An-Sibin Riding Center: Part 2, the buildings

The riding Center is composed of a large house, a small house, and a barn.  They have multiple bedrooms, each with a private bathroom.  By my quick calculations, they can easily sleep about 25 people at a time.  No small undertaking!  Every nook and cranny has been used in a creative way. 

An-Sibin Riding Center...Part 1, Horseback riding

An-Sibin Riding Center, Whitegate Ireland.  I'm not sure I can say enough good things about this riding center!  From the start, when Bertie picked us up at the airport, to the very last day when we got dropped off again, it was flawless.  An-Sibin is owned and operated by Bernie and Nicola, they have been doing this for several decades, and right now there's 50 horses.  They handled the schedule (and the juggling of guests, day trips, and meals) with smiles and obvious experience.  Each day we went out at 9am and rode for about 3 hours, along trails, timber roads, and dirt roads.  In all, there were 8 guests on my tour (Castles and Ruins) plus a staff member in front and at the back of the line...so 10 horses on each ride.  We had a fire waiting for us upon our return, in the lunch area.  After a little personal downtime, we'd all head out again for the "ruins" portion of the trip, little day trips to local crumbling castles and such. 

All of the horses are tied to trees in the yard, and the staff has gathered all of the tack we need.  We brushed and saddled our own horses each day.

Irene with her horse.

My horse was Tobein.  (I think that's how you spell it.)

Alicia from...Switzerland?

Kathi from California and Cindy from Florida.  Friends since they were 15!

We rode through expansive tracts of government managed forest land.

Kathi and Cindy.

Whitegate is near the river Shannon, which looks more like a lake here.

Travel changes how I eat

The food at the horseback riding place was AMAZING.  They had 2 private chefs from Spain.  Every day, every meal, was something new and incredible.  Forget the horses, I'd go back just for the FOOD!  Every night they had 16 guests and probably 12 staff to feed.  Appetizer, main course, dessert.  LOVE.

A night out at the pub.  Not being a beer drinker, the bartender managed to find me a little tiny bottle of wine.  We kept trying to leave tips, and got the distinct feeling that you don't TIP in Ireland.  A man sitting at the bar picked up the coin, walked deliberately over to our table, and plunked it back down right in front of us, then walked away. 

This waffle had great possibilities.  But when it was served cold, with hard chips of chocolate, and no butter or syrup...well, I lost interest pretty fast. 

Most traveling days, my staples were bread, fruit, mayo, sandwich meat and cheese.

Dinner on the beach...bread, butter, cheese, and wine.  Heaven!  Oh, and grapes for dessert.  Fun, but I couldn't help but notice the grains of sand in my butter the next day.

Scones and tea, can't go wrong.

And THIS.  Well, THIS is one of my all time favorites.  Fish and chips with curry sauce.  I could eat this every day.  (The curry sauce is for the chips not the fish)