After a 'day at the Fort', we hopped in the car and headed to our next destination, Killarney. Killarney is in County Kerry, one of the more beautiful areas of Ireland. Our luck with driving and finding things without GPS, detailed maps, etc. continued and we found our hotel without trouble. We stayed at the Fairview House which was in the perfect spot - right in the center of town with easy access to everything. The hotel itself was nice as well - a big jacuzzi tub, large room, good breakfast - very happy. And, guess what met us when we arrived? The stroller!! Yahoo!!
We arrived late in the day. So, after we had a little wine in our room, we headed out on the town for dinner. This may have been one of the best dinners we had during the entire trip. It was at Treyvaud's. Everything was great, we all loved our dishes. I had a wild mushroom risotto - so good. Nick had pasta. His comment was "It was the goodest food in the whole world". We seriously considered going there again the next night. Here is Nick chowing down.
The next day we headed out to hit the Ring of Kerry. A beautiful drive that takes you along the coast and through Killarney National Forest. The view from the roadside on the western side of the Ring.
Another view.
Here is our car - it was perfect. Small enough to go along the narrow roads and big enough to hold our stuff.
We stopped in a tiny fishing village called Portmagee. It was super tiny. Only a couple of storefronts. But, of course, two pubs.
Kevin and his guidebook again.
Nick steals the camera.
Another Nick shot. Mommy's Smithwick's, Nick's apple juice and Daddy's black and tan. That's the bar in the back.
After our pit stop we headed up the hill to a place that claims to have "The Best Cliff Views in all of Kerry". It was sort of funny. It was clearly someone's farm that had been turned into a tourist attraction. They sold a bit of food and pastries. And you also had to pay to walk out to the cliffs. Not a bad little business they have going on there. Have to say, their claims were not exaggerated.
Here are the Skellig Islands in the distance. You can take a ferry out there but it's apparently quite rugged with hiking paths on cliffs. We decided it was probably best to wait until Nick was older to do that.
A view back toward the countryside.
And the cliffs.
Nick had fun running around, throwing rocks off the cliffs and seeing the animals (cows and horses).
Cow.
We continued around the Ring of Kerry. Made a quick stop for a late lunch in a town called Sneem. Awesome name. The pub we ate at was called the Blue Bull. Apparently this is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's favorite places to eat in Ireland. I'm not really sure why, I didn't find it particularly spectacular. Oh well.
We continued on to Kenmare to check out a Druid's Circle. Here's Nick checking it out.
Must. Climb. Rocks.
As one might expect, we saw a bazillion sheep. Nick thought it was funny that they had colors on them so I got a picture of the "pink sheep".
We headed back to Killarney and called it a day. A lot of driving wiped us out. I know Kev will hate me for posting this, but it cracked me up.
The next day after a tasty breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed out to see some more sights. First stop was Ross Castle.
Nick checking out the river with a swan and some ducks.
Nick loves him some ducks.
Nick "requested" (i.e., demanded) that I take a close-up of the swan.
Then it was time to attack the castle - off they go at full speed.
We took a tour of the castle (no pictures, alas). Always interesting to hear the history of the castle and how people lived.
After the castle, we headed over to Muckross Traditional Farms. This was great. For a fee (of course) you could walk all around the farm and check out the animals. Here is Nick with the donkey.
We didn't realize it at first, but the fee also included a pony ride. Here's Nick on his pony. Daddy walked alongside to make sure he didn't slide off.
Too bad Kev's eyes are closed.
I wish I had gotten more pictures here. They had some super cute puppies that Nick was obsessed with - he totally pitched a fit when we left. You could also walk through the stable and pet all the horses. Very cool.
After we finished here, we had a quick lunch and then hit the road to our final destination, Dublin!!
Kinsale is a small (formerly) fishing village southwest of Cork. Tourism is the main industry now. It's also one of the 'food capitals' of Ireland. It's super cute. We only spent one night here and we both wished we could've stayed another night (although we wouldn't have given up nights in the other towns - just a longer trip!)
The hotel was OK. It was pretty old and it definitely showed it's age. But, it was comfortable and had decent sized rooms, so it was fine. And, honestly, we didn't spend that much time in the room anyway.
One of the best things about our room was our view:
Kevin happens to have a cousin, Jeff, who is married to Kate, whose family owns a pub in town. So the night we arrived, we met up with them at their pub. The pub is the Lord Kingsale and it's the oldest pub in Kinsale. We had a great time catching up (Kev) and getting to know them (me). Here is the pub:
The harbor area the next morning.
I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't get a picture, but the next day we took a land train up to Charles Fort. The fort is out closer to the sea. We had beautiful weather, so it was a really nice ride. The train was a kick - it was shaped like a steam train and it even had (a rather bothersome) whistle that the operator blew (all the time).
Here we are at the fort. Nick TOOK OFF when he saw where we were. You can barely see him under the entryway in the distance.
So, yea, Charles Fort.
Nick surveying the fort.
It's not a good fort without a few canons.
The three of us on a wall at the fort.
The boys.
I'm guessing that the soldiers who got in trouble were the ones that had to man that turret.
A view back toward Kinsale.
More views.
The train operator mentioned there was a nice pub down the hill from the fort. He was right. We had a tasty lunch (and a couple of pints) while looking out over the water. You can see Kev at our table at the bottom right in the picture.
Others that were just having drinks took them out to the wharf wall.
A closer view - it was such a nice day!
Nick fell asleep on me on the train ride back to Kinsale. He stayed asleep through the walk back to the car and move into the car seat (I REALLY missed the stroller at this point - he's heavy, especially when he's sleeping dead-weight). Then it was off to Killarney!!
Whoa, boy, I'd better divide these pictures up into multiple posts! But, I've already loaded all these pictures to this post, so I'll roll with it.
OK! According to Wikipedia, Erin Go Bragh is usually translated to "Ireland Forever". I don't know if we'd stay there forever, but we certainly want to go back - multiple times.
The luck of the Irish was not totally with us during our travels. We headed over the pond the same weekend that Hurricane Irene decided to make a huge mess of the East Coast. Our flights were to go from LAX to Newark, NJ and then on to Dublin. Yea, not so much. After a lot of juggling and phone calls with the airlines, we finally got our flights settled and set off (via Toronto, London and THEN Dublin).
As an additional fun twist, Nick caught a slight cold the Saturday before we left (we left Sunday). So during most of the time on our three flights, he coughed a lot. Poor guy. He was able to sleep some of the second flight from Toronto to London, but woke up quite a few times (usually right as I was finally starting to nod off). Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep on any of the flights. Kevin maybe caught an hour or two (he was sitting on the aisle while I was in the middle and Nick at the window). But, oh well, so it goes. We got there. Finally. With MOST of our stuff.
The lovely folks at London's Heathrow airport - well, they weren't our favorite people. Without going into a lot of boring detail, our stroller - which was supposed to meet us at the gate (hence the term gate-check) - did not meet us. We (and about 10 other families) were told to go to Arrivals, pick it up and then come back through security. Huh? Have those people ever BEEN through security at Heathrow? That wasn't happening - we had another flight to catch. We went to our other flight (which involved a bus, more security, customs, ID pictures, retina scans, blood draws, yadda, yadda...) and hoped for the best that our stroller would migrate over to our last flight (on a different airline to boot). Yea, it didn't make it.
Thankfully, WE made it to Dublin. Collected all our other stuff (which, thank God, DID make it) and went off to find the rental car shuttle. Here is Nick on the shuttle. He looks wide awake, right???
In our infinite wisdom during our trip planning, we figured "Hey, we arrive in Dublin at 9-ish in the morning. We'll just get the car and drive a couple of hours to our first town. No problem." Our actual arrival time was closer to 3 PM local time and we were exhausted. But we had to drive to Kilkenny where we had our hotel reservations. Thank God for Hertz and the upgrade - the car was great and fit all our stuff.
Here is Kevin in our lovely Peugeot car. Driving on the left side of the road. Yea, that was easy-peasy on essentially no sleep in the last 24 hours.
He was out no sooner than we could leave the Hertz car lot.
It's probably no surprise that the drive from Dublin airport to Kilkenny is quite fuzzy in my memory. It IS a surprise that we actually made it to Kilkenny and found our hotel with little trouble. Our hotel, the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel, was right in the center of town. They gave us a very good recommendation for a restaurant (we arrived around dinner time), called Zuni. We had a very nice dinner and found out that in Ireland, they call chicken fingers (or tenders) chicken goujons. This became a common word in our vocabulary in the coming days.
After we had dinner, we knew we had to try and stay up a little later in order to get on Irish time. Our hotel had a bar so we took Nick's DVD player and headed down. Here he is set up with his blue blankie and DVD's.
Our first pints on Irish soil. Ahhhhh....
After sleeping in a bit (thank goodness!) we headed out to enjoy our first full day in Ireland. Here are the boys in front of the hotel.
After stopping for a quick latte (needed some serious caffeine), we headed down the block to Kilkenny Castle.
A view of the expansive grounds in the back.
The view back toward the castle.
Another view...
One of the very cool things about the castle (and all of Ireland, really) is that they have a lot of kid-oriented things. The castle grounds has a HUGE play area for kids. So we struck a deal with Nick - he could spend some time at the play area first, and then it was on to the castle tour. He was on board. Schools in the area were starting up later in the week, so the area was full of kids.
We had a hard time getting him off this when we were leaving.
You weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so you'll have to go yourself to see it. Here is the view of the river from the side grounds of the castle.
The gardens in the front of the castle. You can see Nick just over the edge of the top of the stairs.
He's racing Finn McMissle (from Cars 2) along the path.
A view back toward the castle from the gardens.
Another view (and Nick still racing...)
The boys (including Finn).
Nick is becoming quite the photographer. I was instructed to hold Finn. We need to figure out a way to get him to take pictures from a better angle - the upward shot is not so flattering.
Another Nick shot (shocker!)
And one more...
Unfortunately, this picture cut off Kevin's head, but the other one wasn't as good. So trust me, Kevin's head is well and good. Nick liked to sit on the big circles.
Love all the colors of the store fronts.
An interesting statue (I have no idea what or who it is - bad tourist!!)
Ah ha!! The Smithwick's Brewery!! But, alas, not only did we miss the last tour, it was only for 18 and over. Boo! (Thankfully, the only place we went where Nick wasn't allowed).
Nick sitting in a Smithwick's beer barrel while Kev & I looked around the store.
Next stop with the Rothe House. It's a townhouse that was taken over by the Archeological Society and turned into a museum and gardens. Honestly, the museum was sort of eh, not that great. Here is the courtyard of the townhouse - that's the well.
The best part of it was the gardens. They're up on the roof behind the townhouse. It was very cool. Here is a little gazebo type thing with grape vines along the side.
As we were going through the garden, one of the gardeners was there tending to some plants. She was very nice and told us that we were welcome to eat anything we saw. She also added that they use no pesticides so we didn't need to worry about chemicals. Cool! So, off Nick went to find something to nibble on (he, of course, stayed clear of the green beans and other veggies).
Success! He found a TON of tiny little strawberries. He was in heaven. I started to worry that we were eating too much as he literally stopped at every plant and picked all the good ones. Whoops!
The fruit thief in action...
The local ducks. Surprisingly (well, maybe not so surprisingly), Nick wasn't too interested in the ducks. Just the berries.
As we were walking around Kilkenny, we saw all sorts of yellow and black flags, signs, etc. We had no idea what was going on. So when I saw this sign I thought, well I have to get a picture of "Stripy Men"! We soon found out that we were in Ireland during what is nearly equivalent to the Super Bowl. The Irish National Hurling Championship (sort of like field hockey or lacrosse). And County Kilkenny was in the final versus County Tipperary.
We continued our walk around Kilkenny and headed up to St. Canice's Cathedral. Although Nick was doing really well, have to say we did miss the stroller at this point a bit. Anyway, here is the inside of the cathedral with the beautiful stained glass windows.
The cool tower outside. We were going to climb it but they didn't allow kids under 14 to go up. I guess that's the second place kids weren't allowed, oh well. Can't say I was disappointed that we couldn't climb 100+ stairs.
The beer gentlemen.
The outside of the Black Abbey - I liked the raven hanging out on top.
The Black Abbey - you can see Nick in the reflection.
The inside of the Black Abbey, the boys and more stained glass.
Yet another church - can't remember which one it was, but we didn't go in. We were 'churched out' by that point.
Of course, after walking around Kilkenny all day, it was time for a pint. We stopped at the Marble Bar for a Smithwick's (when in Rome, etc., etc.)
Nick had a ham sandwich and apple juice. He also kept entertained by my phone.
A conversation about kids not drinking beer.
We headed out again and hit up another place, the Kyteler's Inn. Big place and pretty cool. It's said to be haunted by a ghost.
The original owner was accused of being a witch. She was sentenced to be burned at the stake but was able to escape. The town-people weren't happy and decided to condemn her maid instead. She was whipped and burned at the stake. Nice, huh? It's her ghost that haunts the Inn.
Kevin was in charge of the guidebook and finding the places we'd go.
As we were getting ready to leave the Inn, we found that in an upper room, they were giving lessons for playing the bodhran.
We all tried to get Nick to do it, but he was too shy. So I did it instead. That's my back on the right in the grey sweater.
Me and my drum (with Nick looking on from the back). It was really fun - a bit cheesy/touristy, but still fun. Can't say I could start up my own band, but I could probably keep a decent beat.
Another view of the river from a bridge.
A view back to Kilkenny Castle from a bridge.
More evidence of the Stripey Men.
Night view of the Castle.
The next day, before we checked out of the hotel, we were required (by Nick) to go to the inside pool. I didn't get any pictures (I SO wish I had!!), but they made any one getting in the pool use a swim cap, which they sold. It was quite funny seeing both Nick and Kevin in swim caps - hence my wish for getting a picture. The pool was nice - very big with a separate kid section where Nick could just stand up with his head above water. We couldn't stay too long, but - as with the day before - we were able to get a fun Nick-activity in before we did other stuff.
After we dried off and packed up, we headed off to Kinsale. We did make a couple of stops on our way down, including Kells Priory. It was one of those places where you just walked through a gate, through a field full of sheep and into the ruins. You pretty much had full run of the place - no one there to watch you or take tickets or anything. Here's the view of the ruins from the top of the hill and the path that runs down to it.
From the inside of the priory.
Ruins...
You could walk all the way to the King's River. Here's the view from the river back up to the Priory.
The sheep that you walked through to get there.
And the sheep poop that you had to avoid as you walked through. There was a lot of poop.
After we finished at the priory, we hit the road again. We stopped in Cashel and had some lunch (at a pub, of course. Nick had - yes! - chicken goujons with fries). After lunch we headed up to the Rock of Cashel, which is a large hill with the ruins of a very old church and fort on top.
Here are Nick and I on the path up to the Rock.
Nick hanging out on the Rock.
A view of the countryside from the Rock.
Another church ruin - not sure which one it is.
The round tower of the fort on the Rock.
A great 'touring the countryside' day. After Cashel, we drove down to Kinsale. Nick took his nap in the car (I must admit I nodded off here and there as well). A great couple of days in County Kilkenny (well, mostly Kilkenny; Cashel is in Tipperary, but whatever. Details.)
