2014 Ireland & Worldcon
trip
3 Day Rail Tour
August 11, 2014
Day 1: Trinity, Dublin
Castle, St Patrick's Cathedral, Temple
Bar
Day 2: Newgrange, Hill
of Tara, Winding Stair & Pub Crawl
Day 3: Bunratty Castle, Doolin, Cliffs
of Moher, The Burren, Galway
Day 4: Inishmore, Dun
Aengus, The Seven Churches
Day 5: Connemara, Kylemore
Abbey, Screeb River
Days 6 - 9: World Science Fiction Convention,
British
Library
Day 10: Malahide Castle, Seabank
Bistro
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Monday (day 3)
Monday morning we were up before 6AM and left the hotel
at 6:30. It was just a block walk, across the River Liffey to Heuston Rail
Station. We checked in for our 3-Day Cliffs of Moher, Connemara and
Aran Islands Rail Tour with Railtours Ireland, received our documents
and itinerary for the next three days and departed on the train to Mallow
County Cork at 7AM. Our rail car was filled were people taking a variety
of tours and the Railtours Ireland "yellow jackets" checked in with each
of us to make sure we knew what to do. It turned out that most of the people
were just doing day tours and we would be sharing our bus with the daytrippers
until we reached Galway.
On board the Irish Rail train to Mallow County Cork. We had a nice
chat with the yellow jacketed man on our return to Dublin.
He is retired from other work and now works up to 20 days in a row
with Railtours Ireland.
We changed trains at Limerick Junction and continued on
to Limerick where we filled a bus and met Jonathan, who was our
guide for the day. Jonathan pointed out several Limerick attractions on
our way out of town.
King John's Castle is a 13th century castle on King's Island in Limerick.
Cratloemoyle Castle and 60 acres for sale in Cratloe - €500,000
(early sixteenth century)
The first stop was Bunratty Castle & Folk Park.
The package included our admission and we had a brief tour of the 15th
century tower house, then about an hour to see the rest of the castle and
a rushed look at the folk park. The present castle is the last of a aeries
on this same site and was built around 1425.
The "park" is a village created from over 30 buildings
which have been moved to this location from around County Clare. Some crafts,
such as baking and blacksmithing were being performed.
Bunratty Castle - The main block has three floors, each consisting
of a single great room or hall.
The four towers have six stories each.
Scone baking demonstration in the Golden Vale Farmhouse.
Cannons outside the entrance to Bunratty Castle
The Main Guard is a vaulted hall which served as a living room for
the common soldiers and the Earl's retainers.
The Great Hall was the original banquet hall and audience chamber.
This 2 room school was originally built at Belvoir in East Clare in
the early 19th Century.
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