Dreamland in Dromoland

Chloe, wearing the new wool poncho that Mims bought her,
says "time to go" Uncle Jeff!

Our last day in Ireland was a full day beginning at 9:00 a.m. in Killarney.  John, the bellman at The Royal Killarney, greeted me as the first from our group to venture downstairs about 7:00 a.m..   While being incredibly pleasant, he was equally hard to understand and spoke the fastest English I've ever heard on this planet.  At first I thought he was speaking in Gaelic because I could understand very little, but once I learned to grasp every third or fourth word, I got the intention of his dialogue.  "Coffee?" was one of the words I could make out so I nodded in assent and he brought me the perfect cup of strong Irish coffee to start my day.

We then chatted about the noise outside the hotel last night.  There was some kind of big motorcar race held annually in Killarney this weekend, and John told me (in a few words I could decipher) that it was "horrible", and "teenagers" that accompanied the drivers were a "nightmare".  Indeed, they were outside on the streets drinking and partying until the wee hours of the morning, and racing the engines of their pretend race cars.  Cheryl and I had our window open to cool the room down (and where do these Irish hotel rooms hide the thermostats?) so we heard some of it but eventually drifted off to sleep.

We bid adieu to Killarney about 9:15 after Cheryl and Mary Lee had to make one last mad dash to a jewelers around the corner for that "necklace to die for".  Fortunately for those of us paying the bill, they were closed and not open until 9:30, so back they came and off we went toward Adare, the Village of the Welcomes (as all of Ireland seems), a drive north about 60 miles into Limerick County, Ireland.  Adare was founded in the 12th. century, and we particularly enjoyed the visit to The Trinitarian Priory, the only one of its kind in all of Ireland and built in the 13th. century. 

This order of friars was founded in France, following the Holy-Land Crusades, with the main purpose of raising ransom money in order to rescue Christian captives taken by the Moors, during the crusade wars.  The church was simply beautiful and the stained glass windows stunning.  The quietness of the sanctuary was comforting but soon we had to leave as Tom, our driver, had us on a tight time schedule.

Lunch was the next order of priority because we certainly weren't getting enough food on this trip!  We stopped at Dillon's, Carrowkeel East, Inagh, Ireland.   The owner (Carmel and Pat) greeted us warmly, and most of us had yet one more sampling of the lovely fish and chips.  And, she ended the meal by bringing Chloe a "surprise" which was a beautiful dish of ice cream, none of which was chocolate (Chloe's favorite), so it got devoured by the rest of the table and back on the bus we went.

The Cliffs of Moher were the last stop for the day. Standing 702 feet from the Atlantic Ocean at their highest point they stretch for 5 miles along the Atlantic coast of County Clare. On a clear day one can see the Aran Islands and Galway Bay. O'Brien's Tower stands near the highest point and has served as a viewing point for visitors for hundreds of years.  Certainly this was a fabulous way to end the trip as it is one of the most popular destinations in Ireland, seeing over 1 million visitors per year.

From here, we had yet one more nice thing to do . . . check into our hotel which was, in actuality, a castle and a 5-star hotel.  While the present building was completed in 1835, its origins date back to the late 15th. or early 16th. century.  Some of the many famous people who have stayed here include George W. Bush (he asked if he was in Scotland!), Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Cash, Bono, and John Travolta.  A lovely dinner (I had bangers and mash) with Ray and Mary Lee, Aaron, Melissa, Chloe, and Cheryl concluded our evening.

An early bedtime awaits us because we have to leave the hotel at 5:45 a.m. to be at Shannon Airport where we go through Emigration and Customs here instead of when we land at Newark.  If all goes well, we'll be home in Columbus by about 5 p.m. and we all know, as Dorothy in Oz told us "there's no place like home".   One more closing post reflecting on our trip in the next day or so, and that's it . . . .