Tomorrow's Leftovers

This is most likely my last post about our trip to Europe. What in the world was that? Did I just hear cheering from somewhere in the back? As Jack Benny used to say, "Well!"

If you've read any of my other posts, you'll know that we went on a tour of the Ring of Kerry on our first or second full day in Ireland. On our trip back into Killarney we made our way out of the mountains and down into the valley where Killarney is. While we were descending we stopped at an overlook and the picture to the left was taken. It's one of my favorites of the whole trip and I thought you might like to see it. There are three lakes in and around Killarney. They are called Lough Leane (which is the largest of the three), Muckross Lake and Upper Lake. I THINK this one is Upper Lake, but don't quote me on that.

A couple of days later we started on our journey through Wales and into England. I mentioned that our bus had to go through a very narrow arch in a town called Conwy where the castle wall is all the way around the town. To the right you will see a photo of that passageway taken from my seat on the bus. Our bus went through this passage twice and another one just like it another time without incident. Our sister bus was not so lucky. Their door got ripped off when they went through this arch a little too far to the left. We didn't think too much of it until our bus broke down later in the day and the only spare bus was given to the folks without a door.

Conwy was my favorite stop of the whole trip. Jacob and I walked through the castle and then, after lunch, all the way around the town on top of the wall. These last few photos were taken on that excursion.

To the left you will see a photo of Jacob looking through one of the many archways around the castle. He's looking into the town of Conwy, which is on the shores of the Conwy River. The castle was built in the late 13th century, not only as a defense for those who lived in the castle and in the town, but as a watchtower to make sure no unwanteds made their way up river.

Right next to the castle, which, of course, dominates the town, there is a lawn bowling green (called Boche). You can see it off to the left in this picture. I stood and watched the men play Boche for quite some time while Jacob explored the inner bowels of the castle. As I'd watched it in Argentina a few times, I found it very interesting.

The real reason I took this photo, though, is because I thought the new-fangled train running so close to this ancient castle was pretty cool

We climbed all over that castle, from the basement to the ramparts to the citadels to the turrets to...well, you get the idea. While we were in one of the towers, we heard a tiny little voice. "Jacob!" it said. Craning our necks to better hear where the cry was coming from, we finally looked down and saw three puny little dots on the lawn below. Lo and behold, that was where the voice was coming from. It was Jacob's three buddies all standing together looking at us and waving. You can see from the picture above that we were pretty high above the ground. We could barely hear them and they could not hear us.

While we were walking around the town, I must have literally taken about 120 shots. I won't bore you with them, but I will show you the one I thought was kind of funny. If you really wanted to, you could climb up one some of the citadels and do a lot of exploring. Jacob, being a teenager, has that temporary gene lodged somewhere in his head, so he had to climb up places I wouldn't go, even on a bet. I was uncomfortable enough just being on the wall itself. You see, I have a bad case of fear of heights. Jacob obviously has no such aversions.

But in one place his adventurous climbing was curtailed by the sign you can see behind him in the picture above. Just in case you can't read it, it says, "It is dangerous to climb on the stonework."

Thus ends my posts about our European trip. I must say, though, that it's been pretty fun this week to watch the Olympics and be able to say, "Hey, I've been there!" and then hear Jacob say, "So have I!"

And only a couple of weeks ago, to boot.