We splurged for one night in a real, honest-to-goodness castle in Ireland. Oh my!!! Basically, we tried to be as frugal as possible on the beginning of the trip so we could have an extra special treat at the end of our journey.
Ashford Castle was built in the 1200's by the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family. As you drive up to the castle, you're greeted with a large stone archway to pass through before stopping at the main entrance. Porters immediately greet you and show you where to check in and take your bags from the car for you. Les had a good idea before we arrived at the castle, we reviewed manners with the kids - no yelling, no running inside, etc. Since this was a fancy hotel, he saw it as an opportunity to review some manners...and teach others (napkins in your lap, passing food to the person next to you instead of laying across the table as you reach for it yourself, no screaming "I have to go to potty!" at the dinner table - ask nicely and without whining instead...the simple things every parents wishes for anyway). It is also where Zach would receive his birthday present - an activity I'll tell you about later.
Each bedroom at the castle is different and thus you cannot ask for two rooms with two double beds. We inquired before we booked rooms how much it was going to cost since we had five kids with us. They ended up putting us in three rooms for the night. (We've had two rooms on the rest of the trip.) Two of the rooms were adjoining (with a total of 3 beds) and one just down the hall with one bed. I'm pretty sure at this point Les is rethinking the whole "I want more boys in the family" thing since he got all the boys with him. ;) The room off on its own ended up being the girls' room. Yep, me and Niki. We shared a king bed and I would have happily taken one or two boys with me too but Chris and Justin wanted to stay with dad since they've been in my room this whole trip. Zacharias is loving the status of being one of the "big boys" since he's been sharing with dad and Zachary.
All three of our rooms looked out onto the castle courtyard. As we've learned on this trip, there's a reason why a castle is built where it's built - absolutely gorgeous views and in a defensive position - which means, you usually have a view of water. We were on the shores of Loch Corrib (Lake Corrib) on the Western side of Ireland. (It took us about 3 hours to drive from Dublin on the East coast to Cong on the West coast - on very small, tiny back roads. Another post entirely.)
We had dinner that night in the main dining room of the castle after settling into our rooms and getting changed. Yes, dress code required. Nothing specific for girls other than to dress nice. The boys (Les and Zachary) had to wear a jacket and tie. They both had ties with them and borrowed a jacket from the reception desk which had a small room supplied with jackets for guests needing one.
Dinner was three courses picked from a menu of choices for each course. I think my boys decided they loved this place when they received sorbet as the second course (before their main meal)! :) The kids were soooo good throughout dinner. Chris and Justin actually sat on their bottom throughout the entire meal. That's seriously a really big accomplishment. Justin was so cute with making sure his napkin stayed in his lap instead of on the floor. Chris made it a point to carefully push out his chair and walk nicely to the other side of the table to tell us something. It was an enjoyable dinner all around.
After dinner, we walked around the courtyard. I could go for walks every night after dinner in a place like this. Strolls around a large, circular fountain as you gaze out onto the lake and circling around to look at the castle towers of stone covered in vines. It's almost sensory overload because you're enjoying it so much and but at the same time you know you'll never do this again so you're trying to extra enjoy it. I learned...this is the kind of stress and overload I want to have in my life. Reality begins again shortly.
Where there's water - there the boys will be
