Day 11 - The Burren Ireland continues

Good evening peeps. Hope ye been keepin’ well. We spent yesterday evening at a fine pub in Doolin. Had us a Guinness and some dinner then headed down to the peer to try and get some sunset pics. Our efforts were thwarted once again by the damn clouds. The sun got within 5 minutes of setting and it got socked in by the clouds…..ergh. So back “home” to the best B&B ever – the Duhblinn House in Doolin if yer ever in da airea. :-) We have figured out that tomorrow should be 45% sunshine –again whatever that means. So we plan to get up and hit the coastal drive up to Black Head and then see one of the castles up there and head down to Dysea O’Dea Castle, abbey and High Cross (yippee). Well we wake up and …… you guessed it – RAIN! We really don’t want to leave our B&B – they make THE fluffiest omelets and eggs (almost as good as Shawns). The house is so homey and warm and has totally good vibes , unlike the Bates Motel! But, we have to go. We have an extra voucher that we could not use d/t arriving one day late so Lisa & I decide to give it to the owners of this B&B. They have 2 cute girls and an awesome place, we figured they deserved it. At breakfast, we met a group of 4 from Newport News and Suffolk VA. What are the chances? Of course they were soooo incredibly loud I was embarrassed that we were from the same general area. After breakfast we hit the road – Lisa at the wheel (thank god). We have dark skies but only sprinkles and we can see some blue sky. Looking for that damn 45%. We get on the coastal/scenic road and it starts to downpour. “Look Lisa, a scenic overlook coming on our right”. Well, we blow through that route and pull over on the side of the road to figure out what we are going to do next. We decide to head down to where there are a bunch of stone forts and tombs that we hadn't seen and try and find them. Basically another treasure hunt like yesterday. We actually find one of the old wedge tombs. It is up some miniscule road where we park barely off the road and then hike up a hill and through a couple of different fields until we get to a pile of rocks and some ruins. These have been here since 5000bc. I would post a picture but it really just looks like a pile of rocks. (Maybe I will just for kicks) We manage to make it back to the car before it starts raining. We head next to a really cool church that we saw yesterday because I found out that I had missed a demon sculpture carved into the doorway. We are going by it anyways so it is not like I am making Lisa backtrack. Get the pic, then decide to try and find a wedge tomb that is off the beaten path. It is up one of the really scary "two lane roads" that is only wide enough for one car at most. It is of course raining as we pass by another “scenic overlook”. Lisa turns a corner and a huge tractor is coming right at us. She pulls off of the road as best she can without sending us off of the cliff and the tractor manages to get by us.I am so glad we got the extra insurance. I think this is really wearing Lisa out! So we continue on and are pretty sure we have missed it. We earlier found a stone fort out in the middle of nowhere that we were lucky to find. So Lisa goes on looking for a safe place to turn around and..... look over there! There it is! A cool wedge tomb!!!! Score! We are really feeling like Indiana Jones. It was really cool. Ok, so we decide to get back on the main road and head to Dysea O’Dea castle, abbey and such. We find the castle and go in. We are really in search of the high cross and the cool doorway with the sculptures over top of it. We pay 4euro’s each and head into the castle. They are not here but in the field adjacent to the castle (which would have been free!). So we head over to the next field and park the car. We start walking down a gravel road and it starts to rain just as we get to the cross. Damn it! We both run back to the car. We scrimmage around and eat a cliff bar and some granola that we have in our food sack and wait out the rain. We really want to see this cross.  So it stops raining and we head back out. We take pictures of the cross and Lisa hollers that it is going to start raining again as she can see it coming from across the field. We decide to run to the Abbey which has no roof, but has a big tree next to it. We hang out under the tree and stay relatively dry. On the way to the tree we have to slog our way through really wet boggy grass and I have mud covering both legs up to my calves – nice. The rain subsides and we get to tour around the ruins and get some good pictures. We slog back through the mud pit and are greeted by two noisy cows. We get in the car and head to Ennis. We manage not to get lost and make it into town. Our next B&B will be just beyond the town so we are close to stopping. We visit the Abbey and the Friary; take a bunch of pictures and Lisa spies an Ireland bicycling jersey that I end up purchasing. We then go to the B&B. Once we find it – by chance – the lady is in a “spot of bother”. There is “a problem”. OK. She starts rambling on about her husband and has an xray sleeve sitting on the table but she is waving these 2 envelopes at Lisa & I and finally gets to the point. Her husband had a 3rd knee operation today and she put him in the downstairs bedroom that we were supposed to be in. But she has a plan. She has called her friend up the road and has found us somewhere else to stay. We hop in the car and follow her “down the road” – 5 miles across motorways and through some back country roads that are not marked. I am glad Lisa & I are getting along! It would be a great place to leave me :-) It is an older home – no internet access (curses) – but very pleasant people. It turns out to be only a couple of miles from where we were going to explore tomorrow anyways – so really not so bad. (Twin rooms but with private bath). Now I must confess. A majority of rooms that we have had have had the old skeleton key type locks. They kind of freak me out. I think I watched too many old Hitchcock movies (or Scooby Doo cartoons) and think that people are either spying through them or will push a hairpin through the opening to make the key fall on the floor, landing on a piece of paper that they have slid under the door, then get the key and break in the room and attack! Irrational? Yes! It doesn’t matter. Every time we have one of these rooms I make sure to take the key out of the lock (so they can’t get it) and hang my coat or hat on the door (so they can’t peep through the hole). Weird or what! Back to the story. Lisa and I go to a pub and have dinner. We manage our way back despite a couple of Guinness. It is hard to believe that we only have one more day left in this beautiful wet country. We really have had a lot of fun despite the rain. This is the 1st international trip that we have taken alone, just the two of us. It has been good for us. Neither of us like to go out of our comfort zone and make decisions or ask strangers questions……etc. We have had to do that this time (we are not traveling with tour guide Karen B – recreational specialist!). Hopefully, this will make us better traveling companions in the future (no promises). Tomorrow we stay at the Bunratty Castle and are scheduled to go to one of those medieval dinner shows. Should be cheesy but probably pretty funny! As a side note, the rain has been really messing with me. Today I decided to count the number of times I had a hot flash. By noon it was four (far - in irish speak) and as of tonight I am up to 7. They totally suck! Well, here's hopin' ye B-ach-es are dry!