Dear ‘IRISH’ – or whatever the exact form of address should be.
I think we’ve fallen in love – in love with an island – which is a bit strange at 77 …My wife and I have just returned today from our far too short trip to Ireland – only 14 days – but those few days will probably remain deeply etched in our memories forever.
What a beautiful island – green, green, green (despite the current drought and fire risk); what lovely people(even if they aren’t always easy to understand 😊); what a pleasant ‘coolness of living’.
Of course, we may be making a sweeping generalisation, but that’s simply how we experienced it. We weren’t necessarily after the tourist highlights… yes, we did see MOHER and visited CONNEMARA, but the best experience, for example, was a drive to the tip of Sheapshead, followed by a short walk and a picnic all on our own, facing the Atlantic! There were also other stops along the way … 2 days in Dublin (a lovely, big city), Wicklow National Park, the south coast around Cork (a city we didn’t explore further – as it would otherwise have been ‘too much of a city’), the two beautiful peninsulas in the south-west (see above) – we skipped ‘THE RING’ as it was too crowded – and then lovely Galway and its Connemara ‘surroundings’ . . .
Here and there a few old castles, monasteries and towers, beautifully preserved but left in their original state rather than being ‘Hollywood-style’ restored – well done !
Your wonderful little hedgerow-lined roads, where you think you’re on a one-way street… but no, everyone skilfully and calmly looks out for one another, not in an exaggerated way, but quite naturally – a wave of the hand, a smile; the same goes for the streets of the villages and towns.
No fuss, no aggression – you feel as though THE ISLAND is at peace with itself! The return journey (all in our own car) was more like a ‘gauntlet’ – in England, then in Belgium and Germany: hustle and bustle, a jungle of road signs and regulations, hardly any consideration…
So we can close our eyes and dream of the last two weeks we spent with you – with the faint hope of returning to you once more … at the age of 78, 79, 80???
WITH LOVE
Annie & Siggi