An amusing Limerick
Trip Start
Mar 29, 2006
1
80
232
Trip End
Feb 28, 2007
Limerick,
Ireland
Friday, July 14, 2006
FRIDAY, 14th July
Limerick was on this day's schedule. It took us an hour and a half. No problems except possibly the first part of the journey which was definitely not an N road. The latter part of the N7 was much smoother and easily a 100 kph road, I'm pleased to say. We parked in a multi storey car park above a small shopping centre and across the road from the Shannon and an 'information bureau'. St. John's castle in the distance. We picked up a map from the aforementioned and went in search of a second hand bookshop. Anne was desperate. We found it and she made a purchase or two. We found a bakery nearby and enjoyed hot drinks and, in my case, a lovely current bun whilst seated at a table on the pavement.
There were some lovely bakeries here with many styles of fresh bread and mouth watering buns and cakes. And what a terrific variety of sandwich fillings as I noted before. All very tempting. I could sit here all day and gorge myself on the feast in front of me. [ If I had a week to live I would knock back the trip to Disney world, the flight in a spaceship and a night with Liz Hurley for a day each in an Irish, a Dutch and a German bread and cake shop. I would follow that with some healthy food at McDonalds. Perhaps Liz could assist me into bed at the end of the day! ]The French have no idea what they are missing.
Some observations while I sat there watching the Irish world go by.
They speak Irish. I don't mind that but I wish the road signs were not in two languages.
Bunratty Castle
The town names are hard enough to pick up whilst speeding by without being confused by the addition of the Gaellic name which is always in Italics. There are, not surprisingly, lots of pubs which of course encourages motorists to drink especially when quite often the public house is the only place in town that is open.
Learner drivers do not have to be accompanied by a licensed driver and they do not have to apply for their licence...ever! They can just renew their L plates. A 17 year old can front up with the required 20 Euros, is not required to pass any knowledge test and can jump behind the wheel of a car. This only adds to all the other problems about overtaking, etc. The media has been full of much the same thing this week due to the high rate of fatalities over the weekend...mostly youngsters.
Anyway, after our little break we walked up the street to the Peoples Park which was peopled by mostly little people on swings and things in a cordoned off area. They were the lucky ones. There were signs everywhere denying the right of 'people' to play with balls, ride a bike, let your dog play, run, dive, walk on the grass [ Strange how so many parks do not allow walking on the grass but would appear to allow running, jumping and standing still! ], park your car or whistle. I exaggerate. But no mention of skateboarding or roller skating. Damn I should have brought my in-lines. We took a right out of the park, then a left, another right and ended up on the riverside.
The river is very wide at this point as it prepares to spread out into its wide river mouth.
Bunratty cottage
There was a lock taking up a small part of its width which I could not at first understand until we saw the smaller river that joined the Shannon just ahead of us. It had a weir, ie a step, constructed across its outlet except for this passage that led to the lock to allow boats to transfer to the main stream. [I really should draw a diagram. not! ]We returned to the car to continue our journey to Bunratty where we had read that there was a castle and a 'folk village'. We parked the car just below the castle walls but walked across the road to the Wool Mills tourist shop. Anne is still on a pattern hunt. Inside there were only finished woolen garments BUT there was a fine display of crystal glassware...Waterford, Wedgwood and Galway. We were struck by a particular style and cut of Galway crystal and given the nod from me I'm sure we would have spent the rest of our months allowance and shipped a table setting home. I dragged Anne out screaming but not before we had fed our faces in the canteen on an upper level. I had an Irish stew...well why not...and Anne had a chicken salad with half a chicken. I had a smoothie for the first time. It was delicious. Must look for more of them.
We bought some socks for our son Glenn.[ This log would be so incomplete without these exciting little details! ]
The walk to the entrance of the castle/village was further than we thought and more expensive. I3 Euros each! I crept in behind some American tourists and got in without paying but Anne was not game and paid a seniors fee of 7.50.
Bunratty school ma'am
The Folk Park consisted of the castle and a village laid out as it was up to 100 years ago. I believe it was, until not long ago, the real village of Bunratty. Upon completion of the reconstruction of the castle I reckon someone came up with the bright idea of creating a theme park by erecting a fence around the village and charging a fee to go in. We should do the same with Woronora.We explored the castle first. It had been a ruin up until the 1950's as per photos in the basement but it had been completely rebuilt from the ground up. I approve...as I had mentioned before. It was terrific. It was like a movie set and looked really old in spite of the modern cements and timbers. It was not very large. Only the keep really with thick walls and a circular tower on each corner up which one could clamber via circular staircases. On each of the four floors there was a different set up. A dining area on the ground floor, a reception room on the second and the living quarters on the third. I failed to make the fourth which was the roof. There was no open courtyard so I could only assume that there may have been outer walls and stables which have long gone.
We wandered through the village following the pathways popping in and out of the cottages be they prosperous farm houses or peasant's hovels. Some of them had been relocated from elsewhere and all had a fire burning in the grate as a symbol of authenticity. I think Madame Tussaud could have added some realism with some wax farmers. I thought it all very well done. As I said a lot of it was original buildings opened to the public but I think a few of the larger homes at the top end of the village were still lived in. My only criticism was that there did not seem to be enough to keep the kids amused. We were entertained in the school house by a 'school ma'am' who tried to teach her 'pupils' a Gaellic song. Anne was given a couple of strokes of the cane. She was not paying attention.
There were the village shops including the chemist, the hardware, the news print shop and a working pub. In addition there was a duck pond, some horses and cattle and two watermills. A horizontal one and a vertical one. [ More diagrams might be required here. ] A good day out. Not cheap though. A family of four would have cost 30 Euros.
We took a different road back via Ballina on the Shannon. Not too different from Ballina on the Richmond except for size. A very pleasant spot. Lots of holiday makers. Two pubs on the riverside doing good business on this hot Friday afternoon. The bridge connecting it to Killaloe was a real bottleneck. It was single lane, controlled by traffic lights trying to control five roads entering from both sides. We took the N7 to Roscrea then to Birr and then home by 6pm.
