Our Trip to Ireland - Chapter Four
Tony, our driver, came back by and picked up all 46 of the folks on our tour. The other folks were divided up among other houses. I was so happy to be able to stay at the B&B that was chosen for us as the other B & B’s where the other guests were dropped off made me wonder too much. There was some construction going on outside of one and a dog with a muzzle around his mouth in front of another. The other houses and ours looked very nice. The houses in Ireland look pretty much the same as California houses. There are two levels usually with an upstairs and downstairs. There is usually a big window similar to a big bay window in front on a lot of the houses with no drapes to let the sunshine in. Most of the windows that do have curtains have lace curtains (long shears) that made me think of the old expression Father Suver used back home when referring to the upper-class Irish in the US—“lace curtain Irish”!
Tony picked all of us up and took us to Kate Kearney’s Cottage (pronounced “karney”). “Nick the Click” Moriarty came through to take a group shot of our entire touring group. The next day he caught up with us on the bus and sold them to us for a small fee.
Once inside Kate’s Cottage we could see that the place really did look like a cottage with an old wooden floor and rustic walls with old signs similar to such places back home. We got a drink at the bar. Greg was thrilled to be able to go up to the bar and order a drink without being ID’d or considered illegal! In Ireland the legal drinking age is 18 and over. I drank more Guinness on our vacation tour than I ever have! We sat down to a delicious dinner. I ordered salmon which was served with potatoes and Julienned carrots (carrots were never sliced over there—only Julienned). We had pie for dessert. Next, a trio of musicians came out to perform for us. They played traditional Irish music for us. They took requests, so I asked them to play “The Black Velvet Band”. The singer smiled at me and said, “I was just thinking of that tune”! Two young girls came out to dance for us. When the one girl danced in her hard shoes I was sure that she would go right through the old wood floor which I could see bending under the weight of the jumps. Outside there was a mountain climbers' rescue truck as this particular area is a popular area with mountain climbers—mostly young fellows who were off from school for their Easter holiday break this week and next. We made our way home to stay our first night with our B&B host and hostess.
In the morning our hosts worked together to prepare our breakfast which was pretty much the standard Irish breakfast fare like we had before. The New York ladies started complaining about how their shower curtain wouldn’t close all the way and how they didn’t have any hot water. I figured that the house probably didn’t have adequate hot water tanks, but I couldn’t complain as we always had enough hot water.
We boarded the bus! Today we would be touring the Ring of Kerry which I didn’t truly understand before?? I have to admit I didn’t understand just exactly what the Ring of Kerry was until that day! Before our trip I thought of the Ring of Kerry as some type of actual geographical ring! I didn’t understand that the Ring of Kerry is a 100 mile ring road to drive upon!
We got to hear a lot of stories about people who had lived throughout the countryside who fought for the IRA. We saw the signs that read “Gael Tacht” which means Gaelic is spoken by the locals of that particular town. This was started long ago as a form of resistance to the British as they tried to break the Irish people for years by restricting them from speaking Irish and restricting them from attending Mass. During the famine Tony told us that the British landlords said they would help those who were starving if they would turn away from Catholicism and become Protestants. Many did just that to keep their children from starving to death. Tony let us know that he was Irish-Catholic in short time. He said, “We have a love/hate relationship with the British”. “They love us” then his sentence ended!
We crossed a bridge that took us over to a little seaside town called, Valencia. We went into a restaurant run by the Kennedy family—no not “the” Kennedys we know back here but probably relatives?? We enjoyed a delicious meal of Irish-style fish and chips! It was delicious! Afterwards, we went to the Skelligs Visitor Center. We viewed a movie about the Skellig Experience which told how a group of early Christian monks built their monastery completely out of stones stacked up that looked like stone igloos. They built these structures and lived on an island close to the shore. We didn’t get to visit the island, but we got to learn a lot about it and see the film. These monks lived happily on this island devoting their whole time to carving out steps to climb up the mountains, building their houses, and doing fishing and farming to sustain themselves. They would only come into town to trade the natural resources they had for tools to work with on their island. Everything was going fine until the Vikings showed up and ruined everything!
Tony picked all of us up and took us to Kate Kearney’s Cottage (pronounced “karney”). “Nick the Click” Moriarty came through to take a group shot of our entire touring group. The next day he caught up with us on the bus and sold them to us for a small fee.
Once inside Kate’s Cottage we could see that the place really did look like a cottage with an old wooden floor and rustic walls with old signs similar to such places back home. We got a drink at the bar. Greg was thrilled to be able to go up to the bar and order a drink without being ID’d or considered illegal! In Ireland the legal drinking age is 18 and over. I drank more Guinness on our vacation tour than I ever have! We sat down to a delicious dinner. I ordered salmon which was served with potatoes and Julienned carrots (carrots were never sliced over there—only Julienned). We had pie for dessert. Next, a trio of musicians came out to perform for us. They played traditional Irish music for us. They took requests, so I asked them to play “The Black Velvet Band”. The singer smiled at me and said, “I was just thinking of that tune”! Two young girls came out to dance for us. When the one girl danced in her hard shoes I was sure that she would go right through the old wood floor which I could see bending under the weight of the jumps. Outside there was a mountain climbers' rescue truck as this particular area is a popular area with mountain climbers—mostly young fellows who were off from school for their Easter holiday break this week and next. We made our way home to stay our first night with our B&B host and hostess.
In the morning our hosts worked together to prepare our breakfast which was pretty much the standard Irish breakfast fare like we had before. The New York ladies started complaining about how their shower curtain wouldn’t close all the way and how they didn’t have any hot water. I figured that the house probably didn’t have adequate hot water tanks, but I couldn’t complain as we always had enough hot water.
We boarded the bus! Today we would be touring the Ring of Kerry which I didn’t truly understand before?? I have to admit I didn’t understand just exactly what the Ring of Kerry was until that day! Before our trip I thought of the Ring of Kerry as some type of actual geographical ring! I didn’t understand that the Ring of Kerry is a 100 mile ring road to drive upon!
We got to hear a lot of stories about people who had lived throughout the countryside who fought for the IRA. We saw the signs that read “Gael Tacht” which means Gaelic is spoken by the locals of that particular town. This was started long ago as a form of resistance to the British as they tried to break the Irish people for years by restricting them from speaking Irish and restricting them from attending Mass. During the famine Tony told us that the British landlords said they would help those who were starving if they would turn away from Catholicism and become Protestants. Many did just that to keep their children from starving to death. Tony let us know that he was Irish-Catholic in short time. He said, “We have a love/hate relationship with the British”. “They love us” then his sentence ended!
We crossed a bridge that took us over to a little seaside town called, Valencia. We went into a restaurant run by the Kennedy family—no not “the” Kennedys we know back here but probably relatives?? We enjoyed a delicious meal of Irish-style fish and chips! It was delicious! Afterwards, we went to the Skelligs Visitor Center. We viewed a movie about the Skellig Experience which told how a group of early Christian monks built their monastery completely out of stones stacked up that looked like stone igloos. They built these structures and lived on an island close to the shore. We didn’t get to visit the island, but we got to learn a lot about it and see the film. These monks lived happily on this island devoting their whole time to carving out steps to climb up the mountains, building their houses, and doing fishing and farming to sustain themselves. They would only come into town to trade the natural resources they had for tools to work with on their island. Everything was going fine until the Vikings showed up and ruined everything!
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