soon. We ambled more, and even a bit more, not spotting anything that screamed out to us. Eventually I remembered that I had seen an old Victorian pub that seemed quite interesting so I did a quick search and found one. Whether or not it was the one I had seen online earlier I don’t know, but it was really cool. We walked in to find a very long hall. Then to the right there was a pub entrance with high tables. We aren’t exactly high table fans, and I had seen stairs that led to other rooms and I wondered about them. Someone who worked there said we could go on upstairs. So up we went. The first floor had a really nice, somewhat private room and we thought that would be perfect so in we went. I ordered the turkey roast (far too much food!) and Dan ordered the cottage pie. All was very good. Eventually the room did fill up so it was a bit noisy, but I was so happy to have that time when we were almost alone. At 7:00 a musician showed up and started to sing and play in the larger room adjacent to ours. The funny thing was that he was singing songs from our youth like “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” We had thought we’d be hearing Irish folk music or something!

Walking back out I took a few more photos:

Then it was time to head back to the hotel, passing once more through St. Stephen’s Green.

Thus ends our day. In some ways it feels as if we didn’t do all that much, but the cathedral and the brewery did take a lot of time.

Oh, and my watch was happy with me today. Whew! I’d still prefer to do even more walking, but this’ll do.

16,645 steps, 6.74 miles, 5 flights climbed

Goodnight!

Monday, May 18 — Moving Day

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We woke at 6:00 AM. Too early? Well, for some reason it seemed rather easy to rise, perhaps because I knew we had a flight to catch.

We checked out and got our taxi easily, and then drove to the airport. I was surprised by the expense, but Dan said it was what he expected. The driver was quite nice and we understood most of what he said. There were times, though, when I was at a loss!

Getting into the airport there were a lot of people in lines. Many were school kids — we are guessing high school. They were all in matching sweatshirts with their names on the back. I wondered if they would all be on our flight. I also wondered how long it would take us to get through the line we saw since we did have to check our bags. Thankfully Dan asked at the help desk and we were told that our line was further up and there were only a few people in front of us. One of those in front had a very very red baseball cap on with someone’s name on the back of it.

For the first time on this trip we encountered a maga hat. Dan mentioned to the woman at the desk that it was the first time we had seen one and that we weren’t a part of that group. Her response? “I’m glad.” She was very friendly and clearly relieved that we weren’t maga folks. It just made me sad to see the hat. Even if one is maga it seems as if they should be savvy enough to avoid announcing it. Most countries aren’t too thrilled with the United States at the moment. Ah well.

We got through security in absolutely no time at all, and found a spot for coffee and a sweet roll. We had tons of time to wait. I’m always okay with that!

When we walked to the area where our plane was probably going to be (still not posted on the board), all those kids were there as well. I finally could see their sweatshirts and there was the name of an Aberdeenshire school, Westhill Academy, and “Valencia ‘26”. I didn’t manage to find anything else about it at the time, but I did see they weren’t going on our plane.

Finally it was time to board. This was one small plane. That group of kids probably wouldn’t have fit on to it!

We were in the second row and poor Dan’s knees were right against the seat in front — and then the young man sitting in front of him leaned his seat back. At least it was a very short flight!

I took a couple photos and Dan made a video for me since he had the window seat.

You can really see the bright yellow canola from the plane.

I pretty much spaced out and even snoozed a bit. We were on an Aer Lingus flight and even water would cost money, so never mind any drinks or food. Not that we needed them in any case.

And then we arrived.

Greetings, Ireland! Hello Dublin!

Our taxi driver was very chatty and gave us a lot of information abut the area. I could even understand most of what he said.

We arrived early to our hotel, so we dropped off our luggage and went on a walk in search of lunch. And not “not lunch” but real lunch which was fine by me since my earlier sweet roll was quite burnt. (Darn!)

We ended up in the Temple Bar area. Clearly tourist country. Our driver had told us it was a place to visit during the day even while drinks were more expensive than in other areas. He explained that there was live music and the extra cost was due to paying musicians. I’m okay with that! In the later hours it gets a bit wild and crazy (I’d already read about that as well, and one had to be careful about theft and all.)

We randomly chose a place and went upstairs (where we couldn’t hear the music at all) and ordered our meals. I had soup and Dan had fish ‘n chips. I neglected to take photos but no one really needs to see those — just use your imagination! Instead here’s a photo of Dan and his beer!

From there we did more walking in our typical random way. (The first shot is of the restaurant for lunch.)

We ended up in a shop with tons of gorgeous Aran wool sweaters as well as other wool items. Oh how tempted I was! I know it’s all about the tourists, but honestly the prices for such beautiful sweaters didn’t seem at all unreasonable and they were 100% wool. There was one long one that I drooled over. (Not literally, you’ll be relieved to read.) Still, I resisted. I wish I’d taken a photo of the green one I loved, and the men’s purple — a color I wished they’d had for women. I only took these two photos. One of the jackets and vests and the other of the fishermen’s sweaters. And who knows … maybe I’ll cave and return to buy something. They do say they are made in Ireland, and they are just so doggone beautiful.

From there we just ambled a bit.

I think we were both a bit weary from the early wake up. In addition the bag Dan was carrying was rather heavy (full of his photo gear, I think). Due to all of that we went back to the hotel to get our keys and luggage and up we went to our room. The room is spacious, and the bed is the first truly king size bed we’ve had, I think.

I looked outside our window as well.

A bit of snoozing may or may not have taken place. Just guess!

Eventually we decided to head out in the rain in search of a light bite. I did find one spot we passed rather humorous.

I had done a search on restaurants, and then pubs, but finally I realized the best way to search was to plug in FOOD. That way I’d see even more suggestions. We walked to the closest place but it was burgers and that didn’t grab us. Then we walked a bit further to a small pub but it was so crowded and we didn’t see that they served any food at all. Another place, just a short walk away, was nearly empty and looked okay, but Dan said the one he saw on my map that was only a block or so further down was rated higher so we went to check that out. And that was the spot! It was incredibly noisy, but it seemed more like a local place and we really wanted that. They had all of one food option: toasties. Well, that was something I wanted to try in any case, and it was the small bite kind of thing we were hoping for. PLUS the prices were much more reasonable. The place was full of, primarily, younger people — perhaps college aged. I’m certain we were the oldest people there the entire time! The video I shot doesn’t really show the crowd so much: many arrived just after we did, and some of the slightly older guys had left. (Older as in older than college aged, not nearly as old as us!) You might want to turn your sound way down!

Then it was time to make our (short) way back to our hotel. I did have to stop for this little guy, though:

I mean how very encouraging is that?!

We aren’t sure what’s up for tomorrow. Maybe the immigration museum. Maybe a Guinness tour. Maybe something else. So check in tomorrow to find out! I’m really hoping we get a day without rain, but I’m going to bet that won’t be the case. S’okay — we are having a great time no matter!

And now …

Oíche mhaith!

If what I just read is true, that is pronounced “ee-hah wah” … I don’t think I’ll be speaking Irish any time soon.

It means “goodnight”!

Sunday, May 17

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It was a slow rising day, and coffee in the room start. Exciting times.

After we finally were ready to go out, we just rambled outside and headed toward what I think of as downtown. The big question was “would Patty recognize anything from 1974?”

This is known as “Granite City” and one can see why. On our rather posh street all the buildings are of the rock. It also appears that most are now either hotels or businesses. I’m not sure I saw even one that was someone’s home.

We walked a good amount before getting an actually breakfast and better coffee. But then it was coffee and muffin time. I can’t say much for either, but hey, it was a chain so it was what it was. And it wasn’t Starbucks so there’s that. (We refuse to go there when we are abroad. We avoid it at home as much as possible as well.)

Then we did a lot more walking, more photography, and just enjoyed the pleasant day. It really was mostly a day of rest (appropriate, eh?) for us in any case.

We had decided earlier to enjoy the Sunday Roast so I found a place that served that called “Noose & Monkey”. I think I should look up that name: surely there’s a reason for it, yes? Normally I don’t eat meat other than fish and poultry, but I made an exception for this and it really was quite yummy.

It will obviously serve for our big meal of the day. As we sat in the pub (for a very long time!) we saw that it had started to rain. Earlier we’d have a few drops of “not rain”, but this looked more substantial.

Leaving Noose & Monkey the rain had stopped. We walked a bit more, but it was fairly clear we were running out of steam, so we opted to head back to our hotel.

By the time we arrived it was close to 5:00 anyway, so we put our feet up and relaxed.

Sooo … did I recognize even one thing on our adventure today? Nope.

Not. One. Thing.

Ah well … August 1974 was quite a long time ago.

We did some resting, I did some showering, and eventually we went downstairs to the bar to get a light bite. Turns out the same (somewhat costly) menu in the dining room was the same in the bar. Not to worry — I had already known I’d opt for the soup starter and leave it at that. Dan did the same. Cullen skink is a tasty soup and did the trick.

When we returned to our room I packed as much as I could for tomorrow’s very early wake up and taxi to the airport. Being the keeper of the toothbrush and toothpaste I only had that, my pjs, and the electronics (like this iPad) to shove into my day pack in the morning. I have a habit, on these trips, of setting next day’s clothing out so I don’t even have to think when I rise. Thinking is just so over rated!

We fly a new airline (to us) tomorrow, from an airport unfamiliar to us. We will get there early and I’m sure we’ll realize we are too early, but I don’t like to stress so it’s fine by me.

But now it’s time to attempt to sleep. Goodnight!

Saturday, May 16 — Moving Day

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It was a breakfast and packing morning. That all goes rather quickly, of course. First, in fact, we just spent a leisurely amount of time in our room.

This hotel is fine for what it is, but it’s a bit of a stretch to read that we are in a “luxury room”. The tub casing (if that’s what one calls the plastic siding) has cracks. The bathroom floor is in dire need of repair. The curtain is old and saggy. The lampshades have holes in them. The heater on the wall doesn’t work so they have a portable one in the room. The chairs in the lounges are rather old and the armchairs have rips in them. Some of the dining tables had two salt shakers and some had two for pepper. That one just made my laugh. In some ways it’s just rather charming in that “my this is an old place!” way, but I wonder how long they can last without really working on the place. Still, I love the location and the staff (all two of them that we’ve seen) are friendly. (The young woman, who has, I believe, an accent that would suggest she’s from England, said she arrived two weeks ago when they opened for the season. In other words, they don’t function year round.)

In any case, it was time to say goodbye. We have only one more stop in beautiful Scotland and it’s a place I visited back in the summer of 1974!

Breakfast occurred. As breakfast seems to do. Dan had more salmon and scrambled eggs and I opted for porridge. I do love oatmeal, but I think I like the word porridge even more. Yep. I’m silly that way.

After breakfast we pulled a few things out of the car so we could pack up, and then up to our room for showers and getting all things ready.

Then it was time to check out and head south.

I never wrote about “the wave”. Or I guess I should say “the waves”! When you are at a passing place, nearly always everybody acknowledges the other driver. Either it’s a wave, two fingers up like a peace sign, a thumbs up, or just one finger up on the steering wheel. Not the middle finger mind you! With cyclists and motorcycles, you get a head nod. It’s all so polite. Now, if you make a blunder and pull to the right instead of the left, you might get an angry person, signaling that you should go left, but that’s rare.

(Side note: I’m reading what I wrote above and instead of “blunder” I typed “blender”. Please know I rarely do a good job proof reading. I hate to think of how many silly typos I have. Just laugh at me and move on. That’s what I do.)

And signs … there’s of course the passing place, but we’ve also seen warning signs for sheep, cows, deer, red squirrels, and today a new one: OTTERS. Yep. Really. I should have taken a photo. There was also an “observe speed limit” sign today. Hmmm. Does that mean we could have ignored it up until that sign? I wonder.

When we left the Altnaharra Hotel we started out in the same road we were on yesterday when we returned. Goodbye dear hotel. You were a bit of a puzzlement in some ways, but I enjoyed our stay!

As we began the drive we encountered “not rain” again. but of course!

We stopped at a sign I had noticed yesterday so I snapped a couple photos.

This time, as well, we stopped at the church we drove by yesterday. First I shot the monument and then we entered the church. Dan opened the inner church door but shut it because he said someone was doing something inside. Right after that a woman poked her head out and said to come on in: her husband was photographing the church because it was soon to be sold. (You can see his work here.) We had a nice chat with them, and learned a bit more about the Free Church of Scotland. I still need to read up on it some more, but it sounded like a stricter sect from what they explained.

For the first time we saw some peat sitting out in a field.

This will be the last day we see these signs that appear so frequently. I thought they should be changed to “Patty’s Place” and Dan came up with a lot of other possibilities. Alas, I think they will stay as they are.

We’ve seen so many beautiful stone fences, but this one was a first for us.

The couple at the church told us we might see some red deer on our drive. And there they were.

In about an hour and a half we got to the village of Helmsdale. It seemed a good time to get lunch, since our dinner reservation was going to be rather late after our train ride. So yeah, it really was lunch rather than “not lunch”. And it was tasty! We ate at a place called “Thyme and Plaice”. Get it? Very yummy!

All along our drive the Scottish broom has been pretty amazing. We think of it as a weed in our area, but in Scotland I’m assuming it’s loved. Sometimes it’s on both sides of the road and you can’t see anything but road and broom and in those cases the car sometimes gets brighter from all that yellow. It covers some hills and is really lovely. But then we ran across fields of a most amazing yellow. I never managed to get a great close up of a field, but really it was just beautiful! I am pretty certain this is canola, also called rapeseed. I’ve read we might see more of it in another area we’ll see in a few weeks. We shall see.

And then we reached our first destination. Hello Inverness. Dan had to fill the car with petrol, and we returned it. Then Enterprise drove us to the train station (no charge … super!). We rearranged a few things in our luggage so we will have what things we will want at our disposal on the train, and entered the Ness & Thistle to kill over an hour of time. Easy. Order a pint, pull out the iPads, and get writing!

But before I go any further again I must say Dan did a stellar job of driving. He had suggested, on day one, that I eventually give it a go, but he didn’t bring that up again and I’m glad. I really prefer to drive on the RIGHT side of the road! (But he kept up his mantra, “Left is right and right is wrong!” For the most part that worked. Until today, when twice (at least) he attempted to get in the car on the passenger side. We figured he was just reverting, knowing he was done with the car soon!

So cheers to Dan!

Our train was due to leave at 17:20. It’s not a terrifically long ride — we should arrive at 19:36. I’m really hoping it is on time … I know we’ll be rather weary! Meanwhile we sat and waiting, very slowly nursing our drinks.

And then it was a bit after 17:00 so out we went to find carriage A. One never knows: will that be the closest car or the last one? We’ve been known to guess wrong and have to race to the far end of the track! As it turned out, it was the first coach, so easy-peasy. And there were very few in our first class car. Why first class? I guess it must have been cheap enough to warrant that. I believe the rest of our trains are “standard” and that’s just fine with us. But there we were, in row 7. I think maybe the car started out with about eight or nine people. Eventually it dwindled down to just three of us.

The ride was pleasant, even while we had to stop and wait for a late train before leaving one station. Not a worry for us since this train took us to our destination. (Later we heard that others, who were connecting to Glasgow, were going to be fine because they held that train for them.) I took just a few photos.

And then we arrived.

Hello Aberdeen!

You might wonder why we came here for all of two nights and only one full day. Well … I was here in August of 1974 for the International Youth Orchestra Festival (or whatever it was called) and I just wanted to revisit the spot. I wonder if I”ll recognize even one thing here. I was here on August 8, 1974, in fact. We woke up in the middle of the night to hear an announcement over the television. Hmmm … now what might that have been?!

We grabbed a taxi and got to the Chester Hotel. Wow!

This hotel is so very different than our last one. It’s a fabulous building or, rather, three or four buildings that are connected. The room is lovely. (But still you can see a bit of bathroom door damage … that seems to be a constant in hotels.) I’m even wondering if I somehow saw the wrong price on this place as it seems so much better than the other places we’ve stayed. If so — well — too late now!

And look at our sweet shortbread wrappers!

We ate dinner at the restaurant here at the hotel, since we got in rather late. It was delicious and too costly, but what is one to do at 8:30 in the evening? So whatever. Dan had roasted Cod and I had butter chicken. Yum!

Now it is late and we are tired. We haven’t planned a thing for tomorrow and I suspect we’ll just do some ambling. I’m not sure I’ll figure out where the youth orchestras all met up, and while I believe we stayed in dorms somewhere I’ve no clue where that might be. It was, after all, a long time ago.

For now goodnight!

Friday, May 15

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7:30 and time to rise ‘n shine for our 8:00 breakfast here at the Altnaharra Hotel. Sleep was fine, but I’m still adjusting to the “king size” beds here — they are a tad smaller than ours at home. You’d think kings would be larger in a country with a king. Or not.

Breakfast was nearly gone when I realized I hadn’t done my photo. Why a photo? Well, it helps me remember where we were when I go back and reminisce about a trip. So here, have the remains … and my driver as well. I’ve decided he’s Driver Dan and I’m Whimpering Wife. At least for the next couple of days. I’ll just bet he’ll be happy to be back to trains and planes!

On most of the walls in this place are prints of wildlife, fishermen, highland scenes and the like. But on this one wall …!

We got whatever we needed (cameras, and warm clothes) and went on our way. First we had to retrace our final drive from yesterday, which took over an hour. (Closer to 1 1/2 hours I think.)

Here are shots up to our first destination:

I’ve written before about the passing places. Today there was one spot where some cars were stopped and no one was moving at first. Finally the red cars started to back up. But it took a while. Turned out that the vehicle in front of them was towing a huge camper (or whatever it’s called). When he passed the second red cars they had a little chat. My bet is that Red Car had a few choice words to say about how they were all stuck, but who knows? Maybe he was admiring the gigantic thing in the back. I was just amazed that someone would bring such a thing on a one lane road like this. I’m guessing it’s not advised.

We stopped when we saw this area, which was right before the small village of Durness I think:

Then, when we hit Durness, we went in search of health food. I’d seen a sign for chocolate, after all. So we went to the area (kind of a curious little spot, including this haunted house bit and some craft stores we didn’t visit). We ordered coffees and rocky road bars. Plus, because it would have been rude not to, we chose four pieces of chocolate for later.

Between Durness and Tongue we saw these views. (Yes, Tongue! There is a village called Tongue and I need to look that up sometime to see what that name is about. Perhaps the end of a loch? Dunno!)

This is Loch Eriboll. I only shot this photo because of the curious tunnels I saw. I’ve no clue what those are about. (Not sure you can see them without enlarging the image.)

Here is Tongue:

Then we had some “not rain” as we call it, since we look at the weather and it says it’s not going to rain.

Going through the village (town?) of Thurso we purchased gas and proceeded to miss the right turn we were supposed to take, so we ended up on a lot of little country roads. It was a pretty drive, though, and I don’t think it added much more than a few minutes to our drive.

And finally, we reached today’s main destination: John ‘o Groats, here we are.

Getting out of the car was a challenge: the wind was something else. We donned our warm jackets and rain jackets, as well as our beanies. I don’t believe I’ve ever been in such wind before. Despite that, we headed out.

If you watch the video perhaps turn down the sound: I have no idea how horrendously loud it will be, nor do I know if you will even be able to hear me talk!

Honestly, this walk was intense! But gorgeous, too.

A short time before we got back to the car Dan noted that the rain was moving toward us. We walked a bit more quickly, but we still ended up getting hit by the rain and then hail. In my face. Hail in the face hurts! I was just about to get to the parking lot when wind gusts were so strong I grabbed on to a post to keep from getting blown over! I was quite relieved to get into the car, wet though I was.

A bit later Dan said, “I can smell the sheep,” assuming it was due to the rain. I said, “No. You are smelling my pants!” I was wearing my wool pants, and yep, they smell when they get wet!

So from John o’ Groats our next destination was back to our hotel. These drives take a long time and we were done. Still, we had over 1 1/2 hours to get back. I took a few shots along the way, and had we had more time would have stopped for more, as I saw a number of monuments as we drove along our one lane road. I suspect it was about WWII, but don’t know for sure about them all.

In any case, here are just a few shots, the first from Thurso. (Dan took photos 2 and 3 from his window for me.)

We reached our hotel and made our dinner reservation, which took place shortly after. I had sea bass and Dan had salmon and all was delicious, but I forgot photos until our sticky toffee pudding so you only get dessert tonight.

Tomorrow is, again, moving day. Hmmm. Where will we go? Guess you have to tune in tomorrow to find out!

For now I will take my leave: my eyes are weary and even while it’s only 9:45PM here I doubt I’ll be able to stay awake much longer!

G’night!

Thursday, May 14 — Moving Day

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We woke and headed down to breakfast fairly quickly. And yes, it was down: we are on the first floor (second floor in the US). I am reminded more and more about bringing our packs rather than the roller bags!

Breakfast was much more simple today: granola, yogurt, and berries in a bowl, one half slice of toast (for me, that is), orange juice, and coffee. Still, it’s more than I would have had at home, due to the toast, and of course it’s about four hours earlier than I would ever eat my first meal. I’m convinced that’s why we end up eating again midday. At home I only need two meals since I delay the first. My weight gain will be, I fear, a bit significant unless I get more exercise.

From my chair at breakfast … exciting, I know. Shortly after taking this it started to rain. Go figure. Mostly it was that misty sort of rain, but it can really drench a person!

After that it was shower and packing time. We’ve got the packing down — doesn’t take me any time at all to get that suitcase packed and zipped.

Before heading back on the NC500 we had to fill the tank. Dan commented that it’s nearly as costly as filling our BigMobile. So it goes!

From there we drove off. The first time we pulled over I saw a sign that told me there were some “Geopods” for the Northwest Highlands Rock Route” on our drive today, which could be found when there was a sign with the blue and white design you see in a photo. We stopped, though, for the view.

Another stop was at the Knocken Crag Nature Reserve. I haven’t yet mentioned that the scenery here is simply staggering, so let me say it now. The scenery is simply staggering! There. Done.

The next stop was at the Loch Awe View Point. We do a whole lot of stopping on these kinds of trips, but we don’t stay long — between the wind and the cold and sometimes rain I’m quick to get back in the car.

Yep, another stop. This time at the Ardvreck Castle. I should have taken photos of the info there. One fascinating tidbit was that a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charles thought he’d be safe escaping to this Highland spot but whoever was at the castle at the time traded him, supposedly for oatmeal. He was then hanged. (I have been missing oatmeal, but I don’t think I’ll trade Dan for some: I need him as my driver.) Sorry I don’t have the names at the moment and internet is rather slow so this is currently all you get. Perhaps I’ll update later. And of course that could all be a myth for all I know. We only took quick photos of the castle and the Calda House in the other direction.

Just a few shots from the area of Elphin.

… and then some from the Lochinver area.

We decided to take a detour to a lighthouse. Once again Your Royal Wimpiness did a bit of whimpering as Dan the Driver made his way there. It was a longer drive than either of us expected, and I did fear, at times, that we would fall into the sea. (The other day I instructed Dan that if we were to go over a cliff he wasn’t to swear as one might do in such a case, but he was to yell out, “I love you!” I figured I’d do the same. I’m not sure how keen he was about my instruction.)

On the way … some more hairy coos!

We continued the drive and then made it to the lighthouse. Anyone want to rent it? It was SO SO SO windy. (That’s a lot of wind.) At one point it nearly blew me over. We didn’t make it all the way into the lighthouse (I’m not sure that’s allowed in any case) because I’d had it with the wind.

Then back we went to reconnect with the main drive. As we went I used the passenger assist brake (on my left) and the passenger assist steering wheel (in the cup holder) a number of times. I’m helpful that way.

We’ve seen a few beaches on our drives. Too bad I didn’t bring my bikini.

Oh. Wait. I don’t own any sort of bathing suit at all! Never mind.

We reached the Drumbeg Viewpoint.

We saw a sign for some sort of secret tea garden and figured it was time to stop, relax, and have some “not lunch”. I did puzzle over all the signs I saw for the secret tea room, though. Not much of a secret, if you ask me! Anyway, it was a nice spot where we bought a bit to eat and enjoyed not only the secret tea room but no wind!

The secret tea room had no secret bathroom, so we had to amble back up the road a bit to find the WC. I took a few shots during the walk. And … now goats!

We drove on, eventually crossing a bridge and then pulling over to see a monument, read about the river below where the military did submarine training, and take a photo of the bridge.

With about an hour and a half more to get to our lodging we did a very small amount of photography, and took a five minute snooze. At this point I think we were both weary of driving. I can’t tell you how taxing it is to handle my emergency braking and steering! Plus I have to whimper every now and then. Thankfully the last bit of the drive was much easier for both of us.

For the most part, I think Dan has got this driving on the left side of the road down. We are even at a point where we grumble when someone coming toward us doesn’t know how to use the passing places correctly. We’ve been known to say, “Americans” with disdain when they get it wrong. And yes, we are being goofy. Because that’s what we do. (I’ve often said we should record our conversations because we clearly are a comedy team. Then again, I fear a lot of eye rolling should we do so.)

At a very decent time we arrived at our lodging for the next two nights. We are at the Altnaharra Hotel. This use to be a popular place for fisherman and climbers, if I read the blurb correctly. It’s old and rather charming. We enjoyed a nice dinner here as well, as there is absolutely no place nearby to eat. Dessert was the “Altnaharra Mess” and it was quite something!

We still have to figure out what where our drive will take us tomorrow. It’s impossible, I’m guessing, for us to do the entire NC500 on this trip, but we’ll try to hit a lot of it.

And now … Oidhche mhath! (Good night!)

Wednesday, May 13

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We are home quite late after a long day, but I’m going to do my best to write and post everything tonight. Otherwise I fear I might forget things (if I haven’t already.)

We woke to some of what I call “nothing music” on my phone. Turns out that when I put my sleep watch away it then plays the alarm on my phone. Normally it’s just the haptic thing I feel on my wrist. (One of the reasons I do like to use that watch and haptic is because if I’m sleeping on my side and my left ear is what should hear an alarm I simply won’t hear it — silly almost deaf ear!) We took a bit of time rising, but the noise below us was growing louder: we are right above the breakfast room, it seems!

We dressed and went down and Dan had the Scottish while I have the vegetarian breakfast. I neglected to take a photo of the breakfast room or our thrilling breakfast. You will have to use your imagination. But here — have a menu.

The four men behind me were in heavy garb and we heard their motorcycles later: the NC500 is a popular ride for motorcyclists, as Dan had told me.

After breakfast we went up to prepare for our drive. We will head south a bit today I think. The blogs and articles I’ve read suggest at least a week for the NC500, and some suggest even longer. I’m sure we won’t do the all of it, but we’ll certainly hit a lot of spots. (The actual map for the drive begins and ends in Inverness and we do end there since that’s where we return the car on Saturday, and we did start out from there as well: we just inserted Isle of Skye into the mix.)

The first map I set up for the car was to Gairloch.

We started out by heading down a street here we hadn’t yet been on.

From there it was out of the village, and while I’m not sure I should bother naming all the villages I’ll start by doing so. (I may run out of energy.)

Lochluichart:

Dundonnell (the small plant caught my eye … no clue what it was):

Laide:

Poolewe:

I’ve seen these “Elderly People” signs a number of places. They bug me. But sort of crack me up, too. Sure, I think an elderly woman who is hunched over should follow and hold on to the back of a man who also can’t stand up straight and must walk with a cane. Makes perfect sense.

We arrived in Gairloch, where we wanted to stop for what we now call “non-lunch”. We found this rather interesting coffee shop/bookstore. Lots of things about John Muir. A lot about Bob Marley, too. And a lot of anti-Trump things. We ordered scones (that didn’t really seem scone- like) and coffees. Then we found (finally) an actually NC500 map in the bookstore so we picked that up as well.

And now I’m confused because the next photos also say we are back in Poolewe. Hm. Maybe we did turn around for a bit. Or maybe my brain is befuddled. Or maybe both. You choose.

It started to rain while we were driving by Loch Maree. What a shock. Who knew it would rain in Scotland?!

There were lovely trees as we drove by Kinlochewe.

We stopped in what the iPhone says is Annat due to a mountain with snow on top that was lovely. It’s interesting to see the snow-topped mountains here. I also have seen several signs that say “Private Fishing”. No problem for us as we most definitely don’t fish.

Here are shots from Kenmore:

Arinna (assuming the iPhone is correct, but that’s the case with nearly all these images and who knows for sure?):

And we reached our next goal: Applecross. Yes, I was scared of the road, but it turned out to be mostly okay going to the place. And we say more hair coo! One even came running up to the fence, but I wasn’t yet out of the car so I missed that, as well as the running all of them did at one point. And those beasts are speedy! We also saw deer.

We thought we might get dinner in Applecross but there wasn’t much there and the one restaurant that had indoor seating had no openings at all. So instead we opted to find our way back to Ullapool. Little did I know that that was when the drive would get scary for wimpy me! I will post photos and videos below, but please know they look like a breeze. But on a skinny road with drop offs on the side and the occasional car or van coming toward you on a one lane road is SCARY. Honest! But there were also pretty views at times. So there’s that. Some of this is from the area called Kishorn, and some Sutherland and Ross

Dan indulged me and stopped (ON the road) so I could shoot this rhododendron, but I MUST get more shots of some plants, as some are so covered in flowers you can’t see anything but a big poof of color. Truly amazing. This one, though, was just so tall, so I put my phone out the window and shot looking up.

In Ledgowan we spotted a rainbow. (Later there was a double rainbow but I could easily shoot it.)

After about 1 1/2 hours we reached Ullapool. Whew. One incredibly day with scary drives and all. Dan is my driving hero!

Once we put things into our room we walked down to dinner. Nothing super special, but I told Dan he deserved his beer (and more, but he stuck to just that).

Tomorrow we again move on. We will still be doing the NC500, though. Stay tuned!

Oh … and NO stats for today. For one thing I forgot to even wear my watch but, more significantly, we simply walked very little and it’s not worth posting. So I’m not going to bother writing that I walked a measly 3,246 steps, went 1.37 miles, and climbed 3 flights. Because no one needs to know that.

Right?

G’night!