Medieval Banquet

After our stay in County Mayo, we took a detour to the southwest Ireland.  We spent two nights near Killarney the first one at Bunratty Castle Hotel.  This night we went to a medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle across the street from the hotel. 

We started the day with lunch at Durty Nellys, a famous pub in the area.  We had some fish/chips and did some exploring before the banquet. 

This is the grouse that Matt saw while we were exploring.  He insisted that we take a picture of it, even though you can barely see the tiny bird in this photo.

 

Again, here’s the 10-second delay photo that Matt took in front of the castle.

 

Here is a picture of the castle from the hotel across the street.

Here is a picture of the elk skulls the owners of Bunratty found on the property.  They were all over the welcoming room at the banquet.  We had all you can eat ribs, chicken, potatoes, salad, bread, and so much more.  We had live music and a show all night.

The Abbey’s of County Mayo

 

Ballintober Abbey near our first cottage.  We biked to the abbey and spent the day walking around and eating at the pub across the street.  The picture above shows the ruins of the original abbey, it’s over 800 years old.

 

The doorway and window shown here is from the early 15th century.

 

This picture is from Drumcliffe near Sligo.  I was in a stare-off with the statue, but I lost.

 

These two photos are from the church within Drumcliffe.  The top is inside the chapel and the bottom is outside the church.  The trees outside this church were covered with Rooks.  There was even a sign on the door to “keep closed or else the birds fly in”.

Cliffs of Moher

One day trip from Moorehall Cottage was to the Cliffs of Moher, about 1 hour southwest of Galway.  It was a beautiful park with lots of areas to walk and explore.  Matt and I set out on a very long walk around the park .  We got to stop and picnic while the sun set over the water.  All in all, an excellent day trip.

 

These little love birds were all over the cliffs, paired up in little dens.

Matt is all about the 10 second delay on the camera and setting up photo-ops on our trip.

 

We followed the letter of the law…always.

The Dogs of Ireland

While we were in Ireland, we had some encounters with some cute dogs.  The first is Murphy.  He was the owners dog at our second house.  He came over every morning to see us, but we weren’t allowed to give him treats…he was on a special diet.

This is Arthur.  He was at the castle we stayed at near the Dingle Peninsula.

Kindle and Ireland

As you may remember from my previous posts, my mom and dad bought me a Kindle prior to our trip to Ireland.  I’ve got a stack of books that needed to be read, but my mission for this trip was to read a book about Benjamin Franklin.  Here are some shots of where the Kindle and I worked on accomplishing my Ireland Mission.

 

Here we are near the Dublin Zoo…

at the pier for Clare island…

 

inside Moorehall Cottage…

outside Moorehall Cottage…

 

with Murphy outside our cottage in County Tipperary…

I worked hard on finishing this book and as of yesterday, I accomplished my EVEREST!