Cong / Dublin / ferry to Holyhead / Cemlyn Bay (Wales) – 29.-31.7.2023

The borders of Connemara are not a hundred percent clear, but now we definitively left that region. The weather kept changing from rain to sun to rain…

We stayed near Lough Corrib, and to get to Cong we had to drive over some hills that reminded us of Iceland at times 🙂

Cong is a pretty village. We strolled through it, and we had coffee and scones at McHughs,

A lot of scenes from the film „The Quiet Man“ were shot in Cong.

A little stream runs through Cong.

There is an old abbey that you can visit.

There is an old fishing hut. The monks could catch the fish through a trapdoor, because the river flowed underneath the hut.

We were lucky – the sun was shining for a few hours 🙂

Ashford Castle is a famous tourist attraction in Cong, but we didn’t bother going there. Instead, we went for a walk in Cong wood. There is a little walk-in sculpture with mosaic.

The wood is magical ! Lots of moss and fern and stones – we loved it 🙂

It took us ages to walk around.

Back in the village. We had a snack at the Puddleducks Café.

There are ducks around 🙂

We drove out of Cong to look for a place to sleep. We found Clonbur Wood, a forest next to a cemetrey (Roshill Cemetery).

A little walk showed the beautiful surroundings.

The following morning we drove THROUGH the cemetery to get away!

In this holiday our main destination in Ireland was Connemara. On another holiday we spent a few weeks in other areas: from Dublin we first visited Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains, then we drove west to The Burren, then along the coast to Cliffs of Moher, Kilkee Cliffs with Loop Head, the whole peninsula Dingle, then the Ring of Kerry, and at the end the Beara pensinsula. After that we had to rush to Rosslare to catch the ferry to Brittany. This time we still wanted to visit other places, first of all Wales. For that reason we then drove east towards Dublin. It rained all day… We only had a couple of coffee stops, one of them at a pub in Knockcroghery, where everybody was watching an important Irish football match 🙂

There aren’t many trains in Ireland, so if you do happen to cross a railway line, it has to be announced properly. The first sign was 300 metres before the crossing, then 200 m, then 100 m!

We decided to stop overnight at the Lough Ree, at Judy’s Harbour. The river Shannon flows through that lake.

A lot of street signs in Ireland are different or even unknown to us. Here a selection:

Our last day in Ireland (in this holiday – we’ll certainly come back!) we spent driving to Dublin, again mostly in the rain. Sometimes very heavy rain… We booked the ferry to Holyhead the day before, so we only did a bit of sightseeing by van 😉

At the ferry terminal „our“ ferry was already waiting.

Soon after that we boarded and left Ireland.

Luckily the crossing was very smooth. We saw some gannets 🙂

Arrival in Holyhead in Wales.

We spent our first night in Wales at the Cemlyn Bay on Anglesey. In Wales everything (or most things) are written in Welsh and in English.

Finally the weather turned brighter 🙂 Luckily the forecast for high tide wasn’t too high! Cemlyn Bay is a nature reserve, we saw lots and lots of birds.

The sunset was lovely 🙂 We also saw the full moon rising!

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