Irish Out-Takes, 1

Before our narrative takes us into Northern Ireland seems a good place to inject a few Irish out-takes...

At the Blanchardstown Centre (mall) outside Dublin: "Come on you boys in
green"; in the Euro Cup, Ireland beat Italy, impressively, but then fell to France

Interesting sign defacement

Not a dog lover

We never miss a Sweet Pea store (Dingle) (Penelope)

Business diversification

Thus (Dingle)

Best lawn ornament ever, so far

Visit Abbeyland, Famineland, Rebellionland...

At a Dublin bakery: original crispy fondant

Group mimes

Indeed, at Gogarty's

Irish camo

People really do wear it

Men in saffron

Rotel spin-off: the bus can accommodate 22 tourists plus driver, guide, and cook;
everything contained in this one vehicle; sleeping compartments upstairs...

"Oh God, not another garden!"

"Our back-up camera has been bugged!"

Fierce Viking again

Yet another church converted to restaurant (Cashel)

Greencastle, Donegal

Vicki's sister Marie was born in Greencastle, so imagine our delight in driving through Greencastle, County Donegal, and thinking maybe she'd like some pictures. Alas, Marie was born in Greencastle, Indiana, however, and, according to the entry in Wikipedia, Greencastle, Indiana, was actually named, by its founder, Ephraim Duke, for his hometown, namely, Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Persistent researchers that we are, a little further inquiry revealed that Greencastle, Pennsylvania, was in fact named for Greencastle, County Donegal, which is good, since there are half a dozen Greencastles on this island, and I was not going to pursue it any further. Anyhow, Marie, here are some pix from the town that the town your birthplace was named for, was named for...enjoy!

Welcome to Greencastle, Donegal

It's a commercial fishing village on the Lough Foyle

Looking across the Lough to Northern Ireland

And an old Martello Tower there

Nice house with massive rock garden

The green castle?

Main street

Etc.

Part of fishing fleet and fish market

Busy harbor; OK , it was Saturday, low-tide; we drove on to Muff,
where the Wild Atlantic Way ends, and spent the night there
before crossing over into Northern Ireland

Inishowen Peninsula, Malin Head

And so it came to pass that we drove Ireland's northernmost peninsula and its northern-most point, Malin Head...

Still on the Wild Atlantic Way, but now adding the "100" spirally thing, which
we construed to be the Inishowen Peninsula loop road

Some of it inland, some of it by the water

A lot of it up and down

Stopping for lunch at Pollan Bay

Not going in the water

And finally arriving at Malin Head, Ireland's northern-most point

Announcing to American, RAF, and German planes, this is
Ireland, neutral, please do not bomb

View from the top

Old Lloyds' semaphore tower

Now working our way down the east side of the peninsula...a stone circle not
visited...the Bocan Stone Circle...although advertised in the tourist literature,
there was no clear path to it, no signage, and it was surrounded by long-horned
bovines that did not look like cows to me

Amazing Grace; Or, I Can't Believe I'm Posting This, Um, Stuff

Our proximate goal was the top of Ireland, the Inishowen peninsula, recommended to us by Rick and Kathy Howe, and before setting forth onto it, we stopped for the night at the TI (tourist information office) in Buncrana. The whole point of this post is to note that this TI, apparently one of very, very few in the Republic, offers free overnight parking for touring motor homes. While this sort of thing--aires du camping-cars, stellplatz, sostas, and similar arrangements--is commonplace in Europe, in the Isles here, either the British or Irish, it is virtually unheard of. And worth noting and recommending. So if your travels take you to Buncrana, stop at the TI, thank them, go into town and spend some money. Plus, if you stop at the TI at Buncrana, you'll be parked right next to the brand new "Amazing Grace" park and garden, and will be able to read the story of the bloke who wrote the hymn. Another wicked and iniquitous person turned righteous and god-fearing thanks to falling off his horse/being struck by lightning/a really bad hangover/being storm-tossed in the Atlantic for days and days/etc. Details follow.

En route to town

Parked at the TI in Buncrana

Plus they also have free wifi