We continued west after the Giant's Causeway. We made stops in Derry (Londonderry) and Donegal. While we probably didn't give either place enough time, we found them very crowded and busy. We had a look at them and found out quite a bit of information about the area. We had initially thought of staying the night in Donegal, but since it was so crowded already, we decided to keep going.

The next highlight on my list was the Glenveagh National Park so we backtracked north from Donegal with that in mind.

Vicky was searching online for a place for us to stay as it was getting late and darkness would soon be on us. She was having no luck finding lodging. It was well after five o'clock and the country was sparsely populated. We passed through some very small towns but never saw a B&B or hotel sign.

You can see below the country that we were driving through.

As we were driving on the outskirts of a very small village, I saw a sign that said "Coffee" and an arrow. I pulled into the dirt driveway and told Vicky that we would ask for help finding lodging in the coffee shop. It was a very small, one-woman coffee shop with two customers. I asked straight away, "We need a place to stay tonight, do you know of any place nearby?"

The owner and the customers talked and decided to recommend the Old Glen Bar. The woman who owned the coffee shop said she would phone the bar owner and ask if they had a room available. She did and they did and we said we'd take it. Then the owner asked if we wanted dinner and I said "Yes." She gave us directions and after purchasing some coffee and other edibles, we were on our way via a narrow local road.

We arrived at the Old Glen Bar at 6pm. We went into the bar and the owner showed us the direction to our room, right next to the bar. He said the door was open and the keys were on the coffee table. He said we could come back to the bar if we had any problems.

It turns out that the Old Glen Bar is circa 1768, and despite being in a very remote location, is very well known and highly celebrated. We went into our room and within about two minutes, the electricity went off. We waited a few minutes before going to the bar to find out about the power. The bar was all dark except for a multitude of candles. The bartender said the power was out in the entire area and wouldn't be back on until around 7pm.

We sat down and ordered. I had a Guinness and Vicky ordered some wine. The bar was dark wood, picture covered walls, money tacked to the ceiling joists, and plenty of friendly people. We sat talking and enjoying our drinks for an hour. Then the lights came back on, and the bartender announced that dinner would be in about ten minutes.

After ten minutes, the owner came in and personally escorted us to the dining room. It was through the bar and into another dining area that was dark, cold, and empty and then through another door to a well-lit, warm, and very full restaurant. I looked at Vicky and said, "How did we get in here?"

The room had lots of award plaques on the wall and even a Michelin man standing in the center of the restaurant. It was like something out of a silly movie that I would think would never happen in real life. The food was incredible and just kept coming...

Dinner included homemade bread, cheese, marmalade rolls, a tart, onion beignets, chicken liver pate, two kinds of lamb, and for our main courses, I had scallops and Vicky had three pork loin cuts. We skipped dessert because we were so full. Our waitress insisted we at least look at desserts as it was included in the meal, but Vicky and I were both insistent that we had topped off our tanks. Can you imagine that?

Below you can see some of our dinner courses from my photos.