This mansion home served as a school for girls run by Benedictine nuns in the 1900s.
There was even a small church on the property built by the rich original owner of the estate. It was a little rainy (really more of a drizzle) so not the best weather to explore, but it could be worse! It didn't help with the picture taking though.
We also walked up (about 20 minutes) to the pretty walled Victorian English gardens on the property.
The walk up was on this street through the woods and was nice, but we had just missed the shuttle bus and decided to walk, only to have the shuttle come by us...twice.
They must have had some Easter activities for the kids and all the stuff was still out, including a set of disney princess dresses on a clothesline in the garden (which made for a really fun picture, actually!)
There were also some left over activities in the hothouse.
We caught the bus back down to the house when it was time to go back. Frankly, I probably needed the walk--there are too many food related activities!
A quick stop in the gift shop/tea room (no I didn't get any food-but those scones looked yummy!)
Next it was back on the bus, where we passed some peat bogs
and made a quick stop photo stop at Killary Harbour.
Katherine pointed out a place for us to stop for food (really the only point of this hour and a half stop). The Blue Willow Tea Room and Cafe! Like the china :). I was happy.
We had lunch foods (I had a seafood chowder) with irish brown bread (really good) and I had ginger tea.
I really hadn't been hungry (we get included breakfasts when we travel with Globus), but there really wasn't that much more to do (and I of course love tea rooms and the food was good!).
Next we traveled to Knock and the tour guide put on some Irish music :). I pretty promptly fell asleep for my first bus nap :P.
Next stop, Knock! In the 1800s, some residents of Knock saw an apparition of Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, and a lamb upon an altar with angels on the outside of the local church. Now a plaster replica of the vision serves as a chapel.
People come on pilgrimage and take holy water (in small fountains along the edge of the square).
From knock we travelled to Bundoran, a seaside resort town, located in Donegal County.
Our hotel looks oldtimey but is a bit worn. The hotel room was quite spacious though!
We rushed out to take pictures of the atlantic on the cliff walk,
before joining the tour for our first optional excursion, a pub! Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of a home of Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma. We are very close to the northern Ireland border--the Earl was killed by the IRA in the 1970s.
There were beautiful views of the ocean.
Next to the pub!
We had a shot sized sample of Guinness,
before ordering ciders
and whiskey as my second drink (two drinks were included in the price of the excursion as well as a snack of potato chips).
We heard an hour and some of songs including Danny boy and country western! The singer was actually pretty good with the twang.
We headed back to the hotel for another three course meal in their dining room,
Thai coconut chicken over rice
and chocolate pineapple bread pudding for me,
before a quick run out to the cliff trail again to catch the last bit of twilight.
These posts are truly the highlight of my day, but they are making me really nostalgic for Ireland. :(.
ReplyDelete• Wasn't Kylemore Abbey where the entire group waited and waited and waited outside, thinking that the building was closed, and then you finally walked up and tried the door and it was open and everyone was like, "...oh"? Doors, how do they work? But you were our hero!
• Your photos of the little church at Kylemore Abbey are adorable! Of course, I have zero and therefore I'd completely forgotten about it.
• LOLing at our shuttle bus woes. Like you said, I really should have been thankful for the extra steps to counteract all of the potatoes. :-P. I have more stamina now so if we ever go somewhere in the future I promise I will complain marginally less about having to move!
• Where are your 8,000 photos of that adorable fluffy white cat??? It was so cute but kept rejecting my advances. :(.
• Also laughing at your comment about how you weren't hungry for our lunch stop in Westport. No doubt I demanded food, as I do. I vaguely remember that you had to pay for my lunch here because they randomly didn't accept credit cards (what century is it??!?!) and obviously I don't carry sufficient cash like a responsible adult, LOL.
• The photos of the hotel in Bundoran are fun. I don't remember much about that one... It looks like we had separate beds, though! How luxurious! I also LOLed at the fact that you clearly didn't manage to get a photo of the room before we'd strewn our belongings everywhere. I think this is where I randomly e-filed my taxes the night before they were due, LOL.
• I'm not commenting on your photos individually this go-round, but obviously they're all super-nice! And there were some blue skies today (briefly).
• That pub excursion was fun. LOL at all of the random alcohol we drank before coming back to a giant hotel dinner. It was like 6:30 p.m., haha. It does bum me out a little though, because I was really looking forward to the similar excursion in Scotland, wahhhh. :(.
P.S. I really hope I also ordered that coconut chicken for dinner because NOM.
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