Day 2 of our trip was a full to the brim. We were supposed to start out day out with a full breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, but we had a hard time getting out of bed and dressed in time, so we ended up just grabbing some cereal and pastries from the buffet and, not for the last time, were the last ones on the bus. (Note: I just LOVED the muesli mix they had on the buffet...crunchy nutty goodness!)
First thing on the schedule was a stop at the Bog Village, which consisted of several small bog houses that had been moved together to recreate an early Irish village. Attached to the village was a pub that served 'Irish Coffee' all day long, and even first thing in the morning there were bus loads of tourists enjoying a cup...or two.
The village was really interesting, and you really felt for the folks who had to heat and eat over bog fires. Peter and Abby particularly liked seeing the Irish hounds that were extra-ordinarily large, and the Bog Ponies which were extra-ordinarily small. (although....) Peter was pretty psyched that "Pete" was so important. Not to be outdone Abby later claimed all the "Abbey's" we saw on the trip.
After the bog village we began our trip around the beautiful Kerry peninsula. Before we got too far along we stopped for a sheep herding exhibition which was definitely a highlight of the trip. The shepherd described to us how the farmers allowed the sheep to range free in the hills, marking their herd by painting a specific color on a specific part of the sheep. At shearing time all the farmers would use dogs to separate their own sheep from the other and bring them back to to the pens. Farmers used different combinations of sounds and gestures for each dog they owned so that they could use two dogs together to separate and herd the sheep. The demonstration was quite amazing. The only downside was that Bill's knee didn't allow him to go up the path to see the show, marking the second time that he missed this really incredible display.
Joe the tour guide earned his stripes at this stop. Through some clever sleuth work he discovered that the tour bus full of Germans who were also watching the herding display were heading next to the same restaurant we were. Through his own combination of sounds and gestures he got us on the bus and on the road before the Germans, so we were first in line for lunch at a very cute little cottage which served traditional shepherds pie!
After lunch we enjoyed a long stretch on the bus as we traveled along the peninsula looking at the beautiful coastline. We stopped a few times at breathtaking scenic overlooks and took lots of photos. I don't remember a tenth of what Joe told us about what we were seeing...it was all so overwhelming. At one point we stopped at a little seaside town where Charlie Chaplin liked to take his family on vacation. There is a little statue of him at the end of a park. We all got out to take a picture of that, and our kids, who had only seen the 'roll dance' on You-Tube and weren't all that impressed took the opportunity to run around and enjoy the fresh air. While we were in London we took a picture of all the grandkids stacked in a pyramid and decided to recreate it here. With the addition of Dayannah to the family we needed to restructure the pyramid a little bit, which was pretty hysterical because we were trying to get Abby to slide in under Kenny, but she couldn't figure out what we were asking her to do...I was in tears by the time we finally got the shot. Given the unplanned photo op we were (all) late getting back to the bus, which meant that at our next stop we didn't have quite as much time.
Our next stop was a quaint little village that was a good stop for shopping for woolens (and, according to Joe, the cleanest bathrooms on the Ring). We all jumped out and oohed and ahhed over the sweaters and lace work. Wayne wandered over to a pastry shop for the kids while I looked in some of the other little stores. When we reunited the kids went back on the bus with their snacks and Wayne and I hightailed it over to a little butcher shop he'd noticed on the way in. He got a meat pie to go, but it took a little longer than expected and so, still not for the last time, we were the last ones on the bus.
At that point we headed away from the coast and traveled through old farmland back to Killearny. This was the patch where the kids entertained themselves with the 'sheep, sheep, sheep, GOAT, sheep' game. This was also the point where the adults got very silly...and by adults I primarily mean, me, Wayne, Anne-Marie and Greg. We tried to lure Tracy and Kenny into our silliness, but they were actually paying attention to Joe and resisted. The older cousins were also smart enough to keep their eyes on the scenery and not get pulled in. The only specific thing I remember that set us off was a debate about some tufts of white we saw in the fields. I thought it was wool pulled off sheep on brambles, Anne-Marie thought it was white puffs of a plant. (In the end she was right, but to my credit I did manage to plant a shadow of a doubt that perhaps some of the white tufts were, in fact, wool bits). It was a crazy conversation that I believe also included a fictional creature called a Goat-Duck, but I'll have to double check my notes on that.
In the original schedule our day would have been basically over at that point, but some items on the itinerary were shifted a bit so when we returned to Killearny we had a short period of time to change before returning to the bus for dinner and show. The dinner was at a fancy restaurant in a hotel just down the way, where we all got to practice our "Queen Mary" manners. It was lovely and dinner was delicious.
We had some time to wander around town a little bit before returning for the Liam O'Connor show, which was described as traditional Irish music and dance along the lines of Riverdance. I think we were all expecting something along the lines of what you might see at a local fair..teams of young girls with long curly hair extensions stomping and twirling, old men sitting in a small clump playing peppy tunes on fiddles and tin pipes. Our first clue that this was NOT what we were going to see was the life-sized cardboard cutout of a man in leather pants, silky top and studded wristbands holding an accordion and wearing a "come hither" expression. In the end what we saw was a full on music and dance extravaganza, with lighting and sound effects suitable for an arena show...sadly diminished by the fact that we were in a hotel ball room, sitting on folding chairs. The self proclaimed 'world class musicians' were, in fact, pretty amazing (I confirmed that with the Kennys' who know a good thing when they hear it) and the dancers were entertaining, although I personally was worried the whole time that their stage was going to collapse or they were going to crack their head on the ceiling of the room when they did their leaps. But, the dancers and musicians couldn't hold a candle to the phenomenon which was Liam O'Connor. He was more than an accordion player, he was an old-school showman. Before the trip I'd watched the Micheal Jackson documentary and could almost hear Micheal saying 'wait for the sizzle' as Liam, backlit by a orange spotlight, held out a note for extra beats in order to pull in the audience. At the end of the first act, he jumped off the stage as the lights turned off for dramatic effect, then the spotlight turned on suddenly to reveal that he was practically in Abby's lap! (We had seats in the first three rows at Joe's suggestion...he MAY have been getting back at us for being late so often). If anyone can remember Abby's exact description of that moment, let me know. I seem to remember it being something like "that crazy man just about bowled me over". Liam O'Connor is wildly popular in Ireland (and in the Guiness book as having the fastest fingers) so it was a great experience to see him and how traditional Irish music is being celebrated today. Even though it was not what we expected, it is something we will likely never forget!
Liam O'Connor show
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