Today we boarded a ferry for a 40 minute cruise to the Aran Islands. Lo and behold, when we were ready to board , Angela said, "I think that lady looks like Cristen Schwab's mom." (Cristen is one of Angela's friends that she met through Kat McCarthy.) As we stepped onto the ferry, Cristen's mom walked on at the same time. She said hi to Angela and yes, indeed it was Cristen, her mom and her aunt. What a small world. (see pic of Ang and Cristin top right).We had a fast ride over on the ferry as we learned about Cristen's recent semester in Ireland. So there you have it - those Rochester ties have very long strings.
By the way, I've wanted to write this for 3 days and haven't so I'm going to say it now as Dr Suess would - that I do so like those fish and chips and I will eat them in a pub and I will eat them instead of subs - I will eat them here or there but I will not eat them everywhere. The haddock is amazing here. As I am allergic to shellfish - I haven't had a lot to do with fish in the past but the haddock here is so fresh - not fishy at all and very light. What a treat it has been!
O.k. back to the Aran Islands and Tom is going to take the wheel here ...
Thanks to some over the counter Dramamine as a backup Angela and I tolerated the ferry trip on this largely sunny day (our third straight) without any seasickness. Jumped on a tour van for a 2.5 hr tour of the island. By the way the Irish eyed wife was actually "mistaken" for an islander by a native! Funny.
Anyway the first stop on the 9 x 2 mile island was the Dun Aonghasa a huge 2500 year old U-shaped Celtic stone fort with the back of the U being sheer cliffs dropping 500 feet into the sea. No way anybody could get in that place! Very weird to walk amidst a structure that old and touch the stones trying to comprehend how long ago they were placed there. On the rest of the tour we saw ancient crumbling churches, moss covered tombstones, thatched roof huts of old and even seals bobbing among the waves. So symbolic of this Good Friday was at 3:00 (time of church services on Jesus'death) when the rain came followed by a resurgence of the sun about an hour later.
The boat trip back was quite restful... in fact Ang and I dozed off pretty much the whole way (yeah, they both fell asleep leaning on either side of me - thrown in by Terri). Beneath a magnificent rainbow we drove back to town and decided to order pizza and watch a flick which was quite relaxing. Tomorrow we head to the Cliffs of Mohr(sp?) and Burren down south to sight see and shop.
Forgot to mention our Galway pub waiter last night was this big tall husky red-headed bloke with big blue eyes and a low voice. Reminded both Terri and I of a relative we both know (aka our son Jeff!). That kid must have inherited 99% of his mom's Irish genes cause he sure looks the part!
Lastly, yesterday on our way home, we passed through a tiny village and stopped on a scenic stone bridge over a bonnie bubbling brook (try saying that fast 10 times!). Turns out it was the site of John Wayne's 1930's-40's film "The Quiet Man" featuring Maureen O'Hara! In fact there was a plaque with the Duke's picture near the site. Cool! Gotta catch that flick when we get home.
Terri is making me a cup of tea so time to sign off. Thanks for all the comments and notes!
Tom and his lassie Terri
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