Honeymoon (Part 3 - Rock On)
We left Dingle as I said and headed towards Cashel. Erin has been really marvelous about driving. He offered to let me drive but I declined - thinking back on this I should have if only for the mere reason of giving him a break.
At any rate we decided on the way to Cashel to take a break - I needed to find another sweater and some shoes to go with my dress because once we hit Dublin I wanted to dress up a little...
We stopped in a little town center whose name I can not recall - most of the little towns seem to have 'shopping districts' with pharmacies (Erin was teasing me because I am astounded at the things you can buy in their pharmacies - it's like going to the department store cosmetic counters - so I want to stop at every one I see.) As we headed towards the shopping districts, we saw on the corner some street performers (which is a common site in some of the cities in Ireland) in this case it was 2 Native American guys playing music (on a pan flute type instrument - with a boombox going in the background)
- next to where they were performing was a 'fast food' place apparently specialising in 'chicken' because, there flanking the doorway were two people in chicken suits.
(LOL)
There seems to be an abundance of little boutiques and other such shops, eateries, and of course the local shops (hardware, grocer, etc.) I found a clothing store that was actually going out of business and managed to get 2 sweaters for $10 Euros - great deal. We wandered about more and on the way back to the car the guys on pan flute were no playing a rendition of ABBA's 'Fernando' - I nearly chocked on my laughter - but all I could think of was my dear sweet Liam...
Onto 'The Rock'. We drove into Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is where Christianity supposedly began in Ireland (and quite possibly the rest of the civilised world). Legend has it that St. Patrick baptised the then king of Munster. Supposedly, Patrick when performing the 'rite' drove his crozier through the king's foot - but the king, thinking it was part of the ceremony did not even cry out - those crazy Irish guys (LOL)...
Anyhow The 'Rock' which is really nothing more than a huge bit of limestone that seem to be a geologic anomaly - upon the rock was built a fortress - then, once the king was baptised, a cathedral was built. There are many good websites for the 'history you can find one here.
Th site is really amazing and truly a visual awe. The pictures of our trip to Cashel can be found here, and here.
We headed to the next B&B which was located just outside of Cashel. This home was originally a farm built in the 18th century. We chose it because of the 'write up' in the B&B book that was part of the info given to us for our trip. Erin called to ask if they had a 'double' room available (meaning a double bed) - they told us they did. We drove in - it was early evening (after stopping briefly to take in the glory of the fortress/cathedral. We drove down the winding driveway and were greeted in the drive by an older gent who told us to go around to the front of the house. Again, this was a beautiful old home. We were then greeted by a teen-aged girl who showed us to our room. The first room she showed us - she informed us that we would have to share a bathroom - well we walked into the room and were greeted by two twin beds, Erin asked if she had another room - she rolled her eyes (I did not notice this) and showed us a second room which had a private bath - this room also had twin beds - confused and a bit upset, we settled on the one with the private bath. We poked around the rest of the house which indeed was lovely and went out into the 'garden' area where I got a pic of Erin munching on giant 'lettuce' plants.
We then drove into town to go have some dinner and wander around a bit. Afterwards we came back to the tiny little room with the tinier bathroom - made love (I don't mean to be rude here, but I think part of the turn on was making love in what must have at one time been their kids twin beds) - and then slept in separate beds (*pouts*).
So yeah about the social commentary. I am curious as to either the economy or the thought process that goes into making a family that especially in the case of certain homes (where is is obvious the family was at one time very, very well off) - what leads them to decide to open their homes as B&Bs? To the general public, strangers, tourists? We had full access to their homes, the keys to their front doors - there's an amount of blind faith that goes into this as well as the 'servant' mind set - being a servant to strangers in your own home. And the communities - I wonder about the conservatism in the local community and how are these people viewed by their peers? What has happened that you have had to 'lower' yourself to selling out? Yes, I know this is all speculation on my part and I am not attempting to pass judgement on these people but it does seem rather curious to me.
The next morning we got up a bit late and went down to have breakfast. We were the last people at the table - at any rate there was home-made cheese (this was a working farm and their specialty it seemed was award winning cheeses). we ate and afterwards (as we seemed to do at all the houses save for one) we stuck our heads into the original room we were shown and lo and behold BEHIND the door - the view which that teen-aged girl was blocking - was another part of the bedroom complete with a double bed (geez!). Oh well - off to Cashel.
We showed up to see the site and got in the queue. We paid our money and toured the Fortress/Cathedral. Amazing. Simply amazing. Stunning. Beautiful. The only thing that detracted form the experience was a fat Italian woman with a group of Italian tourists who kept blowing a shrill whistle in order to keep her group in line (like a greasy mother hen - sorry but it became so irritating to me amidst the peace and SACRED atmosphere that I wanted to go over and choke her with her own whistle.)
The pictures Erin managed to get of this sacred place were really wonderful. As with most of the 'sites' in Ireland if you are going to be a tourist you are going to pay a 'price' and depending on how much you are into history etc. - you may or may not choose to see something - I personally, while enjoying the places we saw very much, am the type of person who would much rather just hang out with the locals and have a pint (or two) - but there were some sites that were most assuredly must sees as far at I was concerned Cashel being one of them.
Next stop...Dublin City!
At any rate we decided on the way to Cashel to take a break - I needed to find another sweater and some shoes to go with my dress because once we hit Dublin I wanted to dress up a little...
We stopped in a little town center whose name I can not recall - most of the little towns seem to have 'shopping districts' with pharmacies (Erin was teasing me because I am astounded at the things you can buy in their pharmacies - it's like going to the department store cosmetic counters - so I want to stop at every one I see.) As we headed towards the shopping districts, we saw on the corner some street performers (which is a common site in some of the cities in Ireland) in this case it was 2 Native American guys playing music (on a pan flute type instrument - with a boombox going in the background)
- next to where they were performing was a 'fast food' place apparently specialising in 'chicken' because, there flanking the doorway were two people in chicken suits.
(LOL)
There seems to be an abundance of little boutiques and other such shops, eateries, and of course the local shops (hardware, grocer, etc.) I found a clothing store that was actually going out of business and managed to get 2 sweaters for $10 Euros - great deal. We wandered about more and on the way back to the car the guys on pan flute were no playing a rendition of ABBA's 'Fernando' - I nearly chocked on my laughter - but all I could think of was my dear sweet Liam...
Onto 'The Rock'. We drove into Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is where Christianity supposedly began in Ireland (and quite possibly the rest of the civilised world). Legend has it that St. Patrick baptised the then king of Munster. Supposedly, Patrick when performing the 'rite' drove his crozier through the king's foot - but the king, thinking it was part of the ceremony did not even cry out - those crazy Irish guys (LOL)...
Anyhow The 'Rock' which is really nothing more than a huge bit of limestone that seem to be a geologic anomaly - upon the rock was built a fortress - then, once the king was baptised, a cathedral was built. There are many good websites for the 'history you can find one here.
Th site is really amazing and truly a visual awe. The pictures of our trip to Cashel can be found here, and here.
We headed to the next B&B which was located just outside of Cashel. This home was originally a farm built in the 18th century. We chose it because of the 'write up' in the B&B book that was part of the info given to us for our trip. Erin called to ask if they had a 'double' room available (meaning a double bed) - they told us they did. We drove in - it was early evening (after stopping briefly to take in the glory of the fortress/cathedral. We drove down the winding driveway and were greeted in the drive by an older gent who told us to go around to the front of the house. Again, this was a beautiful old home. We were then greeted by a teen-aged girl who showed us to our room. The first room she showed us - she informed us that we would have to share a bathroom - well we walked into the room and were greeted by two twin beds, Erin asked if she had another room - she rolled her eyes (I did not notice this) and showed us a second room which had a private bath - this room also had twin beds - confused and a bit upset, we settled on the one with the private bath. We poked around the rest of the house which indeed was lovely and went out into the 'garden' area where I got a pic of Erin munching on giant 'lettuce' plants.
We then drove into town to go have some dinner and wander around a bit. Afterwards we came back to the tiny little room with the tinier bathroom - made love (I don't mean to be rude here, but I think part of the turn on was making love in what must have at one time been their kids twin beds) - and then slept in separate beds (*pouts*).
So yeah about the social commentary. I am curious as to either the economy or the thought process that goes into making a family that especially in the case of certain homes (where is is obvious the family was at one time very, very well off) - what leads them to decide to open their homes as B&Bs? To the general public, strangers, tourists? We had full access to their homes, the keys to their front doors - there's an amount of blind faith that goes into this as well as the 'servant' mind set - being a servant to strangers in your own home. And the communities - I wonder about the conservatism in the local community and how are these people viewed by their peers? What has happened that you have had to 'lower' yourself to selling out? Yes, I know this is all speculation on my part and I am not attempting to pass judgement on these people but it does seem rather curious to me.
The next morning we got up a bit late and went down to have breakfast. We were the last people at the table - at any rate there was home-made cheese (this was a working farm and their specialty it seemed was award winning cheeses). we ate and afterwards (as we seemed to do at all the houses save for one) we stuck our heads into the original room we were shown and lo and behold BEHIND the door - the view which that teen-aged girl was blocking - was another part of the bedroom complete with a double bed (geez!). Oh well - off to Cashel.
We showed up to see the site and got in the queue. We paid our money and toured the Fortress/Cathedral. Amazing. Simply amazing. Stunning. Beautiful. The only thing that detracted form the experience was a fat Italian woman with a group of Italian tourists who kept blowing a shrill whistle in order to keep her group in line (like a greasy mother hen - sorry but it became so irritating to me amidst the peace and SACRED atmosphere that I wanted to go over and choke her with her own whistle.)
The pictures Erin managed to get of this sacred place were really wonderful. As with most of the 'sites' in Ireland if you are going to be a tourist you are going to pay a 'price' and depending on how much you are into history etc. - you may or may not choose to see something - I personally, while enjoying the places we saw very much, am the type of person who would much rather just hang out with the locals and have a pint (or two) - but there were some sites that were most assuredly must sees as far at I was concerned Cashel being one of them.
Next stop...Dublin City!
posted by Colette at 8:13 AM
2 Comments:
Giant lettuce seems to be normal in Ireland. Day 2 on our drive from the Cliffs of Moher to Galway we encountered some extra giant lettuce. We got a couple pictures, but the scale of the things is lost in the photos. The plants were over 8 feet tall, probably close to ten at the tallest.
I always wondered where the giants in the cloud castles got their food. Now I know.
The Native American looking people surely must have been Native Americans, because they had big dream-catchers on stands. I wanted to ask the guy what tribe he came from.
I guess he was probably disowned from his tribe for playing ABBA songs.
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