Day 12

Day 12: This morning we slept in until 8… as long as Clare would let us. The wooden floors in the front half of this place are so hollow that her footsteps are amplified like vibrating bongo beats that bounce off the thick stone walls. We didn’t have much to do until our lunch reservation at 1:30pm at Good Things Café, so we lazed about and cut flowers and read from our respective novels until the sun beckoned us out.

We headed over toward the North side of the Dunmanus Bay peninsula toward Aghkista and stopped at the Catholic church and graveyard to nose around amongst the headstones, a particularly favorite hobby of my Mom’s. We noticed that all the plots faced a certain direction, even when it seemed more prudent for them to face another. We puzzled over that one until the rain called us in to inspect the church nave.

Laura got a chuckle out of the fact that there weren’t real candles in the altar where you pay 20 cents for a push button that lights up a LED bulb that flickers convincingly like a real flame. Cindy took pictures of the painted interior and we read all of the flyers posted on the walls.

Our lunch at Good Things Café was a mixed show: we waited ages, and AGES for our food, and while the items ran the gamut from serviceable to superb, I had expected more from a place that had been so highly touted. We waited nearly an hour for our first course of food, and had to stop drinking our cider and beer to keep from getting tipsy for our drive out. By the time the second course came out, we were writhing in our seats and half our party left for Bantry to get some errands done!

Tom and Cindy had huge (like 14 inches across) pizzas made with a thin wheat flour cracker crusts that were topped with bitter greens and loads of local cheese. The center of the mess got very soggy very quickly and one had to fold over and over the center until it was manageable. Laura and Tom had a vegetable soup that was a puree of greens and some other unidentifiable veggies. It came in a beautiful hot tureen and was tasty but overwhelmed by the backtaste of mint. Lisa and Bill had roasted haddock over braised tomatoes and roasted potatoes. It had a slightly spicy undernote with a strong cumin base. Very tasty. Very hot. The bread was served out of a large round basket and your breadplates were polished slabs of slate set around the table. But the bread came once and then not again. The handmade cider Laura and Lisa were drinking was divine. Like apples exploded but not sweet. The Irish Red Tom was drinking was very nice, too… seemingly sweet with a very hoppy, dry finish. Overall, we went in with high hopes which were killed by the interminable wait and uneven reception of the food (the fact that the average price for an item was $20 didn’t help). I had such high hopes for the experience, and while I wasn’t disappointed, I wasn’t overwhelmed with goodness, either.

After we left Good Things, we headed down to Schull (pronounced Skull) to explore the town. What a pretty little seaside outlook! With boats bobbing in the harbor and a two-sided mainstreet that was dotted with a mixture of old-style pubs and modern shops that actually had interesting items, Schull was a nice stop. Tom and Laura and Clare had chocolate cake, apple tart, and lemon tart with heavy cream at Newman’s (which has Wifi service, by the way), and it was some of the best desserts we had ordered! Then as Laura and Lisa wandered up to the top of the mainstreet, we stopped at a handmade chocolate shop that also sold tea and handmade ice cream. Seeing as how we had just consumed more sugar that humanly necessary, we were busy debating over going inside when Bill and Cindy drove by and honked! We waited for them to park and then decided to go into the shop after all. $12 later we were set and we walked back to join up with Tom and Clare downtown. Clare had spied a playground and made herself at home there. She made friends with some other kids and bounced back and forth between all the swings, slides and teeter-totters.

We returned to Derryfunchion and after watching some of the opening of the Olympics, Cindy cooked up a pork loin with potatoes, carrots, crispy salad and zucchini and butternut squash. Tom went to the garden and found some artichokes. A long slow simmer in 2” of water brought them to the table. Laura has decided that it takes an entire broiler tray of baguette to satisfy our troup, and buttered up the town.

téigh in éag (means: to end!)