Visiting Kylemore Abbey and on into Sligo

Freshly bapped up, we were ready for a big adventure at Kylemore Abbey. We’d seen some pictures online and it looked to be breathtaking. We arrived mid morning, which is to say, slightly ahead of the tourist busses. Which is to say, perfect timing. 

The place was absolutely stunning. Incredibly beautiful. In a “we don’t make things like this anymore” kind of way. This always gives me pause. Why don’t we? Why don’t we build things this beautiful anymore? Anyway — we decided to go first to the gardens. WOW!! We were so delighted with the crops, herbs, plants, trees, flowers. Jason was gathering lots of ideas for a future farm. Mom and I were saying we sure wished Aunt Linda was there— she would have really enjoyed that. We walked over to the Abbey next. We got to walk through a little bit of it. They’d done a nice job of preserving it. Some rooms operating as a museum and others left with the original decorations and furniture from years ago. We did see one nun. She drove up in a car. For some reason, this really rocked my world. Never think about nuns driving cars. From the abbey, we walked down to an old, insanely cool mini cathedral. It was really lovely. We considered stopping for a scone because apparently this area of Ireland is known for its scones but by then the little cafe was overrun with all the people coming in from the tourist busses. We decided to roll back into the little village and have one there instead.

This was about the time that mom stepped in front of oncoming traffic.

One interesting thing about traveling to other countries is this notion that you just can’t quite get right. All the normal stuff no longer applies. All your preprogrammed scripts don’t work. Since we were babies, we’ve looked left before stepping onto a street. Looking left doesn’t help in Ireland. You look left, step into street, and a cab shows up from the right about to run you over. All those many things we take for granted are suddenly disorienting. 

Anyway, I screamed, “MOM” and she stepped safely back. Whew!

So, we go to buy the scones and end up with...a whole lot of chips.

Now, this is important. The chips here are AMAZING. Why are they so good? The collective fave is the shamrock and sour cream chip. 

We’re ready to cruise up to Sligo now. Home of W.B. Yeats.