Irish Update from Lord and Lady Smith

We just touched down in London-town after an incredible six days in Ireland. Since we're a few days behind on blogging and have a lot to cover, I’ll get into the highlights right away …

We pulled out of Killarney early in the A.M. to drive the “Ring of Kerry” after a long night of pints with our new tour bus friends from Canada and, as fate would have it, NJ/Pennsylvania. Another note about the night before – as we walked down to a pub to get the night started, the first thing we heard was a familiar tune being played by a street performer. “Country Roads, Take Me Home” … clearly there are Mountaineers everywhere!

Back to the tour … first stop was to see the “sheep dog trials” with shepherd Brendan Ferris, who would give us a rad presentation on how he trains his dogs to keep control of the flock. For those who don’t know, Ireland is full of sheep – thousands of them – so having these sheep dogs to keep control of things is a necessity. Yes, I took video:

We stopped a few times along the Ring of Kerry, which is basically a tourist route that provides excellent scenic views, like these ones:

We went out for a drink or three in Killarney on Saturday night but turned in early so we could rest up for the stunning Cliffs of Moher on Sunday.

Unfortunately, this would be the biggest disappointment of our trip – but to no fault of anyone’s but Mother Nature. Irish weather is quite unpredictable, and we found out the tough way … below is what the Cliffs typically look like, and under that is what we saw. Bummer.

We left the Cliffs and were off to Bunratty Castle, another authentic castle which now hosts medieval banquets and is home to a “folk park” with re-enactors. We have these types of shows in the States, as you know, but none of them are actually held in a real freaking castle.

Still a little bummed out from the “Misty Cliffs Incident,” we clearly had no idea what was in store for us. After entering the castle to the welcome room, and being served some mead, our hilarious tour guide Dave Yates comes to us and says, “So, ya ever been a guinea pig? Have ya?” Brandi and I instantly had the “oh shit” look on our face – we knew what was coming. A second later, a dude wearing tights who looked like a jester or something approached us and asked if we wanted to be the “Lord” and “Lady” of the banquet. I guess you can’t pass up a chance to be royalty for an evening, and before you know it, we were ushered off into the banquet room before the rest of the party, given wooden crowns, and this guy got to sit in a throne seat. Told you I was feeling more eloquent after getting Blarney Stoned.

We had a blast at the dinner, which was full of singing, harp-playing, jokes, etc. Food was pretty good too, and in typical Medieval Times style, we weren’t allowed to use utensils.

We finished the night at the Durty Nelly Pub with our tour bus friends. We also made friends with the locals and jammed out to a mix of Irish and U.S. songs played by a young dude with an acoustic guitar. The Irish definitely know how to liven up a bar atmosphere much better than Americans … the entire bar is practically singing at the top of their lungs and clapping. It’s a hell of a good time. Oh yeah, this was actually hanging from the roof of the pub - Brandi freaked out. (I mean, Dan Rooney IS the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland).

That’s all for today … tomorrow’s post will focus on the trip back to Dublin and our incredibly awesome day with our wonderful Irish cousin Maureen (now a blog reader!!) and family.

Gotta go – we’re plotting our domination of London right now.

-B&B