Horseback Riding with the Gang!

Hi all, I am posting this event before my others because it is a special time with some of the gang. They were going riding and knew that I had wanted to go so they invited me along. Probably not thinking we would come!  David and I rented a car again so we could travel the country side and off we went to the Ring of Kerry. We then met up with the girls in Killarney- all seven of them!

 A view of the stables with 100 plus horses.

 The girls signing in and paying. It is 35 euros for an hour on a trail ride.

 We were required to have boots with heels and helmets.

 We are ready to go!

 We too are ready.. David looking forward to riding English :)- my western boy....

 Our guide comes from Carcassonne, France. It is a beautiful place in the Pyrennes that is one of Europe's walled cities. We have actually been there on our family trip to Italy, France and Spain. We were picking up our daughter who had been an exchange student in Spain for a year and doing a little traveling before bringing her home.
The view here as we ride is just beautiful as we look out on Lough Leane and Killarney National Park of 24,000 acres that was a gift from an American heiress after her husband had died.

 We are ready for the races!! just lead on. :) The picture above this one were Red Deer in the field and as you can see they weren't afraid of us or the horses.

 In this picture we passed through Kerry Cattle that have been endangered since the potato famine. They are trying hard to increase the herd as they are known for their importance in producing milk that is Lactose tolerant. Their milk is more like goat's milk.

Here we are tired and a little sore and STARVED..onto getting something to eat and shop!

We all recommend this place...good food and a fun time was had by all :)    cheerio!

Traveling to the Cliffs of Moher, Ennis, and Adare

This is on the way to the cliffs. It is their local golf course. I took it because of know many of you play. They are hilly and rocky...anyone for golf?

The famous Cliffs of Moher..They rise up vertically at a height of 710 feet and stretch over about  5 miles.
You can see in this picture the five different rock formations.  This day  is rainy and cold and half way through our trip, the fog came rolling in and we could hardly see the cliffs. But the wind is unbelievable here and at times we could hardly stand up.

The last time I was here which was in June 2009, there were hundreds of birds but today there were very few seen. I had even brought my binoculars along from home in anticipation of showing David all the kinds of birds in one area. The castle below is called O'Brien's Tower which was built in 1835 by Cornelius O'Brien. It was built to encourage tourism even back then. One of the walls has Liscannor flagstones noted for their imprints of prehistoric eels..

We moved onto Ennis but stopped in Doolin long enough to turn around.  I couldn't resist taking this picture of "The Ritz"I have been known to go a long way in Boston just to use the bathrooms in the Ritz!

These are the streets in Ennis which is a very cute town.  It is known for fiddle playing and step dancing. May is the time to come visit this town for the festival.  We walked by the abby which is being renovated. It should be wonderful when it is done.

We stopped to talk to the man that was replacing the thatch on this roof. He had me guess how long it would take him to do the whole roof.  I said a couple of days which made him laugh, David guessed two weeks but the answer is a week.  He said he had to take off the old thatch first before he could put on the new.  If you look you can see it is done in sections and each sections takes up to 4 hours.You can see how the bands hold it. 

 We then moved onto the town of Adare.  Here most buildings are stone with thatched roofs..and peat briquettes along the side walk.

Here is the Trinitarian Monastary which should be open the next time we visit. My pictures have twisted and I can't get them to move. The night one was taken as we left after a fabulous dinner at the Arches.  We were hoping to take our family there for dinner but it closes on Nov 1st as do many of the attractions and restaurants here.   cheerio:)

A Day in Limerick

Today we have a friend that came to visit us for the weekend. He was here for the PSU checking out places in Dublin for work study programs so he hopped on over to Limerick!  We spent the day walking around and checking out sites for coming visitors.  This is just a picture along main street.

 You will notice the streets don't lack for pubs!

 Here we were on our way to the farmers market when this head peers over at us! He was a beauty and looking for money to help support the animal rescue league.

 This is the Saturday  Farmer's market called the Milk Market which is on Cornmarket Row! It has its usual fruits and vegetables but the fun table is the one with the cheeses. They slice you a piece (lunch!) and if you like it they will cut you a wedge and wrap it in a waxed paper. The other thing they have are great pastry. I just had to buy a chocolate croisant :) yum... Peter got a nutella crepe.  That is on my list for next week to try. Roger's my grandson, might like that one!

 I took this picture for the hydrangea.  They are red --in many shades of red. This picture doesn't do it justice.

 On to King John's castle but Peter likes cathedrals so we got pulled into St Mary's Cathedral.  Next picture.

 Limerick is predominantly Catholic but St Mary's is Protestand and is the city's oldest religious building.  "Once a 12th century palace-pilasters and rounded Romaneque entrance were part of he original structure- it dates mostly from the 15th century."  The man at the door was not friendly so we left. Peter and David went back in after we toured the castle. I wandered around the graves that were as old as the 1800s to 2010.  Quite interesting the sayings on them and the fact that they had many generations buried in the same spot.

 I had to take this picture but I got a very dirty look from a man walking by.  You won't see this in the US! The sign up by the windows, under the horse, says Betting office.

 King John's castle built by the Normans in the early 1200s. This castle had many battles waged against it through the centuries including the seige of Limerick in 1691. In one of the parts of the castle, archaeological excavations were carried out from 1993-1995. You can go underground and see.  In some part of the wars on the castle there were tunnels built under to compromise the wall as well as to get into the castle. These areas are shown in the archaeological sites.

 This the view from the castle.  The city was divided by this river.

 Just a typical row of houses..So pretty in their colors.

  We are outside the Hunt Museum which is housed in the Old Customs house. It was a very nice one with the finest collection of Celtic and medieval treasures and 20th century Irish and European paintings.

A picture of the train station. This is also the hub for the busses.  We rented a car, so tomorrow we are onto more adventures outside Limerick. Don't forget to post a comment- just click on the word.. cheerio :)

Belfast #2

 This is the Opera house

This is City Hall.

I thought I had more pictures to share but I have down loaded most of them..Here is the ball I mentioned the other day.- "a ball in a ball"
As I am writing this blog, a bird decided to join me on the chair across from me. He quietly watched and when I went to open windows, he disappeared.- a purple finch looking bird.

My other story for today is the one on causing trouble..This story goes back to the first week I arrived. I had been here 2 days and decided to speak with the staff here about how slow the drains were and did they have drano...."we will send the maintenance person down" Upon arriving he said that he sees the problem and only has caustic soda but he wanted to check elsewhere. So he went outside to the drain by the door and picked up the cover and said. " I think we have too much water there and I will call the service"
When the service came within a few hours, they discovered that the manhole below outside our window was full to the top..(We are the last of the buildings and therefore at the end of the sewer line...not good)
They worked 2 days to clear the lines..
That isn't only one thing I have called for..they had to order special lights to replace the ones here..fixing the washing machine twice (before I got there...on David's watch).and a few other things.  He had to show me about the heat, the hot water, the stove, and a few other things. I could actually keep him here for a while as there are many more things that don't work..I think I am going to have to buy some tools. :)
I have baked some cookies to try and get back in the good graces of the staff!.I only brought 2 bags of chocolate chips with me and I can't find any here. anyone coming over???
Cheerio:)

Belfast- first part of 2

We arrived in Belfast and had not a clue where to go. we knew we were going to find a tour bus but we had to park somewhere!  This is the first of the many that we saw. "you are now entering loyalists Sandy Row Heartland of south Belfast Ulster - Freedom Fighters"

This picture below is the Justice Palace. This building as you can see has been the target of many bombings over and over.  The government at this time doesn't have the money to repair it. This just one place that shows you the terror that the people of Ireland endured.

As we took the bus tour and I applogize for the rails in the pictures, we saw many of these murals depicting the stuggles and memorial to the ones that died.

More of the murals which in some cases, go on for blocks. (that picture didn't come out very well) But if you look closely you can see the stories.

More Murals

The mural below is a memorial to the five that died.

In this building , the two top floors where the Tory/ Unionists Spies lived for two years.

The Catholic murals often aspire to the romantic Sistene Chapel lite while the Protestant areas were more workmanlike that resembles war comics without the humor.
"Other popular themes in the Protestant areas are the red hand of Ulster, symbolizing the founding of the province and on Carnmore st., the 13 Prostestant apprentice boys shutting the gates of Derry against King James in 1688 leading the famous seige."--or the one in 1981 of the ten IRA inmates that died during a hunger strike trying to be recognized by the Bristish government.

This mural of Bobby Sands . The girl that was shot by stray bullets.  The innocence of children ----"our revenge will be the laughter of our children"

The murals in both Protestand and Catholic areas are safe to view during the day as Belfast has been voted for 2 years in a row as the safest capitol city in Europe.

I couldn't get all the murals as there are hundreds of them.(probably not that many but it seems that way!) The history is so interesting but a bit confusing at first..I am going to be reading a lot more....One guide told us that the fighting really stopped here because of 911. That seemed to scare them.  We also heard that Bill Clinton had a great influence on the country.

Belfast also has some beautiful buildings.- libraries,churches, city halls--Below is the The famous The Crown Bar.  We went in to look, though we would loved to have a pint; we had to drive back to Limerick..The inside of the bar is just beautiful as you can see in the next few pictures.

 Some guy I picked up at the bar :)

The building in the background is the Titanic's Dock and Pump house known as the Thompson Dock and Pump-house which is the only original part of the ship's legacy open to the public. Here is the Titanic's physical footprint.  It took 500 men of 7 years to build the dry dock which is 900 feet long with a gate weighing 1,000 tons and holding 21 million gallons of water.!!! The Titanic was built here in Belfast. This is the year that the massive project was suppose to be completed but still has a way to go. It should be fascinating when it is done.

A wire figure given to the city by the Queen perches at the beginning of the Queens Bridge. They don't have much to say about this --rather negative names. I also left out another picture of a globe within another globe that had much the same sentiments.
So this is one part of Belfast..