Sunday, October 11, 2009

ireland - day 6


after a good night's sleep, we had breakfast at the blue haven before checking out. for breakfast, both my husband and i ordered pancakes (him, banana - me, blueberry) to accompany the continental selections. i definitely missed the breakfast from glencairn, but we soon full and ready to head out again.


our first stop outside of kinsale was the drombeg stone circle, a mini irish stone henge if you will. as a former archaeology student, this was just the type of site i loved. again, as we arrived there was a small family leaving and we had the site to ourselves for a good 20 minutes before another couple arrived. there were some lovely views in the area out over the mountains and coast.

next we began our scenic drive out to mizen head, ireland's most south-westernly point. after a few close calls on the ever narrowing roads, we made it out to the signal station at mizen head and crossed the bridge out to the overlook. there are tremendous views of the coastline here. and thankfully you can't see through the bottom of the bridge, so i was able to cross without having my eyes closed. :)


after some worrying about the safety of a small child whose parents insisted on making him climb the barriers to get better photographs (some people...), we headed on to kenmare. we really only stopped in kenmare to see the stone circle there (which is like another mini-irish stone henge, and is perhaps overpriced at 2 euros per person) but we ended up spending a little time walking around the town and i would LOVE to return here on another trip. i seriously loved this little town. we did some shopping and enjoyed hearing all the cheers coming from the pubs as we passed-- it was the day of the big cork v. kerry game. i really can't say enough about how much i enjoyed the short amount of time we spent in kenmare.


once we were ready to leave kenmare, we continued on to tralee where we checked in to our hotel, ballyseede castle. i was initially concerned about our stay here as it has some mixed reviews on tripadvisor, but it exceeded all of my expectations. i will say that aside from ballyseede, tralee is not really a touristy town so don't expect to spend too much time downtown (we looked around briefly before deciding to head back to the castle for dinner). ballyseede is insanely beautiful. the common rooms are decorated finely and bedrooms are spacious and lovely. i loved our comfy room and even the knight at the end of the hallway. there was a small problem with the water supply on the evening we were here, but the staff handled it very professionally and even brought around bottled water for all of the rooms.


for dinner, we decided to eat in the castle bar. the food was great, we both ended up having the beef and guinness stew with some desserts as well. i will say however, that if you want to eat in the bar, be there early. it filled up very quickly and we saw several people who left as there was nowhere left to sit in the small area. after dinner, we headed back to the room to pretty much pass out after a busy day on the road! but what a fun day it was.

ireland - day 5

day 5 started with one of the best breakfasts we had on our trip. fiona and stephane really outdid themselves with the homemade croissants, fresh fruit cups, cereals, fresh squeezed orange juice, smoked salmon, bacon, and eggs. everything was outstanding and the crackling fire in the background was the perfect added touch. the rooms are so quaint and lovely - i highly recommend a stay at the glencairn inn if you have the chance!

after our wonderful breakfast, we headed out of lismore to continue our trip west. our first stop on the somewhat overcast morning was at blarney castle. it was sprinkling during our visit (one of the two times we had a little rain during our trip) but we still enjoyed climbing through the castle and exploring the grounds. of course we both kissed the blarney stone and i was amazed that there was no line whatsoever for us to do so! there were two people ahead of us who were done by the time we had walked across the walkway over to where the two men stood.


after blarney, we drove on to cork city so that my husband could visit st. anne's church. st. anne's is home to the shandon bells which, for a small fee, tourists cans ring. my husband was very excited about his chance to play church bells and enjoyed playing a couple of songs while we were there (they provide some sheet music in the tower). you also climb the tower and can see the bells as they are rung if someone comes in behind you. the views over cork from the top are lovely.


after our brief stop in cork, we continued on to kinsale where we planned to spend the night. kinsale is one of those towns that gets highly recommended on many tourist sites and in many tourist guides, but honestly, i'm not sure why. it's a cute town, but i don't necessarily feel that it's worth a trip unless you have a very specific reason for going. but anyway-- we arrived in kinsale in the early afternoon, and had quite a time finding a place to park. we ended up in the free park just outside of the main town which is not a far walk, but it's a little cumbersome with luggage. we checked in to our hotel, the blue haven, and headed out to explore the town. it doesn't take a terribly long time to walk through the streets and around the harbor. we enjoyed visiting several shops including the silver shop and kinsale crystal. eventually we decided on dinner at ned kelly's. it's a nice pub, frequented by lots of colorful locals. after dinner, we crossed to street to have a nice ice cream dessert at sundays. i will say this- kinsale has its fair share of ice cream shops, you have to love that! if you do make it by sundays, i highly recommend the chocolate sundae with brownies, fudge sauce, chocolate covered honeycomb, and malt ball sprinkles. i'm still dreaming of this treat, ha!


after dinner we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. we stayed in room 1 at the blue haven, where the hallways are a litle worn but the rooms are spacious and clean. i loved our room at blue haven, including the window seat overlooking the main street. it was a great place to sit and enjoy the sights and sounds of kinsale in the evening. the bathroom was a nice size and the beds were very comfy. i would certainly stay here again if i were back in kinsale.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

ireland - day 4


day 4 began with a lovely breakfast at carriglea from our hostess, josephine. both my husband and i had some bacon and eggs with our fruit and breads. at this point, it bears mentioning that irish bacon is different from american bacon. in ireland, bacon is really just a fried slice of ham. and it's delicious! i really miss my irish bacon.

while in kilkenny for the morning, we visited kilkenny castle and st. canice's cathedral. the castle is a huge and fun building, but i was slightly disappointed at the period depicted in the restored interiors. of course, since it was an occupied castle for so long, i understand, but still - i love the older history. now, st. canice's cathedral was one of the favorite places we visited on our travels. the staff were very sweet and helpful. and for the better part of our visit, my husband and i were the only two people on the church grounds. we climbed the round tower, an idea i had initially balked at as someone who suffers from slights fears of tightly enclosed spaces and heights. but the views were great and the climb wasn't too bad.



after climbing the round tower, we spent some time touring the interior of the cathedral. there are many great carving and tombs that i loved exploring. i was also amused by the push for a presidential visit from barack obama given that apparently one of his ancestors is buried in the church. all in all, st. canice's is definitely worth some of your time if you are in kilkenny. after visiting the cathedral, we did a little early christmas shopping before hopping back into our trusty fiat and heading out to cashel.

we visited the rock of cashel which has some truly spectacular ruins of a medieval cathedral and surrounding buildings.
there's just something about the stone, mossy ruins with missing windows and roofs that is both eerie and beautiful. we wandered around on our own for about 30 mintues before catching the tour of the property, which i highly recommend to put the ruins in perspective.

after visiting the rock, we headed for cahir castle. this was another of my favorite sites that we visited. cahir castle is very large and has lots of buildings and towers to climb and explore. we opted not to do the guided tour here and instead explored on our own. there are some great examples of defensive castle features here as well.


after such a busy sightseeing day, we headed to our b&b in lismore, the glencairn inn. our host (and chef) stephane, greeted us warmly and showed us to our lovely room. our reservation included dinner in the home's restaurant, pastis, and i can highly recommend this, if you're in the area. we dined by a crackling fire, with our hostess fiona, serving up stephane's great french fare. my husband had a steak frite and a chocolate dessert and enjoyed some potato soup along with the coq au vin before indulging in an apple tart. it was a filling and enjoyable meal and soon we were full and heading to bed.

ireland - day 3

ahhhh - day 3 - driving day!

we were up early to grab a quick breakfast at the hotel and hop on the hotel shuttle bus to head to dublin airport. we arrived at the airport and prompty stood in line for over an hour to get our rental car. we had rented ahead of time with dan dooley and we had no complaints with our experience. everything went pretty smoothly. we eventually got the keys to the car and ventured out into the wild green yonder.
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our first stop outside of dublin, was powerscourt gardens in county wicklow. it took us about 45 minutes to reach powerscourt. we didn't tour the house, but spent a good hour walking around the grounds. there are some lovely gardens and views here. i was a huge fan of the japanese gardens and the cove that looks like it's covered in moss that's really covered in tiny clover. very cool. we were also amused by the pet cemetery on the property. there are actual, large tombstones for the cows, horses, and dogs that the family owned. as we were leaving, we stopped in the avoca store and picked up a couple of ham sandwiches and a box of yummy looking cupcakes to go. all were delicious!

from powerscourt, it was another 45 minute drive to glendalough. glendalough is a huge gorgeous area and i would love to go back another time and spend a day or two just doing some hiking and walking around. on this trip however, we spent a couple of hours touring the monastic ruins by the lakes. loads of great pics from here!


after our fill of glendalough's ruins, we were on to kilkenny. we arrived at our b&b, carriglea, around 5:30, checked-in, and headed out to walk around the town a bit before dinner. i have to say that i loved kilkenny. it's such a great little town. i will definitely put it on my list to return to on our next trip to ireland. carriglea is perfectly located right across the street from kilkenny castle, so we headed over to the castle park and walked a bit, taking pictures of the castle. we headed further into town, taking some exterior pictures of st. canice's cathedral, the black abbey, and a few other places. eventually we stopped for dinner at kyteler's inn (yes, the old witch's house) and had a great dinner (complete with our first harp's beer). by the end of dinner, it was time to turn in so we'd be rested for our next day's adventures.



here i would like to interject just a couple of important points.
1. the heritage island touring guide. most people know about the heritage cards that you can purchase for around 21 euros that will get you into public works sites, however, i'd like to plug the heritage island touring guidebook that is only 6 euros and offers discounts throughout the country as well. we saved a ton of money with the discounted admissions and two-for-one deals. it earned its price many times over.
2. driving in ireland. remembering to stay on the left isn't nearly as difficult as i had imagined it would be. (although it's easy for me to say this, as my wonderful husband was the one who did all of the driving, ha). the trickiest part of irish driving is the state of some of the roads. there are some TINY roads in ireland and you really need to take your time and be mindful of oncoming traffic. also, i would add that a GPS system is invaluable if you are traveling by car. we purchased the irish maps for our own garmin and took it with us. we also had the ordinance survey road atlas for ireland along with driving directions printed from aa roadwatch. (what can i say? i was determined not to get lost.) while our gps did take us on some, shall we say, adventurous? routes, it was a needed tool and shaved quite a bit of time off the estimated times i had from the aa roadwatch site.