A Day in Limerick out and about and an Irish night at Bunratty Castle on Saturday 31st May

A couple of grannies from Oz,

Found themselves in a bookstore because

They wanted to buy some limericks from Limerick

Yes said the lady, here is the book,

And lucky grandad decided to take a look

Because the stories it held were rather A rated

And not what we thought would be appreciated!

Sorry kids, there is no suitable books for children but hope you like grannie's version instead!

We have managed to pack quite a lot into our day so far, in Limerick.  A hop on hop off tour allowed us a good overview of Limerick, which has changed since we were here when Joshua was 9 months old, 14.5 years ago.  The city was settled by the Vikings, and later King John built a castle on the lands that overlooked the Viking establishment on Kings Island.

King John's Castle built in 1216 overlooks the Shannon River

Potato markets

City Walls mostly pulled down in the 17th century

This bit of street art has been done by some world acclaimed artists, let me know if you recognise this work of art!

Not half as good as in Londonderry!  And that one holds a powerful message

The Rock signifies the end of the conflict in the 1600's

Actually the tour took us a bit "behind" the normal frontages and shop fronts, into some pretty squalid areas, and bear in mind Angela's Ashes, if you have seen the movie or read the book, it was set in the back streets.

This square fronted the park, which used to be only available to the owners of the swish apartments, who had a key to the gate and were able to use the park as their own.

Georgian Quarter, quite a different display of building than in other areas

A different colour door for every house! Well almost.

This was the Church that our Sir Richard Creagh used for Jesuit priests in 1500's and ultimately earnt him a place in the Tower of London, to be poisoned by Queen Mary I, he was a Bishop of Limerick and she didn't like his Catholic ways

This used to be the condensed milk factory and poor conditions caused a difference with the people, and as such for 2 weeks Limerick was a separate state!

Now like all major towns they are refurbishing the waterfront.  Rugby is big here, and there are many Rugby pubs!

A bit of history and the dress of the Mayors, many Creagh men were Mayors

  Two of the Mayors were executed in 1921, this is where they lived and these are the bullet holes, we think they must have been sympathetic to the British forces in that Rebellion.

We found a brochure about a Flying Boat Museum at Foynes, a coastal town on the Shannon just west of Limerick city.  We certainly were surprised at the displays and also the information about the flying boats and travel during the 1930's.  In fact many film stars and presidents travelled in them.  Foynes was the landing spot after coming from US or Newfoundland.

You could catch a Flying Boat to Australia!

We thought about changing our flights when we got onboard!  Much more leg room than Business class!

Plenty of leg room

Sleeping compartment

We didn't think we could handle the height of the toilet bowl!

But this place was also where Irish Coffee was first made!  Apparently the crew were very cold and wet on a delayed flight and asked for a special coffee to warm them up the barman decided he would give them something to remember.  The story was done by hologram!

View of the Shannon from the south side

On the way back we checked out a little town with a museum about the Titanic as 4 of it's townspeople were on the voyage.  Only 2 survived.

The ruined castle was owned by the Fitzgerald family, they sort of let this one go as well!

We then decided to visit Adare, the most beautiful town in Ireland.  And it is, and we did, and will have to have those memories imprinted in our heads, because, being a Bank Holiday weekend, and lovely sunny day, half of Ireland also thought they would visit.  In fact the traffic was backed up for more than a mile just waiting to drive through the town. Lots of different building styles, pubs, and thatched roofed buildings, in fact probably a bit like the towns of the Cotswolds.   There was the Adare Golf Course, the Adare this and the Adare that, and of course all owned at one time by the master of Adare Manor, so large is the estate we couldn't even see the house.

An Irish feast awaits us soon, we are tipping something and cabbage on the menu!