Belmont Knock

At Granny and grandad's house they have a farm and on the farm there are cows. A baby calf was born on Saturday and it was a browny orange colour. he also has 2 dogs and one is mean and his name is Ben. The other dog is called Sporty and he is a nice dog.

2nd on our list was Turlough Park,

This was a place where we got to see how landlords lived in the 19th century while taxing their people into poverty. This one was a bit different than most English landlords because this house belonged to the Fitzgerald family who were Irish. They were removed by the english from their home in wexford Ireland where they held 70,000 acres of great land and moved to ...

... priests of this church have never stopped preaching. They would tell the king that they had shut it down, but every day they still held mass. When The church was in too poor shape to use they held mass in the fields. The priests even had to dress like women at times to go out and bless graves and such in public...now thats perseverance! It was a good first stop on our weekend journey

click on the pictures to view captions about them!

Guess who's is here??? The positive thinker...ME..sister Katie...I get clean clothes tonight..although I can honestly say I wish it had been Dad's that had arrived.. I can wear Care's clothes and he looks funny in them.

Great time today...I am definitely going to look into being adopted by the Irish..Love THEM.

Got to hear Irish music and see the countryside. Eating an drinking our way...just like the Irish have done for years..all 3 sisters tried ...

... the grounds after breakfast. We saw people taking falcon lessons while we wandered up and down the garden paths. Strangely though we did not see any small animals at all.
Eventually we had to check out and get on the road to our next adventure. We stopped by in the village next to the castle, Cong. It's half in Co. Mayo and half in Co. Galway. The river that flows into the lake rises in Cong. Next stop Galway City.

My bag has been packed. And re-packed. And unpacked. And squished.
I've informed the hotel of my late arrival.
I've got (some) foreign cash.
My electrical batteries are charged.
My print outs are in a waterproof folder in a waterproof bag.


Agh!

... br> Speaking of beer, here’s a question for you…do they have an ale called Smithwicks in America? I’ve discovered it here, and it is aaaaamazing. It’s the second most popular type of beer here, after the ever-reigning Guiness. Apparently we labeled ourselves as Americans as soon as we walk into a pub and order a pint…because Irish girls don’t drink beer. Whhyyy the heck that is, I have no ...

Well in true Hilary fashion I left all the organisation right up until the last minute. I booked my flights, car hire and accommodation less than a week before I was due to leave. It all worked out fine though. I caught up with Claire briefly before catching a flight from East Midlands airport. After paying a fortune to carry my fiddle with me on the flight they told me I had to put it in the ...

Arrival at the Knock (now called Ireland West) Airport was on time. There was a gladitorial music played upon airval by Ryanair to make sure that all remembered that. K had a awful flight with the tonsil pain. He tried to drink some tea to soothe it but by the end of the flight he came out with blocked ears and none on top of the excruciating pain in his tonsil. He was having difficulty swallowing and even talking. We were picked up by John, a ...

... thing... Thanks to the Golden and Kenny clans for the good wishes and support as we head off on our adventure... At Shannon airport, not even a bomb scare could stop us getting away. Big thanks to JP, Sinead and Nicole for taking the time to come out to us, and to Mammy Kenny for bringing us down.