September 27th

The Macroom Food Festival

I took this picture while leaving Swords, and Susie and I later made sketches from it.

We were traveling for a large part of the 27th, making our way to Balleyvourney and our B&B. A little after we got there some neighbors dropped in, and we were asked if we would like to go to some type of festival with them. The name was in Gealic, so we were unsure as to what was going on there, although they told us that there would be cooking. We thought it would be something like a fair. When we arrived we found that it was the locally famous Macroom Food festival, and that we were going to see a demonstration by a cook who was on Ireland's Top Chef. The lady was a very good cook, in spite of the faulty electric burner which she was using.

September 26th

The Book of Kells, and Swords Castle

We saw the Book of Kells, but couldn't take pics of it. We took pics of the Old Library instead. 

Swords Castle! In the middle of Swords. It looked like people just didn't realize that there was a castle in the middle of town.

Susie and I sat around and sketched the castle for a while. It was most pleasant.

Our B&B :)

September 25th

The Irish Museum of Archaeology

This was our favorite museum. The layout was terrific and informative, and the bogs did an excellent job of preserving things that would otherwise be rotten long ago.

It looks like... a WHEEL!

These, believe it or not, are from the bronze age. No one seemed sure as to their purpose. They were beautifully crafted, however.

Knife mold

A long boat!

No one knows what these are for, either. Kevin speculated maybe scale weights?

I LOVE the Celtic idea of beauty. Most peoples make things bigger, to make them more beautiful, where the Celts just made them more intricate.

We were intending to only spend a part of the day here, and ended up almost staying until closing time.

September 24th

In Which We Arrive in Ireland

 We left on the 24th for Ireland, and snapped some photos of our b&b before we left.

Our host took this photo for us. He built a section of this house, and a few others in the neighborhood.

We saw on our tickets that we were about an hour shy of the "Gates Closing" time on our ticket, and we hadn't eaten the lunch that we had packed. We rushed through our lunch, pushed through security, and found our gate. Empty. no staff, no open doors, no sign of fellow passengers. We found a fellow passenger down the hall, and he explained to us that "Gate Closing" means 'the airline will be board-able at some point after this time'.

Here we are, at an empty gate.

IRELAND! This photo was taken the next day, but I added it in here because we were so sore from hauling our packs about that we didn't stop for photos when we arrived in Ireland. We had some trouble reaching our destination, as the bus route that was supposed to take us to Swords didn't appear to come to the airport. We boarded a route that went in approximately the same direction, and asked the bus driver for help. When we told him that we were looking for the GAA club bus stop, he looked amused and told us that the locals didn't like to refer to the 'gay' club as such. The club is an amateur sports club, and they have, in fact, changed their initials to "GMC". The Irish have a delightful sense of humor, and were very helpful.

September 23rd

Edinburgh- Part 2

We visited Edinburgh a second day, for a chance to see what we had missed the day before, and because the Scottish Parliament was in session on the 23rd, and had reservations to sit in on part of the post referendum debates. 

The Scottish National Gallery was great fun to visit! Here Susie is, being a highbrow in front of the museum.

We headed to the Scottish Museum in Glasgow after we had seen the Art museum, and were staggered by its size. Our intellectualism exhausted, we took refuge in some delicious mochas.

Then we studied the map of the museum, and went back with purpose and a plan. After this we sat in on Parliament, and were much excited by the give and take (but mainly take) of the orators. We had been a little taken back by the Scot's policy of never laughing unless they thought something was funny (we Americans laugh to show pleasure, humor, good will, etc.,) but we found out that day that the Scots have two uses for laughter: humor, and derision.

The Royal residence in Edinburgh.

September 22nd

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh castle, although not quite as old or as restored as Stirling Castle, was much busier. There were people everywhere, and about 3/4 of them seemed to be fellow Americans.

At 1:00 every day this gun shoots off a round, to continue an old tradition in which the ships in the harbor set their time pieces by this gun. The gun shoots off at 1:00, instead of 12:00, we were told, because the Scots in their thriftiness desired to save the cost of 11 shots. Seems practical.

This was scrawled on the door by an American prisoner during our Revolutionary war. Although the guide told us severely that it was "still graffiti," it made me proud to see the Patriotic Spirit.

This diagram shows another piece of artwork left on the door by an American Prisoner: Lord Nord on his way to the scaffold. This piece is strictly fantasy.

The Great Hall, restored in the Victorian era.

This guide was extremely entertaining. He disliked Braveheart, and the suggestion that the movie offers that Scots of that time were uncultured rabble. He explained that the lowland Scots wore armor, just as their English adversaries did, and that William Wallace was a nobleman, not a peasant.
"The main difference between the English and the Scots," he said, was that "the Scots were much better looking".

A real live piper!!

Sir Walter Scott's memorial.

We bought a CD from these guys, their band name was "The Scottish Blowfish"

September 21st

The Summerlee Museum of Industrial Life

Bob and Sheena have some friends who attend the Airdrie Church of Scotland. We went with them on Sunday morning, and had some scones and tea with the ladies of the church afterwards. It was a much more liberal service than I am used to, and the pastoress was very expressive.

We were given a ride to the Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, and spent a large part of the afternoon there.

This is what life was like in the 80's. Who knew? Joseph, your life is now officially part of a museum.

The 70s were even more shocking.

And this is 1954. Okay, maybe not, but it was close: the 1890s or somewhere there abouts.

We took the tour of the Coal mine. If there is one thing that I can be thankful for in life it is that I was not born to work the mines in Scotland in the year of our Lord 1870.

That evening we attended a service at a Baptist Church in Airdrie, and heard a very good sermon on our unique privilege of supplicatory prayer. The fellowship was incredibly refreshing, and one of the older couples there gave us a ride back to our B&B.