After a lovely visit to Galway with Bob and Emma Kevitt, Hallie and I spent 3 days in western Ireland before our upcoming Nile River cruise.
It’s funny, I have been to almost 90 countries in my life, but this was the first time in Ireland. The West is more rural/less “citified” than Dublin, and (other than three days of never-ending rain, haha) it was lovely.
Ashford Castle is a nearly 1,000-year-old castle. Very cool. Kind of like Downton Abbey (if you’ve seen that show). The building itself was magnificent, but the highlights for us were going to the falconry school and walking their Irish Wolfhounds.
The hawks, falcons, and owls were magnificent, as were their dogs. Irish Wolfhounds were trained to hunt wolves — thus their name. And while ferocious hunters, they were tame and gentle with us. The funniest thing is when we showed up at 8 am for the walk in the pouring rain, the man in charge looked us all over, standing there dripping in the rain, and slowly said, “I HATE YOU ALL” 🤣
Here are some cool pics.
Ashford Castle
Ashford Castle close up – though the car sort of ruins it 🙂
Inside the castle. You can get a feel for the elegance
Hallie feeling “the Royal vibe” hahahahaha
The Falconry was a highlight of the castle. How humans used to hunt. With birds of prey.
A beautiful bird. And the trainer was from Harrisburg, Pa, believe it or not!
Bob and I. Kind of whistling past a graveyard 😆
Walking the dogs was a special treat. (And we ALL looked like wet dogs 🙂
The reason for all the rain was Storm Amy with nearly 80 mph winds and crazy rain. I know the Emerald Isle gets its beautiful green from the rain, but his was a lot.
In Westport we got to visit a local Irish pub for some incredible classical music. This group (one of many who played in the various bars around this lovely town, was a sister and her 2 brothers. Fun, lively traditional Irish music
a pint or two of Guiness 🙂
Last night we spent in London with Zoeb and Margaret. ALWAYS great to see them. Zoeb and I shared some fond memories of our many years of working together and Hallie loved the ABBA show (I’m not a fan, but the holograms of the band are incredible. Hard to believe those were not real people onstage!).
Zoeb at the ABBA concert. He looks about as happy as I was 🤪
With Zoeb and Margaret in front of our motel in London. Definitely NOT a castle. But just goes to show it’s not the extravagance of a place that makes it special–it’s the people 👍
Today we are off for our Nile River cruise through Egypt and then Jordan. Will keep y’all updated on our adventure.
Thanks to Emma and Bob, and to Z and Margaret for a wonderful start.
Onward!