More Irish pics

Here are more pictures from our Ireland trip. After arriving in Dublin after a night flight from Philly, we napped at our hotel briefly before a tour of Dublin. Our first stop was a castle in Dublin. Mave, our tour guide at the castle, was great. This picture is the throne that was made for Queen Victoria. The legs were cut down to be very short to accommodate her short stature.

This next picture is the Pope's cross that was erected in 1979 for Pope John Paul's visit. A mass was held at this spot (Phoenix Park) and was attended by most of Dublin. The picture is slightly blurry because this is the only time we saw rain during the 10 days in Ireland. We had the best weather.

I took many pictures of the doors of Dublin as their colors were wonderful. Our tour driver told us that the doors were painted bright colors originally in defiance of the edict that doors be painted black in mourning for the passing of an English monarch (can't remember which one). The Irish, who didn't like being under English rule at the time, decided to paint the doors bright colors. The tradition continues today and everywhere we looked we saw brightly colored doors (all over Ireland).

This next picture is of Kilkenney Castle in Kilkenney. We had a nice bus ride their and explored the town and castle. The castle was over 800 years old and incredibly beautiful. The gardens and landscaping around the castle provided lots of places to sit and view the scenery.


This last picture was taken at the Choate farm in Kilkenney. We stayed at the farm with our host family for two nights. We were paired up with a couple from Massachusetts, Kristen and Chris. We hit it off immediately, and the proprietor, Kathleen, just assumed that we were all traveling together. Greg pulled out a wiffle ball and bat from his suitcase and we all headed to the cow pasture to play. Chris loved it and Kristen and I joined in as well. Brian, Kathleen's son, joined us as well and loved having the chance to play ball with us. He is a hurler and played competitively in Kilkenney.

More to come.