Nearing the end of our driving tour of Ireland, we drove on ‘normal’, almost highway like roads from Cork to Dublin, with a few stops in between. We made it to the Rock of Cashel just in time to catch one of the hourly tours, which was very interesting and informative. The Rock of Cashel has a variety of buildings, dating back to the 1100s, the oldest being the Round Tower. The entrance to the Round Tower is about 10 feet off the ground, designed for better stability so the structure wouldn’t collapse. Also on the grounds is Cormac’s Chapel, built in the Romanesque style with curved arches and details, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, built facing the wrong direction to fit in the space available between the already existing structures, a tower house, and a cemetery, containing some very old tombs and some very new ones, as it is still active.

Rock of Cashel

Cormac’s Chapel

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Celtic cross in the cemetery

From the Rock of Cashel, we could see Hore Abbey(no, not whore abbey), named after the style of clothing the nuns wore, we were told.

Hore Abbey

Next was off to Kilkenney for a tour of the Smithwicks (pronounced Smiticks) Brewery and lunch. I learned that Smithwicks is probably Ryan’s favorite beer. Who knew? The Smithwicks tour was a little gimmicky. First there was a Jedi dressed hologram that provided the intro. Then, there was one room where you learned about the history of the family and brewery through ‘talking’ portraits. I could have sworn we were in “Harry Potter”. They kept blinking!

Jedi hologram

Ryan enjoying a sampling of his favorite beer

I drove the rest of the way into Dublin, luckily mostly on the wider roads and then through the city traffic in the pouring rain. Ryan agreed with me that even though I only tend to drive maybe 20% of the time we are going somewhere, I somehow wind up driving in 80% of the bad weather. Ryan was also very excited because our trip meter reached 2 megameters, which begs the question why no one uses the term megameters, but would instead say 2000 kilometers.

2 megameters!

Our hotel directed us to park in a city parking structure across the street. I found a great end spot that I was determined to back into. Ryan was incredibly patient as I pulled in and out and in and out trying to get into that damn spot! Picture the scene from ‘Austin Powers’ and that about sums it up. It is very awkward looking over your left shoulder to back up!

Ryan kissed the Blarney Stone and will now be instilled with the gift of gab and great eloquence. Let’s see how that works out for him. The Blarney Stone itself was probably the least exciting part of the Blarney Castle, a tower house outside Cork built in the 1400s. There were multiple dungeons and caves to crawl through, which of course I had to, mostly with kids visiting the site while their parents waited outside. Ryan decided to pass up the dungeons, even though they were a ton bigger than the Cu Chi tunnels he crawled through in Vietnam.

Sign at the entrance to Blarney Castle. First time we have seen this

Into the dungeon

Woven window panes, part of some exhibition going on earlier in the month

Up the windy stairs to the top. Could you imagine going down this in the middle of the night to get a glass of water?

Made it to the top!

Ryan kissing the Blarney Stone

The castle was on a beautiful estate, with multiple gardens to wander around.

Poison Garden, a la Harry Potter

Do you think this would last out in a garden in the U.S.?

Fern Garden and Waterfall

Witches Stone

Ryan liked that you could get Irish Coffee with whiskey at the snack bar

We then headed back into Cork for a late lunch and wander around the English Market. This was a must see for me, cause I’m like a kid in a candy store in food markets. This one was primarily fresh meat, fish, and cheeses for locals and local restaurants to purchase. Not as many samples as I would have hoped for.

It’s Bacon!

Ryan’s cold was starting to kick in, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel. He napped, while I watched Ireland win their second medal of the Olympics, a silver in women’s sailing to Annalise Murphy.

Does that have the same meaning in Ireland? We assume so.

Big boat by our hotel

Apparently a ‘standard’ hotel room in Ireland; one full bed and one single bed. I offered to take the single, but Ryan gave me the full.

As the title indicates, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, high 60’s and sunny with a light breeze. The yearly Kenmare Fair is August 15th, and we walked around it before heading out. Very interesting to say the least. It takes place in the downtown area and has a rather odd variety. The stores setup displays on the streets. People come in and set up a ton of displays with odd random stuff, ie. antiques, used power tools, clothing, cheap plastic toys, and knock-off purses. And then there are the animals. One street is just full of animals to be bought and sold; horses, sheep, goats, cows, puppies, ducks, chickens, turkeys. The cows are not even tied up, just herded against a fence. It took some diligent steps to avoid all the ‘land mines’ on that street and we wondered how exactly they clean it after the fair.
  

Mini horses!

Awww

Our B&B in Kenmare

Mary, our B&B host, in front of her beautiful hydrangeas

Today was a relatively short drive up to Cork, with a few stops along the way. First was Kinsale, a beautiful harbour town, reminiscent of Sausalito, as one travel books said, and I concur. Again, the weather definitely helped.

We’ve seen multiple wind farms in Ireland

Kinsale Harbour

St. Multose Church.

We wandered around the harbour, got some lunch, and then drove out to Charles Fort. Built in the 17th century by the British as a military fort, it is tucked into the side of the harbour and is deceivingly large. From the road, it doesn’t look like much. It isn’t until we were wandering around it that we realized the full expanse.

After that, we drove around the harbour again (we basically drove around the Kinsale harbour three times in the course of a few hours) over to the Lusitania Museum. Kinsale was the closest land mass and first responders when German U-boats targeted the Lusitania cruise ship during WWI. The museum wasn’t much to speak of, not what we would consider a museum. But it was shared with the Old Head Signal Tower on almost the tip of the peninsula and offered some great views. The actual tip of the peninsula is a private golf course. You are out of luck if you hit the ball into a water trap there :-).

The drive into Cork took us on a variety of roads, from single-lane two-way traffic to almost highway like. We have seen a lot of people biking in Ireland, even in the crappy raining windy weather. They bike on the hilly, narrow, windy roads, which looks very difficult and dangerous. They bike on road that we would consider highways, again seems rather dangerous. Sometimes they wear helmets, and sometimes they don’t.

The food in Ireland has been delicious (post on soups to come at a later point), but I was going into fresh veggie withdrawal. Luckily, as we get into the bigger cities, I’ve been able to find more salad options. We happened upon Oliver Plunkett’s for dinner, where we sort of branched out from the traditional Irish fare, Ryan with roast chicken, and me with soup and salad (I said sort of). By chance, there was live traditional Irish music with a banjo and Bodhran. After the musicians finished, they taught whomever was interested how to play the Bodhran. Of course I took them up on that offer, and Ryan got dragged into it. What fun! Both of the musicians had also been to Austin touring with music groups on the past.