We're in the Loch Lein country home now -- our window looking out to a beautiful glacial lake. We have white robes, slippers and towel warmers in the bathroom. You get the picture. It's not like the tea houses in Nepal with their two foot wide 1" thick foam mattresses on the bed. I'll send photos of the stunning grounds tomorrow.
After six days on the road, Bob has got the hang of left hand drive. For some reason almost all those used to left handed driving edge off the road on the left either into hedgerows or other lanes of same direction traffic. So you see a lot of car left hand side scratches, dings and dents. You enter or go through most cities through a series of clockwise round abouts. They take fortitude. Fuel is $2.00 CAD/litre and you see "Traffic Calming" signs warning of construction ahead.
Today we toured the 65 room Muckross Mansion in Killarney. It's a little like Downton Abbey withsenior servants upstairs and junior down. In the basement their is system of at least 40 bells, each with a separate tone signifying the room that needed attention. Imagine having to wait for someone to fetch you a cup of tea or serve you a biscuit. And imagine being a servant and having to know all those different rings.
The mansion is a stunning peek into the way the wealthy lived in the mid 19th century. This was the Victorian era and women weren't educated beyond age fifteen. They spent their time doing needlework and organizing afternoon teas.
Smallpox was rampant, leaving pock marks. To cover these, women mixed their makeup with beeswax. But when they warmed themselves in front of fireplaces, they had to place a stand with a protecting rectangle of fabric in front of their faces so the beswax wouldn't melt. Hence the expression, "Mind your beeswax."
In 1861 Queen Victoria visted the home. This was such a big deal that the home went through a six year period of renovations with new furniture, drapes and so forth for the two night visit. The queen had her own suite of six rooms. Usually visits such as this resulted in large rewards for the family estate from the queen.
Unluckily for the Herberts, though, Prince Albert died two years later. The family received nothing. So they suffered financial difficulties and had to sell the estate. It eventually wound up in the hands of Californians who gave the estate to their daughter and her husband as a wedding present. Finally in 1932 the 11,000 acre estate was given to the Irish nation.
We're lucky to live now with our comfortable furniture and clothes, modern appliances and food when we want it.
Tomorrow we'll drive six hours around The Ring of Derry, a mountainous, lake splattered region with the highest peak in Ireland.
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