My first trip to Ireland with an arrival in Limerick

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I had always wanted to go to Ireland because we believed our ancestors lived there. My grandmother was as excited as I was in the upcoming months leading up to this trip. We; Suzi (aka aditu), Leanne and I had decided to do an escorted tour with Globus called "Scenic Ireland" that started and ended in Limerick. The other towns we were staying in were Clifden, Bundoran, Ballygally in the north, Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Killarney and we also added 2 extra nights in Limerick. There were actually some people that had cancelled this trip because of 9/11. We thought that this would be the safest and thus the best time to fly. Our flight started in Pittsburgh with a layover in somewhere I can't remember and then to Limerick. I took 2 cameras, both 35mm; one a Canon with a normal date stamp and regular zoom and the 2nd one being a new Yashica Elite with a blurry date stamp and longer (115mm) zoom lens. I had to take both because what if one failed? I also had between 20-25 rolls of film I was taking. And YES I used ALL of them! I (and Suzi) invested a small fortune in getting them developed because we all got triple prints so all of us could have copies! Thank goodness for digital now. I also had binoculars and a camcorder. The flight went fine but my time in the security line was long due to the hand inspection of my bottomless pack of film!
Upon our arrival in Limerick, our bus driver, Timmy met us instead of the tour director. He said that our director wasn't able to pick us up because he was "out late the night before" and had a hangover! At first we thought he was joking but we later found out in the trip that he wasn't! The bus took us to the Jury's Inn Limerick and our rooms were not ready since it was before noon so we were allowed to keep our luggage in a room near the front desk. There was a broken heart statue in front of our hotel that was a memorial. I can't remember what it was a tribute to. We walked around the city and about 95% of the people we passed by on the streets seemed so friendly and (young, old, male or female) said at least "hi" or "good day". I loved it here already! We walked on O'Connell St. and we saw St. Mary's Cathedral and the Shannon River in the drizzling rain. There was also a market going on but we didn't buy anything. We got back to the hotel and I about got slammed by the door. Very strong winds opened and closed the doors (more like slam) by itself! We called them "hurricane doors". Our rooms were ready when we got back and since there were 3 of us, we took turns having a single room to ourselves when we changed hotels. (We had gotten 2 rooms each night) We went to the Inn Pub here to kill time before leaving for our welcome dinner. This older man said "Americans" and then gave us his condolences due to 9/11 and then sang us a song. I was touched. How sweet! This man didn't even know us but went so far as to sing a song for us! This country was already special.
Our tour started with a city tour of Limerick going past King John's Castle, the Cathedral and then stopped at the STONE where the Treaty of Limerick was signed in 1691. Our welcome dinner was at BUNRATTY FOLK PARK. We walked around the park first. There were 10 farmhouses, a schoolhouse, doctor's house, merchant buildings and shops. There was a bridal party walking around too. We got some pictures of the outside of BUNRATTY CASTLE which was built in 1425 by the MacNamara Family but we didn't go inside, instead doing a traditional Ceili, with dinner and wine. We were greeted at the door by the Fear An Ti ( man of the house) and we went in the Corn Barn for the dinner. The singers and dancers were young but very good. I wish I could dance like them and they told stories of Ireland. The dinner consisted of garden salad with Irish Soda Bread, Irish Stew and home made apple pie. Very delicious! It was a fun evening but I was very tired from being up for about 36 hours!

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Photos

Broken heart memorial
in front of the Jury's Inn

River Shannon
Limerick

fire burning
at Bunratty's entrance

Celi dancers
at Bunratty Folk Park