Ireland pt. 5

We stayed one night at Darby O'Gills hotel so we could visit the Muckross House, a Regency-style house. While there, we listened to some traditional music in the hotel's pub while eating ice cream. It was just outside of Killarney. Part of the Muckross House was the Muckross Traditional Farms. So much of Ireland is agricultural, so it was really neat to see.

 Edward adored chasing the chickens!

 And feeding the baby goat!

 Yeah- it was really nice of Roger to include this stop so I could live out my Downton Abbey fantasy! It was an amazing house. Queen Victoria visited it. My favorite part were the Killarney inlaid furniture- a game table and ladies writing desk. Sign me up for a few Carrera marble fireplaces too please.

Luckily everywhere we went there were some playground breaks for the kids. Love this style of swing.

Playgrounds are fun all over the world.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. We went to this old Norman city called Atherney. These are the ruins of the monestary. They let us dress up in costume, took our photos, and gave us a great history lesson and tour.

 Our little princess!

This is called a "love bracelet" and spouses were placed in it for several days if caught arguing in public too many times. Evelyn thought it was pretty funny!

This is the coast just outside of Galway. It was really neat. We loved looking for seashells.

 This is the Abbey of Abbeyknockmoy. It is 12th century. We had to walk through a cemetary and farm road to get there. On our way back, our path was blocked by cows moving to another pasture. Luckily the docile creatures were easily shooed! These stone walls are super old and everywhere!

It was really neat to see- we had the place all to ourselves.

This was the cottage we stayed at for two nights outside of Galway. We were racing to find it before dark. We had driven around for over and hour. Finally Roger went to the pub to see if he could use their WiFi and was able to get directions from a bunch of locals. They were so amazingly nice. Then we had an adventure looking for the key. It was supposed to be in a shed- but there were three outbuildings with no obvious key hiding places. We were desperately looking in the dark with our cell phone flashlights when it finally appeared! It turned out to be a really neat place to stay- with a herd of sheep in the pasture in back of the house to look at!

I just have to rave about Irish butter! The soda bread was sooo good and we ate it slathered with butter as thick as frosting for most breakfasts and lunches. Yum! It was a wonderful trip. We loved it.