The Irish Experience Parts 2 & 3

The Irish Experience - Friday

Today was a good day for driving. Howard didn’t hit any curbs or run me into the ditch. The roadway in most cases had larger lanes. Occasionally, he had to pass a tractor or a truck piled high with hay. This meant he had to go into the oncoming traffic lane to pass. We’re still here so I guess he did okay driving.

We stopped at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park for a few hours. The 14th century castle has been rebuilt and restored. It was very interesting climbing up to the second and third stories. The stairs are very narrow circular stairs. Only one person could go up or down at a time. I don’t know how the woman of that time period would have managed with their full large skirts.

The Folk Park was delightful. A look back in time as to how the villagers lived and worked. The houses were original, just not necessarily from this property. Most were removed from other areas in Ireland and reassembled here to represent village life (one was relocated from the Shannon airport runway).

Leaving Buratty Castle, we headed down the road toward Limmerick. We drove passed numerous Dalmatian Cows (black & white varieties). We were supposed to take the N20/21 to Killarney, but somehow we missed the turnoff and ended up in the city center. Using spiral navigation and a bit of luck, we finally managed to get ourselves pointed in the right direction. Once we reached the town of Killarney again, it was hit and miss until we finally found the tourist office. The kindly lady pointed us in the direction of our B&B. We were going the right way, but would never have made the proper turns without a little help.

We decided that once we parked the car at the B&B it would be just as easy to walk 5 minutes back to the city center. We found a nifty pub called Murphy’s (a typical Irish name). Howard had a pint of Guinness and I had Bailey’s Irish Cream. I had a dish called Chicken Bap. This turned out to be a grilled chicken breast on an open faced hamburger bun. Howard had Sheppard’s Pie. In our favorite “Pub” back home, Phantom Canyon Brewery, the Sheppard’s Pie is filled with chunks of Lamb. In Ireland, the Sheppard’s Pie is filled with ground meat (of some variety were not sure what). Overall, dinner was nice. There were some American’s seated at the table next to us. We traded stories of where we had been and where we were going. It seems that we have been doing that a lot both here and in England.

The County of Kerry (where Killarney is situated) is in the All Ireland Finals for “Football” (Soccer to us Americans). Everywhere you go, you see green and yellow checkered flags. On the Telly (television) it showed one avid fan that had decked her house out in the green & yellow colors. She colored her car, and had flags flying everywhere. She was even going to color her hair for the big day (tomorrow Sunday). A farmer got into the act and painted his various barnyard animals with these same green & yellow colors. It's kind of like the crazy Bronco fans in Colorado.

It’s a good day for a bus tour – Saturday

It’s gray and threatening to rain. We decided it would be a good day to take a bus tour around the Ring of Kerry. We had been told not to try and make this drive ourselves as the roads are very narrow. Large buses are everywhere and not easy to go around. The bad thing was that it started raining, rather hard. At times it was difficult to see out the bus windows. At places where we normally would have gotten off the bus and taken a look around, the rain and wind made conditions uncomfortable. There were some brave souls who ventured out at each stop, but most of us stayed put. I went to the front of the bus and took pictures from the door or out the driver’s window between swishes of the wiper blades.

It turns out that one of the reasons that everything is such a vibrant green color is that the country gets between 35 & 60 inches of rain per year. They definitely don’t have drought conditions over here. At one of our first stops, Howard forced himself to have an Irish Coffee to ward off the chill. I wasn’t cold – of course I had on a short sleeve travel tee and long sleeve jacket blouse (the crushable knit stuff), a long sleeve over blouse, my heavy shawl, and finally my down coat with hood. I had corduroy pants and warm socks & shoes. I take layering to heart.

One of the little towns we stopped at had houses that each were painted a different color. The driver didn’t say why, just that they were. Many of the houses in the country side are still roofed with thatch. They used to use hay, but now they use reeds (which are gathered along the river banks). The driver said that these roofs last about 25 years before they need to be replaced. Wish I could say the same for roof tiles in America.

Howard pulled one of my tricks during the bus tour. He fell asleep on the bus as we were going through the countryside. The sway of the coach, the rain, and the green scenery all lulled him to sleep. I really enjoyed looking out the window of the bus at the variety of lush growth. What really blew my mind were the hedges of fuchsia. Not little bushes mind you, but tall hedges over 6 feet in height. What they don’t have are very tall mountains. The bus driver seemed to be impressed with the fact that we were going to be going over some very high peaks as we went from one side of the peninsula to the other. High to him was 3,000 feet. Obviously, he has never been to Colorado where we grow fourteeners.

We are going to dinner and will visit the local Internet Café to post this blog. I have uploaded the pictures we took from the camera to the computer. Now I need to name them and then I’ll add a link to find them to my next blog entry.

Cheers to yah – It’s find for us to find a pub. Howard needs a Guinness or maybe it will be a Murphy’s this time.