Cong Abbey

The day started out gloomy and we decided to cut back on the driving as we had planned a very long day. We decided to do some quick laundry then move on to the village of Cong to see the abbey there. By the time we got to Cong, it was pouring rain but we had our waterproof jackets and pants in the car so we slipped those on and just carried on with our visit. The abby is in ruins, but I like ruins. I know they're not everyone's thing, but I enjoy having to use my imagination to picture life there as it must have been hundreds of years ago. The monks built a small fishing house on the river so they could catch fresh fish for food. Legend says there was even a bell that the monk could ring to tell the others he had caught fish so they would know what to prepare for the next meal. The path from the abbey leads to trails through Cong Wood which seems basically adjacent to Ashford Castle though we didn't walk far enough to find out. In dry weather I would love a stroll through those woods and to sit in the little fishing house watching the river flow by. 

                                                                    Cong Abbey

                                                             Monks' Fishing House

                   

In and around Athlone

Athlone was a good base to see some of the sites in the center of the island.  There are historic sites in Athlone (oldest pub in Ireland as well as a castle) and the surrounding area. 

The next day dawned bright and sunny in spite of all the downpour the previous day and we set off to see some sites. Our first stop was Clonmacnoise which is a monastic settlement ruin on the banks of the River Shannon. It's a lovely setting and they have some very nice Celtic crosses too. I managed to smack my head pretty hard on an arched doorway on one of the ruins. Mike warned me to duck but I had taken some cold medicine the night before and I was still little groggy so I didn't really register what he said until it was too late. I'm never taking NyQuil again, ouch! 

We then made our way to Birr Castle which has a large reflecting telescope. It was the largest telescope in the world when it was finished in 1845. They have an exhibition of the scientific contributions of the family who owns the estate. It was very interesting if you like science or astronomy. We also had a nice lunch at their courtyard cafe. 

Our final stop of the day was the Rock of Dunamase, an early Christian settlement that was pillaged by the Vikings in 842 A.D. By the 1100's, it was the most important fortification in the area. And the best part? We had the whole place to ourselves! 

Ireland September 2023

We had visited Ireland previously but our trip was spent in Dublin and the southern part of island. Since we were just coming from Iceland and had two more weeks vacation, it seemed a good idea to return to Ireland to see the northern part of the Republic as well as Northern Ireland. After all, we had all our cold weather outdoorsy clothes from Iceland so it wouldn't have made much sense to go somewhere that would require an entirely different wardrobe. It turned out to be a very good thing that we had those warm clothes because the weather was cold, very windy and sometimes rainy!

We did have a really good time in spite of the weather and found some fun things to do along the way. Although I'm not going to lie, I was really sick of the wind by the third week. The weather had been unusually warm in Ireland just a couple of weeks before we arrived so we missed that little window of nice weather. We didn't let the weather stop us though and we mostly just carried on with our plans. Our waterproof clothing came in very handy in Cong and we were glad we had it. 

We did have a slight hiccup on arrival. Our flight on IcelandAir was delayed and our plane arrived in Dublin almost an hour late. Our luggage took 45 minutes to show up on the carousel even though about 85% of the other passengers had theirs within 30 minutes. We were beginning to fear it was lost but there were about 8 other people from our flight that were also still waiting and it was a direct flight so there shouldn't have been a problem. I had Apple AirTags in the luggage but they wouldn't update so I can only assume the bags were somewhere deep in the terminal and not still on the plane.

Once we finally had our luggage we had to stop by the baggage claim counter (ironic, I know) and pick up a portable wifi device that I had ordered ahead of time. We had one in Iceland and it was GREAT having one. We could connect multiple devices and the wifi was usually faster than the hotel wifi. Then we were finally off to the rental car office to pick up our car (1-1/2 hours late) and get on the road. By this time it was absolutely pouring down rain and I was starting to feel a cold coming on, so we skipped our planned stop and went straight to Athlone where we would send our first two nights.  

Iceland's Snaefellsness peninsula

 On our last day in Iceland we drove from the capital Reykjavik to the Snaefellsness peninsula. In warmer weather we would have liked to stop more places along the peninsula but it was very windy again and quite cold, but that's a chance you take when you visit in September. We stopped to see the little black church at Budir, saw some Icelandic horses up close, and took photos of Mt. Kirkjufell with its waterfalls.

The Icelandic horse is a completely unique breed and if one leaves Iceland, it is not allowed to come back.  They protect the health of the breed and the horse population very strictly. Many of these horses had blue eyes! 

The next day we left Iceland for Ireland and Northern Ireland. I'll post about that part of the trip soon. 

Hofn - a mountain and a Viking Village (of sorts)

 The last stop on this very full day of canyon and ice lagoon was Stokkesness to photograph Mt. Vestrahorn. The land is privately owned so you have to pay an entrance fee - one of the few places we paid for anything other than parking. 

I wanted to get a good photo of the mountain with a reflection from the water but the tide was out so that wasn't meant to be. The wind here was super strong! We had to lean into it to walk and the sand from the beach was hitting our faces and stinging like little needles. I realized when we were about a hundred yards from the car that I should have changed to my wide angle lens. A really rookie mistake and you can't change a lens in all that sand and wind so I just did the best I could. We all stumbled our way back to the car after a few photos and it was such a relief to be out of that wind! We drove to the Viking village which was built as a movie set and you can walk around and look at the buildings. The crazy thing is, there was no wind here. We could literally see where we had parked in all that wind earlier but the mountains must have blocked it because it was quite calm at the village. 

                                                              Mount Vestrahorn

                                                                   Viking Village

From Vik to Hofn - a canyon and an ice lagoon

 We had spent 2 nights in the small town of Vik which was a good base for the Ice Cave and also the Kria Hotel was very nice. 

Today was a great day. We left Vik and headed east, stopping at Fjadrargljufur canyon. I really recommend this stop as it is a very short easy walk from the parking area along the top of the canyon and the view looking back out the canyon is really gorgeous. 

After the canyon, we drove to Diamond Beach. It's called this because chunks of ice from the neighboring lagoon drift out into sea and get washed up on the beach.  It was really windy here and we were all bundled up from head to toe. Mike lost track of me once and couldn't figure out where I was because everyone looked the same and just had a fraction of their face showing! The shapes and sizes of the ice are so interesting and the clarity is beautiful. We were lucky there was a good amount on the beach that day. It totally depends on the tide and weather and sometimes there is no ice at all on the beach. Don't worry about the one photo below, I managed to avoid that incoming wave. 

Jokullsarlon lagoon is where all that ice on the beach comes from before making its way to the sea. There is a massive glacier that sheds the ice into the lagoon where it drifts around. You can take a zodiac or amphibious vehicle tour but the wind was so strong, it didn't really seem like a good idea and we only saw one amphibious vehicle go out. Maybe it was rough for the zodiacs? If you look closely at the second photo, you can see the glacier in the background.

Iceland's South Coast waterfalls

Again these are a fraction of the waterfalls along the south coast. It would take many days to see them all so we focused on the most popular ones. 

Seljalandsfoss is a waterfall with a large opening behind it so you can walk behind the water (with a hundred or so companions lol, I edited them out of one of the photos). I recommend getting there very early in the morning to avoid the tour bus crowds or go later in the evening for the same reason. They say the best photos can be taken in the late afternoon but that depends on the weather of course. We were there about 10am. It was very wet behind the waterfall, so much so that I didn't use my camera at all - I just used my phone. It was very fun tho and the flow of water was quite good so we enjoyed it. 

Just to the left of Seljalandsfoss is a waterfall called Gljufrabui. You have to wade through the water and rock-hop though a narrow cleft in the rock to enter a small open area where the water falls. It was quite crowded when we were there and the opening is really only wide enough for one person at a time so the people waiting to go in had to wait for the people coming out and vice versa. Inside the open area is a big boulder that makes for an awesome photo if you can make it up on top. I was surprised I made it about halfway up (with a running start) and Mike helped pull me up the rest of the way. These things aren't easy when you're short!

Skogafoss is a 200 foot tall, 80 foot wide waterfall. You can't get very close to the base of the falls because it flows into a river, but the spray and wind coming off were really strong even when you're not super close.  We tried to wade a little bit into the river to get a better photo, but our boots were only ankle high. There were some people on a rocky area to the right of the falls that were closer than we were and they were absolutely drenched! And it was loud! 

There is a series of 500 steps to the right of the waterfall and you can climb those to hike beyond the top of the waterfall. There are multiple waterfalls on that trail and I think you can even connect to another long hiking trail from there. At this point it was raining and we had another stop to make and I was pooped from all climbing all those steps, so we just hiked to the closest waterfall and then turned around.

We also needed to get to Vik as we had tickets for the Lava Show that evening. We were wondering if the show would be kind of hokey but it was actually quite good.