Ireland

I am yesterday in County Clare (more precisely in Doolin) and hence the 3G signal is not present.

Take account of the post and the publication of pictures tomorrow after reaching the Connemara.

Our last day in Ireland begins with breakfast ritual at Ardmore House. We hope to cover as quickly as possible to the road from Clifden to Dublin and enjoy the last hours of Portmarnock Beach gannet. We welcome the courteous Cathline and confess they can not bear even us (although Italians) the noise of a company of ladies who have invaded the Mediterranean b & b.

We leave behind the Sky Road and try to enjoy the last glimpses of the ocean while the sun seems determined to lord it. We reach the outskirts of the capital of Ireland in advance (a special greeting goes to the poor Garda motorcycle on the M4 was unable to pull her laptop while the speedometer speed past 220km / h possessed by a Zafira in great shape . I'm sorry friend ... maybe next time).

The time of a meal and a pint in the Star last alas Swords and Malahide and then we head up to the beach of Portmarnock. The day is beautiful and take advantage for a long walk on the sand.

I drive to the Aereporto and I already feel at the mercy of nostalgia. Consign the Zafira the Hertz office. We have grown. Let's check in, the gate and we engage in an endless trek up al'uscita D77. We climb on the flight and already feels too speak Italian. We land on time in Orio al Serio.

Arrivderci Ireland

We wake up and immediately our expectations of a beautiful sunny day are betrayed by the dense blanket of fog that envelops the Sky Road. An excellent breakfast at Ardmore House gives us some confidence and take the road to Roundstone still decided to visit the beautiful beaches of Connemara.

The first beach out from Clifden and 'the Coral Beach whose name does justice to a vast expanse of sand crossed by strips of fragments of coral of all colors. The temperature is nice but the sun was struggling to fight their way through a blanket of low clouds that seem too fond of the region.

We decide to head for the walk Manin Bay, where we reach a corner of paradise. I would really want to stop time exactly in this place where a white beach and the hills that encircle pruned to a perfect crystal blue sea. Too bad again for the lack of sun, but we also enjoy a nice walk.

Let's go back in the car in Roundstone where we allow ourselves the last visit to the shop. I take a cup of hot coffee and some sweets in a little place on the pier overlooking the village. We decide to look back on the road and a beach that we remember near the Connemara Golf Club

We reach the beach just as the sun decides to show courage and take even if timidly. The beach and 'wonderful and we do not resist the temptation to take off our shoes and try a bit of ocean on the skin. The sand is beautiful and for a few minutes, so barefoot and my kite, I'll be forgetting the whole child.

I decide that this is the place to say goodbye to my shoes. V seem strange that talk but you know that I put these shoes for the first time during my first trip to Ireland 13 years ago. With me who walked the length and breadth of this island sopattutto, now do not make it longer but I'm sure that if I could speak, would pray to be left to rest here, here on these beaches are in a sense born.

We go back to the Sky Road with a good dose of melancholy in the heart. A holiday in Ireland is about to end, but the beaches of Connemara have promised a goodbye.

The breakfast with French toast Lorraine color a day that there is rather gray and full of rain. From the windows of the dining room there is a view of all the crazy hills of Doolin, the Cliffs and islands Arann.

We set en route to Connemara not before being passed by the Clare Jam Company, or Heaven, where the jam is easy to give in to all sorts of temptation surrounded by dozens of different kinds of jam or marmelade. The owner and vendtore seem to come directly from the past: a few words and with an accent almost incomprehensible. I left the store with 8kg of jams and no idea of ​​how to bring them to Italy. And 'That's the beauty of being on vacation ... or not?

I drive through the moonscape of the Burren along the old road that leads from Ennis to Galway. Today seems really determined to the day when we reach the Connemara ugly and a thin but constant drizzle accompanies us to our destination along the Sky Road. We stop for lunch at the old railway station in Clifden where the delicious goodness of sadwiches is ruined by the annoying noise of a company of rude Italians who manage to obscure the fascinating charm of a place from another time. Italy is far from us as we feel these people. Too bad.

After a short break we decided to go where the obligatory stop at Roundstone, and 'the Craft Village where we are enraptured by the extraordinary beauty of the jewelry, and musical instruments of porcellene types of Irish tradition.

We return to Clifden and we prepare for dinner at Ban Pangur near Letterfrack. Tomorrow is our last whole day in Ireland. Tuesday traveling to Dublin, where the magic begins and ends, where I leave a part of me every time I come home safe, however, to find it during my next trip.

Today we expect a long journey of almost 300km. Last abundant breakfast at Ardmore House (where we really had a great time!) And again on the road. The giormata looks spectacular even today so that you could almost doubt that we are really in Ireland.

We stop to admire the Kleymore Abbey from the road where you can enjoy a beautiful view also to the other side of the lake on which stands the Opatija.

We enter the heart of County Mayo, where the typical landscape of Connemara gives way to endless campaigns. We find very little traffic and quickly reach the lively and picturesque Westport. The time for a coffee and leave again to Sligo.

We stop for lunch at the Yeats Tavern (near the cemetery where the tomb of the glorious Irish poet and writer). The inn is very comfortable and allows me to dispose of a little nervous accomulato during the trip. Let me explain. The Irish are an example to guide me in the second world what it means to follow the rules of the Code of strada.Nel better or worse. Too often you will come to rely on the end of the continuous line of a country road in the middle of nowhere to overcome a bmw or a mercedes 300 hp that dutiful proceeds at 50km / hour. Conversely you will certainly be the victim of a heart attack when you see a point in your tractor direazione to 100km / h on a strerrato percchè only by the sea at that point in time some poor wretch has set its own speed limit to 100. As I said for better or for worse. The fact remains that only in Ireland I've overcome of evil a Ferrari or a Porsche while I was driving a panda.

Continue along the road to Donegal Town and from there in Dunkineely a little further on we find the deviation that we look forward to St. John's Point on the end of the peninsula where the Sea View House, b & b that will host the next 3 days.

The day was truly spectacular, and we almost hot. We reach the end of the peninsula with an ever watchful eye on the bay, hoping to spot some dolphins.

The atmosphere that we live in a traditional Irish pub is really hard to describe, even if they have at their disposal as in this case, words, sounds and images.

Last night we spent the evening at Mannion's pub in Cifden. In my personal experience I think that the ingredients were all there: traditional music (singer, player cash tablespoons), local fishermen completely drunk, whiskey rivers, rude tourists (I do not really want ... but in this case it was French), choreographed fights, and a burst of Gardi Dirty Old Town sung by anyone inside and outside the premises to restore the cosmic balance in the pub.

I think that for a non-Irish is difficult to understand how the punch pub is still a practice so widespread here. For the headlines but it is necessary to clarify that this is something completely different from what we are used to fight in Italy for example disco. People here go on for tens of minutes to poke fun in a totally playful and terribly fancy "look at that big belly that you could not lift the skirt of your wife!" ... To which one responds "you're so drunk that if you fall pants do not you know it! "... and so on (reminds me so much of the game environment pirate Monkey Island) . At the punch you get just for fun and very difficult to attend to the real evil.

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We leave early to take advantage of our last day in Connemara. The weather is beautiful and much less windy than yesterday. A breakfast more than energy will help us to face the day.

Go down the Sky Road, Clifden, and before we turn off a small pier from which we take a path that is lost in the hills overlooking the sea. After walking about an hour we see a clearing above the ones that seem to be the ruins of a castle and decide to visit.

We return to the car and we head towards Roundstone where we find the famous beaches of coral. Along with stretches of white sand deposits are found fragments of coral truly exceptional.

We walk then to one of the many beaches of Manin Bay and discover how the Irish clover grow anywhere, even in the very middle of the sand beaches.

Change direction and we give ourselves a break in Letterfrack the shop Avoca which is becoming dominated by his productions in lovely pastel colors typical of the tissue texture of Wicklow.

Let's go back to the Sky Road and a quick detour to the Dolphin Beach dotted with rocks and stones by the sea perfectly smooth and the colors really interesting. After a long walk trying to breathe the last remnants of the sea in Connemara back to our b & b assured that we will miss all that much.

The Connemara is truly a spectacular region and in my heart contends with the palm of the Donegal best itinerary for a holiday in Ireland.

Its colors are unique and look different. They change with every change of sky in Ireland controls the viewpoint of the observer. The arrangement of the clouds compared to only affect full color and perception of the landscape and given the speed with which change the heavens' s Iralnda you can rest assured that in the short space of an hour you'll see the same landscape change many times.

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Today the weather was absolutely favolso and allowed us to enjoy the beaches and the landscape of Connemara at its peak. The strong wind that kept us company all day, he flew my kite and has kept away the rain clouds.

We headed almost immediately to Manin Bay where the beaches and the color of the sea could be those of the Caribbean. The area is a whole sussegguirsi of white sand beaches, coral and yellow sand. The water is clean and the choreography of the surrounding landscape is absolutely perfect.

We move to Roundstone pub for lunch at the legendary Shamrock: spicy chicken wrap and a pint of stout. We go to famossissmo shop Malachy Kearns that the most famous craftsman in the world of bodhrans (Irish traditional drums). The stage is always nice because Malachy's shop is located in the context of other artisan jewelers, masters procellana, painters etc. ..

Returning to Clifden we stop at the spectacular Dogs Bay, where a very wide beach shaped afiteatro melts gently into the sea. Even here the wind is master but does not prevent some Irish to take a bath in the ocean.

We return to Clifden for a well deserved coffee still imprinted in my mind the vivid images of places that we visited today, trying not to think that there are only a few days to our return to Italy.

We decide to dine in the Clifden Station House Old or the former waiting room of the old train station: a place truly fascinating.

To get to where we are staying Clifden from Sky Road we walk the lower in all its extension. Route is absolutely a must for anyone visiting the Connemara, the Sky Road winds along a small peninsula just north of Clifden. The view you can see is amazing! Beaches of white sand, bare rocks and the typical rural landscape of this part of Ireland where it really seems as if time has stood still.

We have dinner at Clifden and Roundstone then we decide to push us towards where ends this evening, a summer festival that includes of course the wonderful traditional music sessions.

The weather is worse and together with the Irish rain starts to fall a thick fog. I know that may sound strange for many especially for those who have never been here, but I assure you that the charm of this land and especially places like Connemara can be appreciated a lot and maybe even more so against a time apparently.

Beaches where the coral takes the place of sand. Where? But of course in Connemara!