Dickens has nothing on me for great titling.
Weather forecast: 100% chance of rain with 50mph winds. Very few pictures are therefore in today's posting.
You might say, "Damn, Dan, Vicki, and Cody. Are you sure you want to go stand at the edge of a sheer cliff with no railing in a driving rain with winds that could lift you up over the ocean at any moment?"
Today, at least, we said no. But we did don rainwear and head a half kilometer into Doolin to shop a bit. Noteworthy is the small chocolate shop. We will return there before leaving Doolin. Then, because Vicki already mastered dry Irish roads, we hit the road to drive narrow Irish roads and play chicken with tour buses in the rain.
We drove up to Aillwee cave and the Birds of Prey Centre. I like caves. I've done many cave tours, and I even did a spelunking trip once through the Pink Palace museum in Memphis. This was not like any of those. The first sign was that it was a big tourist destination. Most things we have seen in Ireland have been low-key, and, in general, the Irish made them hard to find. This place, on the other hand, had road signs from the moment we left Doolin. It is advertised. It is therefore promoted like most similar sites in the U.S. Driving across Kansas? You see a sign advertising Dollywood. Then sign #2 - a row of flags at the entrance and people directing the traffic in the rain. Sign #3 - a gift shop and multiple parking areas, including one for buses. We should have turned around. But with hope of a dry tour, we pay our fee and park.
It is all of our fears multiplied. A tacky giftshop with many unruly children declaring that this one item is the key to their lifetime happiness. One darling little girl was headed into the restroom from which her brother was emerging. She aimed a kick directly at his shin, but dad was faster and pulled her back before contact. They were, naturally, the ones who pushed their way to the front when the queue formed for our tour.
The cave was not dry. In some places, my balding head got hit with as much cold water as it would have outside. Next, it was tame in comparison to any I have ever toured elsewhere. We saw some bear bones in one place, an indentation where bears once hibernated in another. There were a few cave straws, a couple of stalagmites and one small stalactite. A waterfall, increasing by the hour due to the rain outside, was on the tour as well. A few stories, some warnings about hitting your head, and we were finished.
This is also the only place we have visited that had a tip bowl out at the end - and the Irish have been very conservative about tipping thus far. You rarely tip at a bar, in restaurants, you generally tip 10-12%, and you are not expected to tip in B&Bs unless something special is done for you personally. Our guide at Cashel vanished so fast, there was no possibility of a tip.
Finally, in most places we have gone in Ireland, there is an assumption that the risk of being in these places is on the visitor, and that to fully enjoy the experience, you have to allow some risk so as not to ruin the site. So you don't provide signage for every exposed pointy rock or slippery surface. You can go to a ruin as it is with the expectation that you won't try to climb the stone tower - or allow your children to, unless you are willing to see them hurt. But here at Aillwee, there were some improvements made all through the cave - a paved walkway, handrails, metal gratings, that were done in a way that lessened the experience as compared with anything else we had done thus far. Then, once you had left your tip - and the guide - behind, you got instructions to return to the main area on your own. That is, through a 100 ft. corridor of stone, with a little lighting about every 20 ft. Need I say that in the U.S., there would have been someone who bonked his head in this place in the first 15 minutes of being open, who would then have sued for a lifetime of pain and permanent disfigurement. Aillwee just doesn't fit with the rest of Ireland, in my very humble opinion.
When you are inside in the rain, you have plenty of time to think on these things - and then blog about it. Had the rest of the day been dry, you might have missed this expert criticism.
We had a nice, quiet, and dry lunch in Ballyvaughan. On the wall over our table was a shot of the Poulnabrone Dolmen. The top photo (not clear) was of the Dolmen. The bottom was KNOT. Get it?
The Poulnabrone Dolmen
From the source of all wisdom and knowledge - Wikipedia:
This dramatic site, on the karstic limestone pavement of the Burren, is one of the most famous Irish dolmens. The name Poulnabrone literally means 'The hole of the sorrows'.
The thin capstone sits on two 1.8m (6ft) high portal stones to create a chamber in a 9m (30ft) low cairn. The eastern portal stone was replaced in 1985, following a discovery that it was unfortunately cracked; excavations during the repair showed that this site dated back to about 2500 BC.
Uncremated remains were found in the chamber, its portico, and in the grykes (crevices in the limestone floor). In particular, there were the main body bones of one newborn baby, six juveniles, and 16-22 adults. Only one of the adults lived beyond 40 years, and the majority were under 30 when they died. An analysis of all the fragments of disarticulated bones revealed a hard physical life and a coarse diet; it was further proved that the bones were naturally defleshed elsewhere (by exposure or burial) and only then moved within the chamber at Poulnabrone.
A number of grave goods were found in the tomb : a polished stone axe, two stone disc beads, a perforated bone pendant, part of a bone pin, two quartz crystals, flint and chert arrowheads and scrapers, and over 60 sherds of coarse pottery. This probably involved a ritual and reveal an exact planning, but the purpose remains unknown.
So the place is very, very old. It grows in your expectations as you try to find it in the Irish contryside, especially during the relentless rain. We finally do find it, out in a field of stones marked by the glaciers. No crowds here right now - there are maybe a half dozen others coming and going from the tomb. Because it is raining. Still. Less rain, but it is coming sideways. Vicki is dismayed by the size of the dolmen -something built up this much ought to be bigger!
But we did see it. Proof here:
Back at lunch, I put my extremely creative talents to work and quickly designed a rendering of the dolmen in chips. Do not copy my work.
At this point, we headed back. Vicki dropped me at the music store in Doolin so I could find out about repairing my bodhran. I was told to do it myself, so I will try. Some people show up at parties with a guitar. They are cool. Invite me and I may show up with a bodhran. That is pronounced like boron, by the way. A moron with a bodhran.
I walked back against the wind. Any direction today is against the wind. See?
I think it is dinner time. We aren't hungry - what does that have to do with it?
Just back from dinner. Dinner was a bust as well. I won't bother with the details, but nothing we had but the beer was any good.
Perhaps we can just erase this day from the vacation? Or deal with it and know there is more yet to be seen, tasted, or experienced!
