Friday, September 08, 2006
Monday August 21st through Thursday 24th – The Rest of Ireland
TUESDAY, CORK TO LIMERICK
On Tuesday morning we got up and had breakfast at the Finlay House, the hostel where we spent the night. We went out after breakfast and took some pictures. We got a picture of the outside of the hotel and we got a picture of the little street it was on which was a dead end. You could drive in from one end, but you had to walk up a flight of steps from the street below to get to it from the other side. The walls of the stair way are covered with graffiti and they approved it and even have it in their advertisement on the internet. It was a nice enough place to stay. We had a good clean place to sleep and a good breakfast and it was cheap. The neighborhood around the place is old European. It was hard to find and I ended up taking a page out of Sister and Lois’ travel book - I stopped at a fire house and they gave me perfect directions.
We went out of Cork much easier than we found the hostel. When we backed out of our street and got down to the main street level we were on the highway which led out to Blarney. We had to go to Blarney and kiss the Stone.
I don’t know if my eloquence of speech has improved since I did that or not. It doesn’t seem to be making and big changes in my writing. When we got to the village of Blarney we went to the tourist information office first thing. We found out how to get to the Castle and what time it opened for tours. It was actually right there in the village and we could have walked if we had known how close it was. We walked around town a few minutes before we went and Mary took some pictures of the church, a couple of hotels and the Blarney Wool Mill and just some street scenes. It is really a neat little town.
The Blarney Castle was built in 1446 and was owned by the same McCarthy family until 1690. It became the property of the governor of Cork in 1704 after several owners during William of Orange’s reign. Inside the grounds of the Blarney Castle we had almost a half mile walk to get to the actual ruins of the castle. The basic shape of the Castle was still there and it was pretty high. The rooms were labeled so you could tell a little about the organization of the house.
One thing which kind of stuck in my mind is the murder hole. It is a hole in the inside wall which allows the inhabitants to look down on invaders after the main entry has been breached and the enemy is inside. With the inner doors locked to stop the invasion they poured hot liquid down on the invading soldiers. We had to go all the way to the top to get to the Blarney stone. It is actually in the wall below the battlements, and you have to lie on your back, hold onto an iron bar and arch your back to get your head down low enough to reach the stone for a kiss.
It wasn’t that difficult, but it scared some of the folks.
The grounds themselves were pretty with streams and stone bridges. There were several kinds of trees there and the they were all very old, and very large. There were plants and flowers along the way and large lawns. When we were up high so we could look down on the grounds it was easy to pick out the remains of walls that had been part of the Castle complex.
In the gift shop we picked up a couple of cards with the Brady Coat of Arms on them. I was surprised to read that the name was as common in Ireland as it is. It is in the top sixty most common names in all of Ireland and in the top forty most common in Ulster. We finished our visit to Blarney about noon so we decided to have lunch. Instead of going to a café we went to the deli in a supermarket and got a tub of tuna salad, some chips and some pastries. We got a coke to drink and went out onto the village green to have a picnic. We enjoyed it, but had to rush and cut it short because it rained.
We left Blarney and drove to Killarney in the early afternoon. We went to the tourist office in Killarney and got information about things we wanted to do in that area.
We had a reservation to overnight in Limerick so after we got out trip on the Ring of Kerry all lined up we left Killarney and went on to Limerick. It meant that we had to do some extra driving the next day, but we wanted to go to Limerick. We spent the night in a college dorm that was used as a hostel during June, July and August while the students were out of school for the summer. It was probably the newest building of any hostel we stayed in. As usual we had a private room but had to share a bathroom.
We had a beautiful drive all that day. Just about the line between County Cork and County Kerry we stopped at a pull out to take a picture. There was a great big blackberry patch off the road side so we just got us some cups and a paper sack and picked us a bunch of nice ripe blackberries.
Mary accused me of eating more than I put in the sack, but we had berries for the next three days.
I guess we had about a two hour drive over to Limerick. It was all on a good road, but we did run into some road repair being done which slowed us down some.
We passed through some pretty little towns and some really pretty countryside with farms and dairies.
When we got to Limerick we were in the rain and had been for an hour. I didn’t want to just wander around trying to find our hostel, so I stopped at a grocery store and used their phone to get good instructions on how to get there. We bought some things to snack on and went on to our place with no problems.
TUESDAY, CORK TO LIMERICK
On Tuesday morning we got up and had breakfast at the Finlay House, the hostel where we spent the night. We went out after breakfast and took some pictures. We got a picture of the outside of the hotel and we got a picture of the little street it was on which was a dead end. You could drive in from one end, but you had to walk up a flight of steps from the street below to get to it from the other side. The walls of the stair way are covered with graffiti and they approved it and even have it in their advertisement on the internet. It was a nice enough place to stay. We had a good clean place to sleep and a good breakfast and it was cheap. The neighborhood around the place is old European. It was hard to find and I ended up taking a page out of Sister and Lois’ travel book - I stopped at a fire house and they gave me perfect directions.
We went out of Cork much easier than we found the hostel. When we backed out of our street and got down to the main street level we were on the highway which led out to Blarney. We had to go to Blarney and kiss the Stone.
I don’t know if my eloquence of speech has improved since I did that or not. It doesn’t seem to be making and big changes in my writing. When we got to the village of Blarney we went to the tourist information office first thing. We found out how to get to the Castle and what time it opened for tours. It was actually right there in the village and we could have walked if we had known how close it was. We walked around town a few minutes before we went and Mary took some pictures of the church, a couple of hotels and the Blarney Wool Mill and just some street scenes. It is really a neat little town.
The Blarney Castle was built in 1446 and was owned by the same McCarthy family until 1690. It became the property of the governor of Cork in 1704 after several owners during William of Orange’s reign. Inside the grounds of the Blarney Castle we had almost a half mile walk to get to the actual ruins of the castle. The basic shape of the Castle was still there and it was pretty high. The rooms were labeled so you could tell a little about the organization of the house.
One thing which kind of stuck in my mind is the murder hole. It is a hole in the inside wall which allows the inhabitants to look down on invaders after the main entry has been breached and the enemy is inside. With the inner doors locked to stop the invasion they poured hot liquid down on the invading soldiers. We had to go all the way to the top to get to the Blarney stone. It is actually in the wall below the battlements, and you have to lie on your back, hold onto an iron bar and arch your back to get your head down low enough to reach the stone for a kiss.
It wasn’t that difficult, but it scared some of the folks.
The grounds themselves were pretty with streams and stone bridges. There were several kinds of trees there and the they were all very old, and very large. There were plants and flowers along the way and large lawns. When we were up high so we could look down on the grounds it was easy to pick out the remains of walls that had been part of the Castle complex.
In the gift shop we picked up a couple of cards with the Brady Coat of Arms on them. I was surprised to read that the name was as common in Ireland as it is. It is in the top sixty most common names in all of Ireland and in the top forty most common in Ulster. We finished our visit to Blarney about noon so we decided to have lunch. Instead of going to a café we went to the deli in a supermarket and got a tub of tuna salad, some chips and some pastries. We got a coke to drink and went out onto the village green to have a picnic. We enjoyed it, but had to rush and cut it short because it rained.
We left Blarney and drove to Killarney in the early afternoon. We went to the tourist office in Killarney and got information about things we wanted to do in that area.
We had a reservation to overnight in Limerick so after we got out trip on the Ring of Kerry all lined up we left Killarney and went on to Limerick. It meant that we had to do some extra driving the next day, but we wanted to go to Limerick. We spent the night in a college dorm that was used as a hostel during June, July and August while the students were out of school for the summer. It was probably the newest building of any hostel we stayed in. As usual we had a private room but had to share a bathroom.
We had a beautiful drive all that day. Just about the line between County Cork and County Kerry we stopped at a pull out to take a picture. There was a great big blackberry patch off the road side so we just got us some cups and a paper sack and picked us a bunch of nice ripe blackberries.
Mary accused me of eating more than I put in the sack, but we had berries for the next three days.
I guess we had about a two hour drive over to Limerick. It was all on a good road, but we did run into some road repair being done which slowed us down some.
We passed through some pretty little towns and some really pretty countryside with farms and dairies.
When we got to Limerick we were in the rain and had been for an hour. I didn’t want to just wander around trying to find our hostel, so I stopped at a grocery store and used their phone to get good instructions on how to get there. We bought some things to snack on and went on to our place with no problems.
