Since we are off Wednesday for a 6 day run to the Southwest of Ireland, I thought I would give a brief update on what we have done past several days of note.
Jennifer and Sarah were here from Seattle and they kept quite busy travelling with the Carrie, et.al. on the weekend and doing there on thing in Dublin during the week. On Friday, the four of us went to the National Irish Stud Farm, which held no candle to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Nan and I did manage to find the mares and foals. Many had been born on Valentines Day, which was interesting. They were cute.
Sunday, Nan and I headed out to the coast beginning at Balbriggan and working our way towards Dublin. Was mostly a sunny day with only occasional clouds. We were able to wonder the coast most of the way. The towns furthest from Dublin were still quite quaint, but as we got nearer to Dublin, they became much more upper crust. One of the last places we stopped was Howth, which appears to be a pretty big fishing port. One of the restaurants had an article written about it when it opened and they referred to the town being a big Sunday lunch spot.
In every coastal town was a public beach/park area and many people were out in 50 degree weather walking the shore. We stopped at a castle on a hill overlooking the Irish Sea at Skerries. They had installed a huge playground area for kids and had miles of walking trails. Skerries also has an old mill that had water and windmill sources of power when it was operating. Corn, etc. was grown in the area and ground at this mill, which has now been restored. Many sights we visit like this all have tea rooms and craft shops. Was interesting to observe how many locals come to attend the tea rooms.
The "highlight" of the drive was to miss the turnoff north of Dublin to head home and end up driving right through the heart of Dublin. Once again, many frustrations at poor signage. Today I drove Flor to the airport and since it was early, the traffic heading into Dublin was fierce to say the least. I checked the Avis map I had and decided I could go back roads back to Maynooth. WRONG! Lack of good signage derailed me again. I ended up pointing the car West and finally got where I intended to go, but found Ireland's offices of EBay and Bristol Meyers along the way.
Hope all is well with everyone. Will update this with text and pictures when we return.
Later!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Plain White T's
Matt just told us that Tom, the leader of the band, is going to be on The Tonight Show on Monday night. Big deal for Matt, so he hopes everyone will tune in to watch. Will be backed up by a string quartet.
Later!
Later!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Derry and County Donegal
As I may have mentioned, two of Carrie's friends from the west arrived on Thursday and they planned a road trip. We planned to stay home and sit with Alex. Friday morning, Carrie woke us up to say she was missing him and wanted him to go with. We were free for the weekend. So I was off on my excursion to Dublin to pick up a car and we were off around 1pm for Derry ( Londonderry on some maps) and County Donegal.
This time I had a choice of a Nissan Note or Ford Fiesta. I chose the Nissan, which is a small, kind of square, car. After they wrote it up, they told me it was brand new, with no marks. I thought, thanks a lot. I'm going to be driving some very small roads in the north with an unmarked car. Do spare you the worry, I got it back without any marks and was glad I hadn't noticed until Sunday that they hadn't tied on the hubcaps.
Took bit over 3 hours to get the 140 miles to Derry. That's how good the road system here is and we were driving the next best thing to their "Interstate". We were able to visit the tourist office before it closed, which is good, because it isn't opened on weekends. We later were told by a guide that though tourism is up in Derry, weekend tourism basically doesn't exist, yet.
We had called for a reservation at a recommended B&B that was the only one located close to the town center. Was an old Georgian place that they were trying to maintain. We were able to park in front and leave the car until we left the next afternoon.
Derry's town center is walled. They were constructed several centuries ago and at places are over 20 feet across. Originally there were 4 gates and they have since added a couple. The longest siege in English history occurred at this spot, which is located on the River Foyle, which opens up into the Northern Atlantic through Foyle Lake. Was where many emigrated from to Australia and America and also where the English fleet was based that protected the cargo ships coming across the Atlantic during WWII. They were so successful at foiling the German U-Boats from this position that the top German official in charge of U-boats had them surrender at this port at the end of the war.
Friday evening we were able to do some scouting of the area to be familiar for our tours on Saturday. We ate one of the lowest priced meals on our trip within the walls that night. I had a first in Lamb's liver. Probably first and last as it didn't measure up to calves, but of course Mother, I cleaned my plate.
We tried to find live music at a local pub, but we either didn't wait late enough or it wasn't happening. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland's ban on smoking doesn't go into operation until end of April. We left early because of the smoke.
We met our first tour guide for a Bogside/troubles related tour at 10. He was a red headed Irishman, who had grown up in the Bogside. The Bogside is where Bloody Sunday occurred in 1972. Briefly, the British opened fire on a "Civil Rights" type march claiming they were fired upon first. The shooting lasted 20 minutes and they are still holding inquiries-the last started in 1998 and costing many millions. No findings yet. Our guide was very good. He had lived in many places including Florida, Pa., Spain and London. He was probably in his mid thirties. One interesting mention was that he didn't think his generation had the toughness to do what the previous had done.
We stopped after the tour at Austins for a snack. Austins dates back to the mid 1800's and takes credit for being the first department store in the world. They had a 3rd floor window restaurant that over looked the center of the square.
The next tour covered the history of the town. We were the only ones on the tour, which basically walked the wall with commentary. We learned a lot here and from a tour of the Tower Museum.
Off to County Donegal on a circle tour of what our tour "bible" calls the real Ireland. It was a circle drive from Letterkenny that covers much of the coastal area as well as some inland areas. We managed to arrive at our goal stop for the night to find both the recommended B&B's closed. One did recommend a guest house nearby, which welcomed us. After settling in, we drove few miles to Leo's Tavern recommended for its food and live music (by Leo, no less).
When we arrived (it was off the "main" road few miles in the country), I noticed couple of people at a neighboring table had mussells. I ordered them as starters and 24 were delivered. Great choice. We had dessert and few drinks along with main course and ended up with maybe our second lowest bill.
We hung around until 10 (from 7:30) for the live music, which turned out to be 80+ year old Leo on the accordion. Not exactly the live Irish music we had expected, but was good.
Sunday we got up early as we were led to believe that the drive was slow and would take many hours. Though it was as great as advertised, we were back in Letterkenny by noon. Part of this was probably due to nothing being open, including several craft places which are car is not allowed to normally pass up. Check out the pictures (may take few days to get to the blog) for evidence. Though the driving was a bit challenging at times, well worth the effort.
We took a side jaunt on our way back around Lake Erne, partly because someone with me hoped the Beelek pottery factory would be opened. We had purchased a piece at one of their stores on our last Ireland visit and had hoped for chance at something else. Not opened. :(
We got back in time for the local pub's live music night and magically arrived the same time the south contingent did.
Great weekend.
Later!
This time I had a choice of a Nissan Note or Ford Fiesta. I chose the Nissan, which is a small, kind of square, car. After they wrote it up, they told me it was brand new, with no marks. I thought, thanks a lot. I'm going to be driving some very small roads in the north with an unmarked car. Do spare you the worry, I got it back without any marks and was glad I hadn't noticed until Sunday that they hadn't tied on the hubcaps.
Took bit over 3 hours to get the 140 miles to Derry. That's how good the road system here is and we were driving the next best thing to their "Interstate". We were able to visit the tourist office before it closed, which is good, because it isn't opened on weekends. We later were told by a guide that though tourism is up in Derry, weekend tourism basically doesn't exist, yet.
We had called for a reservation at a recommended B&B that was the only one located close to the town center. Was an old Georgian place that they were trying to maintain. We were able to park in front and leave the car until we left the next afternoon.
Derry's town center is walled. They were constructed several centuries ago and at places are over 20 feet across. Originally there were 4 gates and they have since added a couple. The longest siege in English history occurred at this spot, which is located on the River Foyle, which opens up into the Northern Atlantic through Foyle Lake. Was where many emigrated from to Australia and America and also where the English fleet was based that protected the cargo ships coming across the Atlantic during WWII. They were so successful at foiling the German U-Boats from this position that the top German official in charge of U-boats had them surrender at this port at the end of the war.
Friday evening we were able to do some scouting of the area to be familiar for our tours on Saturday. We ate one of the lowest priced meals on our trip within the walls that night. I had a first in Lamb's liver. Probably first and last as it didn't measure up to calves, but of course Mother, I cleaned my plate.
We tried to find live music at a local pub, but we either didn't wait late enough or it wasn't happening. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland's ban on smoking doesn't go into operation until end of April. We left early because of the smoke.
We met our first tour guide for a Bogside/troubles related tour at 10. He was a red headed Irishman, who had grown up in the Bogside. The Bogside is where Bloody Sunday occurred in 1972. Briefly, the British opened fire on a "Civil Rights" type march claiming they were fired upon first. The shooting lasted 20 minutes and they are still holding inquiries-the last started in 1998 and costing many millions. No findings yet. Our guide was very good. He had lived in many places including Florida, Pa., Spain and London. He was probably in his mid thirties. One interesting mention was that he didn't think his generation had the toughness to do what the previous had done.
We stopped after the tour at Austins for a snack. Austins dates back to the mid 1800's and takes credit for being the first department store in the world. They had a 3rd floor window restaurant that over looked the center of the square.
The next tour covered the history of the town. We were the only ones on the tour, which basically walked the wall with commentary. We learned a lot here and from a tour of the Tower Museum.
Off to County Donegal on a circle tour of what our tour "bible" calls the real Ireland. It was a circle drive from Letterkenny that covers much of the coastal area as well as some inland areas. We managed to arrive at our goal stop for the night to find both the recommended B&B's closed. One did recommend a guest house nearby, which welcomed us. After settling in, we drove few miles to Leo's Tavern recommended for its food and live music (by Leo, no less).
When we arrived (it was off the "main" road few miles in the country), I noticed couple of people at a neighboring table had mussells. I ordered them as starters and 24 were delivered. Great choice. We had dessert and few drinks along with main course and ended up with maybe our second lowest bill.
We hung around until 10 (from 7:30) for the live music, which turned out to be 80+ year old Leo on the accordion. Not exactly the live Irish music we had expected, but was good.
Sunday we got up early as we were led to believe that the drive was slow and would take many hours. Though it was as great as advertised, we were back in Letterkenny by noon. Part of this was probably due to nothing being open, including several craft places which are car is not allowed to normally pass up. Check out the pictures (may take few days to get to the blog) for evidence. Though the driving was a bit challenging at times, well worth the effort.
We took a side jaunt on our way back around Lake Erne, partly because someone with me hoped the Beelek pottery factory would be opened. We had purchased a piece at one of their stores on our last Ireland visit and had hoped for chance at something else. Not opened. :(
We got back in time for the local pub's live music night and magically arrived the same time the south contingent did.
Great weekend.
Later!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
Galway, etc.
The trip to Galway on the West coast was a bit more challenging then we had expected, since we had made a B&B reservation before leaving. About an hour out, we were nearing a small town and the cars became backed up for miles. After about an hour, we discovered that a big Rugby game between two countries was scheduled to be held that night at 7:30.
When we arrived in Galway, later then planned, we had to find a place to eat. The town, like many, is laid out with no plan in mind. Streets in 3 blocks will have 3 different names and will never go straight. Once again we drove around a bit not knowing where we were. We kept circling the town center. Finally when we stopped to get our bearings, we found we were where we wanted to be and found a parking spot nearby.
However, once again, the nicer restaurants were booked. Believe it or not we ended up at Cactus Jacks-yep serving Tex Mex. Good food, but not a decent beer in the house.
I hope to have some new pictures updated in couple of days. This area, including the town of Galway, was pretty much the highlight of our excursions so far. The town is 60,000 and is the "capital" of the region. Saturday morning and early afternoon, we spent walking the medieval streets, where shopping, pubs and restaurants were all intermixed on walking only streets. Saturday includes a year round market of crafts and local vendors on some of the side streets. Was very interesting to see what they were selling. In addition to reminding us of TC's farmers market, they had many local made crafts on sale.
In the evening many of the pubs offer live music, some two sessions at 5 and 9:30 and some just at 9:30. We were able to get back from our Cliffs of Moher trip in time for about an hour of music before we had to go to dinner. I had made a booking at a classy restaurant in the morning and could only get a 6:30 time.
After seeing the town, we headed South through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is a large area of limestone "land". Many different species of plants from tropic to arctic collect and grow here. Needless to say it was a very rocky area and there were plenty of rock walls here as there seem to be in all of Ireland. If they don't use rock to wall off their small plats, they used hedge, bush and small trees.
We travelled many small roads to get to the cliffs. Quite the scene when we arrived as we were high above the water. The only down side was that it was cloudy and rainy off and on, which uncharacteristically, we have not generally experienced while here. We have had many more sunny days then cloudy/rainy.
The sight of these cliffs is not easy to describe and I encourage anyone interested to explore the pictures. Must be quite the tourist attraction as they had just completed a big new tourist center with restaurant, gift shop and exhibition.
They do have a fishing industry on the coast. One area is noted for its oysters and I was lucky enough to have them for dinner. Nan and I shared a seafood tower, which amounted to a 3 tiered dish of local fish, crab, oysters, etc. Excellent and of course expensive.
Our B&B was in a small town just outside of Galway North called Salthill. Instead of music in pubs, it had a few casinos.
For those of you not having had the pleasure of a Europe B&B, they turn off the heat at night, so those who haven't ever travelled in the off seasons have a treat in store if you ever do.
Sunday we headed North to the area know as Connemara, which is name given to the region probably due to the location of a large national park by that name. Our tour book author, Rick Steves' believes this the most typical Irish countryside in Ireland. We found a site that he failed to identify outside Clifden called Sky Road, which took us high above the coast on a circle route. Very narrow roads, but lots of sheep farming.
We stopped at Letterfrack for a break. Alex had lunch while some had dessert. Guinness for me. Was a quaint place. Next we stopped at Kylemore Abbey, which was a large Castle (see pics) that had been used at one time as a girls school. You must have been a big problem to someone to be sent to this isolated area. We spent some time here as they had a large gift shop with a 25% off the contents.
Good Evening
Joe
When we arrived in Galway, later then planned, we had to find a place to eat. The town, like many, is laid out with no plan in mind. Streets in 3 blocks will have 3 different names and will never go straight. Once again we drove around a bit not knowing where we were. We kept circling the town center. Finally when we stopped to get our bearings, we found we were where we wanted to be and found a parking spot nearby.
However, once again, the nicer restaurants were booked. Believe it or not we ended up at Cactus Jacks-yep serving Tex Mex. Good food, but not a decent beer in the house.
I hope to have some new pictures updated in couple of days. This area, including the town of Galway, was pretty much the highlight of our excursions so far. The town is 60,000 and is the "capital" of the region. Saturday morning and early afternoon, we spent walking the medieval streets, where shopping, pubs and restaurants were all intermixed on walking only streets. Saturday includes a year round market of crafts and local vendors on some of the side streets. Was very interesting to see what they were selling. In addition to reminding us of TC's farmers market, they had many local made crafts on sale.
In the evening many of the pubs offer live music, some two sessions at 5 and 9:30 and some just at 9:30. We were able to get back from our Cliffs of Moher trip in time for about an hour of music before we had to go to dinner. I had made a booking at a classy restaurant in the morning and could only get a 6:30 time.
After seeing the town, we headed South through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is a large area of limestone "land". Many different species of plants from tropic to arctic collect and grow here. Needless to say it was a very rocky area and there were plenty of rock walls here as there seem to be in all of Ireland. If they don't use rock to wall off their small plats, they used hedge, bush and small trees.
We travelled many small roads to get to the cliffs. Quite the scene when we arrived as we were high above the water. The only down side was that it was cloudy and rainy off and on, which uncharacteristically, we have not generally experienced while here. We have had many more sunny days then cloudy/rainy.
The sight of these cliffs is not easy to describe and I encourage anyone interested to explore the pictures. Must be quite the tourist attraction as they had just completed a big new tourist center with restaurant, gift shop and exhibition.
They do have a fishing industry on the coast. One area is noted for its oysters and I was lucky enough to have them for dinner. Nan and I shared a seafood tower, which amounted to a 3 tiered dish of local fish, crab, oysters, etc. Excellent and of course expensive.
Our B&B was in a small town just outside of Galway North called Salthill. Instead of music in pubs, it had a few casinos.
For those of you not having had the pleasure of a Europe B&B, they turn off the heat at night, so those who haven't ever travelled in the off seasons have a treat in store if you ever do.
Sunday we headed North to the area know as Connemara, which is name given to the region probably due to the location of a large national park by that name. Our tour book author, Rick Steves' believes this the most typical Irish countryside in Ireland. We found a site that he failed to identify outside Clifden called Sky Road, which took us high above the coast on a circle route. Very narrow roads, but lots of sheep farming.
We stopped at Letterfrack for a break. Alex had lunch while some had dessert. Guinness for me. Was a quaint place. Next we stopped at Kylemore Abbey, which was a large Castle (see pics) that had been used at one time as a girls school. You must have been a big problem to someone to be sent to this isolated area. We spent some time here as they had a large gift shop with a 25% off the contents.
Good Evening
Joe
Thursday, February 8, 2007
February 8th
Would you believe it snowed here today? Not much in quantity, but enough to mess up the airways and slosh up the walking. We have had such great weather with several days of sun, but cold. Today woke up to rain, which soon turned to snow.
Tomorrow, I believe we are headed for the West coast and the Galway area with the girls and Alex, so I'll have that to report on when we get back. Bet you can hardly wait.
For those interested in my beer drinking experiences, we went to a pub tonight that had Bearmish on tap, which is an Irish Stout. Not bad.
Later!
Joe
Tomorrow, I believe we are headed for the West coast and the Galway area with the girls and Alex, so I'll have that to report on when we get back. Bet you can hardly wait.
For those interested in my beer drinking experiences, we went to a pub tonight that had Bearmish on tap, which is an Irish Stout. Not bad.
Later!
Joe
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Monday, February 5, 2007
Weekend Update thru February 4
First, short message about watching the Bears, not Da Bears. We returned from solo weekend in time to attend the Irish Band night at the local pub before going to Carrie's associates house 4 doors down for the Super Bowl party. They are from Corvallis, too, and had invited other Oregon people in addition to some of the Irish associates. None of the latter attended probably because of the hour (game didn't start until 11pm), but also fog rolled into the area during the day and travel was edgy at best.
Was tough to sit through the game especially after such a promising beginning. One of the unfortunate issues was that we had to watch a British broadcast who used Don Johnson, of Miami Vice fame, as a color commentator and two ex-NFL guys. To say the least they were bad, which didn't make suffering through the game any easier. Wonder what Lovey really thinks of Rex now.
In the end, they did have an interesting run.
As for our weekend, we were able to take the train into Dublin and a tram to Avis in South Dublin, while only having to walk 4 blocks (Carrie took us to train on her way to work).
Rental insurance is a big issue here as credit card issuers don't cover CDW as everywhere else and if you have driven in Ireland or even just ridden here, you know why. I was able to get a somewhat reasonable rate on base level stick shift with a special all inclusive rate.
Having ridden with Carrie for almost a month, I felt I was ready for the left side driving issue. Right out of the box, I pulled a right, left look exiting Avis and almost got plastered by a SUV. We headed directly for the water, which meant I made no turns for a long way. After couple of scrapes with the curb in some early towns, the rest of the weekend driving was mostly uneventful including some one lane roads. Had a few wrong turns, but otherwise it went well.
We headed to Dun Laoghaire, which is a major ferry port on the south edge of Dublin. Passed through some pretty major upscale residential areas and few of the embassies in the process. Some really beautiful "mansions". Drove the coast road, not a highway, down to Bray, where we headed inland to Enniskerry and the Powerscourt Gardens. They are part of a large estate that burned in the mid 70's, leaving mostly just the stone structure standing. It is being restored with patience, but the gardens have been maintained. Of course they are not in our climate zone, so none of the seeds would work in our area. They had incorporated some specialty shops within some of the reclaimed space and seemed to be getting a lot of activity on a beautiful sunny Friday.
Sorry I can't remember all the details, but suffice to say it was a beautiful sight. We moved on back roads in the Wicklow mountain range. I mentioned previously about planning to visit Wickford, Wexford and Waterford, but it was Wicklow and I ended up driving a Nissan, though had a choice of a Ford Fiesta. The next stop on a military road through the mountains was Glencree, which had a surprise enclave not in the tour books. A Peace and Reconciliation enclave exists in this village in an old stone structure that they have been slowly restoring. The P&R part refers to bringing together youth from both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland to attempt peace and reconciliation. They live very modestly in the area. Was quite an interesting find to include two of the Peace Poles that are manufactured in Maple City outside of Traverse City. As many know, we spend a lot of our time in the car exploring, sometimes blindly, and this time we had an interesting find.
Our "tour guide", Rick Steve's Ireland, had proved to been a good use, with few surprises or let downs. We had a bit of a fright, when we thought it had fallen out of the car at one of our stops. Found it under a pile on the back floor, when we were able to stop and get out to look.
We continued on the military road through Sallys Gap, a barren, peat boggy area that is Ireland's mountain region. After short run, decided to head back to the coast and on to Wexford, where we spent the night. This is when we were without Rick for awhile and I covered every street in this little town trying to find something decent to stay in. Finally found a B&B of some size right at the entrance to the town where I turned left instead of right where it was.
One thing we have found travelling on weekends in high traffic towns, is that for good eating, you need a "booking". Only took two stops this time before we got to eat, but ended up a bit too upscale. Again, everything is too expensive. Ended up with a Linguine dinner, cheapest on the menu, a beer and wine for $65 and the room was another $100. Sure glad the market is up.
Though we thought we had planned out our trip, we are constantly changing plans. We asked the young woman at the B&B where she would go and she hyped Kilkenny. So we decided not to go further South. Moved on towards Kilkenny, stopping at New Ross, where the Kennedy Trust had financed the building of a "famine" ship and had it moored on the river. Was quite interesting to see how 2-400 starved Irish lived for their voyage to the US and how the boat is constructed. The original ship that this was modeled from had a Captain who had a medical background and he had unmatched success at getting his charges to their destination alive.
The woman running this exhibit, recommended strongly that we go back South to Waterford as though the crystal factory was not open, its store was. So off we went in the opposite direction of Kilkenny.
The drive anywhere here is of course a new adventure and surprisingly continually changing surround. The Waterford store was interesting, but they don't keep seconds. All imperfections are destroyed. They did highlight items that are not available in the US and they sell everything they make in the store in addition to some other lines of crystal. One interesting exhibit for my golfing friends is the Ryder Cup exhibit. Not only replicas of trophies, but lots of paraphernalia, like jackets, golf bags and pictures. Nan did purchase a small vase, but not what she might have wanted if money was no object.
Since we were now somewhat South, County Cork was only 2 hours further South, so off we went. Our destination was Kinsale south of Cork. There is a fort there that the British occupied until the 30's. It originally was built at the mouth of the harbor to protect the harbor. Eventually they used it for housing of troops stationed in the area.
Kinsale was a "Saugatuck" type community. On February 3, they were sailing in the harbor and bay area. Temp with sun was probably in the upper 30's. This we believe was the area where the fishing trawler had gone down in the past month. We walked the streets and shops.
Before we had left Wexford that morning, we had made a reservation at a guest house in Kilkenny, which was another 2 hours North. We still wanted to visit Cobh on the East side of Cork harbor and a bit of a drive from Kinsale. We hoped to find a quaint place for dinner as it is the port where many of the ships left with immigrants to other countries. When we arrived, only many pubs (booze only), couple of really upscale restaurants and one Hong Kong restaurant. So, China buddies, we chose Hong Kong. Though it wasn't what we had been wanting, the service was fast and the food excellent. One aside for those wine connoisseurs, Chile wine is their low priced constant on the menus.
On to Kilkenny for the night, where we came in on a different road from our directions and proceeded to drive right by the guest house twice. Part of the confusion was a building of a similar name next door to the guest house that kept throwing me off. These were the best accommodations outside of Maynooth, that we have had on our ventures. Coincidentally they supplied a continental breakfast in the room. I was quite thirsty after the long drives, so I ventured out to find couple of beers and something for Nan. Turned out the reason the young woman thought so much of Kilkenny was the night life. The young people were everywhere on the street dressed unbelievably again because of the cold. We had frost in Wexford and the next already that night. Girls were in short skirts and bare shoulders. Guess maybe they had the alcohol to keep them warm.
Needless to say, the walk through the downtown streets was quite interesting, especially since the off license store had closed between the time I had drove by and walked to it. Did find something in the Irish chain store called Dunnes, which had a separate department for booze and long lines of young people stocking up for a long night. It was already 9:30.
The next day we toured the Kilkenny Castle, which again had been left by the owners to fall to ruin. Again the Irish government was attempting to restore and maintain. Was quite a structure on the banks of a river. We walked the streets for a bit visiting a couple of shops that were opened, most weren't. One store of interest was a book store off the main drag where I found several copies of Michael Moore's new book on Bush.
As an aside, many Irish have made positive remarks to us about Americans and negative remarks to us about our President. Surprise!
Back in the car for more back road exploring. On to Bennettsbridge and Thomastown. At Bennettsbridge, the attraction was the Nicolas Mosse pottery operation. They did have seconds, but discounted them all of 10% and many were obvioulsy seconds. Actually ended up buying a linen table cloth for the patio. In addition to very interesting scenery and landscape, the small towns are each different and interesting in and of themselves. Perhaps one of the highlights here was the scene of a huge flat bed truck carrying a large Cat bull dozer laying into the side of a house on a sharp curve of a narrow road in Thomastown. Not sure how they were going to extricate it, but they were working hard at it. The streets in this town were so narrow, they had turned them into one way.
On to Castlecomer, North of Kilkenny (you guys need a map?), by way of back roads again. We continually run in to long stretches of stone walls in the middle of what appears to be nowhere and crumbling stone structures that obviously date back many hundreds of years. The objective for Castlecomer was a craft house, which of course turned out to be closed, even though the sign on the door said "OPEN". The drive was fun, though I miss my driving gloves.
We mapped out our return to Maynooth and hoped to find a pub along the way that was serving all day. Unfortunately, every town seemed to only have a pub without food. Eventually we ended up South of Newbridge. When we entered the pub, where it was obvious that food was being served along with the broadcasting of soccer games, the management ushered us through a door into a restaurant adjacent for families. Though we were quite disappointed in the loss of atmosphere, the food was good. Sorry if I mention food a lot, but its me.
As for pictures of this adventure, I am going to have to work on that and try to create my own sight that I can link similar to Carrie's. Since it is now a bit late here, I'll save this for tomorrow night.
Hope all our friends and family in Michigan are surviving the cold. Take a spill in the snow for us.
Good Night
Joe
Was tough to sit through the game especially after such a promising beginning. One of the unfortunate issues was that we had to watch a British broadcast who used Don Johnson, of Miami Vice fame, as a color commentator and two ex-NFL guys. To say the least they were bad, which didn't make suffering through the game any easier. Wonder what Lovey really thinks of Rex now.
In the end, they did have an interesting run.
As for our weekend, we were able to take the train into Dublin and a tram to Avis in South Dublin, while only having to walk 4 blocks (Carrie took us to train on her way to work).
Rental insurance is a big issue here as credit card issuers don't cover CDW as everywhere else and if you have driven in Ireland or even just ridden here, you know why. I was able to get a somewhat reasonable rate on base level stick shift with a special all inclusive rate.
Having ridden with Carrie for almost a month, I felt I was ready for the left side driving issue. Right out of the box, I pulled a right, left look exiting Avis and almost got plastered by a SUV. We headed directly for the water, which meant I made no turns for a long way. After couple of scrapes with the curb in some early towns, the rest of the weekend driving was mostly uneventful including some one lane roads. Had a few wrong turns, but otherwise it went well.
We headed to Dun Laoghaire, which is a major ferry port on the south edge of Dublin. Passed through some pretty major upscale residential areas and few of the embassies in the process. Some really beautiful "mansions". Drove the coast road, not a highway, down to Bray, where we headed inland to Enniskerry and the Powerscourt Gardens. They are part of a large estate that burned in the mid 70's, leaving mostly just the stone structure standing. It is being restored with patience, but the gardens have been maintained. Of course they are not in our climate zone, so none of the seeds would work in our area. They had incorporated some specialty shops within some of the reclaimed space and seemed to be getting a lot of activity on a beautiful sunny Friday.
Sorry I can't remember all the details, but suffice to say it was a beautiful sight. We moved on back roads in the Wicklow mountain range. I mentioned previously about planning to visit Wickford, Wexford and Waterford, but it was Wicklow and I ended up driving a Nissan, though had a choice of a Ford Fiesta. The next stop on a military road through the mountains was Glencree, which had a surprise enclave not in the tour books. A Peace and Reconciliation enclave exists in this village in an old stone structure that they have been slowly restoring. The P&R part refers to bringing together youth from both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland to attempt peace and reconciliation. They live very modestly in the area. Was quite an interesting find to include two of the Peace Poles that are manufactured in Maple City outside of Traverse City. As many know, we spend a lot of our time in the car exploring, sometimes blindly, and this time we had an interesting find.
Our "tour guide", Rick Steve's Ireland, had proved to been a good use, with few surprises or let downs. We had a bit of a fright, when we thought it had fallen out of the car at one of our stops. Found it under a pile on the back floor, when we were able to stop and get out to look.
We continued on the military road through Sallys Gap, a barren, peat boggy area that is Ireland's mountain region. After short run, decided to head back to the coast and on to Wexford, where we spent the night. This is when we were without Rick for awhile and I covered every street in this little town trying to find something decent to stay in. Finally found a B&B of some size right at the entrance to the town where I turned left instead of right where it was.
One thing we have found travelling on weekends in high traffic towns, is that for good eating, you need a "booking". Only took two stops this time before we got to eat, but ended up a bit too upscale. Again, everything is too expensive. Ended up with a Linguine dinner, cheapest on the menu, a beer and wine for $65 and the room was another $100. Sure glad the market is up.
Though we thought we had planned out our trip, we are constantly changing plans. We asked the young woman at the B&B where she would go and she hyped Kilkenny. So we decided not to go further South. Moved on towards Kilkenny, stopping at New Ross, where the Kennedy Trust had financed the building of a "famine" ship and had it moored on the river. Was quite interesting to see how 2-400 starved Irish lived for their voyage to the US and how the boat is constructed. The original ship that this was modeled from had a Captain who had a medical background and he had unmatched success at getting his charges to their destination alive.
The woman running this exhibit, recommended strongly that we go back South to Waterford as though the crystal factory was not open, its store was. So off we went in the opposite direction of Kilkenny.
The drive anywhere here is of course a new adventure and surprisingly continually changing surround. The Waterford store was interesting, but they don't keep seconds. All imperfections are destroyed. They did highlight items that are not available in the US and they sell everything they make in the store in addition to some other lines of crystal. One interesting exhibit for my golfing friends is the Ryder Cup exhibit. Not only replicas of trophies, but lots of paraphernalia, like jackets, golf bags and pictures. Nan did purchase a small vase, but not what she might have wanted if money was no object.
Since we were now somewhat South, County Cork was only 2 hours further South, so off we went. Our destination was Kinsale south of Cork. There is a fort there that the British occupied until the 30's. It originally was built at the mouth of the harbor to protect the harbor. Eventually they used it for housing of troops stationed in the area.
Kinsale was a "Saugatuck" type community. On February 3, they were sailing in the harbor and bay area. Temp with sun was probably in the upper 30's. This we believe was the area where the fishing trawler had gone down in the past month. We walked the streets and shops.
Before we had left Wexford that morning, we had made a reservation at a guest house in Kilkenny, which was another 2 hours North. We still wanted to visit Cobh on the East side of Cork harbor and a bit of a drive from Kinsale. We hoped to find a quaint place for dinner as it is the port where many of the ships left with immigrants to other countries. When we arrived, only many pubs (booze only), couple of really upscale restaurants and one Hong Kong restaurant. So, China buddies, we chose Hong Kong. Though it wasn't what we had been wanting, the service was fast and the food excellent. One aside for those wine connoisseurs, Chile wine is their low priced constant on the menus.
On to Kilkenny for the night, where we came in on a different road from our directions and proceeded to drive right by the guest house twice. Part of the confusion was a building of a similar name next door to the guest house that kept throwing me off. These were the best accommodations outside of Maynooth, that we have had on our ventures. Coincidentally they supplied a continental breakfast in the room. I was quite thirsty after the long drives, so I ventured out to find couple of beers and something for Nan. Turned out the reason the young woman thought so much of Kilkenny was the night life. The young people were everywhere on the street dressed unbelievably again because of the cold. We had frost in Wexford and the next already that night. Girls were in short skirts and bare shoulders. Guess maybe they had the alcohol to keep them warm.
Needless to say, the walk through the downtown streets was quite interesting, especially since the off license store had closed between the time I had drove by and walked to it. Did find something in the Irish chain store called Dunnes, which had a separate department for booze and long lines of young people stocking up for a long night. It was already 9:30.
The next day we toured the Kilkenny Castle, which again had been left by the owners to fall to ruin. Again the Irish government was attempting to restore and maintain. Was quite a structure on the banks of a river. We walked the streets for a bit visiting a couple of shops that were opened, most weren't. One store of interest was a book store off the main drag where I found several copies of Michael Moore's new book on Bush.
As an aside, many Irish have made positive remarks to us about Americans and negative remarks to us about our President. Surprise!
Back in the car for more back road exploring. On to Bennettsbridge and Thomastown. At Bennettsbridge, the attraction was the Nicolas Mosse pottery operation. They did have seconds, but discounted them all of 10% and many were obvioulsy seconds. Actually ended up buying a linen table cloth for the patio. In addition to very interesting scenery and landscape, the small towns are each different and interesting in and of themselves. Perhaps one of the highlights here was the scene of a huge flat bed truck carrying a large Cat bull dozer laying into the side of a house on a sharp curve of a narrow road in Thomastown. Not sure how they were going to extricate it, but they were working hard at it. The streets in this town were so narrow, they had turned them into one way.
On to Castlecomer, North of Kilkenny (you guys need a map?), by way of back roads again. We continually run in to long stretches of stone walls in the middle of what appears to be nowhere and crumbling stone structures that obviously date back many hundreds of years. The objective for Castlecomer was a craft house, which of course turned out to be closed, even though the sign on the door said "OPEN". The drive was fun, though I miss my driving gloves.
We mapped out our return to Maynooth and hoped to find a pub along the way that was serving all day. Unfortunately, every town seemed to only have a pub without food. Eventually we ended up South of Newbridge. When we entered the pub, where it was obvious that food was being served along with the broadcasting of soccer games, the management ushered us through a door into a restaurant adjacent for families. Though we were quite disappointed in the loss of atmosphere, the food was good. Sorry if I mention food a lot, but its me.
As for pictures of this adventure, I am going to have to work on that and try to create my own sight that I can link similar to Carrie's. Since it is now a bit late here, I'll save this for tomorrow night.
Hope all our friends and family in Michigan are surviving the cold. Take a spill in the snow for us.
Good Night
Joe
Thursday, February 1, 2007
February 1st-on the town in Maynooth
The girls took Alex into Dublin for a showing of Mother Goose-a play, I think. Nan and I walked into town to take a walking tour of the old college, St. Patricks, which dates way back and got its start as a school for Irish priests. Saw a statute given by the city of LA for all the Irish priests who helped them out.
We have observed that a lot of old buildings are under refurbishing-another indication of how much money is here in Ireland. Parts of an old castle are adjacent to the grounds and was once owned by the Earl of Kildare who also lived in the castle on the grounds of where we are staying. The town has put together a walking tour book, which we used to try and identify buildings on the grounds of the college, which is now part of the University of Ireland and has a new campus that includes typical programs in addition to theology.
We took a rest in the mall in the middle of town and did a bit of people watching which is always fun. Then we walked to a pub. We have found you can never be in a hurry in a pub or restaurant in Ireland. And you can never leave unless you ask for your check. I believe we spent close to 2 hours. I had another "heart attack" special they call Mixed Grill.
I forgot to mention that while in Portrush, I had Haggis, Neers and Tasties for dinner. Haggis you can look up, but it tasted and looked like a big meat loaf (it wasn't), the Neers was squash and Tasties, mashed potatoes.
Also, we constantly hear 80's music playing in all the public places, whether malls or stores.
We're off on our first solo venture tomorrow heading south of Dublin along the east coast to places like Wickford, Wexford and Waterford. Will probably be driving a Ford. :)
Sure hope the TC house makes it through the cold weather planned for this weekend.
We're hoping to attend a Super Bowl party to be held by one of Carrie's associates who is here from Oregon and lives few doors away. They are starting at 8pm, but the game doesn't start until 11pm here. Hope they know they can get it, because I tried to find it here and couldn't. They may be planning on using simulcast through a TV.
Anyway, here's hoping the Bears do it like before.
For all you Mah Jongg Mavens, Nan finally one a game after going through quite a desperate dry period.
Later!
Joe
We have observed that a lot of old buildings are under refurbishing-another indication of how much money is here in Ireland. Parts of an old castle are adjacent to the grounds and was once owned by the Earl of Kildare who also lived in the castle on the grounds of where we are staying. The town has put together a walking tour book, which we used to try and identify buildings on the grounds of the college, which is now part of the University of Ireland and has a new campus that includes typical programs in addition to theology.
We took a rest in the mall in the middle of town and did a bit of people watching which is always fun. Then we walked to a pub. We have found you can never be in a hurry in a pub or restaurant in Ireland. And you can never leave unless you ask for your check. I believe we spent close to 2 hours. I had another "heart attack" special they call Mixed Grill.
I forgot to mention that while in Portrush, I had Haggis, Neers and Tasties for dinner. Haggis you can look up, but it tasted and looked like a big meat loaf (it wasn't), the Neers was squash and Tasties, mashed potatoes.
Also, we constantly hear 80's music playing in all the public places, whether malls or stores.
We're off on our first solo venture tomorrow heading south of Dublin along the east coast to places like Wickford, Wexford and Waterford. Will probably be driving a Ford. :)
Sure hope the TC house makes it through the cold weather planned for this weekend.
We're hoping to attend a Super Bowl party to be held by one of Carrie's associates who is here from Oregon and lives few doors away. They are starting at 8pm, but the game doesn't start until 11pm here. Hope they know they can get it, because I tried to find it here and couldn't. They may be planning on using simulcast through a TV.
Anyway, here's hoping the Bears do it like before.
For all you Mah Jongg Mavens, Nan finally one a game after going through quite a desperate dry period.
Later!
Joe
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