Tag Archives: Roadtrip

Jan24

Limerick, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway

Posted on by
Standard

Saturday, 26-Oct-2024


Brian and I have been adventuring while he’s here! I had a week off from classes, and while I did have quite a bit of reading to catch up on… I was able to carve a few days off for us to get out of town and into the adventure.

After Oweynagat Cave, we took to the road again – this time, going a bit further out from my fair city of Dublin, all the way to the West Coast of the Emerald Isle. We started out early, taking a beautiful sunrise walk through Stephen’s Green on the way to pick up our rental car before hitting the road toward Limerick, where we aimed to grab some lunch.

A farmer’s market was an absolutely lovely surprise, and so fortified with snacks and mushrooms we hit the road again to the gem of the West Coast – the Cliffs of Moher!


We arrived in the rain – not a surprise, thankfully, and so after a quick armoring of rain gear we were well fortified against the weather and heading out toward the cliffs.

It.

Was.

Gorgeous!

I could try to describe, but… I took pictures. I’ll let them speak for themselves.


After the cliffs, we headed back onto the road, forging our way North toward dinner in Galway. The road met all the expectations and hopes that Ireland suggests; every turn was another glorious view, and every look out the window gave us a vista worth photographing.

Frankly, it made it a bit tough to make quick progress, and Galway saw us arrive a fair bit after dark… not a challenge this time of year, to be fair. It went well, though – we parked, wandered a bit, and even saw a huge art installation of a travelling newt before we settled in for a quick Guinness stew.

https://videopress.com/v/mec2aQX3?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true


The rest of the evening saw us driving home by headlights – taking our time, enjoying the music, and reveling in the mystique and fantasy of the Irish countryside.

Jan22

A trip into legend – The Cave of the Cats in Rathcrogan, and the origin of Samhain (Halloween)

Posted on by
Standard

Thursday, 24-October-2024

It’s pronounced “Sell-Win”, by the way. Not “Sam-Hay-ne”.

I learned that pretty quickly, as we drove out into the Irish countryside, on our mission to find the roots of Halloween, buried beneath the earth of the Emerald Isle. I was on the road with my friends Brian and Megan, heading West toward the midlands of Ireland, enjoying the quiet and good conversation as the highway passed beneath the wheels of our rental car.

Megan had invited us out to explore the Cave of the Cats, or Oweynagat Cave in its native Irish, in the town of Rathcrogan. She’d first heard about it years back, when she was first getting interested in Ireland, as the origin of Halloween – according to myth, this cave was where the spirits of the otherworld would enter ours one evening per year. That evening, people would stay indoors, or dress up to avoid being taken captive and dragged back underground to the otherworld… an evening that evolved over time into what we call Halloween.

It was an excellent adventure – I can’t say that we passed into the otherworld, or that we did battle with any ancient spirits… but we did get an excellent tour of the land, heard stories about its history, and even had the chance to step foot into the cave itself. We didn’t go particularly deep, of course, as who knows how long it could have taken us to get out…

default
default
default
default
default
default
default
default
default
default
default


On the way out, we stopped in for lunch, and a bit of exploration, in a town called Roscommon. We grabbed a bite to eat, explored Roscommon castle, and I even flew the drone around a bit!

Nothing of major note, but definitely one of the fun parts of Ireland – being able to stop into small towns, tour a castle, and then get back on the road. Good times!

Rathcrogan itself found us stopped at the visitor’s center, meeting our tour guide, and then descending into history and myth of Samhain. Our guide was absolutely amazing – as the guy who literally wrote the book on the area (we definitively got copies), he regaled us with myth and story from all across Ireland, focused on those tied in with the cave that we were exploring. We listened, absorbed, learned, and let ourselves be transported back in time… to the days of Celtic heroes and monsters.



Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathcroghan#Oweynagat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathcroghan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

Jun8

Visiting Hvammsvik hot spring and spa

Posted on by
Standard

Friday, 17-May-2024


My second hot spring spa of the day was Hvammsvik, pronounced more like “K-ams-vick” – a sort-of competitor to the Blue Lagoon in terms of tourism, at least from what I could tell looking at the various ads for each of them in the airport when I first landed in Iceland. Which, incidentally, was at least one of the ways I’d heard about it. Advertising does work!

I’d tried to swing by before, nearer to the beginning of my adventure on the 14th, but they’d been closed to clean the pools out. Which I’m actually okay with, since I’d been able to find a tiny little hot spring in the woods, all alone, instead… but that’s another story.

Hvammsvik was lovely. I don’t have any photos from the pools, since it seemed weird to have my phone on me in such a private place, but I can 100% confidently state that the pools were lovely, at excellent temperatures, and that their mineral content was absolutely lovely. I luxuriated, recovered from some of my aches and adventure pains, and felt glorious.



Afterward, I followed by tradition from Krauma, and got myself a very lovely dinner – a lovely dinner that I could take pictures of! Melty cheese, delicious seafood soup, and even a fancy health-shot of… something… vaguely spicy? It felt a little woo-woo magic-crystals, but it was tasty and I felt pretty good afterward, so I’m taking it as a win and being happy for it!

Which is the theme, here. Two hot springs in one day, getting to watch the sun slide down toward the cliffs, and having an excellent meal afterward? Yeah, I’m not going to be complaining at all.

An absolutely lovely visit to a lovely spa.