50 Shades of Green
Paul and I knew that we wanted to take a special trip to celebrate our 50th birthdays. We chose California (believe it or not, a place I had never been) and booked the trip to fall between our two big days. As my birthday loomed (I am the older woman by 3 months and 2 days), I weighed my options on how I would spend my significant day. I considered running a half-marathon in New Brunswick on August 14th and I thought about playing in my golf club championships. Neither option was going to suffice and help ease the anticipated pain and distress of hitting this milestone birthday. I went online and looked what our favourite tour company had to offer for August 14th. I found a perfect celebration activity and location- cycling in Ireland would be an extraordinary way to spend my 50th birthday. California would become Paul’s trip and we would spoil ourselves with two awesome adventures to celebrate our birthdays.
Air Canada offers one option to get directly to Dublin- an overnight flight on Rouge (yuck!). World travel has its challenges and one of them is losing a night of sleep on an overnight flight. Determined to sleep, I got on the plane, told the stewardess that I did not want the midnight dinner, put on my eye mask and closed my eyes. In a blink, we landed in Dublin, excited to begin our adventure in the land of fifty shades of green.
The Shelbourne Dublin was a lovely place to start our Irish holiday. We were not able to get into our room early, so we checked our luggage and headed to the hotel’s bustling bar for a delicious, reviving lunch. Irish fish and chips and lattes were just what we needed to put the bounce back in our step and get us through the next eight hours until we could finally rest our heads.
With help from the concierge, we put together a plan for our first two days in Ireland. The Hop On-Hop Off bus was right outside the hotel and we hopped-on for a city tour. It didn’t take much to decide to hop-off for a tour of the Guinness Brewhouse. During our self-directed tour, we learn the five key ingredients that make Guinness- barley, hops, yeast, water from the Wicklow Mountains and the skill of Irish brewers. The best part of the tour was the tall, cold glass of Guinness in the revolving Gravity Bar, overlooking Dublin and the Wicklow Mountains- delicious!
A month before our trip I received some Dublin tips from a fellow golfer at Lambton including some fantastic restaurant recommendations. I always like to ask friends for tips and this blog is my way of sharing my tips. A short cab ride from the Shelbourne took us to a wonderful restaurant called Forest Avenue. We quickly saw why this intimate and innovative restaurant came so highly recommended. We enjoyed a chat with the owner/chef who recommended a dining spot for our second night.
After a deep sleep we were ready to stretch our legs and give Irish golf a try. We took a cab to Portmarnock Hotel and Links, 11 km from Dublin. The 18-hole links style course was wind swept and challenging, yet we loved it! We would have benefited from hiring a caddy, as it was impossible to find lost balls in the long fescue grass. Paul lost his ball on his drive on the first three holes, making us regret not buying more balls when renting the clubs. While we rarely found our lost balls, we found many others, solving our ball shortage problem. After a hearty lunch at the hotel pub, we walked down to the beach to have a look, take a walk and enjoy the sea air.
That evening we followed the recommendation from the previous night’s chef, strolled one block to the hip Etto Wine Bar, and sat elbow to elbow with a full house of Dubliners. We raised a glass to a great day before crashing into bed.
We loved The Shelbourne’s location- just a few minutes walk from Trinity College and Grafton St. and across the street from St. Stephen’s Green. We squeezed in one more early morning walk before heading to the train station to catch our train to Galway.
In Galway we stayed at The G Hotel. I do not recommend this unique hotel, where I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland. The decor was bright and whimsical with lots of mirrors, dark, dimly lit purple hallways and oversized chairs. Wanting to see the town, we walked for 15 minutes into downtown Galway, along a winding path beside a river. Galway has a main street just for pedestrians with Irish souvenir shops and street entertainers. Our wine and cheese dinner at Sheridan’s Cheese Mongers was a great find and another chance to have conversations with locals.
After three days and nights on our own, August 14th, my big day, arrived, along with the start of our bike tour with our Butterfield and Robinson group. We were excited to meet our fellow travellers and to get this show on the road. Within minutes of meeting our eclectic group and energetic Canadian tour leaders, we knew that we had lucked-out again- everyone was friendly and enthusiastic. B&R cliental tend to be well traveled, adventure seeking and social people, mainly from Canada and the United States. We were the only Canadians in the group, which included a father and son, two couples and two men who were old friends. Everyone had interesting stories to tell.
The first leg of our journey took us through Connemara, a region with dramatic and remote landscapes and thankfully very little traffic. I was nervous about riding on busy roads, on the “wrong” side of the road, however for most of our travels, we were on quieter back roads, where our only obstacles were sheep and lambs. I wore a bright yellow windbreaker, to enhance my visibility and Paul gallantly followed me, to protect me from wild drivers. We were quite relieved to find that we had no trouble keeping up with the group; in fact, we were often at the front of the pack. Cycling is well down my list of athletic pursuits, so I wasn’t sure if the pace would be too fast and we would be left behind.
Our first day of cycling was 53 km and it was a piece of cake. The icing was when we pulled into the fairy-tale-like Ballynahinch Castle. Our room was absolutely stunning, with lots of space, a tucked away walk-in closet, a beautiful view and a very comfortable and elegant bed. It was one of the nicest hotel rooms I had ever stayed in. It was my birthday and I felt like a queen!
The dining room was beautiful with many windows with stunning views. The food was excellent. I especially enjoyed the lamb dinner on my birthday and the hot, homemade scones in the morning. The men in our group (especially and ironically the two Jewish guys from New York) could not get enough of the ham, served at the breakfast buffet. An Irish band in the castle’s pub, serenaded me with Happy Birthday and For She’s the Jolly Good Fellow, and I could not hoped for a better way to spend for 50th birthday.
We stayed at Ballynahinch Castle for two spectacular nights. On our second day of cycling we took a ride along the Sky Road, with tremendous views of the turquoise ocean. Some of the sandy beaches looked like they had been plucked from the Caribbean Sea. Our destination for lunch was the town of Clifden, a bustling coastal tourist town. I opted for the longer afternoon ride that included a steep climb with awesome ocean views. Paul wanted to shorten his day and return to the castle to do some skeet shooting. On his way back to the castle, Paul took a wrong turn and ended up cycling further than any of us, back into the bogs of Connemara. We all had tales to share in the castle pub that evening.
The next morning we said good-bye to gorgeous Ballynahinch Castle and continued our cycling journey through the Maumturk Mountains and the Twelve Bens. It was a hilly and challenging 40 km ride with breathtaking scenery and a plethora of green hills. One mountain range looked just like a set from the show The Game of Thrones. One of the highlights of our trip was our next stop, a visit to Killary Sheep Farm for a sheep herding demonstration. We watched a Border Collie work his magic on a herd of sheep, we hand-fed young lambs, watched the farmer shear a sheep and were blown away with the dazzling views of the Killary Fjord. We came away resolved to teach Scout, our Border Collie a few more things, including the commands, Come by and Away. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Blackberry in the small town called Leenane. I felt quite at home in a town with almost my name.
The specialty was locally grown, fresh-as-can-be steamed mussels. I do not think I will ever eat mussels again as good as the ones at Blackberry. We rode another 10 km to a boat landing, hopped on a fishing boat and setout to view the mussel farm, where our delicious lunch had been cultivated. It was a fascinating lesson, on a warm summer day. I could not imagine visiting this mussel farm on the sea during the chill of winter! Back on shore, the mussel farmer showed us how the mussels are processed before being sent to market and I had a picture with his beautiful golden retriever, for our dogs of the world collection.
Five more km and we arrived at the second hotel of our tour, Delphi Lodge and WOW, what a special place! We felt like we were visiting great friends in the Irish countryside, while staying in this delightful lodge. Our room was very comfortable with a lovely view of the front lawn and lake. The living room was elegantly decorated and the perfect spot to gather before dinner or read on a rainy afternoon. The hotel manager, Michael, found a connection with each guest and immediately knew all of our names. I loved the long dining table where our group mixed with other guests from around the world and ate a delicious dinner together. The next morning we woke up to a rainy Irish mist. We decided to opt-out of going with the group on the 50 km round-trip to Westport. Instead, Michael kindly drove Paul and me to the start of a gorgeous hike in a misty green valley, an hour and a half walk from the inn. We were thrilled to witness again the magic of Border Collies herding sheep, and the opportunity to stretch our cycling weary legs. Back at Delphi Lodge, we enjoyed our books while waiting for our drenched group to return from their ride. An after dinner surprise included two authentic Irish dancers, strutting their stuff in the drawing room. We really enjoyed our stay at this charming Irish lodge!
The final 50 km day of cycling took us to Joyce Country, including a long, heart-pounding climb followed by dramatic sweeping views. Just past the crest of the final steep hill, our guides surprised us with an impromptu celebration with champagne and snacks and a toast to Butterfield and Robinson’s 50th anniversary. This included a lesson in how to open a champagne bottle using a sabre. Slainte is how the Irish say cheers. How appropriate to be wearing the new B&R cycling jerseys with the logo, “Slow down and see the world, 50th anniversary”- this slogan could have been written for our birthdays and our love of travel. We stopped in a cozy pub for another enjoyable lunch and glass of Guinness, before riding the final 10 km of our journey to the magnificent Ashford Castle.
I loved our stay in this beautiful Irish castle, the former home of the Guinness family. It was the final stop on a five-day cycling tour of the region. Riding down the long driveway and arriving at this stunning location was breathtaking! We couldn’t wait to check-in and head to the spa for a much-needed and well-earned massage! Our room was beautifully decorated with a splendid view of the lake and gardens. We enjoyed our final night with our B&R group and said our good-byes.
We stayed for one more night in order to enjoy the amenities of Ashford Castle and to relax after six full days. We loved our visit to the Falconry School on the castle grounds. We did the hawk walk where we each had our own hawk to exercise and a private guide to explain everything there is to know about falconry. We played the 9-hole golf course twice, renting clubs and pull carts. The walk-able course is a good resort course, with a few blind tee-shots, resulting in some more lost balls. The views of the castle and the lake from the course are awesome. I loved our stay at this castle and wish we could have stayed longer to do more of the activities and explore the near-by town… next time!
We returned to Dublin for a last afternoon and evening, before catching our flight back home. We went on a tour of the Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison that is now a historical site. We learned a lot about the history of Dublin and Ireland. It was a rainy afternoon, giving us a further taste of typical Irish weather. Our finale dinner was at a tucked away Michelin Star restaurant called Locks, specializing in modern Irish food. The small restaurant oozed charm, while the food was excellent. A spectacular finish to an incredible week of exercise and eating!
Our Fifty Shades of Green trip to Ireland was a huge success and exceeded all of our expectations. It was our first cycling holiday and it won’t be our last. I felt quite at home in Ireland, feeling a connection due to my O’Freel ancestry. I do not think there is anywhere else on Earth that has so many shades of green in the landscape. All in all, we decided, turning 50 ain’t all bad!
