Encarna in Ireland 5th. Jan

With my usual remorse, we leave Dingle. I know I’ll be back. Sometime forever, more of that later. We drove over the Conor Pass and had clear skies and on a clear day, the Conor Pass is one of the wonders of the world. We took the ferry across the Shannon from Tarbert to Kilimer. The first major stop was the Cliffs of Moher. It’s one of Ireland’s most beautiful tourist attractions and as such has been turned into a massive car-park with grill-bar and tourist shop. 6€ entrance included. There was a time when you could perch on the edge of the cliff and look down at the seabirds gliding around. Alas, in this politically correct health and safety conscious world, you are now reduced to queuing up to take the standard postcard photo. My friend Violeta tells me there’s a much more interesting cliff in Donegal – I’m there. We then went off in search of one of the several dolmens that are scattered around The Burren, if you can scatter dolmens around, however the directions were woegious and we just had a cool drive around this unique landscape which was a favourite with my father R.I.P. We checked in to Jury’s Inn in Galway and I can recommend it. Another football pitch for a bed and Encarna has her own little nest. She’s missing her man I feel because she ran a super bath for me, so she could spend some time chatting on the computer with her lucky beau. Galway itself is a great city. There’s one street and if it’s not on it, it’s not worth visiting. Naughtaun’s is the bar ‘par excellance’, the Skeffington Arms Hotel has to be seen to be believed, there’s a Murphy’s, strangely enough plus a few other great places whose names escape me. The food offer is wide, varied and very reasonable. We ate somewhere with a big fireplace. It was one of those special meals – big open fire, demon steak, great company (Encarna is a very picky eater and when she gets what she wants it’s happy days) and just a big glow. Two even chubbier campers waddle back to the hotel where Encarna prepares the aforementioned bath. I could live like this.