A Virtual Travelogue
When our 35th anniversary trip – a week of sight seeing and line dancing in Ireland – had to be canceled, we felt sorry for ourselves. Along with everyone else who had plans to go anywhere in 2020.
Eventually, we rebooked Ireland for 2021 and swapped in an August road trip to the one dancing event of Summer 2020 that hadn’t been canceled. When those plans also had to be scrapped, we decided, to heck with it, we would go to Ireland virtually.
It had been months since our last trip, after all – our virtual Bermuda cruise in April – and we were tired of staying home.
First we found a place to “stay” during our whirlwind trip, which turned out to be an authentic Irish cottage at the Irish Cultural Center in a town not far from us. (These pictures (taken with the camera on a timer) got everyone confused when we posted about the first night of our “trip” on Facebook! Responses ranged from amazed to aghast when skim-readers of our posts thought we had actually flown to Ireland while the second wave of the pandemic was still in full swing.)
The Irish Cultural Center also has a pub on its grounds with outdoor dining, so we started there on a Friday night and ate a lovely, socially distanced dinner out, while listening to live music. Fish and chips and Guinness stout, of course!
Saturday morning we headed out for a full Irish breakfast.
We walked some of our breakfast off at a local park where we’ve been doing outdoor line dancing on Saturdays this summer and that turned out to look a lot like Ireland in our vacation photos. Though perhaps the grass doesn’t look as green as you might expect. Coincidentally, Ireland was experiencing the same summer heat wave we were for the past several weeks!
On Saturday, we participated in a virtual line dance event straight from Ireland, with Gary O’Reilly – one of the choreographers we would have been dancing with on our actual trip to Ireland – and Maggie Gallagher. We felt as though we were visiting their homes to learn some new dances and dance some old favorites together. The event was 1-5 p.m. our time, so we took a break midway through for a quick cup of Barry’s Irish tea spiked with poutin.
All that dancing during the day and we were ready for dinner. The cozy cottage backdrop had been whisked away and our living room was now a cozy pub where we ate a delicious grilled salmon and champ dinner with Bailey’s pudding for dessert. (The corn on the cob we had to smuggle in, because I read somewhere they don’t eat corn on the cob in Ireland. Summer corn won out over Irish authenticity.)
During Saturday night’s pub dinner, we enjoyed virtual live music.
The same cozy pub also served up a delicious Sunday breakfast complete with gluten-free Irish soda bread and freshly made rhubarb compote!
More walking around the neighborhood of the “pub” after a big breakfast on Sunday morning. (I was told the parish church on the next block from us was built as a replica of an Irish church, which is what I reported to our fellow travelers on Facebook, but couldn’t find factual confirmation of this online.)
Lunch at the same pub (Hey, the food was good, and it was so convenient and close by) was Green Pea and Mint Soup, Cottage Pie, and Spicy Red Cabbage.
For tea time later, we had Bailey’s Cheesecake Brownies (G/F), donut peaches, and iced coffee spiked with Bailey’s.
Dinner on our last night was at Mr. Dooley’s Old Irish Village Pub. We started with Irish Nachos as an appetizer, and both had the Guinness Steak Tips for dinner.
Our trip ended with ice cream cones at Foley’s (an Irish name, right?) and a nightcap of Bailey’s at the pub.
For the meals we didn’t eat out, I used An Irish Country Cookbook by Patrick Taylor for several recipes including the Cottage Pie, Spicy Red Cabbage, and the Pea and Mint Soup.
I also enjoyed reading through The Irish Cook Book by J.P. McMahon, but most of these recipes were too advanced for me and would require too much time in the kitchen and also a more adventurous palate! I think I used the recipe for champ from this one, but it was basically a recipe for mashed potatoes with a lot more butter than I would normally put in!
The recipe for the gluten-free Irish soda bread came from Gluten-Free Baking Classics, 2nd Edition by Annalise G. Roberts, which is part of my cookbook collection.
The most popular food photo and most-requested recipe on Facebook was, hands-down, my labor of love – the heart-shaped Bailey’s Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies. This recipe came from Jenn Segal at Once Upon a Chef.
We’re thinking of a trip to Virtual Mexico next…
Happy Weekend Cooking!
Weekend Cooking hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader.
I had never read about champ before. I learned a new word and a new dish!
Love your good-spirited narrative. I have been way less good-spirited about all the travel I’ve missed since March.
I LOVE this post! So much fun!
It is frustrating to have plans cancelled and then cancelled again. We should have been away next weekend, but alas, not this year!
Don’t forget the river of tears I cried between April and August!
Thanks! A virtual trip has its advantages, but I’m getting tired of looking for silver linings! 😉
How fun! My travel friend and I just decided we just go ahead and plan our next trip — everything but the reservations! I can.not.wait. until I can travel again. I loved the Patrick Taylor books, I should give the cookbook a try.
Good idea to start planning a trip now! That’s half the fun, right?
Backgrounds of the places you should be are a fantastic way to enhance your virtual voyage! I’ve been in some really nice places to eat oysters or pub food or whatever in Ireland — they really have great food.
Be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
My husband gets credit for the backgrounds and the Irish-themed tablecloths! All I thought about for trip planning was the food and drinks. I’m looking forward to visiting Irish pubs for real in 2021!
I think we are all dreaming of travel! Enjoyed your post and glad you were able to postpone in 2021… We had a cruise scheduled for January of 2021 to China and Vietnam.. but now we have no interest so we will cancelled have to think about a different adventure for maybe the end of 2021..
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Where to start? First I will be following you. We have gluten free in common as well.
I an Irish born and have been there many times. I have to look up this Irish Cultural Centre it looks wonderful, a future road trip if the border ever opens.
Your corn comment made me laugh. My Dad would say “corn is for pigs”. It would definitely not be eaten in Ireland.
I will check out that gluten free cookbook.
There is nothing like a full Irish breakfast. Had to go back and check if your photo had black and white pudding!!!
I need a Guinness now.
P.S. I make colcannon quite often, mashed potatoes with spinach or kale.
I see your next virtual trip is Mexico. I can’t wait as we have spent most of our retirement winters in Mexico.
This is the longest we have ever gone without travelling. Our last trip was May 2019 to France, Italy and Barcelona.
Our winter plans for winter 2020 was Portugal but that got cancelled in February and we began to see the Covid train coming towards us.
Thanks for visiting! I love your Weekend Cooking posts and look forward to them. I am envious of your high-rise apartment life! (Although I’m afraid of heights.) The Irish Cultural Center is in Canton, Massachusetts, and usually has numerous activities going on, including Irish football matches and lots of classes. Every year there’s a big Irish festival, too. Of course, things are different there right now!
I confess to tasting both the black and white pudding (sausages), but not eating all of it. My husband finished mine off after eating his own!
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, I hope the travel industry will recover from this, and that we aren’t afraid to travel once more in 2021!
Sorry your trip to Ireland was cancelled, but I love that you took a virtual trip! I should try that with the places I want to go, one of them being Ireland.