May 15 - Westport

Day 6 - Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Woke up to cloudy skies again. We had another great breakfast at the Credo House and then headed out. The goal was Westport, but there were some stops in between to make. The first stop was the Glencar waterfall just outside of Sligo. It is sign posted on the left off of N15, about a 10 mile drive to the falls. There is a car park and a very short walk to the falls. What a strange and beautiful place. It looks almost tropical. This is definitely worth the excursion. The only flaw is there is a big bright yellow sign that tends to get in the way of pictures. It can be avoided though, as you can see.

We headed south and stopped at just south of Colooney and had a bite to eat at a little pub. The rain was coming down so the timing was perfect. The great thing is that you can stop anywhere along the way and soak up great atmosphere. The little towns are wonderful!

By the time we got to Knock the weather had cleared up a bit. The big thrill of Knock for me was finding Beirne's Restaurant. Unfortunately, we had just eaten and though, in the back of my mind, I thought we might come back through to get dinner, it never worked out. No sign of "Beirne's Bins" the trash collection company in the Boyle area. We kept going to find "Felicity's Castle".

I had seen a castle for sale on line for £100,000 and we thought it would be interesting to see what you got for that kind of money. As it turned out, it appeared to be a future pile of rocks on 3 acres of land. The location was beautiful along a small river, but this was not much of a castle. Don't be fooled by the picture. It's condition is not as good as it looks! It made for a fun trip though.

We went on to Westport from here. The roads into Westport were undergoing heavy construction and we reached town at rush hour. Traffic was terrible. The map we had of Westport was not very good, in fact confusing, so it took us a while to find St Anthony's B&B. This was a neat old place, but the owner was a bit odd. We arrived at the appropriate time as suggested (between 4-6 PM) and found a sign that read "back in an hour". An hour from when? So we rang the bell and a woman in a shower cap stuck her head out the second floor window and yelled at us to pull into the closed parking area. We complied and went inside to find a woman a wee small bit flustered about not getting her shower in. We got our room and was told that breakfast would be served no earlier than 9:30 AM. The room by the way was great and even had a Jacuzzi tub but we paid a bit more for it (€35.00).

We had dinner at a local restaurant that must owned by an American. Irish service is much different than American service...not bad, but different. In Ireland, slow service is a GOOD thing. You have your table for the whole evening and they they wouldn't think to rush you out. At this place, we were greeted by a hostess and seated, a different person brought us water and then our waitress came to take our order. The wait staff was very attentive which is a little unusual in casual restaurants in Ireland. They pretty much leave you alone at most places. The menu was also decidedly American with items like barbecue ribs and burgers. They had beer though, so it worked for me.

We went back to the B&B and Felicity jumped into the Jacuzzi. The bad news is that I was coming down with a cold that was going to haunt Felicity and I for months to come.

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