Thursday 10th June

Last night the wind really picked up and howled until we woke up. I wouldn’t say it kept me awake, but some of the noises it made did wake me from my sleep! The cottage creaked and howled all night, and later I discovered that it was louder because we had the window open, which I hadn't realised!

Anyway, we woke up at 7:30 this morning and the wind was still howling and blowing like nobody’s business. Last night there were lots of dark clouds here there and everywhere. I shifted the curtain across to look outside and saw……..a clear blue sunny sky!! Mathew didn’t quite believe me what with yesterday being so indecisive with its weather, overcast, sunny, raining, drizzling, raining again. He had to look out the window too before he realised I was telling the truth!

During breakfast we had the radio on hearing out for the weather, but for some reason there was a different radio station on, and this one was playing music, unlike the Radio 4 equivalent which we had previously been listening to. I don’t remember moving that dial……! Anyway, we gave up with the Radio because we were going to the Aran Islands today regardless - we had booked our ferry over there at 11am. The weather was still fine when we left, I had put on my thermals and extra socks because it was really very windy and chilly.

By the time we got to Doolin (where the ferries leave) it was very warm. We had left at 10am and arrived in Doolin by the craft shops by around 10:20, giving us (or rather, me) plenty of time to have a nosey at the shops. I liked the stained glass shop but I couldn’t make a decision so I thought I would sleep on that as we can go back there tomorrow should I decide I want something from there. I also went into two shops which had a large selection of “Aran Sweaters” and I found a couple of items which caught my eye - funnily enough, zip-ups, NOT button-ups, and the one which caught my eye actually came with a cute little hood. I thought I would think over it while we were on Inishmore.

We parked for the ferry and I decided that today was not a thermal day, despite the chilly wind earlier. I popped into the ladies to take them off and we went to queue up for the ferry which may have come in late or maybe the tide was late or perhaps its just tradition - we actually left the pier at 11:30 which I thought to myself, immediately reduced our time spent on the island if we are to catch the ferry back at 4pm. Onto the ferry we got, and I didn’t actually realise that it worked pretty much like a water taxi - stopping off at every point. Or in this case, stopping off at the first two islands Inishmere and Inishmaan before our island and the largest, Inshore - therefore reducing our time on the island even further. I was thinking it would take 90 minutes to get there, and Mathew thought it would take just under an hour - I ended up being right! We had packed a lunch and at 12:30 both of us were quite hungry so we decided to eat on the boat which was an excellent idea, given that we would only have 3 hours on the island. Now, I thought that 3 hours would be fine. We both thought 4 hours would be more than enough, but evidently not - or at least, not when you’re on a bike. Speaking of which……

We got onto the island and our legs immediately felt funny after having spent 90 minutes on a ferry with a heavily vibrating engine! We went straight to one of the many places renting out bikes for the day, and paid E20 each for a bike, but half was a deposit which we would get back on returning the bike, so really it only cost us E10 each. We walked quite a little way around the corner and up a slight hill until I felt brave enough to try riding my bike in a place with not too many eyes watching me. I do wonder if many people were watching actually, because at first I thought I wasn’t going to be able to ride it. It had been 20 years since I last rode a bike - I was 10 years old and it was just a normal children’s bike with no gears. This one had lots of gears and I had no clue how they worked - thankfully, Mathew did and he told me which was better for what.

So at first, I thought “I can do this!”, but…..evidently not. I was obviously severely out of practice and as I pushed off, I felt okay at first and I thought I was going to be fine, but it was actually the steering which was the problem, not the balancing on the two wheels, and I wasn’t expecting that bit to be a problem at all. For some reason I found it really quite hard to control where I was going, it felt a little like when you first start driving a car - you’re not used to it so you wobble all over the place. This is what I did for a little while, about 15 - 20 minutes. Now, when faced with situations like this, if something doesn’t work for me the first time around, I try just a couple more times and if I can’t do it, I decide to forget about it and never do it ever again because it’s just not worth the hassle. This is how my mind works, although sometimes I think it might be a little impatient of me. If I can’t get the hang of something straight away or with a couple of tries, then I’m not meant to. This is how I seem to think.

I got to the stage where I was telling Mathew that I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do it, to ride a bike, even though I kept getting on, losing control, getting off, I did at least keep trying to control the bike. I told Mathew I thought we’d have to take the bikes back right away, when suddenly, just like that, I got going. It was a bit of a staggering start because I went along quite nicely, felt I was losing control and stopped, but the more times I stopped, I seemed to start again easier each time and got more confident with the steering. This was getting easier! Mathew had no trouble, it was just like he’d ridden a bike yesterday, although it had been 10 years since he had ridden a bike, so he told me.

Eventually I was cycling along quite nicely, although I did get off and push the bike up a couple of hills especially as my legs were getting increasingly confused at the different-to-usual use of muscle….! Once I stopped, half dismounted and fell over into a foliage-filled ditch, but I was fine (I fell on my left side...!!), but I just kept getting up and back onto the bike again. I have to say that my dismounting skills left a lot to be desired though…..!

So we cycled along, and this is when we realised that 3 hours was really not enough time to explore the island. There were several attractions, or ancient ruins as they all were, which we would have gone to see, but it would have been better if we’d arrived at 11am and departed at 4pm giving us 5 hours to explore the place, but the tides ruled on this one, so we couldn’t argue with it. It was a shame to have to leave the other places “until next time” as Mathew puts it (so very often he says this when we miss things out on holiday!), but at least we got to see the main attraction which was Dun Aonghasa. Now, Mathew really wanted to see this one in particular, whereas I had no clue what to expect on the island, I obviously hadn’t done any homework about this so I just followed Mathew here and accepted that it was the only place where we were going to stop off at on our unfortunately short visit to Inishmore.

Now, Dun Aonghasa it says in the leaflet for the island, is “The most spectacular semi circular Celtic Stone Fort in Europe.” I’ll say - that and more!! There are two semi circles of stone enclosure wall and a third half one. It might not sound impressive but these walls are incredibly thick, and very high. For obvious health and safety reasons we couldn’t walk on the top of the wall, although this would have given us a great view if it had been safe enough. Still, the most impressive thing about it was the CLIFF. And there IS a cliff and a half, I can tell you. I am very surprised that it hasn’t been cordoned off for safety reasons, but if it was, it would probably spoil the entire point of the place.

Basically, there is this huge huge wall, and opposite the wall is the edge - a totally vertical cliff. Seriously - this is absolutely CRAZY but its SO amazing to see! Every visitor there (including us, of course!) had the common sense to lay on their fronts and just peek straight down over the edge of the cliff. Many many “Woah!” and “Oh my God…!” and “Eeeeeeep!” exclamations were being made as everyone did this. It was very dizzying to look over the edge and even thinking about it now turns my stomach over with the obvious and silly thought of “what if you accidentally……” ….you get the idea….!!

After our unfortunately brief visit here, we went back to our bikes and took a different and flatter route back to the pier. It was at this point that we were both feeling it a little - not our legs, but our backsides! The bike seats were SO hard! Ouch! Neither of us cycle at home so it was all different for our bodies! Fortunately, we got back just in time for me to have a gander in the shops, although I didn’t buy anything I wasn’t disappointed with them. The main reason why I didn’t buy anything from there was because there were shops in Doolin selling more or less the same things for a lower price. If you bought things like Aran sweaters on Aran, they were more expensive than in mainland Ireland. Personally I think it’s a bit of a rip off, but that’s tourism for you - if they’re made in Aran or from wool from sheep from Aran, I don’t see a problem with buying one on the mainland, especially if you’re in Ireland anyway.

We boarded the ferry and went back, stopping off at the other two islands, and finally got back to Doolin around 5:45pm. Some of the craft shops here were still open so we had a look in again. There were a couple which opened later than the others so I was finally able to have a look inside. I still couldn’t make my mind up about the stained glass, so I thought we could come back tomorrow if I suddenly decided I wanted one. I did, however, buy some chocolate made in County Clare, and a really nice Aran hooded top - the one I had eyed up this morning. It was purple and it was a zip-up and it was snuggly. E60 but I think it was definitely worth it!  There was also only one in my size.  It was clearly meant to be!

We ate dinner at Fitzpatrick’s Bar earlier than usual at 6:30pm, I had a naughty burger and chips an Mathew had fish and chips. There was no live music until 9pm, but there was a CD playing traditional Irish music which made us feel we were definitely in Ireland! After some ice cream, we left for the cottage, where I wrote up my diary and we drove to the beach to watch the sun set before settling in for the rest of the evening.