Ireland, Part 3

So, on day 3 we drove the southern coast from Kinsale, to Bantry. We stopped at a fort (James Fort) just across the bay from Charles Fort. And then started down the coast. We stopped at a Friary at Timoleague, which was just fantastic. The interesting thing is that among the graves inside the church, they noted what part of the building it used to be, ie chapel, sacristy...

Then at the other end of the religious spectrum, we drove to a stone circle. We were using this map that came with the car, and it had some extra sights on it that I hadn't heard about before. So we would just drive towards this star on the map, and hope we found it. More often than not, we would be driving (a little lost) and then see a sign. This is a view from where the circle sits, it was just so picturesque, and ireland-ish.

One really neat place we went to see was the lighthouse at Mizen Head. It's the southwestern-most point of Ireland. To get there we drove down the peninsula, and almost got run off the road a couple of times by people driving on the wrong side of the road. Once we got there we had to walk across this bridge to get from the mainland to the little piece of island that had the lighthouse on it. It was so windy up there, but the sun was shining, and the ocean was so blue. If it would have been warmer, I would have thought we were in the carribean.

Ireland, Part 2

On day 2, our B&B hostess talked us out of taking the highway to Cork City and driving the scenic route (and not taking the Toll road). We ended up driving over the mountain behind the house, and I am so happy that we did. We just started winding up this huge hill, and passed many sheep. This really doesn't do it much justice, but I think the mist adds to the ambiance. The drive down to Cork City was really pretty. When we finally got to Cork City, we went to the Cork City Gaol, which was a Jail. It had a really neat audio tour, and we got to go into the cells and wander around. It was worth getting really lost for.

So, the roads in Cork City? Not labelled so much. The nice lady at the petrol station got us going in the right station. Side story, so, when we decided to visit Ireland, we knew we would probably be getting manual car. Well, I can't drive a manual so Brian and I had our roles. He drives, I navigate. So before we left I printed out lots of maps of the area. The one we used the most? The one that came with the car.

We drove down to Kinsale, which is a little resort town. It has this massive fort sitting on the hill over-looking the harbor. We had so much fun wandering the grounds of this fort. http://www.dochara.com/play/all/charles-fort.php

Ireland, Part 1

So, we went to Ireland for vacation in April, and I'm finally getting some of the pics up on the net. We flew out of JFK to Shannon, Ireland. The flight wasn't too bad, I even got some sleep. Well as much sleep as you can get sitting up, or twisted around to sleep on a flying partner. We rented this little car, a Ford Fiesta, and it was a party. A tiny party, with a surprising amount of trunk space. The first hour of driving was an adventure. Brian did really well with the manual, but getting used to the turns was tricky. When a traveler lands in Shannon, which is an airport straight out of the 70's, there are 4 round-abouts, and then you hit Limerick. Limerick is a fairly large town (in Ireland), and the streets are very narrow. For someone who had only been driving on the left for about 10 minutes, this was crazy intense. When we finally got to open highway we were so happy, and for me, I think it was the point when vacation finally started. The flights and picking up the car were still part of the planning process.



On the first day we went to The Rock of Cashel, which is a huge fortress on a hill, which is putting it mildly. And here's a neat view from the top of the hill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Cashel

After we wandered around for a while, and took way too many pictures, we drove down to Cahir. There we went to Cahir Castle. This was so interesting because they had alot of the building open. We could climb up on the walls, and climb the towers, and basically run free. It was fantastic.

We stayed that night in a B&B near Cahir, called the Ballyboy House. It was fantastic. The room was huge, and very quiet. Breeda pointed us towards a lovely pub for dinner.

http://www.dirl.com/tipperary/cahir/ballyboyhouse.htm

Whew!

What a busy weekend. Saturday morning was the Kansas City Corporate Challenge 5K. Let's just say that I'm happy that it will be another year before I have to 'run' 3 miles. My awesome friend Carrie got married on Saturday afternoon, and I am so happy for her. For Mother's Day, we went to The Husband's Grandparents house for a little BBQ. The Nephew picked some flowers, and everyone got some.

Wow 2 months

I guess I should really try to update this more often.

Ireland was wonderful, more on that later.

But last night, we had this horrible storm. It's not fun, waking up at 2AM thinking a tornado is outside. Some of our shingles blew off, our apple tree is no more, and a branch fell on The Husband's car. Thankfully, once we cut a few of the branches off, we could move the big branch part off, and there was only a small dent on the roof. yay.