NOTE: This is the second in a series of four stories about the experiences of a group of Kiefer students who traveled to the Republic of Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom earlier this month. Read Part 1 here.
After four days in Ireland, the group of eight Kiefer High School students, their teacher and six adults from Creek County and Arkansas prepared for another first: crossing the Irish Sea.
The group – composed of Kiefer High School student travelers Ashton Cooprider, Logan Holt, Evan Webster, Mikayla Godwin, Kaitlyn Ellis, Savannah Lee, Brooke Mullings and Sierra Lee and adult travelers Cindy Wilson and Misty Sloan, both of Kiefer, Trela Lopez of Kellyville, Josh Qunnelly of Sapulpa, Kathy Vaught and Sherrie Robb, both of Arkansas, and KHS English teacher, Lorrie Quinnelly, the group leader – stepped foot on a large vessel ready for new international adventure.
Leaving from Dublin’s port, the group boarded a 691.6-foot ferry and sailed southeast to Holyhead, Wales. The ferry, which could hold 500 cars and approximately 1,500 passengers, came complete with amenities, such as lounge chairs for napping, tables for dining or card playing, restaurants and a gift shop. Crossing the Irish Sea took approximately 3½ hours.
“I think most of us had a picture of a ferry in mind that did no match what we saw,” Lorrie Quinnelly said. “I was thinking something the size of a large tugboat. When our bus drove onto the ship to unload, we knew ‘we weren’t in Kansas anymore.’”
The sail was a smooth one, Quinnelly said. In fact, unless they were out on deck or really watching out the windows of the cabin, most of the group was unaware of the ship’s movement.
“I could tell,” said Godwin, a sophomore at KHS. “It made me a little seasick, so I slept most of the way.”
While a number of the travelers took the opportunity to snooze, Quinnelly and her nephew, Josh Quinnelly, who was the male sponsor on the trip, took the opportunity to sample some fish and chips and play cards while discussing the day’s agenda. For Wilson, it was a chance to hob-knob with members of Neil Young’s band. Young, who’d played in Dublin the previous night, was not aboard the ferry.
Back on dry land, the Kiefer students and adults toured portions of Anglesey, Betws-y-Coed and O’gwin Loche, where Sir Bevedere is said to have thrown King Arthur’s sword Excalibar to the Lady of the Lake. The group’s tour director Tom Quinn said, with a grin, the lake in only about 10 feet deep, yet no one has ever located Excalibar.
At Anglesey, students and adults climbed through Beaumaris Castle, built as part of Edward I’s campaign to conquer the north of Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, but this was delayed due to lack of funds and work only began in 1295 following the Madog ap Llywelyn uprising. Though never completed, the walls of the inner ward of Beaumaris were more substantial than those of the outer ward, 36-feet high and 15.5-feet thick, with huge towers and two large gatehouses, enclosing a 0.75-acre area. Student could cross over the moat and climb up to walk over the walls and view the Welsh countryside and seascape as well as visit the completed chapel and play the chimes to hear the echoes throughout the castle grounds.
“Wales was my favorite place we visited,” KHS freshman Sierra Lee said. “I loved the castle and the little towns and the people.”
“The little seaside towns were just picturesque,” Lorrie Quinnelly said. “People were out walking their dogs on the beach or letting them play in the water. I had a great cup of hot chocolate there with real whipped cream, not the can from a can or a tub, and Evan (Webster) caught a pigeon on the beach.”
“I said I was going to do it on this trip,” said Webster, who’d been trying to capture a bird, whether it was a pigeon, a duck or a swan, practically from the time the group arrived in Ireland. “You just have to lure them with a little food and then slowly walk up on them.”
That night, the group stayed in a hotel more than an hour from the nearest town and got to sample life in the countryside of Wales.
“There was an odd-looking woman roaming around the hallways and lobby of the hotel,” Quinnelly said. “It freaked out some of our students a little. Even a couple of the adults thought maybe she was mentally ill or maybe mentally challenged.”
Some of the students decided she must be a ghost since every traveler did not see her, and they spent their evening searching for ghosts. Holt, a Kiefer senior and always up for a challenge, joined in the fun and tried his hand at tracking ghosts.
As it turned out, the woman likely was employed by the hotel to help perpetuate the legend that a ghost haunted the hotel and appeared only to children she liked, Quinnelly said.
“Still, that was enough to spook a couple of my female students who slept in the floor of my room that night,” she said with a laugh.
Next Up: The Kiefer students and adults drive to Scotland.
—
Featured Image: Kiefer High School students Evan Webster, left, and Ashton Cooprider sample Welsh ice cream at Anglesey.
