The last leg of my adventure was spent roaming the Irish countryside in this tour bus, driven and guided by Tour Guide Dave. Often funny, very informative, and thankfully easy to understand (a drunken Irish accent is no picnic to decipher), Dave was an all around good guy.
This behemoth is Blarney Castle, home of the Blarney Stone. I did not get to kiss the Blarney Stone. I was not at all happy about this. Nor did I get a thick woolen Irish sweater from the wool mills. Not happy about this either. It might be worth going back and wading through the sea of tourists and accosting young Irish men (don't even get me started...) to get a real Irish sweater.
Irish seaside. We were blessed with amazingly good weather the whole trip, it'd been raining for days before we arrived, but the sun shone every day we went out.
The Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely breathtaking. Many days of the year the fog is so thick, you can't even see them, but we could see far out into the ocean and the wind was bracing rather than freezing. Oddly enough, the whole time I was there, the only thing I could think about was how fun and dangerous it must have been to come here in the '70s, before safety protocols like warning signs and walls went into effect. Even now, there's not much to keep you from tumbling right over the edge and down 500 feet into the water....
(The Cliffs are also in The Princess Bride, they're the Cliffs of Insanity!)
The very last night, we feasted at Bunratty Castle, an old mead hall. We were given no silverware but a knife and presented with plates of ribs and chicken and potatoes. Here I am with my cup of mead, quite delighted. I pretended I was Beowulf.
*Sigh*
It's not over. There are still bits of magic. This morning I got an email from the London Underground informing me of tube closures this weekend. Jammie Dodgers taste just as sweet from my own bed. I have five pounds in change I have idea what to do with.
London called and I picked up the phone, but the conversation didn't end with a full day of traveling back through three airports, with three time changes and endless games of Ticket to Ride. It's ongoing. I suspect it'll never end.
Thank you, reader, for sharing the journey.
