Do you want fries with that?

Apparenty, the answer to that question is aways "yes" in Ireland. One night we ate at a Chinese restaraunt. When the waitress took our order she asked what side we wanted, meaning rice or fries (chips). We got the rice of course. At the table next to ours they got bowls of fries and then put their curry and other entrees over the fries. Very weird (at least to us).
At almost every meal fries have been an option as a side. We even saw a breakfast meal that was 2 eggs, 2 pieces of ham, and fries. The other day we ate in a cafeteria-style restaurant and the teenager in front of us got an order of fries with gravy poured all over them. She also had a bag of soemthing akin to Cheetos. What was she thinking?!

Kesh

On Tuesday we went to the library in Enniskillen to do some family history on my side of the family. We found some names of possible family members who lived close to each other in northern Fermanagh county. So the wonderful librarian called someone she knew who was in charge of the parish records at the church in Kesh. We headed up there early to check out the area and have some dinner at a great pub. The food was gourmet and dessert was amazing! We accidentally ordered two different ones. So good!

The pictures below were taken as we drove down the tiny main street in Kesh. There were British and English flags flying all over. We asked the lady at the church about it and she said it was because of the anniversary of the Troubles which is July 12.

These next few pictures are of the Ardess House, an Anglican Church, where we walked around the graveyard and looked at the records. Unfortunately, we didn't find any more information.

Castle Coole

On Tuesday we decided to see Castle Coole, a large estate which isn't a castle at all! We felt like we were in Jane Austen's time period. I can just imagine walking around the grounds. The pictures below are the stables building where they kept their horses plus those of visiting guests. It was huge!

This is one of the first buses. It was drawn by horses and seated 14 people--eight inside and six above.

As we left stable area we noticed some doors leading to a long tunnel This was the tunnel the servants used between the stables and the house. There were large areas along the tunnel for storing food, etc. Also there were skylights (holes in the ceiling) to add some light.

This was a walkway heading towards the house.

And finally the home! Absolutely gorgeous! We didn't take the tour but peeked into the windows--it was so elegant and huge.

There were lakes and many buildings all over the grounds. We only saw a tiny area of the estate.

Cool signs

We were driving around and loved these signs.

Enniskillen B&B walkabout

We are in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland now and are staying at another B&B There are a couple of walks that begin at the gate in front of the house. This walk was to the small lake nearby. We had to climb over a stile into the pasture, walk through the cows, and finally some woods to get to the lake. It was so beautiful! This is the road in front of the B&B.

View from the small dock at the little lake.

Some cows we met along the way.

This picture is of the bay of one of the lakes and it was taken from the field high above the lake.

This is what the area looks like where we are staying. It's really green and wooded. So different from the Dingle Peninsula.

Beehive huts

We were excited to see these beehive huts. They were built about 4000 years ago and were inhabited until 1200 A.D. They were made so the rain would slope away from the interior of the inside. The walls are 1 1/2 meters thick. There are many of these remnants all over the southeastern part of Ireland, but very few are fully intact. Some of them were used by monks following St. Patrick.

To get to these huts we hiked with the goats! They didn't really mind us being there.

The Beach

This was the beach we found that day. We stopped and took off our shoes, rolled up our pants, and waded. The water was cold, but it was so awesome to be in the northern Atlantic Ocean!

We walked down the beach for a ways and found this cave. It was low tide and we were able to go all the way in and took this picture from the back.