Adventures at Smuggler's Cove

Sara has given the bare bones of the highlight below, but the full story needs to be told.

We arrived here at Rossnowlagh, in the middle of nowhere on Donegal Bay at around 5:30. You should Google it. Very small pub with a few rooms. The rooms were spare, but fine. We had, months ago, booked a seaside viewable for dinner at 7:30 and at the appointed time, descended from our rooms. Table not ready. We had a drink at the bar and were told that table was just getting dessert. That might well be true, but they showed no inclination to leave or hurry (nor were they being asked to do so) and we gave up at 8:40 and took another table, moving half an hour or so later when that party finally left at about 9:15. I checked the table reservation list during our mid-night adventures described by Sara below, and this party had been given a 6:00 pm reservation not clearly not told that they would have to push off by 7:30. Food was good for a small place like this and we decided to go for a walk on the beach after dinner to join parties of mad surfers but by then it was raining again, so it was Bushmills in the rooms and off to bed.

Not sleep though. Our rooms were directly over the bar so clearly audible raucous talk and laughter continued until around 11:45 pm, followed by slightly quieter revelries until after 1. Then, finally, sleep. Until about 1:55 am when the fire alarm went off. Alert staff (one kid in his underwear who appeared to be abut 21) made no effort to ensure that guests were up or safely our of their rooms but started calling everyone on his phone list - except the fire brigade, insisting to James that they not be called. He could not reach anyone. No fire but this kid did not know how to turn off or reset the fire alarm. Fortunately for him, James Sugarman, Technical Wizard, was a guest at his establishment, so James turned off and reset the alarm. Which was nice because the alarm was pretty loud and it had been going for awhile. Off we trooped to bed again, worried that it would go off again and not with full confidence that there was, in fact, no fire. (As an aside Ken and I then spent half an hour trying to deal with Thailand flight woes but that's another story).

We had planned an early morning beach walk, having been told that breakfast was not until 9:30 am. Seemed a bit late to us but clearly early rising is frowned upon in Rossnowlagh, and who are we to argue? This local sentiment was reinforced in a very tangible way when we discovered at 7:15 am that there was no hot water. But off we went for our beach walk and the hot water was on when we got back. It is turned on at 8:00 am and is warm by 9:00 am and if you want a shower earlier than that, you are clearly viewed as wildly eccentric and deserving of a cold shower.

After our full Irish breakfast, we have headed out to County Mayo and we are staying in Galway tonight. We are hoping that they treat earlier-rising travelers with kindness and hot water.