Filed under: Kenmare
We drove to Kenmare for lunch and groceries one day. So here’s something you might want to know about Kenmare – you have to drive on the edge of a cliff on the left side of a tiny road to get there. Dad did an amazing job – but he and I were in the front and really I don’t think you could pick two worse people to lead the pack on top of a cliff.
It’s surprising how much the terrain actually feels like Cook County in Minnesota – except the mountains are bigger. Even with only one eye open I could see that it was beautiful. In fact we were driving in the area where the King of Kerry and Beara Way seem to overlap – or as Thin Lizzy might say – we were going over the Cork and Kerry Mountains.
Kenmare seemed like a nice enough town but I think our trip was overshadowed by the fact that we were going to have to go back over the cliff to get back to the house.
I think the favorite vacation activity for the kids was kayaking. We were able to kayak right in back of the house. In a lot of ways the house where we stayed was like a high end cabin in Northern Minnesota. The backyard led into the Bay. The Bay was calm the whole time we were there. What was not like Minnesota was the tide and the seals. So we learned to sort of time our kayak trips because nothing is worse than dragging the kayak through a ton of beach and nothing is better than the seals coming at high tide.
Grandma kayaked one day and Aine went out a few times. So it really was a good activity for most of us.
The view from the kayak was amazing. We could see Glengarrif Harbor, we could see the mountains and we could see Garinish and other islands. In fact it felt like we should be able to kayak out to Garinish – but that seemed a little overly ambitious. When we were going fast at all it was fun to look up at the mountains because it felt as if the mountains were moving much faster than we were.
On Monday we went to Garinish Island – it’s a small island that we can just about see from the house; you have to take a ferry to get there – but it’s only about a 10-15 minute trip. On the way to the island we went by Seal Island, which really just seems to be a big rock where a few seals can hang out. But it was fun to see. When we boated by there were about 6 seals on the rock/island.
But back to Garinish, it is beautiful. There are gardens all over the island – in fact there’s a self-guided tour of them. We started off with lunch and then Lily navigated us very quickly through the gardens to any point where we might see seals.
While she might have not appreciated them – I actually took loads of pictures of the flowers and assuming I can get my real computer to work again (very sad story) I just might frame some of the pictures for my house. I won’t post them here though – since pictures without people tend to be a little boring. Bantry Bay is very shielded. Apparently the average annual temperature is 67 degrees. So the flowers are very different from what you might see in other parts of Ireland.
We did also get to a rougher part of the island where we could see seals. One was pretty close – the others were pretty fair away – but there were a lot of them.
The island also has some beautiful structures, which I will post online if I get my pictures off my real computer. It was a very cool place.
Filed under: Glengarriff
After much treacherous driving we finally arrived in Glengarriff. It is beautiful. The house is amazing. Our back yard extends to the Atlantic Ocean. Only it feels more like a high end lake cabin in many ways. Bantry bay is pretty sheltered – the water is very calm. There isn’t a beach at the back of the house in the way you think of a beach. It’s pretty mucky and seaweedy. Or at least it is when the tide is out. The tide is one way we’re reminded of where we are. High tide seems to be in the morning. Then the water nearly come up to the backyard – but by mid afternoon the tide is out and we have 50-100 feet of mucky seaweed, which is kind of fun to explore. It’s like a lagoon. We learned that the lunar day is 24 hours and 50 minutes – it controls the tide.
Also we can see the seals swimming in the water. They seem to only come during high tide. They don’t come too close to the house – but they are fun to see. You can often see 6 or more. Also the vegetation here is unusual. You can see a lot of palm tree sort of things and beautiful flowers. I’ll try to get more pictures of that sort of thing in the upcoming days.
There’s a trampoline in the backyard. I don’t think I need to say anything more there.
There are tons of walking trails around the village of Glengarriff. We’re about a 10-15 minute walk to the village. You’ll see I took a picture of Aine at the start of the grotto trail – near the state of St Bernadette.
We went out to eat for dinner one night and played games until pretty late. We made past one night and walked into town for ice cream. There is no Internet access at the house – so that might kill me – but there are a few places in town where I can get connected. Grandpa and I should know all of those places pretty well by the end of the week.
Our big trip so far has been to Kenmare to get groceries. It’s about 20 miles away. Actually at the bird flies it’s probably 7 miles but the road is 20. If you haven’t driven in Ireland, I can tell you it’s not for the faint hearted. And the prettier the area, the more treacherous the road. We’re in a place where the road is almost big enough for two cars. Then there are some walkers and cyclists. And some cars have trailers. And in some areas the road narrows for a tree or the sea. Much of the road has high hedges on both sides of the road. Of course you know that they drive on the left. And the drive to Kenmare is really on a cliff through the Cork and Kerry Mountains. I had one eye open and it looked beautiful. Grandpa did an amazing job driving since I know he loves being on a cliff at least as much as I do.
I have friends from Cork so I feel a little bad about saying this, but if you an opportunity to go to Cork City, think about it before you say yes too quickly. I remember the last time I was there (with Anita & Darla) that we had a terrible time finding our hotel in Cork and that once we were there we didn’t see that much.
This time we stopped for brunch. We got a great parking place under a sign that said parking and went to find a place to eat. I needed a camera and went into 4 places where folks were kind of helpful. (Naturally I left an essential cord to my camera at home.) The last place he said he had a camera for €99 and proceeded to show me one for €129. I hate that sort of thing. (I ended up buying the €99 for €90.)
Then we had breakfast at some place where they could not have been nicer. They just kept bringing out the toast.
Then we went to the car to see that we had been clamped! (That means they lock your back wheel.) Apparently you can’t park under the big sign that says parking unless you “have a disk”, which I think means they do it to get income from visitors because having disk doesn’t mean that much to me and of course only the locals would have one. We weren’t the only clamped car we saw on the street and we weren’t there much more than an hour – if even that long.
Luckily we had a phone so we were able to contact the “vehicle immobilization” people quickly and within 30 minutes we were €80 lighter and on the road.
Next time, I’ll just be avoiding Cork city.
Filed under: Cork
So we’re on our way to our big vacation in Glengarriff. We decided to make the drive in two days so we spent the night in Youghal (pronounced Y’all). It’s Aine’s new favorite town name. In fact she said the name about 4 billion times en route.
Grandpa did a great job driving, which if you’ve driven in Ireland you know isn’t easy. We stayed at a nice place where Grandma & Grandpa could stay in the hotel and we got a whole house.
We had fun skipping stones on the beach in the back of the hotel.
Filed under: Dublin
We are very excited to report that Grandma and Grandpa have come to visit. They spend their first two days in Dun Laoghaire – at the Royal Marine. The good things about the Royal Marine are: the super nice swimming pool that’s free for guests, the lobby and the location. What’s not so great is the power that went out repeatedly one afternoon and the fire alarm “test” at 11:30.
While in Dun Laoghaire we got to take them to some of our favorite places – like the pier and some great restaurants.
Last weekend was Dublin Puppet Weekend. We kind of thought that the kids might be too young for it – but we sort of ran into some of the activities. Aine is the only one who enjoys Punch and Judy type shows. Maybe you have to grow up with Bosco (one of the characters) to like that sort of thing. But we did see a guy who did a very small puppet show. He started with a mermaid. I think I got a video, which I’ll try to add later. His work was really exquisite – almost like a dance. I’ve added a picture of Wanderly’s Wagon for my friend Sheila. It meant nothing to us – but I thought you might like it.
Then we lined up to see the mechanical puppet show. But they only choose 10 people from the crowd to actually go into the show. Lily was the first person selected. She said it was cool. It better have been since we had to wait 20 minutes for her. (Not that we were jealous or anything!)
On Sunday we went to the Dublin Flea Market kind of near St Patrick’s. It’s an area that we don’t’ know well at all. It can be a slightly rougher area – but the market was very cool and we met up with our friend John. So that was fun.
The girls and I spent a marathon day in Howth. Patrick didn’t come because apparently being a full time student relieves you from any family obligations. It was a day of highs and lows – literally.
For folks who don’t know Dublin – Howth is the other side of Dublin Bay from us. So it’s what we look at any time we visit Dun Laoghaire or Bray. The nice thing is that we could take the DART (train there). Unfortunately we have to take a bus to the train but we’re pretty used to that.
The first thing we did when we got there was take a boat to Ireland’s Eye. It’s an island just a short hop away from Howth. I think it took all of 20 minutes to take the bus there. It was fun! We had packed a picnic; so we had our lunch on the Island. NO one lives on the island. It’s very small. We hiked around the part of the island/mountain that looks easiest but turned out to be full of nettles and kind of boggy. So you live and you learn.
After the island we hiked around the coast of Howth. It get super steep so we didn’t go too far. I can only handle taking Aine so far up places like that. Although we saw a kid about four years old who was dangling his feet off the cliff. Even Aine noted that it looked pretty stupid and that his parents were negligent to not have an iron grasp on him. Really I was so Afraid for the kid I could have been sick.
In the way up we saw a place where WB Yeats had lived. That was a thrill. It was a beautiful day so we saw a ton of people too. We ate a Deep, which seems to be a favorite with Lily. The waitress actually remembered us, which is either nice or a very bad sign. After lunch/dinner we went to see Howth Castle. There is a cooking school in it now. We also saw the Rhododendrons, which are mentioned in Ulysses.
After that very full day, we took the train home – got on a bus but had to get off about a mile from our stop because old girl (I won’t use names to protect the innocent) was sick. Actually her timing was good. Any longer on the bus and they would have been handing us a bucket.
So as I said, a day of ups and downs – but overall a great time. Going to Ireland’s Eye was a big highlight.
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