I'm writing this from the Holiday Inn lobby in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It's about 9PM Sunday September 26. We left Bunratty, Ireland about 9:30AM and had a relatively uneventful and pleasant drive over mostly modern highway ... a welcome change from some of the roads we have motored down lately!
I want to take a moment and pay homage to one of our troop that gets little pictorial press in the gallery but is a
valued and critical member of our little "road family" ...
"Wicked Wanda"!!
We occasionally single her out for well deserved cursing ... but for the most part she has guided us down roads and through cities that would have been much more difficult had she not been along ... here's to you Wicked Wanda!! Thanks for the ride so far!
Ok yesterday was a fairly long day ... we left Killarney, Ireland about 7:30AM and headed out the
Ring of Kerry .... arriving
back in Killarney about five and one half hours later ... well ... they did say it was a "ring"! We left so early in order to get ahead of the parade of tour buses that would be on the same narrow windy road about 8:30AM ... we did not want to be behind them!!
Clearly the point of that jaunt was to see the amazing scenery through County Kerry ... and as the pictures show it is truely spectacular! (as always ... a few pics here and many more in the gallery)
(author's privilege )
We arrived in Bunratty and found both Durty Nelly's and our lodging for the night ...
At 8:45PM we went over to Bunratty Castle for the Medieval Banquet ...
For me at least the "feast" far exceed my expectations ... we were greeted at the castle by folks in period garb and served a cup of mead ... which is pretty potent stuff!! Then we were treated to some really fine Irish "chamber music" in the hall played by a young man on the fiddle and a young lady on the cello ... both of these folks were accomplished musicians and I really enjoyed their playing having no clue what further treats we had in store ...
We were then seated in the grand hall ... all 120+ of us and served a really good meal of 'soup', pork ribs, baked chicken, vegetables and a custard like dessert. These were referred to as "removes" and in this was a
"4 remove meal" ... never heard it called that before but it makes sense ... we also had red and white wine with the meal. We ate with our fingers and a knife ... it made for a really fun experience! All during dinner we were entertained by singers and musicians ... and "tom" our master of ceremonies kept up an entertaining and often comical spiel.
Some pictures here others in the gallery ...
I have several pics of this fiddle player because he was sooo damn good!!! And he was incredibly shy ... he was always looking at the floor even when he got huge rounds of applause ... I stopped him outside after the show and told him what an outstanding job I thought he had done ... he shyly looked at the ground and said "yeah it was OK" and hurried off ... one very talented young man in my opinion.
So ...we made it back to the B&B after a short walk in the dark around 11:30 PM and quickly went to bed ... got up this morning had a nice Irish breakfast and drove to Belfast where this posting began ... tomorrow we ferry to Scotland and drive to Edinburgh where we will stay a few days ...
