May 26, 2024
Ashford Castle, Historic Cong & The Quiet Man
On Friday May 24th, John & Anne Keane and I took advantage of the sunshine and had a scenic drive through Mayo Co. and went to the historic town of Cong. Ashford Castle is the show stopper here, sitting on the lake, and bordering Galway Co. This beautiful back drop is where a lot of
THE QUIET MAN
with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara was filmed in 1952. The little town is very quaint and a bronze statue commemorates the story. The Castle is now a very posh 5 star hotel and golf course, president Biden stayed at last April.
View more
Xi'An, China has been on my must do list , for awhile. The story of the Terracotta Army has fascinated me, since I first heard it. What I didn't know too much about, was the actual City of Xi'An and the walled inner City that remains today. It was built from 1370 to 1378 during the Ming dynasty on top of the older Tang dynasty foundations. There are 9 miles of City walls, they are 39' high, 45' to 50' wide at the top and 55' to 60' at the base. There are four main gate towers and the only draw bridge restored is at the South Gate. There are 98 ramparts, watchtowers, battlements and a wide surrounding moat. It one of the oldest and best preserved fortifications in China .
After our Panda watching we went to Erling Park for some good city views. Green space in Chongqing is rare, it is truly a concrete jungle with a few planters and trees smattered in along the sidewalks.
The 21 Pandas at the Chongqing Zoo is t he largest grouping of them of anywhere we have traveled in China. We were all excited to see them and were up and on the road by 7am. They are super popular and morning is the supposedly the best time to see them active. It was another hot and steamy day, but less brutal than yesterday.