Ireland takes the Spartz girls by storm 1

Here we are: Madie O. Spartz, Rebecca D. Spartz and Amy E. Spartz, leaving England and heading to Knock Ireland, where we would look for the famous biblical apparitions, pick up a rent-a-car, check out Sligo County that Yeats made famous, drive down to Connemara and Galway City before finally heading up to Donegal County for the last two days of our trip. It was planned as a high activity tour of West and North West Ireland, but as it turns out, it was a stellar road trip with some activity, some adventure and lots of good times with the family.




You might think this is a photo of a regularly parked car. I am here to report that our most impressive adventure in Ireland happened because we wanted to hike in the Blue Stack Mountains. We tried to park our car, as the pic suggests, but ended up in a little ravine hidden by the long grass you will notice in the photo. It took a little while, but we found an incredibly generous Irish farmer who pulled us out with his 4x4. We were in the middle of nowhere, so without him, we would have been stuck with the middle aged farm living woman who kept trying to explain to us in half English half Gaelic (I presume it was Gaelic) how she couldn't help us because there were no men in her house and none of the men that lived in her house would be returning for several hours. We were happy to find the farmer.


Amy, Madie and I were enroute to the Abbeyglen Manor House in Clifden when we happened upon this actual Abbey. It was closing when we drove by, so we didn't see the inside, but it was thrilling enough to get a photo of the outside. Some French tourists were having a car crisis (they locked their keys in their car) in this parking lot. Maybe Ireland has some sort of weird car karma.