Tag: Ireland

It’s Thursday but I’m trying to catch you up a bit because we didn’t have internet last night in our B&B. We had free wi-fi in our hotel lobby in Dublin and free wi-fi in both of the first two B&Bs we stayed at. Last night was a cute little place but they didn’t have any.

It was a blue sky day, perfect weather! We stopped just outside of Kinsale at the Charles Fort in the morning. One of the biggest most well preserved star forts in all of Ireland. It was very informative and interesting. The fort ground stretched about 12 acres so there was a lot of exploring to be had. We could see sailboats from the fort in and out of the harbour.

Then we made our way back through Cork and out towards Blarney. We stopped at a shopping center just north of Cork and spent way too much time trying to buy a card reader for my camera and snack food.

Blarney wasn’t far from Cork and we made good time. Blarney was quite empty of tourist so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It’s one of the biggest tourist traps but we enjoyed the heck out of the place. Sara and I both kissed the Blarney stone unceremoniously.

We had an easy drive into Kenmare which was by far the cutest and easiest tiny little town to drive in. We held out until 8pm to go to a local pub for dinner and live music but the music wasn’t to be found which was a bit of a bummer. But we both had a great meal.

Our room was cozy and we slept well.

Driving was much easier today. It helped that all the roads we were taking were major roads. Seriously it’s hard to describe how narrow some of these roads are that are marked 80kph. That’s like doing 50mph with heavy oncoming traffic on Willoughby Run. Yikes! But we are all good. Its fun!

We woke up and had a great breakfast and headed off to the Waterford crystal factory not far from Tra Morh in Waterford. It was an awesome experience. Those dudes are just locked in the zone when they are cutting crystal. It’s probably a lot of muscle memory, but still! I got some great photos from that place and Sara got to help make a crystal pitcher!!

Then we made our way north west for two castles. One in ruins up high on a hill and the other very well kept in a river valley. Both were breathtaking. The weather was much more pleasant and we got to see several more rainbows. Go figure!

After the second castle, which I had to pull Sara away from(she even picked out her own bedroom there!) we headed south through Cork to Kinsale. Kinsale is tiny, no microscopic. The streets are so narrow you’d think they were only one-ways, nope you have to cram two cars in them, and when you can’t then you have to drive half your car on the sidewalks just to pass, yes I did. It was pretty wild.

We found our B&B which is every bit as nice as our Dublin hotel and made our way back into Kinsale for dinner. Sara and I ate at a place that served just us. It must really be the end of ‘the season”.

It was a very good day, spirits were high, lots of blue skies, and only a few wrong turns.

-The End

It’s 9:30 am and we are justing checking our email before we head out to pick up our car. I’m anxious to see what kind of make and model we get. There are so many awesome cars out here! Sara is oblivious to all of it. Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and a million more. Awesome little cars, I can’t wait!

The National Library of Ireland open at 9:30 so we are going to try to find a parking spot nearby first before we head out of town. It wasn’t open on the weekend so we couldn’t check it out even though we had walked past it several times. It holds the single most important collection of Irish documentary heritage in the world.

Heading out!

UPDATE 10:53PM
We made it to our B&B. What we learned today…. it’s okay to get lost, roundabouts are only a little bit scary, gasoline is “petrol” and they only have 95 octane(which smells really good when spilled onto your shoe), Ireland is very old but beautiful!!!

We drove south through the Wicklow mountains. Visited Powerscourt gardens and Glendalough Monastic city. Both very very old. I’m tired so here are some photos.

Sleep did us both some good. We went to the Guinness Storehouse today after a great Irish breakfast at our hotel. Sara slept in so we got started a bit later than anticipated, but hey that’s how it’s done out here.

We pick up our car and hit the road tomorrow so pray for us big time! It should be….interesting.

Cheers!

17hrs travel, 3 planes, 2 passports stampings, 1 Dublin city bus, and yes it was raining when we arrived, but we finally made it to our hotel! I’ve changed the color of the pins on the Ireland map for the places that we’ve visited.

We bumbed around the city today, saw the Book of Kells had a pint of Murphy’s Stout and are about to call it a day. I’ve been up since 5:15am yesterday so I’m going to crash very soon. Thanks for all of the well wishes, we still can’t even believe that we are here!!! It’s very surreal.