Today we are in Donegal Town, and if you want to sound like you belong here, it’s pronounced “Don-E–gall” with hard emphasis on the “E” and secondary emphasis on the “gall”. That has absolutely nothing to do with anything except that it’s fun to hear the locals say it. Don-E-gall.

We left Derry somewhat late, closer to 9:30 or so, which for us is late late. We had a good breakfast both days at The Lawrence (highly recommended if you find yourself needing to book lodging in Derry); Isabelle had fruit and nuts and eggs Benedict the first day while I had porridge with fruit and nuts, and pancakes with fruit. On the second day, Isabelle had fruit with yogurt and eggs and smoked salmon on brown bread. I had porridge with fruit again — I am now freakishly fond of porridge — and pancakes with eggs over hard, “streaky” bacon, and sausage. We cannot recommend The Lawrence enough. The staff were wonderful, the room was great, and the building itself had character and charm.

The trip to Donegal took about an hour and a half and it was smooth sailing. We left Northern Ireland without knowing it, which switched us from mph to kph which, again, has absolutely nothing to do with anything except for the fact that I need to fill out this paragraph.

We couldn’t get into our accommodations until 3PM local time, which meant we had a lot of time to kill. Since our AB&B is located on “The Diamond”, which is the downtown center of Donegal Town and is ringed by businesses of all kinds, we spent the intervening time in and out of shops as we attempted to complete our souvenirs list. One shop that we went into offered tweed clothing made from local wool, and in the upstairs they had a working loom demonstration that was similar to how they continue to create the fabrics that they use in the creation of their clothing today.

After two or three circuits of the Diamond, we put our shopping bags back into the car and toured Donegal Castle. This is probably the most stereotypical castle we’ve been to on this trip.

We then had lunch at a “tea house” which offers sandwiches and desserts to kill even more time. By the time we had finished, we had access to the hotel so we got our dessert to go and checked into the room.

I have to include this picture by itself; this is our bathroom. Apparently we can pee anywhere we like.

While we were checking out the shops, I had mentioned that I wanted to get a new wedding ring since mine had mysteriously shrunk over the years I have no idea why or that metal could do that. Isabelle also likes to get a ring whenever we travel, so we both found rings we liked that are uniquely Irish.