I'm not sure any of us have slept as well as we did our first night in Killarney. The windows were open, the cool country air was refreshing, and frankly, we were just wiped out. We began our second day by touring nearby Ross Castle - a castle built in the 1400s that was largely destroyed over the centuries, but has been lovingly restored in the last 30 years. We learned that a whole family would typically sleep in 1 room in the castle - the parents in a bed, and the children, servants, and other family members, on the floor, lying perhaps on a thin bed of straw. The parents would usually sleep sitting up, because they had a hard time breathing while lying down, due to all the smoke in the castle, from the primitive heating system - fireplaces and braziers. Pewter dishes (tin + lead = pewter) were very fashionable at the time, but what the castle-dwellers didn't realize was that the lead in the dishes was slowly poisoning them. So if the smoky air didn't get 'em, the trendy dishware would. On the 3rd level, there was a "toilet." It was a 4-foot-long opening on a ledge, where up to 3 people could sit and do their business at the same time. Charming. Even more charming was the fact that the fumes from the primitive privy would often come back up the chute. But the residents used that to their advantage, hanging their clothing in the hallway, knowing that the ammonia odor would kill any lice hanging onto their duds. Clever, huh?
In the afternoon, we drove to the village of Kenmare, which is on the Kenmare River, which is more like a long bay that leads to the Atlantic. We took a seal-watching cruise with Captain Ray. We thought it would begin at 3:00 and would be done by 5:00. In actuality, it began more like 4:15, and ended around 7:45. It was a rather late dinner, and late night for us early birds. But we learned a lot on the cruise, and we got to see wild seals in their natural habitat, at incredibly close range. They were stunning. Baby seals were born about 3 weeks ago, so we could observe the mamas teaching their babies and even nursing them. If ever I needed a telephoto lens, it was then. We could see well, but the pictures we took don't do them justice.
Though we'd dressed for the cool sea air, we were chilled to the bone by the end of the 45 minutes that we watched the seals, so Captain Ray's crew brought out coffee, tea, and "medicine" for the grown-ups. No, it wasn't Irish whiskey - it was something more Jamaican, with a good seafaring name. Never had tea with rum, but since I'm not a big fan of tea anyway, the rum certainly helped. We had some cookies (very needed at such a late hour with no food served), and somehow Scarlett also found the sugar cubes meant for the tea. Let's just say she had more than 1 lump or 2. She probably could've pulled the car back to Killarney on her sugar high.
So that was Day 2. Quite the adventure all around.
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