After a good night of sleep (finally) we arrived early at the Blarney Castle to avoid the long lines that would come later in the day.  The Castle is one of Ireland's top tourist destinations.  Some of the guidebooks I read advised skipping Blarney Castle because they consider it such a tourist trap.  We would have made a mistake if we had taken their advice.  The castles in Ireland were on my "must see" list.  Although kissing the Blarney Stone is rather touristy, the castle itself is very interesting.  Little remains of the castle itself, except for the keep, which is the tall square structure in the picture.  Usually the tallest and strongest building, it was often used for defense in a siege or attack.  The castle was built by one of Ireland's greatest chieftans, Cormac MacCarthy over 600 years ago.

 

 

The view from the top.   Look at all the shades of green

The circular staircase, 127 steps, takes you to the top.  The staircase was very narrow and the steps were worn smooth from all the years of use.  A thick rope was suspended from top to bottom to use as a handrail.

 

 Looking at the inside of the castle. 

 The people in those days must have been very small.  All the doorways and openings were not very tall and extremely narrow.  Almost makes you believe there were leprechauns.

Were they cruel or just trying to survive?

 

 

 You can't visit Blarney Castle without kissing the Blarney Stone.  I wasn't sure if I should have let Ken do it.  They say that once you kiss it you will never again be at a loss  for words.  :)

 

We walked around the grounds and through the garden that contains only poisonous plants, then walked across the street to the Blarney Woolen Mills for some shopping and lunch.  We bought some nice woolen scarves for the girls and trinkets for the kids.  Lunch was interesting-I ordered vegetable soup and Ken had cauliflower and brie' cheese soup.  The vegetable soup was pureed so that it resembled baby food.  I had some very good soup in Ireland, but that wasn't one of them.  Most of the soup we had on the trip, other than the Irish stew, was pureed.

 

We left Blarney, travelling the scenic route to Killarney.  We passed through towns, such as Balleylickey, Glengarriff and stopped in Kenmare for a bakery  break.  We had gorgeous scenic views along the route.

 

 This was our ride for the two week trip.  Four adults and luggage and surprisingly, it worked very well.  I am finally learning how to pack for trips without taking my entire wardrobe.

 The town of Kenmare.  Most of the towns looked a lot like this.  Most of the downtown buildings are the same height and all connected.  There were a lot of bright colors and pretty flowers.  They were also very neat and tidy.

 Typical of the signage in Ireland.  Again, I am so thankful we didn't have to do the driving.  

 Before checking into our B&B for the night we visited Ross Castle.  They didn't allow pictures on the inside.  It has been restored to show how castle life may have been.  It was interesting and gave us a better idea of how the rooms in Blarney Castle may have been used.

 I don't know if this wedding was taking place at the castle or if they were just shooting their pictures there, but what great wedding pictures these will be.

 

 Click on this picture to read the sign on the dumpster.  Don't see that too often in the states.

 Colette said she wanted proof that were actually on this trip so here is a picture of Ken and me in the Killarney Lakes region.  She said our pictures looked like a travel brochure and she wanted to see some people shots.

 We had a lovely room at the Larkinley Lodge B&B in Killarney.  We were excited to be spending two nights in Killarney.  It was another city I wouldn't mind visiting again.  The B&B was within walking distance of the downtown area so we walked to dinner and then enjoyed our first taste of Irish music in the Danny Mann Pub where we listened to this great band.  They were called the Molly McGuire's.







Day 2 in Ireland

The good night of sleep we were so desperately needing didn't really happen for us.  Maybe we were just too tired, but after a good Irish breakfast we were ready to begin another day of seeing more of Ireland.

All the B&B's served a full Irish breakfast which consisted of rashers (bacon) soldiers (sausage) 1 egg and a broiled tomato, along with baskets of bread.  You also had a choice of cereal, yogurt, fruit, muffins, etc.  As we moved further west there was also black and white pudding on some of the menus.  More about those later.

Joy's Rockside B&B was just a short walk from the Rock of Cashel, our first planned stop of the day.  The Rock was the seat of the Kings of Munster from the 4th or 5th century until it was turned over to the Church in 1101.  It served as a religious center until it was sieged by Cromwell's army in 1647.  Renovation was being done on the chapel, but a good portion of the complex is still standing.

In all the old churches and abbeys you would see carvings on the pillars and walls, it was astounding to me the amount and quality of the art that was done so many years ago.

St. Patrick's Cross. 

 The carving on this cross is said to be of St. Patrick who visited Cashel in the year 450.  This is the original which is now housed in the museum, a replica is exhibited on the grounds.

 Looking at the view from the top of the hill.  The pastures are divided by rock or trees and shrubs.

Artifacts from the Rock are exhibited in the museum.  The large bell is from the 9th century.

 Standing at the top we could see the ruins of Hore Abbey, a 13th century Cistercian foundation.

Driving through one of the towns on our way to Cobh we passed another castle.

 This photo shows how the pastures are laid out.  We think the trees and bushes dividing the land may  be growing over the original rock fences.

 Another castle viewed from the road.  I believe this is the one that is not open to the public as it is being used as a residence.

 The seaside town of Cobh (pronounced Cove)  was important in Irish history.  Millions of people sailed from here to escape the famine in the 1850's.  It was also the last stop for ill-fated Titanic.  Just three years later the Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine just off the coast of Cobh. 

 We learned to not ask where to find a restroom, in Ireland they are simply called "Toilets".

I loved the candy in Ireland (big surprise).  Apparently, the Irish like their candy too, there were a lot of Sweet Shops.

 Just when I think I have this figured out!  This picture is completely out of order, was supposed to be at the end of the post.  We ended our day in Blarney at another very nice B&B.

 Back to Cobh.....we ate our lunch in a park next to the waterfront.

 St. Colman's Cathedral, a church built in the Gothic Revival style.

 

 

 

Cobh was a very picturesque city, one I wouldn't mind visiting again.  We drove through the city of Cork and stopped at a shopping center to have a cup of coffee and rest a bit before travelling on to Blarney.

IRELAND-Day1

In September we spent two weeks in Ireland.  I posted pictures on facebook, but I have had several people ask me to put them on my blog.  Considering I haven't posted anything on my blog for over a year and a half this may be a challenge.  Blogger has changed a lot since I used it last.  But here goes........

Our friends from Georgia, Johnny and Hannah were planning their 17th trip to the Emerald Isle and asked us to go with them. In all honesty, Ireland was never a place we had even thought about visiting, but we decided what the heck, let's do it. When I plan on travelling anywhere new I read as much as I can about the area, I study guidebooks and try to find out as much as I can about where I will be visiting. Ken doesn't want to know anything about where we are going, he wants everything to be a big surprise. We were both happy when we started touring around Ireland, I was seeing things I had read about and everything was new to him.

We drove to Denver on 9/11 and spent the night with my brother. The next day we flew to Chicago where we met up with Johnny and Hannah and left on Aer Lingus that night for Dublin. After an 8 hour flight we arrived at 8:30 in the morning. After picking up our rental car we began a busy day of sight-seeing.

Ken and I loved seeing the vivid greens of the countryside. After a summer of no rain in Montana we were sick of seeing brown and ready for some color. Ireland didn't let us down. Not only was it green, there were flowers, bushes and beautiful trees everywhere. It is a beautiful country.

Our first stop was at Powerscourt located at the foot of the Sugar Loaf Mountains.  Their gardens are the finest in Ireland.  Powerscourt was built in 1730 by the Viscount Powerscourt. 

The house was gutted by an accidental fire in 1974, but the ground floor has been renovated and now houses a shopping center and restaurant.

 

As we were driving to our next destination we noticed these bushes growing like a hedge along the roadways.  It is wild fuschia that grows everywhere and anywhere in Ireland.  The red and hot pink contrasted beautifully with the vivid greens.  It was an amazing sight.

 

The roads, except for the motorways around the larger cities, were very narrow.  I was a little scared the first few days, but I got used to them......eventually.  They're not only narrow there are a lot of twists and curves too.

 

 (notice the road sign)

 

Our next stop was the round tower and monastic settlement at Glendalough.  The settlement was founded in the 6th century and was attacked many times by the Vikings, but managed to flourish for 600 years.  It functioned as a monastery until 1539.  Most of the buildings date from the 10th to 12th centuries.



 

View of the settlement 

 

Inside the ruins of the church

 



 

A cross in the cemetery

 

 

This round tower is one of the finest in Ireland. Round towers were built as bell towers for the monastery. They were also used as places of refuge when they were being attacked and for storage of valuables. The door is about 13 feet off the ground and a ladder was used to enter and then pulled up from the inside.

 

 

 

Jerpoint Abbey

 

Don't have a clue why there are two of the same pictures here.  It is coming back to me as to why I quit blogging.  Blogger seems to have a mind of its own.  Anyway, I will continue with my tour.  Jerpoint Abbey was one of my favorite stops.  It was founded in 1160.  The church is in pretty good condition and the carvings and sculptures are amazing. 

 

 



 There were several of these tombs, all highly decorated with carvings of bishops.

 

 Bed and Breakfast's are everywhere in Ireland and are the best places to stay.  We spent our first night in Cashel and Joy's Rockside House.  After being up for about 36 hours we were ready for a good nights sleep.  After a dinner of delicious potato-leek soup and a toasted sandwich we settled in for the night.  After our first day in Ireland we knew we were going to love this trip.

These gorgeous dahlias were growing in front of the B&B and I do love to take pictures of flowers!

 

(to be continued)