Water, Ireland

This may not surprise anyone, but it rains in Ireland. While we were there, in the middle of summer, it rained for some part of almost every day. All of this rain means not only that you very quickly ruin your white sneakers, but that there are rivers almost everywhere.


Almost any road you drive on is dotted with picturesque little waterfalls like the one below. We stopped getting out to photograph them on about Day 3.

Particularly in the northern part of the island, the land of peat, the soil is black and oily. Incredibly fertile, of course, but also a rather odd colour for dirt. In some places, the water has taken on the colour of the soil. You end up with coffee coloured water. That's all very nice and dark and swirling for the salmon in the rivers, but it's a lot less appetising when it comes out of the taps in your hotel, or appears in the water jug at your dinner table. Seriously. We thought the people at the next table were drinking an unusual wine until our water jug arrived. We ordered sparkling water.