A Grand Finale!

 It’s Wednesday morning and I was totally wrong on my weather forecast yesterday. It never did stop raining in Killarney,  it didn’t clear up and it was dam cold. It rained a little harder as each hour passed.  

Still it was hard to leave. It’s never been easy for me to leave Killarney. 

We took the 2-hour train ride into Cork and one of the things I wanted to do on this trip was take a side trip to the near-by town of Kinsale.  There are busses that go every hour so we checked into our room and off we went. Kinsale is about 25km. south of Cork and it took about an hour. . 

On our walk through this charming, small, seaport town, we came across “Prim’s Bookshop,” an interesting, independent used bookstore with a collection of very old books.  There was a piano, a chess board, a little coffee bar, and a few chairs to sit in. 

It was very cozy, and it was raining. I really love this quote they had written on the wall, 

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something ~ a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things ~ which you had thought special and particular to you. And now here it is , set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. “ Alan Bennett~ The History Boys

We’re staying at Jury’s Inn in Cork, certainly not the hotel Scott’s was in Killarney, we have a very small room but I do love the view outside our window. I mean there’s not many mornings I wake up to find four little seagulls sitting at water’s edge waiting for me to open my curtains. 

Denny asked why I thought they were waiting for me, and I told him “A girl just knows these things.” 

We really enjoyed seeing Kinsale, but the real highlight while being in Cork was our trip today to Cobh. Cobh is the last port the Titanic stopped at before its fateful journey. The Heritage Center gives tours of the history and the town is lovely to walk through. 

Little did we know, how lucky we were to be in Cobh on this very day. When we arrived, sitting there towering over the town would be for sure the grandest of cruise ships.

 Early that morning, the MSC Virtuosa arrived with 6300 passengers and 1700 crew members, one of the world’s largest cruise ships., 331 meters in length.  Stunning to say the least. It was leaving that night continuing on to the U.K. 

Cobh has a Beautiful cathedral,  Ardeaglais Cholmain ~ St. Colman’s Cathedral. I knew I wanted to see it, I had heard it was pretty spectacular. Viewing it from the street it involved a massive climb up a very steep hill.  Denny wasn’t having any of that. 

I asked one of the men who was standing around near- by how one would go about getting up there, he said there were two options, I followed the path half-way up the hill and then cut over and went up the stairs, (supposed to be a short cut}. 

I climbed and climbed and just when I thought my heart would burst through my chest,  

there it was! There was a Mass going on, it was just ending. 

I am thrilled I did it. It really was well worth it. 

So  today, we leave Cork City.  We’ll take the 2 1/2 hour train ride to Dublin for the night and fly home tomorrow. We’ll stay our last night at the Dublin Airport Hilton.  We’ve stayed here before and it’s a convenient and comfortable way to end the trip. 

It’s really been a wonderful trip, but 10 days is too short. We did get a lot more rain this time, but that’s part of the beauty and ambience of Ireland. 

The full Irish breakfast was delicious each morning and the only real outstanding meal we had was at the “Bar Italiano” in Dublin.  We both agree you don’t come to Ireland for the food. 

The biggest take away for both of us was the music. We heard fabulous music everywhere we went. One of the best being, a group of men sitting in town center Cork City yesterday.  

Ireland is full of emotion. One’s life is certainly enhanced by a visit to the Emerald Isle. 

I am always inspired by the elegance, love and loyalty of the Irish people.   

 

Killarney Charms

 I am amazed how wonderful I feel when I am in Killarney. It’s as though the cool, damp air transforms me. The sun will sneak a peek through the clouds every once in a while, and them all at once a sunburst across the skies.   

We’re staying at Scotts Hotel. The hustle- bustle of being in Town Center is exhilarating and yet taking a walk in the lush-ous Killarney National Park is like being in prayer. The massive green lawn and the flowers are in full bloom. 

Scotts has recently been renovated and is very convenient to a lot of the near-by sites. It’s a comfortable walk to everything you’d most want to see; however, you wouldn’t want to pass up a Jaunty car if he came by.  The Jarvey will be only too happy to fill you in on the history of the park, Torc waterfall, Muckross House and Ross Castle.  

Our first night, we had dinner in the dining room here at the hotel and then took a drink outside to where a wonderful guitarist/ singer sang all the good ones. He was taking requests for Abba, Queen, Johnny Cash.  just a great mix of oldies and popular songs.  

Everyone joined in, and we were especially entertained by a table of young women who, much to our surprise knew all the words to all the songs. They weren’t a bit shy about singing along and dancing. especially to the ABBA songs.  

One minute everyone was singing along to Adele or Amy Winehouse, and then the mood would change, and a few tears shed for the lovely, heart-wrenching “Fields of Athenry” and “Grace.”

It was so much fun, and it became more apparent to us, even more than we already knew just how important music is to the Irish. 

This venue is every night, with music under a covered area, lots of heaters and the bar is just inside the door. Since we were there on a Sunday night, the big screen, I mean BIG screen T.V. outside was showing the NFL football. Guess who loved that. Denny thought it was pretty ideal being able to watch football and listen to great music all at the same time. 

Last night we went to The Flesk Restaurant, it has become one of our favorites. We both had steaks but when we looked over at the couple next to us, we were wishing we had gotten the fish instead. 

It’s pouring rain right now, 7:30 AM and we’re looking forward to breakfast here at the hotel. it won’t be long, and the rain will clear, we’ll be out walking about the town and we’re looking forward to having dinner tonight with my friend Eileen and her husband. 

Eileen is a wonderful Irish poet. I’m always very inspired by her. 

Off to Cork tomorrow!  

Dublin Dazzles

 

It was a rainy Thursday morning in Dublin when the plane landed and our cab driver was delightful!  Not only was it “grand” to hear the lovely, lyrical sound of the Irish again,  but Clive assured us we were at the perfect hotel with convenient transportation to the sites we wanted to see and do this visit. 

One of the unexpected sites though,  most likely because of where we were staying was the Brazen Head Pub.  As we turned the corner to our hotel, Clive told us to be sure to cross the bridge and there it was, the oldest pub in all of Ireland.   Brazen Head dates back to the late 1600’s. We dropped our luggage off with the front desk, checked in and since the room wasn’t ready yet, headed over for lunch. I mean who doesn’t need a Guinness after 12 hours in the air and a 2 hour layover in Washington D.C.? 

After a much needed 3 hour nap, I know,  You’re supposed to stay up and get right on the same timeline as where you are, but that wouldn’t have been fair to anyone. we were now feeling ready to take on Temple Bar, 

We were up at about 4:30 the next morning, still not on Irish time, so I decided to go down to the desk and see if we could get a cup of coffee. The gentleman working was Michael and we had such a nice visit about travel and oh yes, a little bit of politics got in there.  After a scrumptious full Irish breakfast we headed out to the tram which stopped right outside our hotel and off we were to the EPIC Irish Museum. We had heard from a couple of friends that it was a must-see while here. And it was. 

The EPIC, which stands for "Every person is connected." Is an amazing display of Irish history, the music, the storytellers, the people who came from Ireland and made a huge impact on the world like John Kennedy, Maureen O'Hara and many more.

It’s  not your typical museum where you walk along and look at statues. There are 20 galleries as they call them of videos of Irish life through the eyes of the Irish people themselves. Actually it’s difficult to describe, but if you're of Irish descent, I know you’ll enjoy this emotional, interactive look at Irish life over the years. 

We’ve been to Temple Bar twice since we got here. The Ha'penny Bridge is beautiful at night. A great place to people-watch and the young men and women who bring the wine and beer are a lot of fun to talk to. I’ve had lamb and mashed potatoes twice and we ate at a very nice Italian restaurant called “Bar Italiano” one night.

It was fun being back in Dublin.  We spent three nights here, the hotel was perfectly located, the tram was easy to get around on. What’s funny is whenever we got on the tram, a young person would get up and offer us their seat. We started to feel quite old. 

I’ll tell you something though.  It really was invigorating. It was so much fun going out at night, listening to good Irish music, having a Guinness, or glass of wine and talking to folks young and old. People who travel are interesting, and inspirational and no matter what country someone is from, I find we are all more alike than different.

We're off to Killarney tomorrow!