Tralee to Limerick

Our hotel had lots of cool art. I took pictures of five of them. They would be nice quilts


We have seen many varieties of toilets. Many have two flushing buttons. Use the small flush for pee, the large for poop. Saves water


The following two pictures were taken at the same spot. I think that means eric and his family should visit this site. I hope Fiona will let us ride on her ship


Not sure the date of the marathon, but am sure that eric would enjoy the Dingle Marathon



The far west edge of Ireland & of all of Europe. Betsy is holding a Dingle stone--not to be kissed.


Irish coffee ice cream--more whiskey in it than in our Irish coffee. They also had Dingle gin ice cream.


Cheese shop in Dingle on the street



Street food in Dingle


Bunratty castle near limerick. Interesting castle, tour not so much


Hurling sticks


Dinner of fish chowder and a pint of Guinness at Dolan's Pub. After this meal we walked to Mary I (the immaculate) College w the help of a math professor from Berlin. Wonderful Edith Piaf (life and music) show by British woman.


After the concert we were driven back to our hotel by a lovely Irish woman about 85 yrs old whom we had sat by at the concert. She was afraid we might get lost walking back to the hotel. When we went outside with her, she couldn't find her car. After about 20 minutes it was found in a small car park behind a bush. She drove us to our hotel.

Jane and I went into the hotel pub and had some Guinness with a few people from our group. Loud good music. Betsy, meanwhile, was locked out of her room for a good hour. This is our favorite john (besides the flushing kind.



Uniquelyschotz.com

Location:Ireland

Waterford to Killarney

Instead of the Waterford glass factory we wandered through the area and found an open door to a theater. We looked for a bathroom and found an ancient wine cellar. On the main floor we found Sean. He had worked for Waterford as a cutter and engraver before the factoy was sold. Now he has studio space in the theater and does commissions. He showed us pictures of a gorgeous bowl commissioned by the Irish prime minister as a gift to the Obamas.


Below the table is a picture of the prime minister presenting Sean's bowl to the obamas.


Waterford


Having our pricey Irish coffee in youghal where Moby Dick was filmed




While walking to the Blarney Castle every bridge we crossed was scattered with coins. Lots of luck here


Blarney Castle---a little drafty these days.


Descending the castle stairway. Jane had just kissed a stone from Blarney in the wall. We climbed to the top, but did not lie down to kiss the stone. long line we bypassed. Good view and cool castle


This is the main highway. We have a very skillful driver. Sometimes cars pull off the road as the bus approaches


While half of our group was on the pay extra pony ride through a national park we walked around Killarney



Stephanie, and us as taken by her husband John on the street in Killarney



In a pub, this scary guy is purported by the bartender to be the richest man in Killarney. We had other descriptions of him. He was very colorful and talked a lot. We couldn't understand a word. Later we asked the bartender what language he was speaking. She assured us it was english. Jury is still out. He and another colorful character conversed with each other at top volume, even tho they were in separate rooms.


Not my new best friend

Location:Southwestern Ireland

Waterford to Tralee

This is the outside wall of the Cardiff castle in Wales. Love that stone


The king who built the castle loved animals so he had different ones on the wall surrounding the castle


Crazy king Reginald built this castle.


Another of his animal friends


Interesting store window. Look how polite they are



Yum Yums for sale at the bakery!!! For only 65p, about a dollar. And yes, we had to partake.



While wandering through the market we met Kelvyn (Calvin). He was hauling a load of meat to a stall. We talked for about 15 minutes about politics, education and travel.


Shelia was hiding out in Cardiff


Betsy's roommate Ann eating her mushy peas and chips. Yuk




A passing castle----just one of many



.
Our ferry to get from wales to Ireland. The bus was on deck 5. We spent most of the crossing on deck 8. The ferry had 11 decks. Very calm crossing. The weather has been amazing. So far we saw drizzle for 10 minutes and temps in the 70s.





In Waterford. As we waited for our coach we met this boy getting on the bus for school. He told jane and I about his hurling stick and how they played. Jane told him that hurling meant something else where we live


A Viking ship in Waterford.


A friendly Jack Russell terrier at the Waterford dock. He only uses one back leg at a time....supposedly to rest it. His master gave us cues as to how to find the most interesting places in Waterford. We skipped the tour of the crystal factory and wandered which has worked very well for us so far.


com

Location:Ireland

Windsor and Bath

This is the queen's weekend quarters. The flag was not flying so she must be at one of her other palaces. VERY small section of the entire castle.



This structure is very near the castle and was designed by Christopher Wren. The people paying the bill insisted that he add pillars in the center section because they thought the structure would collapse. He was a bit insulted and put the pillars in, but they are all intentionally a couple inches short of the ceiling. The building did not collapse.


More castle.


We met these school girls while walking around Windsor. They'd interviewed us for an assignment they were doing about issues at Windsor.



Last supper painting at a Parrish Church in Windsor. It must have been recently cleaned as it is very vibrant. 15th century


At one place in the cathedral we found this table where you could pick up a stone and put it into the dish with other stones. Your stone represented a worry.



Also in Windsor we learned the word 'close'. On a street it refers to a short branch off a larger street. I think usually a dead end.


We found a fudge shop in Windsor This is the guy who makes the fudge he explained his procedure to us and provided us with generous samples. His recipe comes from Virginia &the uses Fahrenheit because it's more precise.



On to Bath. This is a cathedral there


Chandeliers in The cathedral


The next photos were little art quilts made by the same lady based On Different religious stories. I had to buy a book which contains all the pieces and describes the source and techniques used









This blog entry was made by a ferry in the Irish Sea. This ferry has the best internet we have had so far!


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Location:GB