Change In Plans

Quick note.

We arrived in Shannon, Ireland at 7:30 this morning, after a long day of travel from Nashville yesterday.

I sat next to a Catholic nun on the flight (joined her order in 1955!), which was amazing. She was flying to Ireland with the body of an Irish priest, a long-standing professional and personal friend, who died last week of cancer. She and another priest were bringing him home to County Kerry to be buried. She has had an interesting life (mostly working with emotionally disturbed and mentally ill children), and radiated goodwill and serenity.

Finding our rented castle was not easy, even with two GPS systems going in the car. Two minutes from Shannon Airport, it becomes very rural.

Castle Ballyhannon is unbelievably cool. It is basically a big stone tower, built 600 years ago. We will try to post pictures later. It has a stone spiral staircase, a murder hole, big fireplaces, a portcullis, all real castle stuff. Zola, in particular, thinks it is just great.

Everyone slept for a few hours, and now we are going off to find food and water (600-year-old well apparently doesn’t taste so good). These are baby steps in the world tour, but exciting ones for us to take.