We may not be cool enough for Dublin.....

The road from Cork to Dublin is a divided highway, which was a nice change from all the narrow roads we have seen along the West coast.  But, getting out of Cork, we took what was the worse road we have seen so far (which is saying something!).  This is a 2 lanes road! (I suspect that there was another way out of town that was not so harrowing, and that this was one of Tommy-the-GPS’s “shortcuts” - Still, the fact that people do use this road in both direction in just amazing) There is a high wall on each side, telephone poles sticking out and there is NO way two cars can pass each other in most places:  passing a truck required some amazing maneuvering on Joe's part...But after that, it was highway, which was lovely. 

 We stopped in the medieval town of Kilkenny on the way ( we also passed the Rock of Cashel:  saw it from the highway and it indeed looks impressive....  but if you stopped at every impressive castle in Ireland, you’d never get anywhere...                       

So we decided to take the detour through Kilkenny instead- where there is also an impressive castle:  That one dates from the 14th century and was built by the Normans (I think I can see a distinctive French flair there....).  The town has retained a lot of its medieval architecture, and the “medieval walk”  

                                                                                                          - from the castle to the cathedral- is indeed lovely.  If I could suggest an improvement to the Ireland department of tourism:  make ALL old medieval town centers pedestrian only, or at least all roads one way streets.

 I simply cannot imagine any of the small towns we have driven through during peak season.....     This is an example of a street (used by cars) in Kilkenny.....   (the second one is a two way street).                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

 The cathedral (at least part of it) dates from the 11th century, and some of the streets still have cobblestones (the one below is even a pedestrian one- the only such stretch in town).

                                                      

From Kilkenny to Dublin is an easy 1 hour drive, until you get to Dublin. OMG!!!!! Dublin traffic is a nightmare!  I had picked a hotel very near the center (indeed, it is an easy walk to Trinity college, Temple Bar, etc....  it is just impossible to drive around - let alone park...  But we eventually did, and had time to get on the “hop on, hop off “ bus, for a quick tour....  the old town is indeed pretty, and very lively (and has a few streets closed to traffic) .  Here is the quote of the day though, from an old guy on the bus who happened to be from White Plains:  “ I've never been to a city where the majority of people are tourists.” Indeed, Dublin is just full of tourists!  Even the bus driver- who does that everyday for a living- was complaining about how bad traffic was today (it is Friday night....). 

BTW:  the bus driver was great.  He had tons of  good historical information, silly jokes, and sang old Irish songs very well when stuck in traffic.  Here is something I’ve learned about “hop on- hop off” buses today:  if your first driver is not fun, or just plays the touristy tape instead of providing lively comments, just “hop off”:  

we stopped at Trinity College (hoping to see the book of Kells, but it was the end of the day, and the line was too long, so we would not have made it.   We will have to google it.....).     We did manage to take a stroll through Temple Bar, and its busy cobblestones streets, full of pubs, full of both locals and tourists.

We first stopped at one restaurant where we had a drink waiting for a table, but then gave up....  it was just too crowded and the bar tender was just unfriendly- which I did not realize was legal in Ireland..... 

We went down just one block,and ended up in the lovely pub, with good live music, and an Irish step dancer, and friendly staff.....  Hard to understand why the first one was so busy.....

Walking back to our hotel, we were amazed to see every bar (I mean it EVERY ONE) completely full.  And there are a lot of them!

Apparently, that’s what everyone does that here on the week-end.  Thus the title of this blog......  we are not really bar people......

It’s all lively and fun to walk through though.  From our funky little hotel room, we can hear people in the neighborhood bars, but have no inclination to join.....  we are old and boring....  (and prefer wild landscapes to wild crowds.). We also see what may be a back deck marijuana plantation.....

Going home tomorrow......  so here are a few more pictures of everything we have seen (more or less in order):

Irish mist.....

We have been in Ireland for over a week, and have had almost perfect weather. At some point, it was going to start raining, and that point was today.  

We woke up to rain and clouds, over the beautiful breakfast room at our B&B. It’s good we saw the cliffs and the beautiful views yesterday, because today, they were lost in the mist....  but you can’t let a bit of weather thwart your plans here...

We had plans to get on a boat and go around the Skellig Islands:  not land on them because:

1). Landing is very limited and getting tickets is difficult.

2). The season starts tomorrow, which would have made our plans complicated 

3). There are 900 step to the top, and Joe’s knees were complaining just thinking about it

4) landing only happens about 60% of the time because of weather conditions.

5). With the other tour, we also go around the second island (Little Skellig) and its colony of 75000 gannets.

The captain of the boat said “it’s not windy, but there is a bit of a swell”...  this is what “a bit of a swell” looks like from the back of the boat....  

 It’s good that I don’t get as sea sick when the boat is open and I can watch the horizon....  still, it was hard to take good pictures because the boat was moving (Joe had not taken the super-duper camera for fear of getting it wet, so I used my water proof Olympus).   So, here are just a couple of examples of the gannets nesting, and flying all around. .It was indeed an impressive sight.

We then went to Skellig Michael (you can see it, with it's top in the clouds around the first rugged edge of "Little Skellig"), another rocky island.

There is nothing on it but birds:  It’s a nice place if you are a puffin, because there is some green very steep slopes, of the type puffins like to nest in (we saw a lot of puffins - but see previous comments regarding cameras to explain lack of decent puffins pictures- if you squint,, you can see two puffins guarding their nests on this picture).  It’s a great place for puffins and other sea birds, but it’s hard to explain how anyone thought it to be a great place for humans.
(Below is a colony of common mures, another type of auk).

And yet, at some point between the 6th and the 8th century, some humans did:  Monks built a village of sorts (shale huts) and a monestery.  It’s 900 very steep steps to the top and there is NOTHING there.  What did they eat (my guess is fish and puffins....), why did they stay?  Very little is known about them.

The remaining structures, as well as the rocky ledges, caverns and rocks can be seen in the last Star War movie (if you have not seen it, you can google it - they are quite fascinating).  The monks lefts around the 12th century, probably due to climate change (they had a mini ice age), and that’s it.  We could not see the huts at the top, because they were in the fog, which also means that the monks, while not just cold and starving, were probably cold and starving in the fog....  A really odd place.

After that, we continued on the other side of the Ring of Kerry, but mostly in the fog.  We could see just enough of the coastline to figure out that it was grand and beautiful, but not quite enough to make it worth stopping and taking pictures.  

We did however stop in the little town of Sneem for lunch to gaze at it’s pretty river, and its Main Street:  

I really love how all the little towns and villages here have these brightly painted houses and shops.  It’s makes for lovely downtowns (maybe it’s to make up for the grey on days like today).  

Also love how the road sometimes looks like a tunnel of rhododendrons (I know they are invasive here, but there are still pretty....).

As we drove toward Cork, we stopped at Blarney’s castle: good catch on Joe’s part who saw the exit sign. 

 I thought it was in Cork, and would have missed it, which would have been too bad.  Of the many castles we have seen, this is by far the nicest one.  The house itself is great to visit, and the grounds are just wonderful. 

 Of course, I kissed the stone...  although it is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence..which I’m not sure I need.....  it is silly, but fun and since we went in the afternoon, there was absolutely no line and the entire castle and grounds were very quiet (in the morning, when the cruise ships dock in Cork, it gets extremely busy, and this is the sign they have to deal with. (Not worth waiting 90 minutes BTW.....  but the castle itself is very nice).

The grounds are beautiful too, with 500 years old yew trees, little creeks, and beautiful flowers.

Our hotel in Cork, the Ambassador, is in an old abbey, up the hill from the center of town.  From it’s large window and balcony, we can see that the sun came back!

We went to the center of town for dinner and had some trendy “nouvelle Irish” food (including a potato and seaweed gratin, which was awesome.  (Seaweed is VERY trendy around here.....).  The center of Cork itself is nothing to write home about.  But it has nice pubs and restaurants.

On a side note:  Every time people ask me where I’m from and I say NY, and they look at me funny until I say I’m originally from France - they switch to French.  A lot of people here speak very good French, and enjoy doing it.  I’m not sure why that is......

Tomorrow is our last full day - off to Dublin.