In Shannon After A long Flight

 We arrived in Shannon a short while ago and were met at the airport by the Princess representative. The flight from Toronto to Heathrow as about 7 hours. I don't know how it happened but we were at the front of the plane! All went well exccept for the fact that it is difficult to get any sleep. Heathrow airport is something else. It seems that they have added a number of new terminals and it seemed that we walked forever. Security was extraordinary. First we needed to go through British customs although we were going on to Ireland. Check passports. Then we turned the corner, more passport and boarding checks along with a photo. Then came security. Then another photo check. All this before we arrived at the gate to catch our flight to Shannon. Finally one more check!

 

Creamery Bar

 The flight went well and the Princess rep was waiting for us. We finally got to the Bunratty Castle Hotel. An older building but well maintained. After cneck in we went for a quick bite at a local bar It is called the Creamery and it has gone through a series of uses over time. A stable, a Creamery - which you can still see the pipes in the bar and various storage activities. Today it is a busy place.

   Bunratty Castle was built in the 14th century and is now a museum. The grounds have been built up much like Henry Ford's Greenfield Village. There is a series of old buildings that have been brought to the site to preserve the “old” way of life. The most interesting structures have maintained the thatched roofs – the local building material.

Old Church and Cemetery

Our group has 41 people in it. We have 2 other Canadians that we have met – 2 sisters from Vancouver. Others that we have met included couples from St Louis, California and Florida. As was to be expected, we need to take the bus even though we are only going a few hundred feet. That should indicate the age of some of the people on this tour.

Tonight we were at an evening of Shannon Heritage entertainment in an old corn barn on the Folk park grounds. They served a honey wine or Baileys Irish Cream before dinner, red or white wine, salad, 'heavy' brown bread and Irish stew and potatoes followed by apple pie with cream. Most people had the lamb stew which was quite tasty. The entertainment included jokes, a fiddler,and accordian player, Irish

Flowers

dancers and a singer. It was quite entertaining and a fitting introduction to the tour. The only difficulty was that although Judy had a nap this afternoon, I did not. By the time the dancers stated, I was ready to get some sleep.

  The photos posted shown the Creamery Pub where we had a small pizza, an Irish cemetery and an old church and some flowers in bloom.