Irish Country Road Bus Tour

It rains in Ireland.

 An awful lot, actually. It rained at least a little every day that we were there. Sometimes it was just an isolated case of fine, misty drops, sometimes it was a five minute downpour.  Sometimes it was an all day drizzle.

This is the reason that everything is so green. 

The mountains are green, and there is an incredible variety of green shades throughout the countryside. The first thing I saw, breaking through the clouds on the airplane’s descent because it was raining, was the patchwork of the farmer’s fields.  

So much green.

We are on holiday!

Which sounds really funny from a couple whose whole life is spent on the road, traveling around. But this time we didn’t have to plan our stays or book our stops. 

We took a 10 day bus tour around the island of Ireland, so we didn’t even have to drive.  It was a nice rest for my hubby, who does the majority of the wheel time when we travel at home. And the challenge of driving on the “wrong” side of the road, down narrow country roads, was in the hands of a professional. 

Our driver was excellent.

The rural roads are so narrow, without any shoulders at all, that 2 buses passing each other have to slow way down to avoid clashing their mirrors together.

 On the hardy western coast the sharp turns required expert manoeuvres. There was one spot that the driver’s side of the coach was almost brushing a rock wall while the other was inches away from the edge of a steep cliff, all at the same time that he was conducting a sharp hairpin turn. 

We, the passengers, applauded.

During the less exciting parts of the drive, our tour director would read us Irish stories, or play Irish music to keep up the ambience.

Our tour director was interesting. His name was, quite appropriately, Patrick. He had an artistic background, having been an actor and director, and he lent those stories the feeling and the realism that kept us mesmerized. 

He was also a little flamboyant, mainly in his brightly coloured shoes.  

Which of course, I envied.  Just a little.

He directed us to all the best castles, and ruins, and scenic sights. Of which Ireland has many.

Every town, no matter how small, seemed to have its own castle, church or a ruin. 

And so much of the old structures were made of stone. There were old stone houses, old stone walls along the roads, and old stone pubs. 

It shows that the stone masons knew what they were doing, that so many of those are still standing many centuries later.

Apartment buildings are not favoured in this country, so in the city homes are generally built as townhouses.

And since you have a long street of these identical tall buildings, they paint each door a different colour. 

Probably so they don’t get lost coming home late from the pubs.

Sheep are everywhere in the rural areas. If they are in a field, it is bordered by hedges or rocks.

But many times they are just allowed to roam up in the mountains, or even along the roadsides. 

At least when they are on the road, they are quick.  We only had to brake hard for one or two during our trip.

There were many highlights of this trip. Castles could be one. How many castles did we see during our bus drive? We stopped to look at nine castles.

I know there were others that we passed, but after awhile it was, “oh, it’s just another castle”.  

The exception is Blarney Castle.

Because of the Blarney Stone, it was a level above the others. 

Despite the very high, very narrow steps to the top of Blarney Castle, I did ascend to the turrets and kiss the stone. 

They actually pay someone to sit at the Stone and hold your waist while you lie on your back, in the most awkward position possible, and give the stone your juicy salutation.

Trying not to think of all the other people in front of you who shared their germs first. 

After all, it’s the experience that counts, right?

Another highlight was the explanation of the game of “hurling” that was given us one afternoon.

It is a distinctively Irish game that involves a flat stick, a hurley, that is used to scoop the small, hard ball off the ground, bounce it in the air, and then hit it like a baseball towards the goal and the poor goalie. Then everyone tears off after it like in hockey, except that the players aren’t penalized for hitting other players with their hurley stick as long as they are “trying” to get to the ball first. The fellow demonstrating the game mentioned that players are often black and blue the next day. 

There is no professional game of hurling. The players are not paid, and will limp into work again on Monday. And amazingly, they then encourage their children to play.

So we saw old and new architecture and learned a new sport.

But then there was the natural world of Ireland. 

Like the 700 foot high Cliffs of Moher tower over the North Atlantic waves.

It seems that they lose the occasional tourist here. Some people just have to go to the very edge to get the best pictures.

The Giants Causeway is built of volcanic lava that cooled in columns.

When you see them from the top, they are reminiscent of stepping stones, which is where their name comes from.  

I wish that our visit hadn’t coincided with one of the irish downpours. It would have been fun to get closer to them, but during a rainstorm, they are notoriously slippery.

We also stopped at an avenue, far from the city, that had 200 year old beech trees embracing over the roadway.

Our knowledgeable tour director said that these particular trees were featured as The Dark Hedges in a “Game of Thrones” show. 

Our hotels during the trip were good, upscale places with all the usual amenities.

However, I could have done without the TVs in our hotel bedrooms. It is too attractive to watch the shows and the news until late at night. And the 6:15 wake up calls were brutal if you did. Hmmmm.  

Did I say it was a holiday? Yes, but one that you had to set an alarm for in the morning. Breakfast was usually served at 7:30, and you had to be showered and dressed with your suitcase packed and outside your door by then.

The only disappointment for me in the whole trip was not stopping for long within the town of Limerick. We only had one quick stop along the side of the road to take pictures of "another" castle, and only to “flash and dash”, as our tour director said. But I did catch a picture of a sign in the area:

Back to the rain that makes Ireland so green. An excursion on our own, for a walk in a new town, can often end up wet. A quick 20 minute trip to a store, although started when the sun was shining and the sky was blue, ended with a downpour long before we even got to the retail area. This happened more than once. Eventually I noticed that the locals always carried umbrellas.

Maybe one day I will be smart enough to do it too.

W