August 13, 2017 – Galway to Bunratty, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park

What a treat!  We’re sitting in the lobby after breakfast, surrounded by our luggage and pieces of the Sunday Independent and in walks Noel!  We all three thought he’d have today off!  The thought of the drive to Bunratty just became more delightful.

The talk is continuous, punctuated by much laughter, and the topics are far-ranging.  Politics comes up, both Irish and American, now that we know how everyone feels. And we have a detailed discussion about Irish health care, which seems to be in a shambles.  In Noel’s area there were four hospitals when he was a child.  Now there is only one and many of the doctors and nurses have emigrated!

Breakfast buffet at Harbour Hotel

We arrive at Bunratty is fairly short order and find that the Bunratty Castle Hotel is really just about a two minute walk from the castle!  Noel brings in our suitcases and we bid him adieu for what will probably be the last time.

Our room isn’t ready yet;  but the lady at the desk makes sure we have two beds and stows our suitcases in a back room for us.  She also books us for a tea and half one.  We missed the one in Galway, so this will make up for that loss.  In the meantime there is just enough shopping to fill the time in between.

Strange thing to find in an Irish bookstore!

When we return, we get directions to the library, in which tea is served.  We climb the stairs to the second floor and all the tables are beautifully set;  but there is no one around.  We are a bit early, so we beat a retreat and wait another few minutes.  When we return, there is a young lady who is quite surprised to see us!  We saw the desk clerk talk to someone on the phone;  but somehow the message didn’t get all the way to the appropriate recipient. 

It’s all fine.  She sets a table for two, seats us, and brings a lovely pot of tea.  We can sit and enjoy while the three-tiered tray of goodies is prepared!  When it arrives I think it’s a lot of food for two people.  She brings a second and I realize all that is just for me!  Connie has her own!  Two kinds of sandwiches, a baby quiche, something I can’t quite name with goat cheese on top, two scones with jam and clotted cream, vegetable soup, a meringue, the most moist brownie ever, a shortbread cookie sandwich and an amazing pudding kind of treat that probably should be illegal! 

There is a party of eight at an adjoining table and it turns out they are celebrating one girl’s engagement.  She has given her little niece a hand-painted and framed picture of a princess with word underneath to tell her that the bride-to-be wouldn’t think of getting married without the little one in her wedding party!  Just adorable!  And she asks the little girl to agree to be one of her attendants!

It's a table leg!

We’re so stuffed!  I can’t finish all that food!  Maybe we’ll walk some of it off at the Folk Park that surrounds the castle.  We set out to find out!  In case we were thinking that we’d missed out on really seeing thatched roofs up close and personal, we were wrong.  Here’s our chance!  They have recreated an entire village, complete with shops, a forge, the school, a laborer’s cottage, more important people’s homes, and animals!  There are goats, chickens with baby chicks, pigs, and a goose or two!  There is also a fairy village and a walled garden.  Most important of all though, is Bunratty Castle.  It is only open until 4:30, so someone suggested that we head there first so as not to miss it.  We’ll be back tomorrow night for the Medieval Dinner;  however, you can’t tour it then.  The dinner is held in the great hall, which is why the castle closes earlier than the park.  They need time to prepared the tables and bring in the food.  Connie actually ran into the lady who was just finishing up the scones and apple pies for tonight!

We’ve been so lucky with the weather!  There is just a bit of drizzle while I’m on the tower roof and it only lasts a few minutes.  A word about the stairs.  They are all spiral staircases and the steps and really narrow, both in length and width.  And sometimes you have to pass people going in the other direction!  It must have been interesting living here!

After the castle we see as much of the rest of the park as we can.  At the potter’s shop we spend at least ten minutes in a lively discussion with the potter.  You really can’t ever just walk away from an Irishman until you’ve had a lively discussion! So much fun!!

We’ve managed to stay long enough in the park, which is supposed to close at six, to spend time in the gift shop and go straight to the meeting place for our Traditional Irish Evening at 6:30!  We get our tickets and follow directions to the corn barn where dinner and entertainment are planned for us.  We chat with the couple ahead of us until we are admitted.  As we enter we are offered a choice of mead or Irish Cream.  Now that’s a tough one!  We both opt for the Irish Cream.  Connie already knows she doesn’t like mead because we sampled some in one of the shops!  I know I’ll get mead tomorrow, so I go for variety!

Seats, or at least tables, are assigned and since we are the second ones in, we have the pick of the eight seats at our table.  A gentleman sits across from us and the laughing begins.  We talk about the light and the kinds of lens we think would work in here, and he goes out to his car for more equipment.  When he returns he gotten another glass of mead!  “That’s how you get seconds!” he says.

He’s going to the international music festival in Ennis that Noel told us about a couple of days ago.  His name is Dale and he’s the only other person I see this evening with a real camera.  He will be taking a class in traditional Irish singing and just completed a second-year class is the Irish language.  He has a light brogue and after finding out where we’re from, he replies that he’s from Miami, Florida.  We have a good giggle until he produces a Florida driver’s license!

A young lady asks if there’s anything we need.  We’ve got pitchers of water and red and white wines on the table, along with baskets of brown bread and dishes of butter.  Dale says we’re fine unless she could bring us more mead, as a joke. She comes back with two glasses of mead!  What a lovely evening this is turning into!

The music and dancing are as wonderful as you’d expect.  There are three musicians, a fiddler, accordionist, and guitarist, and a female singer.  The MC is just what you’d expect – funny and charming;  and there are four dancers, two guys and two girls.  The show is more than thirty minutes long and dinner is served between the numbers.  We think the accordionist is our server. 

She was pulled from the audience to try to do the broom dance.

The first course is a green salad with a couple of tomato slices and a cucumber slice.  The dressing is in a dish which is passed around.  Next is a traditional lamb stew which is about ninety percent lamb with one potato and no more than two carrots.  The brow is exceptional and the meat falls apart.  You can also have either salmon or a vegetarian quiche.  While I’m enjoying my stew, Dale is baaa-ing at me.

Dessert is apple pie with cream and there is also a kind of fruit bread in which a ring has been hidden.  There is only one.  I get it!!  I wasn’t even going to eat the bread; but something told me I should.  And it looks just like my wedding band.

After dinner Dale, Connie, and I all take pictures together in various combinations and one of the staff takes one of the three of us. On the way out we encounter one of the dancers and Connie asks if he also has another job.  Turns out he works during the day at the golf course!

After a glass of Irish Cream, another of mead, and a couple of glasses of red wine, I’m very impressed that I make it home.  Good thing Connie doesn’t like mead and wasn’t wild about the white wine!  We spend a few minutes organizing for the morning, getting our computers on the wifi and checking our mail and crash!  There’s some time playing with the light switches before we figure out that the only way to turn on the ceiling light is with the “master switch”.  You have to have it on for any of the other switches to work.  That means that if the first person gets up before it gets light, you can’t turn on the bathroom light without the ceiling light coming on and waking the other person!  Luckily I’m pretty good in the dark!

Oh – I forgot to mention that I fixed Connie’s computer!  It’s not as grand as it sounds;  I just plugged it in and waited for it charge up enough to turn on.  Looked impressive though!  :)

(I'll add photo from tea tomorrow, when the stupid phone will send it!)