Malahide Castle _June 4

Monday, June 4

Today is Ireland's Bank Holiday. It's a lovely, sunny day so everyone is out enjoying their holiday.

I get to go to a REAL castle today! This was one of my few “must do” things for the trip. 
We took a short drive north to Malahide Castle.

We got a great tour guide! He was an older man, with a great sense of humor and knack for drawing tour guests into the scene he was setting in any given room.

It was owned by the Talbot family for almost over 800 years. It's one of the oldest castles in Ireland. It remained in the family until Rose Talbot inherited it from her brother, Milo, and, unable to afford the inheritance tax, sold it to the Irish State and moved to Tasmania.

The family motto is Forte-et-Fidele (Brave and Faithful) and their crest contains a lion and a hound. The lion motif is seen throughout the house, including in the carvings on this table, which our guide told us is the most priceless item in the castle. It is one of the few remaining examples of this type of furniture style (the name of which I don't remember).

Drawing Room

Detail of Molding in Drawing Room Ceiling

I don't recall what this room (above) was for, but the floor design is beautiful. The entire home is full of beautiful wood-furniture, flooring, paneling.

Children's Room

Toys in the Children's Room

A Child's Travel Case

 We were allowed to see three of the bedrooms on the second floor.

Rose Talbot's Room

 The tassel in the center of the canopy over the bed is a pull to unlock the door to the right of the bed so that the Lady of the house didn't have to get out of bed to open the door when the maid brought up her breakfast tray in the morning.

This vessel is lined with lead and used as a wine cooler

This was the last room of the tour-The Great Hall. There is a very long table in this room and a balcony on the front side of the home. There is a small door and a small room under the balcony that belonged to a dwarf who worked in the house entertaining the Talbot's guests. Unfortunately, he hung himself and is said to haunt the room. I was actually feeling quite sick at this point in the tour-roasting hot and freezing cold at the same time and wondering when the tour would be finished so I could go outside.  I was checking out the library, which is a small room off to the left. When I started paying attention again to what the tour guide was saying he was talking about people becoming sick in the house while on the tour. The tour guides communicate with one another with earpieces and mircrophones so they can let each other know when a room is clear for the next group to enter. He said that any time he heard of a tour guest being sick in the castle he knew exactly where they would be. He pointed at me and the man next to me and said "you two might want to move about 5 feet in either direction". Once I did, I stopped feeling sick. Weird!

There are two wooden vessels on either side of the fireplace. When I asked about them I was told they were used as wine coolers.

This library was off of the Grand Hall. We weren't allowed to go into it. The wallpaper is made with real gold and, according to the tour guide, is quite spectacular when they sun is shining in the room. The table has amazing marquetry top!

The grounds were amazing—so much space-260 acres!

 There is also a cemetery and the ruins of an old church on the grounds.

 There are a lot of exotic plants, lovely wandering walkways, water features and several green houses.

One of the greenhouses has a butterfly collection.

T

And a collection of pitcher plants.

 My favorite garden was the Walled Garden. Unfortunately, the video I took is too big to upload here. That garden is more "wild" than the rest of the manicured gardens on the property.

It was a lovely, ornate home but not anywhere near as gaudy as Hearst Castle in California.

Galway - June 3

Sunday, June 3

In the morning we had breakfast at the B&B. They served buffet style, which is nice since I usually don’t eat all of my food because the portions are usually too much for me. 

 

After breakfast we walked back down to Eyre Square Shopping Center. What a difference from the night before! It was nearly empty! It was a lovely day, fresh and clean from the rain. 

 

There are a lot of street performers here and in Dublin. This woman was entertaining the morning crowds (such as they were).

We did some browsing  in the shops and stopped for tea at  cute little place called Cupan Tae—cozy, eclectic, lace and linen.Those are teacups hanging from fishing line in the window.

Our server brought us tea and gave us a timer saying that when the brown sand went through the timer our tea was ready to serve. 

Jane and me

We browsed more shops and I bought myself a Claddah ring. 

Then we waked along the River Corrib till we got a little way past Bowling Green street.

We met a man who was fishing and Jane engaged him in conversation. He was fishing for trout. He wasn’t having much luck and the catch was better last year. He told us of the commercial salmon farms that were causing the fish to get sick. Because the farms keep the fish bunched together they get stressed and succumb to disease and parasites. These parasites escape the fish farms and infect the wild salmon population too. He was very interesting and I think we chatted with him for about half an hour!

After that we went back and checked out of the B&B and headed for home. Jane’s navigation tried to take her to the wrong place going home. Apparently there’s more than one Main Street in the area where she lives.

Perfect weather. Jane's choice of driving times kept us from having to sit in holiday weekend traffic. Her choice of locations to stay at and visit were spot on (she would have preferred something more tourist friendly than Inis Meain). We had a great weekend!

Inis Meain, Day Two- June 2

Saturday, June 2

Had breakfast at Ah Dun. They had a good variety of choices from cereal to a full Irish Breakfast. Then we went out for another walk. We walked back over to the west side of the island and went out farther than we did on the previous day. At one point you have to leave the road and climb through a break in the wall. The path beyond that isn’t difficult, but it's also not a nice, paved road and I’m sure it’s slippery in wet weather.

path to Cathaoir Synge

There’s a place you can get to called Cathaoir Synge (Synge's Chair) where famous author and playwright, John Milling Synge would sit and write. It's a breathtaking view and I can see why he spent his time here!

view from Cathaoir Synge

While we were walking back we came upon a man unloading sheep from a truck and turning them out into a pasture. His sheep dog was certainly checking us out-needed to make sure we weren’t going to bother his sheep! Jane made a comment about the dog looking after the sheep and the man said “not this one”.  Apparently this dog would prefer to chase the sheep than herd them. He said the dog he had previously was a much better sheep dog. The man was quite friendly and chatty.

east side of the island

We decided to try and find the pub again. On the way we stopped into Church of Mary Immaculate. 

Church of Mary Immaculate

 It’s was lovely and small and had beautiful stained glass windows. Jane told me they were made by renowned artist Harry Clarke. They were quite beautiful. They had a sparkly, jewel-like quality to them that I haven’t seen in stained glass before. I lit a candle for friends and family who have passed on. Even though I’m not Catholic, I’ve gotten the habit of doing that any time I visit a church where they light candles as a way to remember those who have come before me. 

Harry Clarke stained glass windows

in remembrance of those who have died

 We walked over to the old pier on the east side of the island. There are lovely beaches on this side!

east side of the island, north of the old pier

 They have a tiny airport on the island.

airport

We tried, unsuccessfully, to find the Knitting Company Factory so went back to the B&B and waited for the Taxi to bring us back to the dock for the ferry back to Rossaveel.


From there we drove to Galway and our next B&B, Galway Guesthouses. This is a lovely place, located just a short walk from Eyre Square Shopping Center. After we checked in we walked down here and had dinner at Maxwells. The food was delicious!

pork belly cooked 10 hours!

A young woman was setting up the table next to us and Jane started chatting with her. Turns out this woman was going to San Francisco soon. She had been born there but came to Ireland as a baby and this was her first trip back. She was really looking forward to it. She was so nice, she even brought us a little taste of the soup of the day in demitasse cups. I was facing the window which looked out onto a busy shopping street. At least 10 “hen parties” went walking past the window. Jane says Galway is a popular spot for hen parties. It was fun people watching.

one of the smaller side streets off the main shopping street

After dinner we walked around the shopping district. It was packed with people shopping, drinking, having a good time. It was getting dark so we headed back to the B&B. Not 20 minutes after we got back to our room it started POURING rain! I was in the shower, so at first I thought it was the sound of the shower. Then I realized it was raining. I pictured all those people down in the shopping district scurrying for cover and packing into the pubs and shops. It lasted about two hours.