Cliffs of Moher and Bunratty castle dinner

July 19, 2007Here is our bus waiting to take the ferry across to the Cliffs of Moher.
Most of us got out of the bus and stood on top of the ferry as it crossed.
These are the beautiful cliffs of Moher setting strangely symmetrical in the north Atlantic Ocean. At one time the oceans were much higher in this area and when the ocean retreated over time, it left these limestone cliffs, which are now used by seabirds for their homes.






These were absolutely breath-taking to see in the fog, even on a rainy day they were beautiful.
I present to you..............some kind of tower............??? (I found out later these is O'Brien's Tower)

This is one of the windows in the tower building.


I found this interesting: the cows are just grazing on the top of the cliff with just a small little fence to keep them from doing a swan dive into the Atlantic.


Droplets of water clinging to the grasses.
Before our banquet tonight, we were taken to our rooms at Bunratty Castle Hotel. Next door was a very old graveyard. Bill and I had to sneak on over and have a look..
This was once a church.

Bill studying the arched doorway of the church.
A view from inside of the church. Someone is buried in the mausoleum on the left side of the picture...some kind of Esquire.

Bunratty Castle as we entered for our dinner.
The castle was built in 1425, and was actually used by royalty in the past. Now most nights it is used for medieval banquets. Here is a harpist playing while we enter the main hall.


Here we are having a little mead (wine made from honey).
Phyllis and Chuck and their girls from Red Deer, Alberta,Canada.


This "gentleman" ( picture below, not Bill!) had committed some crime (having too many sexual encounters with the local maidens). So we had to yell whether we wanted to chop off his head, or make him sing a song for his freedom. We opted for the head removal, but he ended up singing "Molly Malone"

One English lady, and one from Jersey....what a pair they were.

The meal was served as it would have been in mideaval times, with nothing but a dagger to eat with.
We had creamy potato soup, very spicy, but delicious. We just drank it from the bowl. Then we had spare ribs, we just ate with our fingers . The second course was baked chicken and steamed vegetables and oat bread. We just ate with our fingers and used the dagger when necessary.
The dessert was a strawberry mousse. We had to feed each other. I don't know why?!
We were entertained with song and silliness. The entertainers were accompanied by violins and harps, very beautiful and talented singers.

As we were leaving the castle, we were treated to a performance by a Scotsman playing the bag pipes.

More pictures of Bunratty Castle in Shannon, IE


All of the street signs looked like this one....
Some shamrocks growing on a rock wall.
Durty Nelly's tavern, established in 1600's

Here are a bunch of crazy people that we were with all week, and a couple we just met up on the balcony of Durty Nelly's the last night of our trip.

These gentlemen were playing Irish folk songs while we all sang along.
This is another part of the same bar.

These are our friends from Canada again. Phyllis and I had lots of fun singing along with the songs. Once the old boys even played Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", so we sang it with the Irish brogue ( Ring uf Fiarrrrrr)....the we requested "The Battle of New Orleans", which they knew and played faster and faster while Phyllis and I sang the words. The accordian player said, about the piano player : "I think he's on steroids" ....this was really just the best, the old pub, the musicians, our friends and the people of Ireland just being themselves.
We left Durty Nelly's at closing time. Bill and I walked back to our hotel in the damp, rainy night, not wanting our wonderful trip to be over, but vowing to come back again someday.

The culture and beautiful landscape of a different continent can really change your view of life in your own country. I loved being in Ireland, I felt like I belonged there somehow. I will miss it very much, but like Dorothy and Toto found out "There's no place like home".