The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Castles R Us
Once more our brave little safari sets forth into the dark of the jungle (after stopping at the LiDL supermarket for some
excellent pastries!) Today we are heading about an hour north of Galway to the town of Cong, home to Ashford Castle, one of
the stops on Margene's must-see list. The option was to spend three nights in Galway and just do Cong as a day trip, but I
imagined the town as sort of a fairy tale Cotswold-like hamlet (turns out it isn't!) but the idea of spending a night here
without busses of tourists was just too tempting to pass up.
One of Steven Covey's seven habits of highly effective people is to start with the end in mind.
This is Ashford Castle, the end we have in mind for today's trek to Cong. It really does take a panoramic aerial shot to
put the property into perspective. Needless to say, I had to borrow the photo!
We got to Villa Pio before noon -- a
little early for regular check-in but they had the room ready so we were able to drop our bags and head for town without a
car full of pilferables. Of course, we discovered there are only about 17 people in the entire town of Cong so the odds of
an incident were nil!
Beautiful downtown Cong is dominated by the ruins of Cong Abbey, built in the early 1100s. Given
the styles of that period, it is a bit Romanesque and a bit Gothic, rather an interesting combination. There's not much
left but walls at this point, but it's always open and always free -- a pleasant change from constant admission charges. I
understand that maintaining some of these monuments is expensive and I don't begrudge them the fees, but just being able
to wander through at will is a nice change.
The main attraction in Cong is Ashford Castle. Parts of it date from the 13th century but most
of what we see now was built during the Victorian era. President Reagan stayed here in 1984 and Pierce Brosnan had his
wedding reception in the gardens in 2001. The castle was bought for 50 million euros in 2008 and resold (for 20 million!)
five years later. The new owners are putting a lot of money into bringing the old girl back up to snuff as Ireland's
premier lodging facility.
Along the way, we ran into a couple from Australia who were making an extended tour of Great Britain and Ireland. Somehow
we didn't get their names, but if they contact me for a copy of the picture -- they've been taking "selfies" to send back
to their kids -- I'll update this posting. Chance encounters with nice folks from elsewhere make travel all the more
enjoyable. I hadn't really thought about it, but apparently the idea of "tourism" (travel solely for enjoyment) didn't
exist until the Victorian Age. Before that, travel was a chore only endured by armies, refugees, traders, emigrants and
religious pilgrims.
Cong's continuing claim to fame was that it was where John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara made the
famous John Ford film The Quiet Man.. There's a statue of the stars in a pose from the film and references to it
everywhere, 60+ years after the fact. I suspect the town will continue to ride this pony long after a film from the 50s has
lost its relevance. Still, as the trees leaf out again for another year, Cong has some lovely spots. The grounds behind
the abbey are lush and a river runs through it ... crystal clear and at quite a pace, I might add. The monks of old had it
figured out and built a little fishing hut over the water. There's a little fireplace for heat and a slit in the floor
where they'd drop down a net. The story is they had a bell attached to the net that would ring a little bell (in the abbey?)
when they snagged a fish! Very clever, these monks ...
As we realized that our clothes were getting tighter from all the good Irish food (got to watch
that yummy soda bread!) We made this another one-meal day and tucked into Lydon's Pub for an unpretentious dinner. The place
was recommended to us by the owner of The Hungry Monk Cafe, the top-rated Cong eatery on TripAdvisor. They were just
closing when we came by (cafes usually stop serving around 5:00), but said that Lydon's was where he and his wife often go
for a meal.
I'll give them some points for presentation, particularly on Margene's burger. My lasagna had all the right ingredients
and tasted good, but lacked a bit of the structure I was expecting. They are giving away the house on their french fry
portion, though. WAY more fries than necessary and more than most mortals could ever eat. More often than not, I see this
problem in US restaurants. The portion is costed for four ounces of fries but they put 10-12 ounces on the plate "because it
looks better." So they give away half a pound of potatoes with every order ... and fries come with most everything on the
menu! What's wrong with this picture?
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