Last few days in Ireland

Tomorrow we head home from our Ireland adventure. It has been a great time in so many ways. We have been able to see a lot of Ireland from the big touristy things in Dublin to small farms in the rural west part of the country. We have also been able to deepen our relationship with Rodney and Heather Gale. It has been so great to spend time with them and hear their heart for Ireland. They have an important ministry here in Ireland and have really connected to the land and the people. If you ever want to hear more just track us down and we would be happy to tell you all about it. Like I said we went to a couple touristy places this week and the first one was a place called Cong. Cong is a beautiful and picturesque village and it was the location for filming of a move called The Quiet Man. I know I never heard of it either until I came here. It was filmed in 1951 and starred John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. They have built an whole tourist industry around the film. Anyway it is still a nice place with church and monastery ruins and a castle.

Cool gate at Cong

More abbey ruins

Cool little cottage by the road.

Irish Ivy which can be pretty bad stuff. It just takes over where ever it grows.

Ashford Castle near Cong. It is a very expensive hotel.

I like the stone bridges

This an old fishing hut that was built for the monks to catch fish.

People have been dying here for a ling time.

Statue of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

After our fun time in Cong we went for a drive through the Irish countryside and then ended up at a pub for dinner to celebrate Cathy and Heather’s birthday.

Some scenic views on our car ride.

There is no shortage of sheep in this country. They are lambing this time of year so we saw many wee lads like this one.

Birthday celebration.

The next day I had the opportunity to once again go out and do some TB testing with Rodney. Visited many farms and saw lots of countryside.

Country roads take me home.

Then on Wednesday since the weather was nice we decided to take a tour down to the Shannon area and visit Bunratty Castle. It is a Castle that is very old but has been fixed up and setup with lots of period type decor and you are able to tour through it and see what life might have been like in a Castle. I can tell you Castles look great from the outside but I would not want to live in one. Very cramped, dark, and cold. We were able to go all the way up to the turrets.

If trees could talk what kind of a tale would this one tell?

They also have a village around the area.

After the castle we went to The Cliffs of Moher. This is truly a spectacular area and was well worth the walk to see the sights. It was very windy but the view was absolutely unbelievable.