Monday 7th June (Bank Holiday in the Republic of Ireland)

We awoke this morning to the sound of rain softly hitting the windows. We looked outside to see that it didn’t look too bad, but once we’d had breakfast, the rain became heavier. We thought about what to do today, especially as the back of my ribs were really quite painful this morning - perhaps it had something to do with me sneezing yesterday, or that I had lain on my back and hardly moved for the entire night in bed. Whatever the reason, it was very painful, but I covered myself with ibuprofen gel, took paracetamol and an anti-histamine to boost it.

We decided on Bunratty Castle as it was probably more likely to be open on Bank Holiday Monday, although we guessed many tourist shops would be. It took just over an hour to get there, but we noticed that most villages and towns we drove through had most of their shops closed. Traffic wise, I guess it was real busy by Irish standards, only occasionally seeing 2 to 3 cars in front of us from time to time. To us, it was quiet and the roads pretty empty!

When we arrived at Bunratty Castle, it was still raining, but we went ahead as we were going to be in and out of buildings all day. I remember when I was here last time, it rained as we were leaving the place and we had a flat tyre and had to wait in the car for the AA to arrive to change it for us! Fortunately, this did not happen to us today.

We went in and started out looking in a few of the buildings which had been either reconstructed or rebuilt as a typical house which a poor family may have lived in, a fisherman, a landless person, a farmer etc. etc. It was fun going into all the thatched cottages and seeing that most had a peat fire glowing in the fire place (really quite acrid smells here!), which would have been really very smoky but would have definitely kept people warm. We went into the Castle going up and down several flights of spiral stairs - goodness knows how many spiral staircases we have already been up and down in during this holiday. Obviously I have no time to be scared of staircases despite my falling off some last week, I thought I was going pretty well, considering. My back and front ribs were painful today but I held on to all and any banisters when going up and down all the stairs since I fell.

Exhausted, we finished looking in the Castle and went on to the “folk park” which was like Beamish or the Black Country Museums in England. A street of shops with a cobbled pavement, just how a street would have looked back in the day. We went into several buildings, a Doctors surgery, a Pawn shop, and shops which sold things like Woolen Mills selling scarves and throws in which I really wanted to buy something but they were very expensive and I felt like I was being stared at the whole time, what with us being the only people in the shop and the shop itself being really quite small.

We went into the sweet shop and I decided on some “fizz balls” which were really fizy at first, then turned into a sharply flavoured boiled sweet (orange and lemon flavours). Mathew went with “strawberry sherbets” of which I had one in exchange for a fizz-ball. It wasn’t quite as fizzy as the fizz ball but it was nice and sherbetty making my tougue feel fuzzy when I’d finished it.

We went into a potters workshop in which I ended up buying myself a pendant and a brooch as a souvenir for someone. I thought it quite innovative of a potter making ceramic brooches, pendants, earrings and hairclips which I would have bought one of if my hair stayed up in them (my hair is far too thick, smooth and heavy for those which is really very irritating, otherwise I would probably wear them all the time and my hair would be worn down much more often!!), along with the usual thimbles, jars, and mugs etc. I really like that shop!

We kept walking around, going into knitwear shops which sold very nice locally made sweaters and things which were mostly white (which I didn’t really want because it gives you a typical “I’ve been on holiday” look), and very expensive, which I was expecting. I was planning on buying myself something like this, a cardigan or warm wooly top of sorts. So far, I didn’t see any I liked enough. Also, we found a little post office in which I bought a book of 10 stamps for England for our postcards, which we posted outside the castle where the nice green Irish postbox was.

After walking around pretty much everything, I thought about the shop selling expensive scarves again and thought that I would not go back into it, despite wanting a pashmina or shrug of sorts which felt just like the nice warm blanket I had been using in our holiday cottage! I thought I might find some elsewhere. We’ll see about that…!

Finishing our visit, we went into the gift shop and yet again I was disappointed with the lack of crafty things for sale. I know there were the shops in the “village” we had already been in, but honestly, there was more than enough space for more of it to have been displayed rather than mixing nice things with the “kiss me quick” stuff. I went upstairs where the clothes were, although there wasn’t much and it was mostly children’s clothes, I finally saw some warm woolies which I liked. I found a pink “wrap” which was a little like a cardigan which buttoned up on one side, it was a little asymmetrical. I tried it on, and although I liked the colour, I knew it didn’t suit me. The neck was quite high and big, and the asymmetry didn’t suit me, despite the whole thing feeling soft and comfortable. Putting it back on the hanger, we exited the shop and got back into the car.

After posting our postcards, we went less than a mile around the corner to “Blarney Woolen Mill” (a bit like Edinburgh Wollen Mill stores) to investigate their gifts and warm woollies. Unfortunately, it was more of the same “kiss me quick” things for sale, along with Waterford crystal which I wasn’t planning on buying anyway, homewares, food, and when we went into the woollies section, I did find a really nice button up cardigan which was thick and warm, and purple….but it was really very coarse and I thought it would be really quite itchy after a while. You have to be careful with some of this stuff - mohair is often used in Irish and Scottish areas as it’s a very common material to make clothes out of, but if you have sensitive skin, it’s not worth paying E60 for something which is really going to itch so much the first time you wear it, you won’t wear it ever again….! Softer wools are used for other items of course, but it’s the usual case of finding something soft which you like the style and colour of, and which suits you. So, I grumpily removed the itchy cardigan and we left for our holiday cottage. Once back, we greeted a very wet Timmy who had been lying down outside. I am sure he probably didn’t mind the weather as his fur is thick and course and almost sheep like. But he was very soggy so I just scratched his head and said “Hello” before getting back into the cottage to enjoy a nice hot chocolate, and Mathew had a cup of tea. We both curled up with our books for the rest of the afternoon until we had dinner and a relaxing evening.