Ireland #24 Celtic Crosses and W.B. Yeats

We're almost to the end of our trip, but I have a few more

places to take you and interesting things to show you.

The next place we visited was Donegal

We ate lunch at a lovely hotel restaurant, which unfortunately

I forgot to take a picture of, so I don't know the 

name of it.  The food was excellent.

Here are a couple pictures I took at the restaurant of things

 you don't usually see in the U.S.

I went to use the ladies room and here's what I found.

Yes, that is a "pay as you go" curling iron.
It says "Hygienic & Sterile" don't know how they 

achieve that, but there it is.

I guess if it's a wet day, you can come in, dry your hair

under that hand dryer and restyle it before having your meal.

This is something you see around Ireland.

Cigarette machines.

I remember these from when I was a kid, but we just don't

have them in the U.S. anymore and I believe that is 

a good thing.

I wouldn't say you see them "all over" Ireland,

but it isn't too hard to find them.

I remember on other trips seeing them mounted

into some of the stone walls, but I didn't notice that this time.

The Celtic Adventurers spent some time touring a small castle,

checking out the town and shopping.

It was a tough day for me, the fibro was kicking in and 

with the damp weather, the old bones, joints and muscles weren't

cooperating.  I spent some alone time reading in the car and then

 did a bit of Christmas shopping in a lovely little jewelry shop with Dave.

Then we were off to see some beautiful old Celtic crosses.

This is the first thing we saw when we pulled up to this old

church grounds and cemetery

A beautiful Celtic cross.

Click on the picture to enlarge it, and you can read a bit about the cross.

This picture was taken from the parking lot, looking back at the crosses.

Beautiful scenery in the other direction.

Welcome to Drumcliffe Church

This church was just beautiful, inside and outside.

Poet William Butler Yeats is buried in the Graveyard at Drumcliffe

Although he died in France in January 1939, his remains were brought

home to Ireland by the Irish Naval Service and re-interred

at Drumcliffe in 1948.

His wishes were to be buried here, where his grandfather had served 

as rector.  His instructions were that he be buried in a grave that consisted

of  "no marble, no conventional phrase"

His grave is marked with this simple headstone with the inscription,

"Cast a cold Eye.

On life, on Death.

Horseman, pass by"

His wife is buried with him in this plot.

Did you know that his wife's name was George?

After our visit to Drumcliffe, we were off to visit Sligo.

Sligo town is situated on the Garavogue River.

As you walk along there are bridges like in this picture to cross from

side to side.

I was quite taken with the beautiful swans that we found there.

When we got to Sligo town it was just about dinner time, 

so we found an interesting restaurant, The Fiddlers Creek, I took a seat,

had a diet Coke and waited for the others to walk around a bit.

The shops weren't open after 5:00 so they did a quick tour of

the shopping area and then came to join me for dinner.

And of course, I had to check out the fish and chips.

Very good too.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their dinner.

I know I'm a bit strange, but Jane had wanted some ginger ale,

when the waitress brought it, it was in the cutest little bottle.

Only 113 ml which is a little under 4 oz.

I had to bring that cute little bottle home.

Don't really know what I'll do with it, 

maybe something crafty, or maybe it will just 

sit in my craft room as a cute little reminder

of a wonderful trip to Ireland.

See, isn't it the cutest little bottle?

I took this picture with a pop can, so you could see

how small and cute it is.

I know, I'm strange, sometimes little things make

me smile and this is one of them.

After dinner, it was back to Teach Eamainn, 

where we visited for a while and shared lots of laughs.

Our trip was winding down, we only had one more day

in Ireland.
We spent some fun time, talking, laughing and sharing stories.

I don't think any of us really wanted to break up our little

"party" but morning was going to come pretty quick, 

so we were off to get a little shut eye.

Next post I'll tell you about Clonmacnoise

an ancient monastic settlement and 

share some of my pictures from that 

historic place.

Thanks for stopping by today.