Don't forget Dingle

Seeing that we missed out on the Kerry Ring we decided to drive ourselves around the Dingle Ring. Since we are talking about rings, the song that we have heard the most in the pubs has been "Ring of Fire! So many different versions. We didn't realise it was so popular here.

Inch was one of the first places we stopped as it had a surf beach with plenty of wind and a cute kite. Inch was also the location for the movie "Ryans Daughter". Paul found a kombi driver who was happy to talk about his left hand drive kombi that he imported from the USA.

Dingle is where the ocean dominates the scenery rather than the cliffs, as in the ring of Kerry. Lots of seafood restaurants and shops near the water. Not far along we stopped for a bite to eat and noticed that across the road was the Dunbeg Fort which is an Iron Age fort which sits upon a sea cliff.  The fort has a number of outer walls made from stone and the remains of a house and a beehive hut. I am sure most farmers discover these little gems when moving livestock and then place a kiosk for us tourists to pay and visit. I guess it is a good way to help top up your cash income. Sometimes you wonder if some of the stones and monuments have been placed in fields by the entrepreneur gentry.

The Connor Pass which is Ireland's highest mountain pass was an absolutely thrilling butt clenching drive. I did take a little movie of this however on playing it back it is not fit for publication due to me saying feck too many times. Some of the feck'n was due to the amount of sheep on the road and wondering how the hell they got there in the first place, other drivers being just stupid and me praising Paul as he was doing a great job at the wheel looking at the road rather than the scenery.
Sheer relief when we reached the flat road again.

We decided to call into Tralee as everyone had been talking about the "Rose of Tralee" at various stages of our journey. We did a loop into the town centre when I noticed about 4 lovely looking young ladies dressed in red gowns hop into a mini van taxi. Another old local guy who also noticed them started  yelling to everyone around  about them being the roses and wishing them all the luck in the world. Paul decides in a split second to follow the cab. Yes, he did do this much to my disbelief.

Beehive huts known as famine houses

A donkey shelter

Bus shelter in Dingle

One of the amazing views around the Dingle Peninsula

Paul loves a kombi

Stockings and garter kite at Inch

Fort Dunbeg

Blennerville windmill outside Tralee

Driver of the year.

Reserve your parking outside your house in Tralee.

Might try this in Gregory Street.

Roses of Tralee.....follow that taxi!

One of the many holy pit stops on the side of the road.

Surfs up at Inch. My interpretation on how long an inch is.

Same, same but different.

Kilarney...... Susan you are going nowhere and Paul becomes a groupie.

After all our little detours along the way it was around 6pm before we arrived into Killarney. Somehow I knew we were not going to fluke a bed here at a little B and B. IT was madness with heaps of tourists like ourselves gathering in the centre of the town. Finding a car park we decided to walk the streets looking for a bed. After a lot of disappointments we walked into Tatler Jack's, a pub with lots of people drinking and eating which was a good sign for being a popular place. The price of the rooms were very cheap and I should have known by this it was going to be budget accommodation. All I can say is the sheets were clean, the bedspread was covered in cigarette burns, and I think a bird or two at times had taken shelter here when the window had been left over. All worked out well as we spent very little time in the room as we were too busy occupied by other things that happened on our first night.

Off to the tourist office to book a tour for the Ring of Kerry the next day, and Paul found out where the famous Liam O'Connor was performing as this was a must do on his list. If you know who Liam O'Connor is skip down to the next paragraph. I sure didn't know who this guy was however we were off and running to the venue he was playing at. Purchased the tickets, front row seats on the side of the stage, lights out, video of Maureen O'Hara introducing Liam to the audience, around of applause and then a figure in a black leather jacket with Celtic designs, velvet black pants and playing an accordion steps onto the stage. The crowd goes wild, whistling and calling out. I turn to my right and it's Paul happy to be seeing the Guinness Record holder who has the fastest key stroke in the world playing just for him. I didn't realise then but when I look back Paul was showing the first signs of becoming a Groupie. The show was very entertaining with Irish Dancers (with one being Liam's daughter) a solo  singer and the band which consisted of a keyboard, guitar, fiddler and a drummer (Liam's 15year old son). After the show Paul says he wants to hang around and meet Liam (groupie trait) and let him know that he came all the way from Australia to see him. The long and the short of it was complimentary tickets for the next show. The groupie was pretty pleased with himself and I was pretty pleased that he was pleased.

After all this excitement we decided to grab our overnight bag from the boot. I had tucked my passport into my case in the boot as I didn't want to carry it around with me at different times. Anyway I thought this was a good time for me to retrieve it from my case and pop it back into my little satchel that I wear over my shoulder. In between asking Paul to hold my passport and him giving it back to me it wasn't until we got into our room I noticed that I didn't have it. We went back to the car unpacked my case searched through the boot retraced our steps but to no avail. Went back to the hotel room searched through our overnight bag, went back to the car repeated what we had already done and came to the conclusion that my passport had disappeared into thin air. All I could think about was that there would be no trip to Portugal. Maybe I would be stuck in Ireland...... I could live with that.

We found the Garda headquarters and to our surprise the front door was open, however, we could hear lots of screaming and carrying on coming from an office in the back. We worked out that the officers were keeping an eye on the school leavers by way of CCTV as tonight was the night that all the leavers had received their results and were celebrating in downtown Killarney. Eventually an officer came to the desk and took down a brief statement from me and said that I would need to go to the Australian Embassy in Dublin. Paul and I walked out the door resigned to the fact that our Ring of Kerry tour was off and that we would be having tea and scones with the Australian Consulate in Dublin.  I imagined for a split second that I heard my name being called out by the Garda but continued on down the steps. "Susan Connolly, Susan Connolly we have found your passport" whispered the wind, turning I noticed that the Garda was indeed chasing us holding up my missing black crocheted bag. "See how efficient we Irish are. Your bag had been handed to a security guard at Scott's Hotel". There are very few occasions that I get down on my knees and look to the heavens and thank the Cod Almighty - but this was one of them. To help ease the relief we continued to party at Tatler Jack's to the wee small hours of the morning.

The anticipation of being on the bus touring the Ring of Kerry didn't last long as the rain was there to greet us first thing the next day. The Paddy Wagon tour was Paul and I, along with 50 other tourists looking out the bus window and seeing absolutely nothing but grey wet windows. The funniest comments were from the bus driver who kept saying "Take my word for it there is a nice view of a lake over there, or a nice little beach down there". The back of my eyelids won out in the end and I resigned myself to the fact it was probably going to be wet and miserable most of the tour. First wet day in 6 weeks and I thought that this was a fair enough trade off for getting my passport back.

One of the first towns on the ring depending which way you go is Killorglin where they have a Puck Fair Festival at the beginning of August. This fair dates back to the early 1600's where a Billy goat, poe or puck is made King for the duration of the event. He is apparently hoisted up on a pedestal with his horns ordained with ribbons. The horns are engraved to enable another puck to be chosen the following year, sharing it around from one goat to the next. I think the mall in Geraldton could do with a little festival like this and we could all nominate a "two legged" puck to sit up on a pedestal. Maybe this could be incorporated into the Sunshine Festival. Tour concluded, we were off to see the man with the fastest fingers in the world again. Definition of a Groupie = Paul Connolly.

The streets of Killarney on Leavers night.

Lynn and John from Limerick celebrating with me

on getting my passport back.

Paddy Wagon tour of the Ring of Kerry with me

looking at the back of my eyelids most of the day.

Groupie in the rain....I didn't take this photo!

Ring of Kerry.

King Puck

thank you

Krazy Kilkenny and an Alfred Hitchcock moment

 

Driving into Cashel and having the Rock of Cashel

Block your view. A very impressive place. 

 

Paul sizing up the top of a cross that had fallen down

after being struck by lightening.

 

Paul relaxing in Miracoco

Designer shoes in the Kilkenny Design Centre.

 

The outside of Miracoco

 

more fun inside

 

The pub in Kilkenny we drained dry.

Moving on from our crystal fix we drove into peak hour Kilkenny and I said to Paul I can remember something about an event or festival that takes place here in Kilkenny in August. The event is the Kilkenny Arts festival and it suddenly dawns on you that this place is going to be like this for the duration of the festival. Very busy, lots of street entertainment, artists by the bucket full, noisy crowded pubs and pavement pizza is one way to describe this place. We just happened to see a small side street with advertised parking so on a fluke we got a park and then noticed a small B and B close by with easy access to pubs and eating places. Lucky for us there was a bed at the Inn right where all the action was taking place. It was suggested by our new hostess Eimer that we take a tour of Kilkenny to help us get our bearings.

Kilkenny is a medieval City and has a riverside castle, lots of roadside shop fronts and is also known as the "marble city" because of the local black limestone, which resembles a slate coloured marble. Walking in the castle grounds we stumbled across an amazing air sculpture (a sophisticated bouncy castle.....no bouncing allowed in this case). The leaflet we were given reads as follows. Miracoco luminarium is a sculpture people enter to be immersed in radiant light and colour. Since 1992 Architects of Air's luminaria have enchanted over 2 million visitors in 37 countries around the world, blah blah blah. We only stayed the one night here and departed late afternoon heading closer to Cork.

With out much thought we ended up on a road leading to Cashel which happens to have a big rock so we thought. This place was a big surprise as the Rock of Cashel turned into being this amazing place with an abbey and other buildings.. We quickly parked the car picked up our jaws that had dropped and headed up towards the rock. One of the best tour guides we have had so far explained all about this place. When we parked the car we once again jagged a B and B next to where we were.

Our new host greeted us and was a very polite and funny gentleman. I did wonder there for a moment if his surname was Bates as he kept referring to his Mother, however, we didn’t get to see her even though we thought we heard her. I felt much more relaxed when I checked out the bathroom and thankfully there was no shower curtain and no scary music.
As we wanted to see the meteor shower we set our alarm for 1am but didn’t get out of bed until 3am and headed back up to the rock. We only saw two shooting stars as there was a lot of cloud cover.

PAUL'S PARAGRAPH........Castle of Cahir was a recommendation from Norman, I mean Patrick, so this was our next stop before heading to the Mitchelstown Caves.  These are a privately owned, privately funded natural phenomena that was accidentally discovered by the farmer owner when trying to prise up a rock with his crow bar in the late 1800's - not a bad little earner and they won't let you take photos inside so that you buy there little 2 euro booklet - worked on me! Reminds me of when I pulled Susan's leg about taking some 'illegal' photos at Rossborough House when all I did was take photos of posters in their café when Suzie was in the loo!!!!!!!

 Next stop Killarney, and a 'passport' scare, aka - 'You ain't goin' nowhere'!

Whacky Wexford and talk about Hook, line and sinker.

Whacky Wexford is located on the most south-easterly tip of Ireland and boasts some 275kms of stunning coastline with golden sandy beaches, rocky headlands and more. It is a county steeped in history (like most of Ireland) featuring the finest castles and historic sites in Ireland…..to be sure to be sure…..I tink.

We have been staying at a small B and B (bed and bugs said one of Paul’s new friends he met on his morning walk) near Rosslare Harbour. The amount of traffic from the harbour indicates that every man and his dog must go in and out from this place. We had a visit to New Ross and went through the replica Dunbrody Famine Ship, the Emigrant Flame and the life size welcoming sculpture of JFK whose great-grandfather Patrick left for America in 1848 from this quay.

As JFK family hails from around these parts we visited the homestead the house he visited 5 months before he was assassinated. The splendid visitors centre at the original Kennedy Homestead offers visitors an audio-visual trip through history, to help tell the story of the famous US. President and his family. All in all I thought it was tastefully and respectively done. We then moved onto the Hook lighthouse which is the oldest operating lighthouse in the world. Climbed to the top to get a great view and to see if we could spot any whales.

Tea at a small place called Fethard on sea before heading back to the National Heritage Park just out of Wexford. I had seen a bat and moth night advertised on their website so turned up there at  9.30pm. Great fun and I now look at moths in another light …not the one they are drawn to. The bats were tiny and could be seen to be skimming just above the water’s surface to feed on the insects. We were able to catch sight of the 11 pm satellite and a falling star which got us talking about the meteor showers that were going to take place later on during the week. Late night home but well worth talking to all the Wexford Harry Butlers.

We visited Curracloe beach where ‘Saving Private Ryan” beach landing scenes were shot. We regretted not having our bathers with us as it was such a lovely sunny day and a swim would have been enjoyable……not that any other beach goers where in the water. In all the time we have been travelling around we always have a bit of a laugh about how people park on the opposite to chat or to just call into the shop. The best traffic jam is when the farmer drives his tractor into the town, pub or just because he can. The cars coming in the opposite direction always have to park up somewhere quick smart.

We said our goodbyes  to our host Aiden who advised us to go to Kilkenny and not to bother about Waterford. I had this thing about seeing the home of crystal so St Paul made a small detour just for me. It was well worth it and glad we did the tour of the factory. Some pieces are not my cup of tea, however, that might be because they are out of my price range. Paul reckons some of the pieces were disgracefully tacky. A cool 30,000 euros would make you the proud owner of a non realistic  grizzly bear. After our crystal fix I went off to the ladies in the Waterford Crystal building and came out saying to Paul "Wow they have even got toilet seats that look like they are made from crystal. The effect is amazing. You should go into the gents and take a photo". Off Paul goes into the gents with the camera! Off course I was pulling his leg. Not sure what the guy at the urinal thought when Paul walked in with camera in hand ......................!!!!

 

Paul out of pocket by €30,000

 

 

Interesting graffiti

 

When the tractors come to town

 

Dunbrody replica

 

The dog is asleep and so is the shepherd

 

MO7S is the code to the lifestyle here in County Wicklow

 

 

 

 

One of the friendly sheep grazing on the side of the road

 

A view near Sally Gap. Looking down onto a Viking film production.

Guinness family own this land. The ships had already been taken away.

 

We have seen lots of dogs whilst visiting areas. The best one was when we were in a tea room at Russborough House near Blessingdon and the lady had the dog under her arm whilst making her cuppa. Imagine if all the other 30 patrons had their dogs under their arms and were in the tea rooms. Gero you are so far behind the times!?????

 

 

Sudoku champ........ask him about MO7S?

Paul and I will be a little sad come Friday as it will be time to leave our little cottage here in Knockinarragan, County Wickford. We have enjoyed exploring the countryside around this area. The big decision will be deciding on where to next. The mountains, fields, wild flowers, wee cottages to grand homes, Irish pubs with live local musicians, great local food, lakes, rivers, windy roads, ruins, various monuments to brave men and women, brambles and the different shades of green everywhere you look will only be memories and photos as soon as we turn the key to the door and then hop into our car.

We enjoyed our visit to the Dwyer McAllister cottage named after Michael Dwyer and Sam McAllister which was only about 4k's from our cottage. The cottage is owned by the Government however the local farmer is the main caretaker and opens up the cottage for visitors daily from 2-6pm. If you feel inclined check out the story as Dwyer ended up in Australia. Unfortunately McAllister was killed and this enabled Dwyer to escape.

http://www.discoveringireland.com/vacations/dwyer-mcallister-cottage/


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

Friday (FNFC BACK IN GERO)

We have moved onto a small place near Rosslare Harbour, however, we are not catching a ferry from here. Wexford would be the closest city to us and Waterford is nearby as well. Time to discover this part of Ireland tomorrow as we are off to Cullutons for tea.

Then there is Paul who has been trying to work out the code on the roads here. MO7S? Easy isn’t it? Should I tell him? MO7S down you’re moving fast, you’ve got to make the morning last…..

 

Glendalough ....nearer my God to thee

   

 

Glendalough (pronounced Glendalock).

Glendalough, the valley of the two lakes, is renowned for its Early Medieval monastic settlements founded by St. Kevin in the 6^th century. I have to say the name Kevin doesn’t sit right with me as it conjures up Australian names with Kevin Bloody Wilson and Kevin Rudd as examples. Not sure if Ruddy is still in the top job as we haven’t seen any TV up here in these mountains. We have had another great day of just taking in all of this wonderful green countryside. Apart from the few little noises from me as the navigator to Paul, who has been doing most of the driving we are doing remarkably well, but then again Paul does have the patience of a Saint.

As I have had a little red wine, I will give you some info about Glendalough straight from the horse’s mouth = the brochure handed to us at the Visitors Centre. (I will do an abridge version though). Kevin was a descendant of one of the ruling families in Leinster, studied, as a boy, under the care of three holy men. During this time it is told he went to Glendalough and lived “In a hollow of a tree”. He was to return later, with a small group of monks to found a monastery. His fame as a holy man spread and he attracted numerous followers. He died in 618. For six centuries afterwards Glendalough flourished.

The present remains in Glendalough tell only a small part of the story. The Monastery in its heyday would have included workshops, areas for manuscript writing and copying, guest houses, an infirmary, farm buildings and dwellings for both monks and a large lay population. The buildings which survive probably date from between the 10^th and 12^th centuries.

It is a pretty amazing place to visit and it is free! We did do a small film and an exhibition before we tackled the sightseeing and it was only 5 euros for both of us as Paul got his seniors rate. No one asks for any ID to see if you have turned the big 60 and I am guessing that it is up to you to request the seniors rate as no one wants to assume that you are a senior and you’re not. (Like me). I was told that this is the second biggest tourist spot in Ireland and I can see why. What is the biggest attraction then? Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney stone, The Ring of Kerry……..to be continued to be sure to be sure. I will find out. The one disadvantage of being a top spot is apparently the number of break-ins to vehicles. I am now paranoid that our hire car will have a smashed window. St Paul (the Patron Saint of safe travel) is placing all objects of value into our boot. After clocking up a few k’s of walking we headed home via a different route with spectacular views….you never get tired of them.

Once we were home and items for our tea packed away in the fridge, St Paul decided that we should go for a walk to what was considered our local pub, via the short cut around the back of where we were staying. With our local dog “Star” joining us we set off down the track, passing the Military Land that no-one dares enter unless you were a sheep. Star’s mate from up the road tagged along so there we were two happy tourists with 2 local dogs going for a walk to the pub. OMG…the back road that is not accessible by car has pot holes galore, a small creek to cross, brambles that seem to come from nowhere  and empty bullet shells on the track to remind you that if you hear someone shout out the word  “duck” you need to do just that. This walk is going to be worth a couple of pints of Guinness I am thinking to myself as I start to froth at the mouth. We eventually hit the pub “Glen of Imaal” known to the locals as “Fentens”. I now know how Slim Dusty felt when he wrote the song “Pub with no beer”. The bloody pub was closed and I had another F word to describe it and it wasn’t failure! It had only taken us 50 minutes to walk there. The dogs seemed pretty happy though as they were still madly racing about. Chins up we tackled the journey home knowing that there was a good bottle of red at home with our names on it. Nearer my wine to me.

Over hill over Avondale we will hit the Irish walking trails

The two of us..... (photos at the end of the wee story)

We arrived in County Wickford after spending a couple of nights in Dublin with Mick, Leonie, Imogen and Mike and Ann. Dublin is a beautiful city and we have not done it justice for the short time we stayed there. It will be a city that we return to. Judy texted me a name of a restaurant "Winding Stair" that had a review in the Good Reading Magazine back in Australia. We were able to reserve a table for the 4 of us left in the City, which were Mike, Ann, Paul and myself. I am so glad that we booked as it was a very popular place as people were being turned away. The food was delicious and not that expensive. Great tip Judy, glad you are reading the subscription I gave you. 

Venturing out on our first day in County Wickford “The Irish Garden”. Avondale House and Forest Park was a complete surprise to us as we were heading off to visit Glendalough a famous monastery when we took the wrong turn which happens frequently here in Ireland especially to Paul and me. Our friends had left us with a Paddy Paddy aka Tom Tom, however, you are not always guaranteed a signal especially in the mountains where we started from.

The forest park is some 214 hectares and I reckon we walked at least 212 of them! The park lies on the west bank of Avonmore River and is lined with lovely towering conifers. As you walk along the River Trail you see where the trees are desperately hanging onto the earth as some parts of the riverbank have eroded. Some of the trees look like they could topple into the water at any moment. As we walked along there was evidence of where trees had been felled and a sign attached to the stump apologising to the public for this action. A note at the end of the apology stated that a new tree has been planted for the tree that needed to be chopped down. We did get caught in a couple of heavy showers of rain, however, we kept mostly dry as we had that many huge trees to choose from to stand under. Our raincoats were left in our knapsack back in our cottage! (I had my hands full with maps and other incidental items and I thought that Paul had picked up the knapsack and vice versa.)

Avondale House was built in 1777 for Samuel Hayes, a barrister, also known as the “tree man of Avondale”. His passion for trees led him to write a book on Irish Forestry. Avondale passed to the Parnell Family in 1795, and on 27 June 1846 when Ireland was in the grip of famine, Charles Stewart Parnell was born. Charles went into politics (not when he was a baby) but as a young man and went on to become one of the greatest leaders of modern Irish history. In O’Connell Street, Dublin, you can see a massive triangular obelisk of granite, fronted by a bronze statue of Charles Parnell – “The Uncrowned King of Ireland”.

Setting the Paddy Paddy, we ventured off to another close by attraction “Meeting of the Waters” before heading back to our accommodation. This is where the Avonmore (large river) meets Avonbeg (Small River). This area is another lovely picnic spot with tables and bbq’s for the locals and tourists to sit and enjoy the view of the rivers. It is also famous for the tree of “Thomas Moore” where the poet would sit and compose his poetry. Paulapedia fact - Thomas Moore is the Irish equivalent to “Robbie Burns” from Scotland. Moving on from here we stopped at Avoca where Ballykissangel series was filmed. The houses in the main street that were used in the production are all painted in beautiful soft colours and the street is well maintained. On our journey home when our Paddy Paddy died we only went around in a circle once. I was driving at this stage and mentioned to Paul that we needed to get around the mountains, soon enough we were back on the wee winding track that led us to Knockanarrigan and our accommodation. Another meal cooked by me, red wine and a movie on the life of Peter Sellers and we were ready for bed tired from the 212 hectares!

 

                                                           Avondale House

                                                  Ballykissangel - the main street in Avoca

 

Erosion on the bank of the river

 

Gatekeepers cottage at the entrance to Avondale House