More of Ireland
Off to Blarney Castle near Cork - Sunday
We have found that we can only plan on seeing one tourist sight a day without getting overwhelmed. We drove East on the N22 from Killarney towards the city of Cork. We were on a fairly nice roadway, not too narrow lanes and traffic moved right along. All was great until we had to turn off on a rural road to go to Blarney Castle. Talk about a narrow and twisting road. Howard is gaining more confidence driving on the “other side of the road” but still slows down to almost a stop as large lorries (trucks) approach from the opposite direction. They go so fast on these dinky roads. What makes it interesting is that on the rural roads, there are not any road markings to separate the different lanes of traffic.
We managed to reach Blarney Castle in one piece. It is in a beautiful setting, with lush grounds. It is in the center of the town and everything else has grown up around it. Of course there were numerous tour busses which had already arrived ahead of us, even with our early start from Killarney. The castle steps (all 127 of them) again were very steep and narrow. They went up circular fashion about 5 levels with little rooms off the stairwell. We finally reached the roof. The view was breath taking. Of course, there was a queue (line) to kiss the Blarney Stone. As we approached the stone, you have to remove your glasses, hats, and secure things in your pockets. You then sit on the ledge and a gentlemen guides you as you lean backwards over the ledge to kiss the stone underneath. It is an awkward position. There is a person standing above you to take your picture (which of course they will sell to you along with an official certificate saying that you had kissed the stone). We took our own pictures of each other and passed on getting the certificate. Of course you would only know who we were by our jacket color as you can’t se our heads.
Having kissed the stone, we made our way down and went for a walk around the castle grounds. The vegetation is very lush. They have some most unusual Yew Trees with branches that twist around each other as they grow. Also, there are some Rhubarb looking plants that have the largest leaves I have ever seen. We left the castle grounds but not until I had bought my magnet at the gift shop.
Getting through Cork (a larger town to drive through than any we had been in so far) was interesting. The map which the Avis car rental company gave us doesn’t help in the cities. It gets you from one city to the other but isn’t detailed enough to get you through the cities. Mostly we use spiral navigation. We know the general direction we want to go and try to keep our eyes open for the correct road signs. Of course, they don’t always put them in obvious places. In addition, if you end up behind a large van you don’t always see the signs in time to make the appropriate turn.
We managed to exit Cork and continued our drive to the charming seaside town of Tramore. We stayed at a charming Town & Country Home (large B&B) on top of the cliffs overlooking the town. We have found that most houses with any amount of space have built sun rooms on to the existing structures. It provides a natural gathering place and adds light to otherwise dim interiors. The one thing that tickled my funny bone was the Palm Trees they had placed in the front yard. I just don’t associate Palm Trees with Ireland. They seemed a bit out of place. We rested a bit, and talked to one of the other guests who lived in Australia. He was a nice gentleman who was taking his 82 year old mum on tour of Ireland. She wanted to see where her father lived as a boy before he had immigrated to Australia. The fellow looked to be a bit frazzled from the whole experience of driving and dealing with an older parent. Just one more reason to do your traveling early while you are healthy enough to really enjoy your trip. I’m glad we are taking this trip now and not waiting until we are truly retired (and old).
Onwards to Dublin - Monday
We drove the short distance from the B&B to the city of Waterford and the Waterford Crystal factory. What a great tour. They take you right into the factory where the workers are actually making the glass. We stood no more than 5 – 10 feet away. Each piece is hand blown or crafted. That’s what makes it so expensive. What amazed us was that most of the people taking the hot molten material from the oven and working with it blowing or molding, didn’t use any eye protection. Also, there was no protective barrier between us and the workers. You wouldn’t be allowed the same types of freedom in the US. Someone would be bound to sue for something or other.
Each piece is also hand etched or ground into shape. Again, we were no more than 5 feet from a worker who was using a grinding wheel to etch the glass. I didn’t see any of the workers using eye protection here either. Also, most did not bother with the protective ear gear. They have about 1100 workers in the plant. It takes about 15 years for a new worker to move himself up through the ranks to become a master craftsman.
The tour ends of course in their showroom. You can view the wonderful pieces close up and buy anything you like. Naturally, we needed to make sure that Waterford stayed in business. We left an appropriate amount of money to ensure that our shipping charges were included free of charge. It’s the least they could do.
The route from Waterford to Dublin goes through the center of the country. It was a main lorry route. Unlike I-40 back home, this is not usually a divided dual carriage way. It is mostly a two lane road with lane markings for a change. There are long stretches of curving road some with very narrow lanes with hedges on both sides. Naturally, there were the roundabouts that would suddenly appear as some intersection approached. Sometimes, the lanes would broaden and you would have a wide hard shoulder on the side. The lorries would pull over driving half in the shoulder and half in the lane. This allowed you to pass them going half in your lane and half over the center line into the oncoming traffic lane. Now, if an oncoming car appears – not to worry – you just continue on and the oncoming car will move over onto his hard shoulder as you go round. It’s all very civilized. No horns blaring or shaking of fists or rude words. All of a sudden you go from barreling along the road and a sign appears that tells you the road is going to narrow even more. You immediately have to slow down because you will be entering a village. However, the roads are not straight through the village. They twist and turn. Of course, there is two way traffic as well as cars parked along the sides of the road (half on the road and half on the sidewalk). You still have the large lorries going in both directions, just even less space for everyone to move within.
As we approached Dublin, we finally encountered a motorway (our divided highways). It moved smartly along although it was sometimes hard to see if you were behind a large lorry. In addition, their slow lane is on the left and you also exit left. It is a bit disconcerting at times. We finally managed to find the main outer ring motorway and traveled along finally reaching the off ramp we needed to take. This was the first really big city that Howard had to drive in. To say that it was a challenge was an understatement. The detailed map, which I had printed off, was hard to read. In addition, they placed the names of the streets on the sides of buildings that were far away from the lane you had to drive in. Therefore, before long, we were well past where I knew we needed to turn. We finally stopped by a delivery truck and asked for directions. I will say, that the Irish people have been very helpful to the dumb Americans who always are getting lost. After being pointed in the right direction and given a few landmarks to watch out for, we set off again. Finally, we found the B&B we had reserved for the next two nights. Of the four B&B’s we have stayed at so far, this one is at the bottom of the list. The room is the small, and doesn’t have much room to move around the bed. Whilst (please note the English version of the word while), the bathrooms in most of the other B&B’s have not been large, this one is tiny. The other bathrooms were big enough for one, but could not accommodate two people at the same time. The bathroom in this B&B barely accommodates one person. If you take away the tiny shower cubical, the rest of the bathroom is about the size of something you would find on an airliner.
Let’s talk about bathroom amenities for a minute. So far, only one lodging property has had washcloths. They have all had some sort of soap for the sink and another for the shower. Here in Dublin, you have to take the pump bottle into the shower. Let me also mention the set of mismatched towels. While this place is very small and may be lacking in amenities, it is clean.
In general, the food here is good. Last night we went to a lovely pub. The Guinness was great (as usual) and the food was good. We probably will go back there tonight.
Link to pictures in case you didn't get my e-mail.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QZN2TloxbMUi
We have found that we can only plan on seeing one tourist sight a day without getting overwhelmed. We drove East on the N22 from Killarney towards the city of Cork. We were on a fairly nice roadway, not too narrow lanes and traffic moved right along. All was great until we had to turn off on a rural road to go to Blarney Castle. Talk about a narrow and twisting road. Howard is gaining more confidence driving on the “other side of the road” but still slows down to almost a stop as large lorries (trucks) approach from the opposite direction. They go so fast on these dinky roads. What makes it interesting is that on the rural roads, there are not any road markings to separate the different lanes of traffic.
We managed to reach Blarney Castle in one piece. It is in a beautiful setting, with lush grounds. It is in the center of the town and everything else has grown up around it. Of course there were numerous tour busses which had already arrived ahead of us, even with our early start from Killarney. The castle steps (all 127 of them) again were very steep and narrow. They went up circular fashion about 5 levels with little rooms off the stairwell. We finally reached the roof. The view was breath taking. Of course, there was a queue (line) to kiss the Blarney Stone. As we approached the stone, you have to remove your glasses, hats, and secure things in your pockets. You then sit on the ledge and a gentlemen guides you as you lean backwards over the ledge to kiss the stone underneath. It is an awkward position. There is a person standing above you to take your picture (which of course they will sell to you along with an official certificate saying that you had kissed the stone). We took our own pictures of each other and passed on getting the certificate. Of course you would only know who we were by our jacket color as you can’t se our heads.
Having kissed the stone, we made our way down and went for a walk around the castle grounds. The vegetation is very lush. They have some most unusual Yew Trees with branches that twist around each other as they grow. Also, there are some Rhubarb looking plants that have the largest leaves I have ever seen. We left the castle grounds but not until I had bought my magnet at the gift shop.
Getting through Cork (a larger town to drive through than any we had been in so far) was interesting. The map which the Avis car rental company gave us doesn’t help in the cities. It gets you from one city to the other but isn’t detailed enough to get you through the cities. Mostly we use spiral navigation. We know the general direction we want to go and try to keep our eyes open for the correct road signs. Of course, they don’t always put them in obvious places. In addition, if you end up behind a large van you don’t always see the signs in time to make the appropriate turn.
We managed to exit Cork and continued our drive to the charming seaside town of Tramore. We stayed at a charming Town & Country Home (large B&B) on top of the cliffs overlooking the town. We have found that most houses with any amount of space have built sun rooms on to the existing structures. It provides a natural gathering place and adds light to otherwise dim interiors. The one thing that tickled my funny bone was the Palm Trees they had placed in the front yard. I just don’t associate Palm Trees with Ireland. They seemed a bit out of place. We rested a bit, and talked to one of the other guests who lived in Australia. He was a nice gentleman who was taking his 82 year old mum on tour of Ireland. She wanted to see where her father lived as a boy before he had immigrated to Australia. The fellow looked to be a bit frazzled from the whole experience of driving and dealing with an older parent. Just one more reason to do your traveling early while you are healthy enough to really enjoy your trip. I’m glad we are taking this trip now and not waiting until we are truly retired (and old).
Onwards to Dublin - Monday
We drove the short distance from the B&B to the city of Waterford and the Waterford Crystal factory. What a great tour. They take you right into the factory where the workers are actually making the glass. We stood no more than 5 – 10 feet away. Each piece is hand blown or crafted. That’s what makes it so expensive. What amazed us was that most of the people taking the hot molten material from the oven and working with it blowing or molding, didn’t use any eye protection. Also, there was no protective barrier between us and the workers. You wouldn’t be allowed the same types of freedom in the US. Someone would be bound to sue for something or other.
Each piece is also hand etched or ground into shape. Again, we were no more than 5 feet from a worker who was using a grinding wheel to etch the glass. I didn’t see any of the workers using eye protection here either. Also, most did not bother with the protective ear gear. They have about 1100 workers in the plant. It takes about 15 years for a new worker to move himself up through the ranks to become a master craftsman.
The tour ends of course in their showroom. You can view the wonderful pieces close up and buy anything you like. Naturally, we needed to make sure that Waterford stayed in business. We left an appropriate amount of money to ensure that our shipping charges were included free of charge. It’s the least they could do.
The route from Waterford to Dublin goes through the center of the country. It was a main lorry route. Unlike I-40 back home, this is not usually a divided dual carriage way. It is mostly a two lane road with lane markings for a change. There are long stretches of curving road some with very narrow lanes with hedges on both sides. Naturally, there were the roundabouts that would suddenly appear as some intersection approached. Sometimes, the lanes would broaden and you would have a wide hard shoulder on the side. The lorries would pull over driving half in the shoulder and half in the lane. This allowed you to pass them going half in your lane and half over the center line into the oncoming traffic lane. Now, if an oncoming car appears – not to worry – you just continue on and the oncoming car will move over onto his hard shoulder as you go round. It’s all very civilized. No horns blaring or shaking of fists or rude words. All of a sudden you go from barreling along the road and a sign appears that tells you the road is going to narrow even more. You immediately have to slow down because you will be entering a village. However, the roads are not straight through the village. They twist and turn. Of course, there is two way traffic as well as cars parked along the sides of the road (half on the road and half on the sidewalk). You still have the large lorries going in both directions, just even less space for everyone to move within.
As we approached Dublin, we finally encountered a motorway (our divided highways). It moved smartly along although it was sometimes hard to see if you were behind a large lorry. In addition, their slow lane is on the left and you also exit left. It is a bit disconcerting at times. We finally managed to find the main outer ring motorway and traveled along finally reaching the off ramp we needed to take. This was the first really big city that Howard had to drive in. To say that it was a challenge was an understatement. The detailed map, which I had printed off, was hard to read. In addition, they placed the names of the streets on the sides of buildings that were far away from the lane you had to drive in. Therefore, before long, we were well past where I knew we needed to turn. We finally stopped by a delivery truck and asked for directions. I will say, that the Irish people have been very helpful to the dumb Americans who always are getting lost. After being pointed in the right direction and given a few landmarks to watch out for, we set off again. Finally, we found the B&B we had reserved for the next two nights. Of the four B&B’s we have stayed at so far, this one is at the bottom of the list. The room is the small, and doesn’t have much room to move around the bed. Whilst (please note the English version of the word while), the bathrooms in most of the other B&B’s have not been large, this one is tiny. The other bathrooms were big enough for one, but could not accommodate two people at the same time. The bathroom in this B&B barely accommodates one person. If you take away the tiny shower cubical, the rest of the bathroom is about the size of something you would find on an airliner.
Let’s talk about bathroom amenities for a minute. So far, only one lodging property has had washcloths. They have all had some sort of soap for the sink and another for the shower. Here in Dublin, you have to take the pump bottle into the shower. Let me also mention the set of mismatched towels. While this place is very small and may be lacking in amenities, it is clean.
In general, the food here is good. Last night we went to a lovely pub. The Guinness was great (as usual) and the food was good. We probably will go back there tonight.
Link to pictures in case you didn't get my e-mail.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QZN2TloxbMUi
posted by Toot and Teaser | 9:11 AM
1 Comments:
Excellent pictures!
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