When the other people staying at the Bed and Breakfast with us in Galway heard we were traveling to Donegal next, they all had a bunch of suggestions for things we should do there. But we had decided that we were going to use the opportunity to relax and just hang out. Once we got to the castle, we weren't going to leave until it was time to check out. And that's exactly what we did. And it was perfect.
It took a while to drive from Galway to Donegal. At almost three hours, this was definitely the longest stretch of the journey. We passed the time on the lookout for sheep and cows and fiddled with the radio. Irish radio differs from American radio in a key way. While we have different stations broadcasting on, say, 100.1, 100.3, and 100.5, Ireland's stations take up a much broader range of bands. So the same station with be broadcasting all across 100.x. This makes for an interesting experience while flipping through the stations, as you keep catching bits of the same commercial or talk show. But Clear Channel is also over there, so for all that, the content of the broadcasts is basically the same as in America.
We decided to stop in the town of Donegal before heading to the castle. When we came in, it actually reminded me a lot of my hometown, Evergreen. There was a road next to a river with shops and restaurants. But once we got in a bit, it proved to be a lot bigger than Evergreen - Donegal has three roads and a castle (still only one intersection, though). We got lunch and then toured the castle, which I found to be disappointingly small for all that it was a really cool castle. It just didn't feel that much bigger than the house Kevin and I currently live in. But people used to live in much smaller spaces than they do now.
After the castle we wandered through some shops, and we found a book store. It even had a whole section of Irish biographies, which I'd hoping to find. I still needed a biography for the Monopoly genre reading challenge I'm doing this year, and since I'd previously read books that took place in Barcelona and Paris, I also wanted one that was set in Ireland. I found one called Roise Rua to read at the castle. We also found a restaurant that we considered coming back to for dinner, but we ended up just staying at the castle instead.
The castle we stayed in (Solis Lough Eske) was very cool and very private. It was in the center of about 40 acres of land, and not too far from a lake. Since it was our honeymoon and they didn't have many bookings in the middle of the week, they upgraded us to a Castle Suite in what turned out to be a section of the Presidential Suite. They also left chocolates and shortbread out for us to enjoy on arrival. We spent some time wandering the grounds and walked down to see the lake. Then we scheduled massages for the next day and a dinner reservation for the fancy restaurant the next night. We also went to sit in the hot tub for a while, but all we found was a pool. But, since the pool was inside a greenhouse, it was nice and warm, so we spent some time sitting there and reading before dinner.
The next day we just hung out. I read my biography and Kevin made a dent in The Wise Man's Fear. We got massages and actually found the hot tub, which was hidden in a different corner of the greenhouse than the pool. We had a very fancy dinner, which has the distinction of being the only meal I ate in Ireland that did not include potatoes in some form (there were lentils instead). Basically, it was a lazy, perfect day. The castle had all sorts of living rooms scattered through it. So we could read in leather chairs in the library or on comfy couches next to a fire or in a chair way up in the tower. It was fantastic.
By the end of our time in the castle, I was starting to feel ready to come home. But there was still one city left on the itinerary. The next day we drove over to Belfast to wrap up our amazing vacation.
It took a while to drive from Galway to Donegal. At almost three hours, this was definitely the longest stretch of the journey. We passed the time on the lookout for sheep and cows and fiddled with the radio. Irish radio differs from American radio in a key way. While we have different stations broadcasting on, say, 100.1, 100.3, and 100.5, Ireland's stations take up a much broader range of bands. So the same station with be broadcasting all across 100.x. This makes for an interesting experience while flipping through the stations, as you keep catching bits of the same commercial or talk show. But Clear Channel is also over there, so for all that, the content of the broadcasts is basically the same as in America.
We decided to stop in the town of Donegal before heading to the castle. When we came in, it actually reminded me a lot of my hometown, Evergreen. There was a road next to a river with shops and restaurants. But once we got in a bit, it proved to be a lot bigger than Evergreen - Donegal has three roads and a castle (still only one intersection, though). We got lunch and then toured the castle, which I found to be disappointingly small for all that it was a really cool castle. It just didn't feel that much bigger than the house Kevin and I currently live in. But people used to live in much smaller spaces than they do now.
After the castle we wandered through some shops, and we found a book store. It even had a whole section of Irish biographies, which I'd hoping to find. I still needed a biography for the Monopoly genre reading challenge I'm doing this year, and since I'd previously read books that took place in Barcelona and Paris, I also wanted one that was set in Ireland. I found one called Roise Rua to read at the castle. We also found a restaurant that we considered coming back to for dinner, but we ended up just staying at the castle instead.
The castle we stayed in (Solis Lough Eske) was very cool and very private. It was in the center of about 40 acres of land, and not too far from a lake. Since it was our honeymoon and they didn't have many bookings in the middle of the week, they upgraded us to a Castle Suite in what turned out to be a section of the Presidential Suite. They also left chocolates and shortbread out for us to enjoy on arrival. We spent some time wandering the grounds and walked down to see the lake. Then we scheduled massages for the next day and a dinner reservation for the fancy restaurant the next night. We also went to sit in the hot tub for a while, but all we found was a pool. But, since the pool was inside a greenhouse, it was nice and warm, so we spent some time sitting there and reading before dinner.
The next day we just hung out. I read my biography and Kevin made a dent in The Wise Man's Fear. We got massages and actually found the hot tub, which was hidden in a different corner of the greenhouse than the pool. We had a very fancy dinner, which has the distinction of being the only meal I ate in Ireland that did not include potatoes in some form (there were lentils instead). Basically, it was a lazy, perfect day. The castle had all sorts of living rooms scattered through it. So we could read in leather chairs in the library or on comfy couches next to a fire or in a chair way up in the tower. It was fantastic.
By the end of our time in the castle, I was starting to feel ready to come home. But there was still one city left on the itinerary. The next day we drove over to Belfast to wrap up our amazing vacation.
No comments:
Post a Comment