Thursday, September 12, Day 2 Arrive in Dublin, Ireland and Drive to West Coast
We arrived at Dublin airport within an hour of one another and picked up our rental car. Fortunately, Android Auto worked right off and we learned that Ireland has adopted an "Eircode" - a 7-digit combination of numbers and letters like a postcode that is unique for every building in the country! Plugging our code, F23 AE92, into Google Maps and starting Android Auto allowed us to drive across the country from Dublin Airport, right up to our Airbnb in the middle of the Irish countryside. What a great system - and it is a shame that it might not be scalable to countries the size of the US. But for navigating countries with large rural populations it is simply terrific.
We stopped en route at the village of Enfield, just beyond Maynooth on the motorway, and had a nice late breakfast - Munroe had the complete 'fry-up' with egg, rashers, sausages, white and blood pudding, and toast!
We did a quick shopping to get our staples at the Super Value and Tesco Express stores that were right across the street from one another, and then continued to our new 'home' for four nights (we leave Monday). We arrived at our new 'home' around 4:30pm - and our host, Jacqueline, who is next door, greeted us and showed us the ropes for our spot.
Cosy Cottage, Belcarra, County Mayo
Our place is a lovely traditional cottage outside the village of Belcarra in County Mayo. It is on a single lane country road that stretches about 2 miles and is book-ended on each end by the ruins of castles. So, at one point centuries ago, this would have been a consequential road!
The cottage is sparkling clean, beautifully updated, and fully equipped (one of the best we've had on that score). We had Irish lamb chops, Irish potatoes (County Mayo), and Irish carrots for our first dinner and managed to stay awake (for the most part! Munroe fell asleep for a bit on the couch) until about 8:30pm. The bedding and bed were very comfortable and we had a good first night.
