Wisconsin Cheryl and the Castles of Ireland

(March 18th, Limerick, Ireland. When we last left our heroine, she was suffering from insomnia due to a potent late-night Irish coffee...)
Bonnie and I got up fairly early in spite of not sleeping well because we didn't want to miss our last pre-paid meal with the tour group! We avoided talking to any of them and spent an hour yakking over breakfast. Katie came over mid-morning, and we took some time on the computer to make plans for the rest of our visit--booking a tour, a hotel, and seeing what the local bus schedule was for the next couple days. Then we set off to see some sites of Limerick. St. Mary's Cathedral was the first, and I was absolutely awestruck by this 800+-year-old church. As with some of the other buildings I had yet to see, it just amazed me that people were able to build such magnificent structures hundreds of years ago without modern equipment. After checking out the cemetery, we went inside and paid two Euro each to the church maintenance fund so we could look around. The huge stone arches, tall stained glass windows, and towering ceiling are just spectacular! I would love to have seen an actual church service taking place there.
From the church we walked to St. John's Castle. Poor Katie had already been there twice, but she persevered so Bonnie and I could enjoy the tour. The castle's history and the recreation of many of the features that existed when it was actually in use were really interesting, and we took lots of fun pictures. After we'd seen everything, we spent plenty of time in the gift shop! We had a late lunch at Arabica, the coffee shop across from the hotel, and spent a quiet evening resting up for the next day's adventure.
On Friday Katie came to the hotel right from her 9:00 class, and we went to the bus station to catch our ride to Cashel. The bus ride took us through some quaint towns, including Tipperary! The streets in these small towns are SO narrow that the bus could almost touch the cars and other vehicles it met. All of the storefronts are connected, and it seems to be the popular thing for merchants to make their buildings as colorful as possible! We stopped in the town of Cahir and had to wait an hour for the connecting bus to Cashel. We passed the time walking along the river, taking pictures of the outside of Cahir Castle, and also did more shopping!
Katie had been to Cashel before on an overnight trip, so she was again an experienced guide for us. We walked to the outside of town and first visited the Hore Abbey. It is abandoned and there is no official "tour", but we were there for more than an hour just taking in the essence of a place so old and mysterious. Again I was amazed by the enormity of the task undertaken by the builders of that period. How could they create such architecture from stone with their bare hands?? The other thing that struck me over and over during my trip was the history of the place. The U.S. is a mere infant historically when compared to the countries of Europe.
We investigated the graveyard at the Abbey and took more pictures, gazing up at the Rock of Cashel on the hill opposite. Then we made our way up the hill via the "Path of the Dead," stopping to take pictures of the amazing view below us. The "Rock" is actually a castle, and we explored both inside and out, also viewing a brief video about its history. There was another cemetery to check out, this one including a gravestone with my mom's name on it!
We were hungry by this time, so we made our way back to town and found Feehan's Pub. With a Bulmer's cider in hand and an excellent meal, we toasted our great fortune at being in this beautiful country!
We caught the bus back to Cahir, and it was raining as we waited around for our connection back to Limerick. Lucky for us, the bus we would have otherwise missed was running late, so we were able to catch that one and not have to wait long. I ran into a bakery next to the bus stop and bought us each a cupcake before it closed. We were back at the hotel by 8 PM after picking up a few groceries, and Katie spent the night so we could set out together the next morning. Tomorrow: the University of Limerick campus and Bunratty!