Today was the first day where we didn't have breakfast included. After our long day yesterday we chose to sleep in and we really did sleep in. We finally checked out of our hotel at noon and went looking for coffee. We found a fast food place, Irish style and ordered coffee and a "small fry" as opposed to a "large fry". Small consisted of one egg, one sausage, one large piece of bacon, french fries, one potato cake (the ones you buy frozen), fried mushrooms and pork and beans and a piece of toast. We certainly didn't eat it all.

We traveled through Donegal today and the scenery was quite pretty. There were some small mountains and sheep in the fields everywhere. It is really pretty with stone fences and hedges separating the fields.

It was cloudy today but quite warm with not a drop of rain...first week down with no rain. We stopped in Ballyshannon for a pint. We tried Donegal town but it was nuts with cars and tourists and we couldn't stand to fight for a parking place. We talked to a nice barman who told us many things and even poured Hubby a Guiness with a shamrock on top, made by the his skill with the pour spout.

We found out why so many places start with Bally. It is derived from the Gaelic phrase 'Baile na', meaning 'place of'. We moved on to Sligo and arrived at our hotel in good time but we wandered all over this town of 18,000 people and were hard pressed to find a restaurant. We found one Italian, one Chinese, one Asian and one Indian. We really wanted ordinary food. Went to a hotel restaurant and sat for half an hour before we even got a menu. It didn't look like we would be served soon so we left and came back to our hotel. The restaurant here was good but so expensive. Hubby had wild boar and I had sea trout. Not exactly what we had in mind and so expensive. All the restaurants are because of the exchange. Some pubs serve food till 5:30 but that seems pretty early to eat on holidays. We have to work at this harder because finding places to eat seems harder every day. Last night wasn't so bad. I had goat cheese tart on spinach salad with red onion marmalade which was really good but not exactly what we had in mind. Just ordinary food please. Food is always my biggest problem. I can feel your pity for us oozing across the ocean.

Our hotel is really nice here. We are on a lttle river where there are about 40 swans outside our little balcony. Tomorrow we are going to tour into Galway and try to do a castle or graveyard or something. Today we were too lazy but we had a nice day.

The roads were just crawling with motorcycle people yesterday, hundreds of them, serious ones too. We didn't hear what was going on till today. It was the Northwest 200 Motorcycle races. Bikers from all over the world race on an area in Northern Ireland between Portrush, Portstewart and Coleraine which is exactly where we were. They race on the narrow winding roads which I guess is pretty dangerous and they lose quite a few drivers every year. One fairly famous driver Robert Dunlop from Northern Ireland was killed on Friday during a practice session.

We thought of my brother and was sure he would love to ride his bike up and down the coast along the North Channel on the curvy roads.

We are in Galway tomorrow for three nights which should be better. Easier to figure out the lay of the land when you are in one place for a while. Hope to golf either Monday or Tuesday. Hubby is doing great driving on the wrong side. Will have to watch him when he gets home to make sure he changes back to our style of driving.