Bunratty, Moher, The Burren

[brassangel]

Today we went to Bunratty Castle



The link below explains Bunratty Castle and Folk Park

http://www.group-trotter.net/ireland/places/bunratty/bunratty.html

On the wall in the entryway to the castle there is a letter written by Jackie Kennedy after having visited there.



We wandered through the castle and through quite a bit of the park



The view from the Bunratty Castle battlements is amazing.


There is also a little shopping area,



a post office, and a cafeteria. We had lunch there before getting on the road again. The food was forgettable 8(


After Bunratty we drove to the Cliffs Of Moher. Otherwise known as the Cliffs of Insanity in The Princess Bride.



When viewing the cliffs, you have a choice. You can head toward the left out over the cliffs, or to the right, which goes up a ways and gives you a vantage point for viewing the cliffs. To the right there are stairs which we chose to take.



I guess we had all been cooped up in the car a bit much because Byron and Rowena and I started jogging up the steps. For me, this didn't last long of course. I started walking again, and I guess I had tired myself out more than I thought, becasue I didn't pick my feet up far enough and managed to trip up one of the sets of stairs. That's right folks, second time on this vacation.

(I forgot to mention slamming my head into the low hanging stairwell at the cottage yesterday and again today in one of the cottages at Bunratty.)



Ever take one of those slow motion falls? I had enough time as I was falling to analyze the fact that I was holding my camera out in front of me, and that the camera had the precious wide angle lens that Jim had given me for christmas on it. My priorities clear, I somehow managed to twist around so that the camera was saved, and I landed on my right (a. k. a. the bad) shoulder. Something popped in there. For a few moments I lay there taking in the pain. Couldn't feel my fingers at first, and my shoulder was hurting like hell. It's very convenient travelling with a first responder, though. Byron came back and did a quick check on me. Grabbed my hand, asked me to squeeze and I was amazed to discover my fingers were not only still there, but worked! He sat me up and had me try to move my shoulder, and we discovered I suddenly had better range of motion than I have had for the last several months.



Through all of this, other hand was being held by what I assumed was my husband, but once I was no longer distracted I realized the hand-holder was a random older gentleman and that my husband was standing several feet away with Rowena, waiting for Byron to finish checking me out. This struck me as hilarious for some reason. Also, a nice lady nearby informed us her friend was a Dr and I should let her look at my shoulder, but by then the pain in my shoulder was fading quicky and we finished heading to the top plateau of the stairs.



You all have seen the cliffs in the movie, I'm sure, but I can't begin to put into words the beauty of the cliffs in person.


While we were in Bunratty, I had bought some stamps for some postcards for my niece and nephew and I found a postbox in the parking lot across the road from the Cliffs, so I was able to post those. yay!

Next we drove to the Burren.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burren

We stopped at the Portal Tomb. You follow a path out to near the tomb and then have to hop from one rock to another to get up close.



After taking a few picture of the Polnabron



we hopped rocks around the area and up to alittle ridge line.



You could see between some of the stones far enough to tell there were little caverns under some of them.



In the center of one rock I fould what looked like a perfect scrying bowl, complete with snail shells and weeds.



A storm was moving in, so we made our way back to the van and headed home. On the way, we made a stop at a place called Thad's Steakhouse for dinner.



Addendum: The weather here is schizo! I think this is where the saying "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes" comes from. Rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny, rainy, ,alternating all day long!

Comments

[shinyevil.livejournal.com]

:::grin::: Some of those pictures bring back memories of the trip Mike and I made. I have to say, I really fell in love with the west coast of Ireland.

How windy was it at the cliffs? We were there on a mild day, so were able to stay upright and stuff. At the time we were told that the prior day it had been "gusting". When asked what that meant, the lady told us "gusting" meant winds at about 75mph. Hah!

[brassangel.livejournal.com]

The winds were not nearly as nad as they were for tomorrow's outing. Ok, the tenses there are just all sort of F'd up.
The coast is beautiful. We never did get very far North, but we covered the southwest of the country and Dublin pretty well. I want to go BACK!

[brassangel.livejournal.com]

bad! I swear that was Bad, not a reference to someone's genitalia!

[(Anonymous)]

Me too! It was just so darned beautiful. And I'd like to see more. We really only had time for a tiny bit of Dublin, County Clare, and Blarney Castle. I'd really like to see some of the other counties on the west coast, especially Galway.

[radiant-one.livejournal.com]

Yay more stories and of a place I long to go to!!! Thanks!

Yes, I've been in a slow motion fall. Oddly enough in the London Tube, I think Bank Street Station. To this day I recall feeling my feet slip and I fell forward from the last step onto on of the long between steps. I knew I couldn't go headlong down the next flight but there wasn't much I could do as I was in the middle of the flight and not near a railing. So I fell flat on my face. My best friend described it as beautiful as my long rain coat sailed out behind me and I took flight. Since she told me this as I was laying on my face hoping I wasn't dead I almost killed her. A station manager came running because he heard my scream. Luckily I didn't break my knee caps but I did strain/sprain stuff and had blood all over my knee from a cut. However this meant I got a nice seat at our hotel pub, a very nice alcoholic beverage, and ice (which is apparently more precious than gold in London) for my knee.