Rise and shine!
We had an early morning to the start of our long travel day. Our private bus picked us up from our hotel in Derry at 6:00am, and from there we had about a 3 hour ride to the train station in Dublin. The majority of the group took that time to go to sleep and rest up for the day ahead of us. We arrived at the Connolly Train Station at 9:20am and were able to get coffee and food before our train left. As we were all scattered around the station, Neal was told that our train did not leave from Connolly Station, but from Heuston Station instead. We all got back together and had to wait for a tram to take us to our correct station. We arrived at Heuston Station ready for what we thought was our 11:20am departure to Limerick Junction. Again, Neal was told that our train actually leaves at 12:00pm, and that 11:20am was the time to be at Connolly Station to have enough time to travel to Heuston Station. Wow, Ireland train stations are confusing!
We relaxed at the station until we were able to board our 12:00pm train to Limerick Junction. This train ride was super smooth and mostly views of pretty green fields.
We arrived at Limerick Junction about 2 hours later and got off the train we were currently on to get right on another one heading to Limerick. This train ride was only about 30 minutes.
We arrived at the Limerick Train Station, and from there we had a 30 minute walk to our hotel. We got a few smiles and laughs from people in their cars as all 15 of us carried all our luggage in a line on the sidewalk. It did feel good to finally be able to stretch our legs and go for a little walk in the fresh air.
We arrived at our hotel to complete our 300 miles of travel for the day. We then were able to just hangout until 7:30pm, when we had to leave for our dinner at The Bunratty Castle. We got to the castle early and were able to walk around the little village, which had cows, pigs, and goats.
Before we entered the castle, there was a man playing the bagpipes outside to welcome us into the dinner. When we entered the castle and walked up the stairs, we were given Meade, a honey wine. There was a man playing the violin and a lady playing the Irish harp. The butler of the night described the backstory of the building and its importance as the seat of the O’Brians.
We were then guided into the dining room where we sat at a long wooden table as a group. They introduced the cast of the night who sang throughout the meal. The first course was a spiced parsnip soup, with a medley of vegetables in it. They did not give out forks or spoons for the first 3 courses, so we all had to drink the soup out of the bowl. The second course were ribs and the third was chicken with vegetables.
During the meal, Keegan was chosen as the prisoner for “trifling with the ladies”. He was sent to the dungeon and the only way he was allowed to return to the table was if he sang a song. He proceeded to sing the ABC’s to plead for mercy. Our entire table was laughing throughout the entire thing, but Keegan was a very good sport through it all.
The fourth and final course was dessert, which was an apple and cinnamon crunch cheesecake (thankfully we were given a spoon with this course). While we ate dessert, the cast sang their last few songs, which were very beautiful. There was coffee and hot tea on our way out served by the cast as well.
We made our way back to the hotel after our long, but very exciting day. Time to rest up to see the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow!
Emily Doty
LOVE IT!!
ReplyDelete