Yeah, it's a castle

Our hotel tonight is a castle.  And, when I say "I'm staying in a castle," it looks exactly like what I expect it to look like.

We also approached it from the water.  This wasn't strictly necessary, but it was kind of cool.

To be completely honest, that's pretty much all that happened today.  I think the tour company sneaked in the boat ride because, otherwise, today was just a travel day, and that kind of sucks.  I mean, we got on the bus pretty effin' early this morning, drove someplace to stop for morning tea, drove someplace else (Galway) to stop for lunch (and a very brief stroll-around-the-shopping-area stop), and... got out here to Ashford Castle.  So, really, the boat ride (with one free alcoholic beverage per person) was really it.  In retrospect, given that we had a couple hours at the hotel before dinner, one might wonder why we had to be on the bus so damn early this morning -- we could have slept in a bit before today started.

I've previously mentioned that our tour guide sometimes reads the wrong word.  Recent highlights include "the vice count" (viscount), the new king "disposing" (deposing) the old, and the "vessels" (vassals) of the king.  She means well, but this is kind of hilarious.

Kind of.

THIS was actually hilarious:  She was talking about Irish musical artists, and referred to "Bono, or Jon Bon Jovi."  Seriously.  She thought Jon Bon Jovi was Bono's real name.  (Even my 75-year-old mother knew this was wrong.)  Now, in addition to being laughably wrong, it did sort of make me feel old.  Because, I mean, anyone who listened to music in the eighties would not make this mistake.  Our tour guide was probably watching "Sesame Street" when I was listening to "Slippery When Wet" and "The Joshua Tree" (and, very easily, telling the two apart).  Geez, lady, it seems like you're reading half your speeches off Wikipedia anyway, the least you could do is look this shit up so you don't sound like a complete moron.