Wanderung 34

Return to Limerick

As Linda and Jerry were planning to take the bus back to Dublin airport from Limerick, we retraced our route from Killarney back to Limerick. But first we had to do some shopping, and we decided that Killarney offered the most varied selection of shops oriented to tourists that we would find in the Kerry area. Thus, we drove into Killarney one last time, enduring yet another traffic jam due to some unknown cause, and stopped in the parking lot by the Visitor Information center so that we could walk down the adjacent streets, which were full of shops.

Over the next 2 hours we thoroughly investigated several shops, buying Irish-themed gifts for ourselves, relatives, or friends. It was fun in a way, but shopping is also somewhat tedious for me. However, I did like an antique delivery van ensconced amongst the clothing in one shop, but I wasn't allowed to touch it much less take it out for a drive. And I was intrigued by some honest-to-gosh hurling sticks I found at another store, but those would not have fit in my suitcase and would probably not be allowed as carry-on luggage by TSA, alas. In the end, we all completed our purchases and climbed back into the car to drive back to Limerick.

Ordinarily, I like to try different routes to see different things on a return journey, but two things dissuaded me from trying to get the rest of the gang to do that today. First, I could not find a good alternative route from Killarney to Limerick that did not involve driving WAY out of our way. And secondly, the sky was overcast and the rain pelting down, so stopping to see things would have not really been much fun.

As it was, the rain slowed us up a bit and we finally arrived around 2:30. Parking the car in a garage down the street and checking into The George hotel delayed us from going out for a belated lunch for a bit, but then we found a Centra "take out + eat in" type of deli just down the street from out hotel and had lunch there.

Then we extricated the car from that parking garage to drive a mile or two to the main cemetery for Limerick. There Jerry paid his respects to the members of his family buried there while we wandered about the section around the old chapel a bit. In a way, the Limerick cemetery reminded me of the German cemeteries where each person has a small, clearly-outlined plot of ground where the survivors can decorate the gravesite with things other than the main tombstone. We saw many types of objects left as impromptu memorials on different grave sites.

But in other ways, the Limerick cemetery was very different from the German versions. In particular, many of the graves used the distinctive Celtic cross that has a circle around the central "+" of the cross, which is a distinctively Irish Catholic symbol. Secondly, many of the graves, and in particular the more recent ones I think, were covered with gravel rather than plants. Even for the older graves, mopst of them were simply covered with grass.

I only saw one or two gravesites that were decorated with living flowers, although quite a few had artificial flowers. That contrasts sharply with what I observed in cemeteries in Hamburg, where about 3/4 of the graves have living flowers planted on them.

Having paid our respects, we drove back into town and I re-inserted the car into the parking garage (narrow fit!). Elsbeth and Jerry wanted to have a last pint of Guinness in a local pub, so we walked down the main shopping street to the River Shannon.

First we tried a pub called The Locke that was right on the bank of the river. That pub boasted live entertainment every night, and sure enough, a guitarist and accordion player were playing some nice, traditional Irish tunes, which was very pleasant. As a bonus at the end of each set, they would play a number for a girl who did the traditional Irish step-dancing, which I have seen on stage but never up close. This time I was only about 8 feet away, and I could see every move the girl made. It was exhausting just watching her because her feet were really flying in an intricate sequence of steps and taps. Since I was so close, when she banged her feet on the floor it kind of reverberated in my head, but sure as shooting there was no fake soundtrack of her steps for THAT routine. Impressive.

The only problem with that pub was that they did not seem eager at all to seat us at a table. Two Irish gentlemen gave Linda and Elsbeth some chairs from their table, but we never did convince the waitress to let all four of us sit at a table. Possibly we had to register somewhere to get on a waiting list for a table, but exactly where and who to do that with was never made clear by the waitresses running past us.

So in the end, we finished our drinks and meandered back towards the hotel, stopping at "Martin's", a bar just a block or so down from The George. Monika and Jerry again had pints of Guinness, but that bar did not even serve any food! In my limited experience, most Irish bars serve "pub grub", but Jerry could speak more definitively to that issue. So we relaxed with our drinks for another hour or so and just chatted about this and that, as one does in a pub. In the end, we simply gave up on getting an evening meal at a pub, and instead returned to our respective rooms for a light evening snack.

While munching away, Monika and I tried to roughly plan the remainder of our time in Ireland, framing out a drive up to Derry in Northern Ireland to see the northern coastal area, which I had wanted to do for a long time. But we also had to plan for overnighting at Dublin airport next Sunday evening so that we could catch our plane back to the USA early Monday morning. Those reservations made and our evening snack consumed, we kind of collapsed into bed for the night.