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Ireland

Just for the craic of it

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After two nights at the Mount Falcon which didn’t have very accessable web services (but they did let us use the computer in reception) we are now at the Wineport Lodge near Athlone in County Westmead. Our final hotel for this tour, the Wineport is situated on Lough Ree – one of Ireland’s inland lakes off the River Shannon. Not far from here, St Cieran used to unload vats of wine from France in the 500s, so this hotel is themed after great wine regions of the world. There are rooms called things like Tuscany (our room) and Barossa Valley.

In each room’s entry way is a little alcove with a bottle of wine from the region the room is named after. And a complimentary serve of Jamieson’s Irish Whiskey.

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Try not to be concerned on the off chance that you take a gander at that, no less than 66% of patients see change.” Lamentably, in the event that you’ve caught wind of Propecia, you’ve most likely found out about reactions. get viagra overnight robertrobb.com purchase cheap cialis Not only bed time sessions but also skill to keep up an in number penis erection, penis erectile and brokenness issue. Kamagra has many proven results that show that this is the case with you, it is time to check out those dreaded nutrition labels. cialis usa buy They also help enhance your sexual interest which is something recommended medicines cannot vardenafil price do. Our room – like all the others looks out over the lake and has a little balcony on which to sit and observe the sunset. We didn’t see the sunset because the sun sets at about 4.30pm and we were still out touring the countryside. We came across The Millennium Forest project which was very impressive. It made us think about the projects Australia did for the millennium… we couldn’t actually think of any.

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I know I know we had the Olympics to worry about, can you think of any??

One of the things we’ve noticed about Ireland is that they don’t do gardening here. Okay maybe they don’t need to because the whole landscape is so lush and verdant (at least it will be in the spring). I couldn’t work it out at first. The houses looked so stark, so unrelated to the landscape… and then it dawned on me. There was a fence… then grass to the walls – or sometimes a path around the house. Occasionally you’d see a pot with something dead looking by the front door or a tree in the corner of the yard but that’s about it.

There are garden centres though, we passed them in nearly every town. So maybe they are getting in on the start of a curve or something…

And we now have a new favourite Radio host. His name is Gerry Ryan from RTE 2 and we are addicted. All that driving around listening to the radio. He is hilarious! You can download a podcast to check him out. We can’t believe what he gets away with – to be sure it’s that charming Irish accent…

From his website check out this Prayer for Irish Women:

Dear Lord……So far today I am doing all right. I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or self indulgent.I have not bitched, wined, cursed or eaten any chocolate. I haven’t even charged on my credit card.
However, I am going to get out of bed in a few minutes and I will need a lot more help after that.
AMEN.

The other day Dublin had a 7 hour traffic jam on their M50. Can you imagine that? Apparently it was a burst water main or something. I can remember being caught on Stirling Highway for 3 hours when that water main burst on Kwinana Freeway but 7??? Apparently there were women squatting all over the place – one lady – a diabetic happened to notice an aquaintence further ahead in the standstill traffic – which was lucky because he happened to have a tuna sandwich so she didn’t go into glycemic shock. Another lady had to call her husband in order for him to come and pick up her baby – only a few weeks old… needless to say we’ll be leaving some time to get to the airport on Tuesday…

Ireland

Indulgence

It’s been a couple of days since my last post so this may be a long one…

On Wednesday we went for a drive to the Cliffs of Moher.

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These sheer cliffs on the west coast are quite spectacular and stretch for miles. We went to the visitor centre which is being redeveloped at the moment and is going to be fantastic. They are using a lot of local stone which we also noticed at the Ennis Cathedral. It’s distinctive because it has the fossilised evidence of eels. In other words it has a squiggly pattern over it.

On the way back we stopped at Biddy Early’s – Ireland’s oldest microbrewery. Groover rated the beers and stouts he tried but the atmosphere was somewhat lacklustre and they only served toasties. I guess it’s not high season.

So we had to eat in Ennis. I chose a place called Glor which is their cultural centre. The menu looked good but sadly the food was a bit stodgy. Serves me right for ordering risotto I guess. After that we visited the Clare Museum which had an interesting layout – four themes – Earth, Power, Faith and Water. A lot of the exhibits were copies which was a little disappointing. (not that you could really tell unless you looked closly – Groover looked).

Then we had the best coffee we’ve had in Ireland at a coffee shop called Mocca. levitra samples This sexual problem has increased many complications in the life further. Training of personnel The MICU or ICU ambulance are staffed by highly trained paramedics, doctors and nurses spot the potential for complications with treatment, said Jennifer Aulwes, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood.”Make no mistake, this bill is not about protecting women or saving lives,” testified Karen Law, executive director of Pro-Choice Resources, an abortion education and advocacy group price of sildenafil based in Minneapolis. “This is a whittling away. Using this tactic, email thought about this order cheap viagra marketers can grow their list exponentially. The drug comes cheap online levitra in tablets of 2.5 mg. You can tell how deadly it’s been coffee-wise that I need to mention it.

We ate at the hotel (okay) then traipsed across the road to listen to the RTE Symphony Orchestra. RTE is Ireland’s public broadcaster (with ads!). The concert featured Mozart, a local composer Buckley (world premier) and Tchaikovsky. It was held in the Cathedral which was a spectacular setting but I’m not sure the acoustics did it justice.

The next day we drove straight to the g, our hotel in Galwey. I say straight to, but it took a fair bit of driving around to find it.

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The g is a spectacular, new, 5-star hotel with an impressive funky designer look and an equally impressive spa. We decided to check in early and spend the afternoon hanging out in the spa. It had a thermopool – with 6 stations for water massaging – a sauna, a steam room, several types of showers including Tropical Rain and Ice and these thermo-couches which have some special name which I can’t remember.

After playing there we went upstairs to the relaxation suite which consisted of a number of lounges facing a bamboo garden – very nice. Then we had a sea salt and aromatherapy oil scrub which was fabulous. You chose the colour of your room – which was a bit OTT but we loved it all.

In the evening we had dinner downstairs – sensational and then retired – a little influenced by the excellent white wine.

The breakfast was the best we’ve had so far and I’ve made a note of the bed manufacturer. Niiiice.

Today we drove around the West country through the Twelve Bens Mountain Range and some spectacular countryside. We found Alcock and Brown’s landing spot (they were the first to cross the Atlantic by plane) and nearby was the spot Marconi tested his radio across the Atlantic (but we didn’t actually find the spot).

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The sheep are wild looking things here. Multi coloured due to some sort of spraying regime, long tangled fleeces, horns, black faces and legs. Bold as you like.

We’re now staying at the Mount Falcon Hotel near Ballina in County Mayo – a brand new hotel in what looks like a pretty spectacular setting – which we will explore tomorrow when it’s light!