Small World

I arrived in Dublin on Thursday morning and Mary met me at the new Dublin Airport terminal. There was a little mixup about the arrivals and departures areas outside, so it took us a few minutes to find one another. While I was waiting, I was totally surprised to bump into my first cousin, Father Dan at the terminal. He was headed home to his parish in West Chester after a week in Ireland. The world is getting smaller !

When Mary found me I squeezed into her Mickey Mouse edition Ford and we made the 3 plus hour drive to Donegal. I booked 3 nights at The Milford Inn, a nice place on a quiet road outside the small town of Milford. Although it was out in the country side, the Inn has nice rooms which include wi-fi and breakfast. They also have a restaurant and a pub with lots on tap; there's also live Irish music, the perfect place!

We headed out to explore on Friday; there was rain in the forecast, but less than any other day of our stay, so we went off to Northern Ireland, a place we missed on our last trip a couple of years ago. We drove the coast road in County Antrim and stopped along the way at a volcanic rock formation called the Giant's Causeway. The road passed close to a famous golf course, Royal Portrush and we popped in to have tea at the clubhouse but we had an issue with the dress code (no jeans) so we smiled and kept on driving. I thought about playing but the pop-up rain showers made it impossible to stay dry and I wasn't up for all day wet clothes.

Further around the coast were chalky white cliffs, castle ruins perched over the ocean, and rope bridge that brave visitors can walk over chasms between islands. The sun was out  for most all the ride and I'm glad to have the extra visibility driving the narrow roads on top of cliffs.

In Donegal, driving (and shifting gears) is on the left side, the currency is Euros and distances on the roads are measured in kilometers. When we crossed a line into Northern Ireland, the distances were in miles, currency was in pounds Sterling, but thankfully we still drove on the left.

Have a good weekend everyone !