What's that mooing sound?

This morning, after our full Irish breakfast, we checked out of the Imperial Hotel in Cork and made our way to Buttevant (no matter how you’re pronouncing it, I can almost guarantee you’re not doing it correctly). (Incidentally, Buttevant claims to be the location of the first steeplechase horse race, sometime in the mid-1700’s.) Once in Buttevant, we pulled up to St. Mary’s Church, the site of the final formal performance of the tour. The touring choir sang from the choir loft of the magnificent church to the crowd gathered for the Sunday mass, the largest audience of the tour to date.

After the mass and the post-mass brief performance, we retired to the Hazel Tree Inn, just outside of Buttevant where we were treated to delicious sandwiches and tea (and, in some cases, Coca-Cola in glass bottles). Lunch today was provided by the choir of St. Mary’s, and some of the St. Mary’s choir members attended the luncheon and chatted with the girls.

After lunch, we continued to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. Bunratty is a still-standing castle, similar to Kilkenny and in much better shape than Blarney’s Castle. Around the castle, the heritage foundation has preserved and presented medieval-era structures (houses and commercial establishments), that are all still heated by burning pete (where that would be appropriate). It was kind of like a much-older Colonial Williamsburg, except the structures were moved to the folk park from all over Ireland, rather than being an entire original city restored. One medieval-era farm house from Shannon was moved from that city and reconstructed in the folk park to make way for the runway from which our return flight to the U.S. will depart.

You might be thinking that this was an incredibly full day. And you would be right. But we weren’t finished yet. We continued on in County Clare through some of the most beautiful parts of Ireland to the Cliffs of Moher. At eight kilometers wide and some 217 meters high, the cliffs were an impressive, awe-inspiring sight to see, and fortunately for us, the sky was blue and partly cloudy with nary a rain drop to be felt.

After taking a ton of pictures at the Cliffs of Moher, we departed for our hotel—the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon. (Again, don’t worry. Unless you’re Irish, you’re not pronouncing it correctly.) The hotel is, indeed, situated next to cascades in the River Fergus. It’s quite a luxurious accommodation—one of the best hotels we’ve had in Ireland—but you can tell we’ve reached the countryside when our accompanist Shawn notices some cattle meandering through the parking lot. (No, really. At first, he thought it might be a fire alarm. But when he went to the window, he saw fifteen cows weaving through the cars.)

Tomorrow we have a full day planned, but it promises to be a great one. We’ll be making our way up to the city of Galway and then touring through more of the beautiful County Clare.

Some pictures from today are online now at http://picasaweb.google.com/pgcireland (We apologize that there are fewer pictures than usual, but Internet here in Ennistymon is pay-by-the-minute.. ouch!)