Day 7 - Killarney, Ireland

This posting is going to be a little different than our usual because today was a bit unusual for us...today was all about "good value".

Ring of Kerry crossroads

Sheep with branding.....red dye. And yes it does spoil the wool, but it seems the price of wool in Ireland is pretty much worthless....thanks to New Zealand where they seem to produce better wool at a lower cost.

Pigs in a blanket?

Our dinner for tonight?

Michael and Sabrina in front of their retirement home...one bedroom no bath!

The backyard of Muckross Manor

The sunken rose garden at Muckross Manor

Dave and Edie's retirement home! aka Muckross Manor.

Ross tower house

Today was devoted to culture, enrichment, and learning about the history of Ireland. We began at Ross tower house. This is a style of home built for defensive purposes with rooms built on top of each other and a teeny tiny spiral staircase. There were about 3,500 of these built all over Ireland. But mostly we were totally grossed out (or impressed, depending on who you talk to) about the dry cleaning of their clothes. It seems that about on the 3rd level of the tower they had a ledge that they sat on (three wide) to do their business. The waste dropped down on the ground and accumulated and decayed releasing ammonia which rose up. They would then hang their clothes on a peg at about the 2nd floor level so that when the wind kicked in it would sweep the ammonia up and it would disinfect the vermin hidden in the seams of their clothes. Not to worry about the odor because everyone smelled the same!

We learned that this season has been so wet, they're at winter water levels and rainfall is measured by the hour!

Then we were off to Muckross Manor where we took a tour of the place once owned by the Californians who owned Filoli Gardens in Woodside! The house was furnished with the original period furniture. The kitchen tour had a cute low height sink that a five year old servant would wash dishes because that's the age they started working. Michael and Sabrina said they could not see J-Money washing dishes, maybe on guard duty with a sword.

We continued to be pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the toilets here.

Now off to the Farm. This is a "working farm" where people are dressed in period costumes, using tools of the times and a sampling of the various size farms. There were many animals...horses, chickens (that attacked Sabrina for food), cows, sheep, kittens, Irish Wolfhound dogs and the cutest family of pigs. We ate homemade bread with hand churned butter and jam, and watched a blacksmith make a spoon.

We were at these places all day for less than 45 Euro total.....we discovered that the guys could qualify for a senior discount! And our lunch was less than 20 Euro total! So not only are they cute, but they're cheap!

We ended our day with Michael driving us down part of the Ring of Kerry. This is a very twisty narrow drive with tour buses coming at you and weaving around cyclists. He did a great job with Dave navigating and Sabrina reminding him to stay on the correct side of the road.

Now we're in the pub blogging and drinking Irish coffees...what a life!