Posts

August 15, 2017 - Time to head home

Image
We will be picked up at 8:45, so we’ve got to get it together PDQ.   When we get to breakfast, the last of a large tour group is just vacating the dining room and you can almost feel the collective sigh from the staff.   The young lady who acts as hostess remembers us from yesterday.   Apparently we really startled her!   We were just standing in the doorway, right where the sign says to wait to be seated!   She even went home and told her mom!   She has finger nails that are about an inch long and come to a very sharp point.   Don’t think too hard about how she does some things with them. After breakfast we finish packing and are downstairs with half an hour to spare.   When I turn in our keys, the clerk says there are no charges on my card, and I fess up that we had afternoon tea yesterday.   For my honesty she only charges us for one of the teas!   I have a few minutes to post part of yesterday’s blog before our newest driver arrives.   He breaks our string of Mercede
2 comments
Read more

August 14, continued (and photos from part one)

Image
 And here are some photos from the international music festival, "Fleadh", in Ennis And news crews were everywhere.  James told us that there would be a documentary later in the year on one of the Irish television stations.  There are also all-Irish radio stations! This is Gentle Ben.  He is a service dog for children with emotional disturbances similar to PTSD. There are kallee dancers in the center of this circle.  The boys are in yellow and blue (County Clare's colors). Not everyone draws a crowd;  but it doesn't seem to matter to this young musician. And this was just the second day!  The next three are supposed to be REALLY crazy! This littlc ball of fire was the front man for his group! So many dancers!  And you don't have to be "official"! Another O'Connell statue The young man on the Irish pipes plays all the instruments! They're in th
Post a Comment
Read more

August 14, 2017 – Burnatty and the Rock of Cashel and the Ennis Music Festival, Durty Nellie’s and the Medieval Banquet

Image
Down to breakfast and it’s pretty much like all the other breakfast buffets with the potential to eat yourself sick!   Back upstairs so I can finish posting the blof – and down again in time to meet James at ten o’clock.   He’s a handsome blue-eyed Irishman nattily attired and driving another Mercedes Benz!   Such comfy cars!   We’re so spoiled! It’s a lovely drive to Cashel with some conversation and some scenery watching.   It takes about an hour and a half and it isn’t quite raining when we get there.   We pay our reduced-rate admission and join a tour which has just begun.   The tour guide is a red-haired, red-bearded, blue-eyed young man, the perfect appearance for his job!   He tells us the castle’s (cashel is Irish for castle) history and moves us along from spot to spot with efficiency and care for people’s safety.   Part-way through it begins to drizzle, but not so badly that we are even tempted to go and hide.   He shows us that special features of the san
2 comments
Read more