Ireland Day 1

Full photo album - https://photos.app.goo.gl/C5HZcDgeYduSGYqT9

I arrived at the Fort Wayne airport on Sunday, 2 pm. I did not leave the Shannon airport in Ireland until Monday, noon. I had layovers in Chicago and London.

Note: There's a five hour difference between Ireland and US Eastern time.

I ran into my employer's CEO and a Senior VP while at the Fort Wayne airport. They were on a business trip to Europe and we actually shared the same flights through London.

On the way to Chicago, I noticed our CEO sitting in the exit row ... and I thought "my safety could be in his hands ... surely, he's paying attention to the attendant's pre-flight briefing." 

I was fortunate that the trans-Atlantic flight was not sold out. I got a full three seat block all to myself.

I was hoping to have spectacular views of Ireland from the airplane as we crossed over on the way to London. Unfortunately, we were so high and the cloud cover was so thick, that there was nothing to see. I did catch a few glimpses of London as we descended.

The same thing was true of the flight to Shannon. I didn't catch much of note until we descended to about 22k.

Upon landing, I got my rental car ... an Opel Corsa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Corsa). It was a nice little car. I spent a lot of time in it.

I went into this trip with a list of almost 300 points of interest. I knew that I wouldn't be able to visit them all, but I wanted to make sure I knew what was where. I assigned a ranking to each point and tried to hit as many "1" spots as possible. I could pick off other items if they were on the way.

I spent the night in seven different BnB/inns along the way. The "bubbles" in the second map indicate about an hour drive from each BnB location.

The plan was to drive along the coast from Shannon to Dublin in a clockwise fashion. I knew I wouldn't get everything I wanted to see, but I didn't want to get home and realize that I missed something if I had known to take a short detour.

First stop was Craggaunowen (https://www.craggaunowen.ie/).

It's a Stone Age village recreation that you do a self-directed walking tour. It wasn't that it was super high on my list, but it was close. I thought it would be a good way to get my feet wet driving on the left side of the road. It had a restored castle, some old-school huts, etc. It was a nice place to walk around.

Along the way, I stopped at a cemetery simply because it piqued my interest. This would be a recurring theme throughout the trip. If I saw something interesting, I rarely had a reason not to give into a whim and take an unplanned stop.

I stopped at Dún na Múchán (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooghaun), a well-preserved hill fort and some nice walking trails. There was intermittent rain all day, and it helped being in the woods.

I finally made it to my lodging for the night (Ennis, County Clare) and decided to try to get the west coast in hopes of catching some nice sunset pics. Unfortunately, I hit a curb trying to turn left in Ennistymon. I wound up with flat tire. I later found out that particular intersection is a county-famous bad intersection known as Blake's Corner. Google it if you'd like to know the story.

I had full coverage with road side assistance, which was a brilliant idea. It was a long wait, but it was completely resolved. No injuries or significant damage, so I was very fortunate.

I was stranded long enough that I missed getting the coastal pics I wanted, but that's what another visit to Ireland is for. :)

I got back to my room a little too late for a regular meal, so I wound up eating a protein bar that I had packed in my carryon for the plane.