Cahir

Thursday, May 8th

We were awakened promptly at 6:00 AM by the hysterical screaming of the small child across the aisle. After finishing our evening meal at about 3:45 AM Irish time, nothing could have been more appreciated. I beat the crowds to the toilets thanks to my early wake up call.

When Felicity regained consciousness, she realized that her shoes had vanished under the seat. With about 14 inches of headroom between her seat and the back of the seat in front of her, she decided to get on the floor squeeze her head and shoulders between the seats and have a look.. She found one quickly, but the second seemed to elude her. She looked under her own seat to find what appeared to be another loose shoe. She pulled it forward, tugging a bit to inspect it, concluded through her exhaustion filled eyes that it was not hers and then struggled in pushing it, with great force, back under the seat. What she wasn't aware of, is that the shoe she was struggling with, had a leg and indeed and entire male body of about 60 years of age protruding from it. I glanced back at a bewildered man who had clearly been jarred from a short slumber. He made no attempt to respond to the pummeling that his hoof was enduring. Meanwhile, Felicity found her other shoe shortly after she realized the living appendage below her seat and sunk silently back into seat, beating me as I shook uncontrollably with laughter.

We had left Atlanta in a downpour and had been delayed over an hour, but arrived in Shannon only fifteen minutes late. Our minimal sleep long behind us, we staggered off the plane and found Millie and Bill waiting in the baggage claim area. They too were feigning alertness and we dragged up to the rental car line. After waiting for quite a while to check in there we were told we could have gone straight to the lot and so we did.

Since Millie and Bill were leaving much earlier than us, we decided to rent two vehicles, a wonderful inconvenience that forced us to play a horror filled game of follow the leader throughout the countryside of Ireland. Bill was met with the surprise of getting a stick shift and a larger car. I enjoyed the amusing moment of announcing that change to Millie. Millie’s terror was evident. We had rented through O'Scannlain Travel and Hertz and had gotten a fine deal. The use MasterCard for the CDW went off without a hitch.

I quickly realized that handling a manual transmission was no big deal as we pulled out of the airport and on to the road to Limerick. We made a quick stop in Bunratty to show Millie the B&B where we would be staying on our last nights and then both tried to back out of the parking space ... another bewildering moment. Neither of us could get the vehicle into reverse. We looked blanking at each other and continued to yank violently on the gearshift stem. Finally, Bill discovered the not so obvious switch on the stem, and we snuck out of the parking lot.

In Limerick we promptly got lost, wandered past King John's Castle, missed the parking lot, lost Millie and Bill for a few, found them and made it back to the castle. The audiovisual show was lovely, but a dark room was not the best place for four exhausted travelers. The trip was clearly beginning to take a toll and we made our way through the exhibit and on the coffee shop for a bit of artificial, caffeine induced energy. A note about King John’s Castle. Most of the Duchas site can sell the Heritage Card, but King John’s does not have them. They need to be picked up at the tourist info office down the road a bit.

Our next task was to find the SIM cards for our mobile phones. Limerick has a “shopping center” that has a couple of phone stores in it but it, of course, has no parking and we were advised to walk. By using the force, we found our way, but definitely took the long route. Felicity and I had debated long and hard about what medium to use to stay connected between the two cars and had decided on mobile phones. There were moments on the trip that they were invaluable. We would have liked to have found the small two way radios available in the States, but they are much more expensive in Ireland and the phones would have future uses. The phones were purchased online and the SIMS in Ireland. This is definitely the way to go if you want mobile phones for an extended period of time. We finally made it back to the cars to continue the journey.

The ride to Tipperary was marked by frequent yawns and straining of eyes. Finally we were shocked back into alertness with the recurring fear that we had gotten ourselves lost. We got lucky and found our way to the Glen of Aherlow. The road is off the tourist trail and well worth the drive. There is a glorious vista on the road and we used it to take pictures and peel our eyelids open. Based on our level of exhaustion, we just did a quick “V” and back out to the main N24

The drive to Cahir afforded us our first opportunity of many to come face to face with a vehicle much to big for the road. I peeked in the rear view mirror at the terrified faces of our travel companions in the trailing car. It doesn't get any better than that.

We visited Cahir castle, again off the main tourist path and as nice an Irish castle as you will find. Even in the mid afternoon, there were very few people there. The original portcullis is still there and I believe that it still operates if you have anyone that you believe deserves a dousing of boiling oil. The grounds behind the castle are quite nice and I considered taking a brief hike along the trail there, but that suggestion was not met with much enthusiasm.

Dinner that night was at the Galtee Inn. The menu had changed slightly from the year before, but the food was still excellent. Thus, of course, began the drinking of the black porter. We would try them all during the trip, Guinness being consumed the most. Millie wanted to have that first sip of true Bailey’s, so we staggered into the pub next door and then drove back to the B&B.

Our bed and breakfast that evening was the sometimes-maligned Carrigeen Castle. The castle is actually an old jail (gaol for those of you who need the Irish spelling), but is still a great old building with castellated towers.

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