Partly cloudy
Unfortunately, we seem to have left our only bottle of shampoo back in Tralee, so we had soapless showers this morning, but at least we had towels. The hostel was set up with a self-serve breakfast of Muesli, toast and coffee, to which we added some bananas and yoghurt, and we were ready to hit the road.
The bus trip to Limerick took us through several small towns, like New Castle and Castle Island, that looked very middle class and suburban, and one tourist town, Adare, which boasted a castle, a golf course, and a very pretty park.
We got to Limerick by 11am, and found the Railway Hotel right away, as it was just across the street from the station. This is an old hotel, very art deco. Jim is trying to use up the camping food we did not consume on the trail, so today for lunch we had a tuna, cheddar and pepperoni sandwich, with packets of mayonnaise, mustard and brown sauce (what is in brown sauce? We had it in London too…). A once in a lifetime sandwich.
Properly fortified, we set out to do our walking tour of Limerick. This is a working class town, and the streets were full of people. This was the first time since Dublin that we saw people of color in any great number, or heard other languages spoken on the street. We passed several Asian groceries, and several businesses that catered to the Polish population according to their signs.
We walked through the southern end of town to look at the Georgian architecture, and walked by the address where we could have paid to see a reconstruction of Frank McCourt’s hovel for 6 euro each (we opted to pass on that one…)
We strolled through People’s Park to see the restored Victorian drinking fountain, which provided water for both people and horses.
We walked up O’Connell St. to see the statue of Catholic emancipator Daniel O’Connell.
We continued uptown, crossing the River Shannon at Matthew Bridge, stopping in at the Hunt Museum.
We visited St. Mary’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, founded in 1168 by the King of Munster.
The cathedral contained rows of black oak misericords, (mercy seats) which are special benches built to support the clergy and the choir, who had to remain on their feet during long services. There is a place to rest your elbows, and a little fold down seat to rest your bottom, so that it looks like you are still standing…. They thought of everything, didn’t they?
Soon our walk took us to King John’s Castle, built in the 1200s by the only King John of England, a little man nobody liked very much.
The castle was actually built over the ruins of a Viking settlement, constructed 200 years earlier, and partially excavated for our viewing.
The castle was built right on the river, and was in active use in wars right up to 1922. How I love to look at things of great age and appreciate the people who built them. Americans just don’t have anything that ol.!
View of the River Shannon from the top of King John's Castle
This is an archer's window in the turret - just wide enough to aim an arrow through...
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