Short posting today. We had breakfast and left Kinsale for the drive to Rosslare. To avoid going through Cork we took the 10-minute river ferry from Passage West which lands near Cobh (Cove in English). We’ve been there before and didn’t intend to stop but the ferry attendant told us the Royal Princess (3,600 passengers or so) was in town. We stopped to see it and did a side walk to the impressive St Colman’s Cathedral. Cobh has a rich nautical history. It was the last port for the Titanic before meeting the iceberg, and it was the port where survivors of the Lusitania were brought to shore.

Then we made a quick rest stop in Dungarvin and paid a courtesy visit to Dungarvin Castle. Then there was another quick river ferry from Passage East.

Finally we stopped at the Hook Head Lighthouse for a bowl of soup before motoring on to Rosslare.

In Rosslare we stayed at Archways B&B and had dinner with Chris and Eileen, the proprietors, along with two of their friends. Chris is the chef and he prepared a delicious meal: smoked salmon chowder, delicious rare aged beef with a yummy horseradish sauce, and apple crepes. It was as good a meal as we remembered from our lat stop here years ago. And the company was delightful.

Breakfast at the Old Presbytery was very good, especially my omelet with Cashel blue cheese, bacon, apple, and walnuts. Elaine normally has coffee and I have tea, my morning beverage of choice when we travel – I never have it at home.

While we almost never take guided tours (too much info, boring, crowded, etc), we were booked for the 11:15 Kinsale tour with Don & Barry’s Historic Strolls. Since we were ready, we successfully switched to the 9:15 tour which was led by. It’s only 90 minutes long, Don was delightful, and we learned a lot about Kinsale.

Then we decided to walk to Charles Fort. Bad idea! After realizing it was way too far, we doubled back and got the car for the short ride. We skipped the guided tour here and walked around on our own.

We had beers and a bowl of soup at the Spaniard which is close to the sea not far from the fort. We re-parked at the Old Presbytery and walked downtown for a little shopping (mainly water and wine). Then it was time for a nap.

We had booked for dinner at the Fishy Fishy Café, but based on things we heard at breakfast and from some others on the walking tour, we had Noreen (our delightful host at the Old Presbytery) cancel the reservation and made a new one for us at her recommended “best in town”, Max’s Wine Bar & Seafood Restaurant. Max’s certainly helps Kinsale in its proclamation as the Gourmet Capital of Ireland. The food and service were delightful. We started with kir royales, enjoyed an Australian shiraz wine, and finished by sharing crème brûlée. The other courses are pictured.

 

Finally, for only the second time on the trip and the first time since arriving in Northern Ireland 13 days ago, we awoke to light rain. We packed up, loaded the car, and drove up to Greenmount House proper for our final breakfast there. All the breakfasts were outstanding. After breakfast, we checked out. Garreth had told us it would no extra charge to stay in the house for four nights instead of at the B&B itself given that the change was his fault. At checkout he actually deducted 100 euros from the bill. Nice gesture. We said our goodbyes and thank yous, and we were off on today’s road trip.  Leaving Dingle we passed a primary school where the kids were all out in the yard in their Kerry shirts or with Kerry flags posing for a good luck picture for the Kerry team in Sunday’s upcoming All-Ireland championship game. the Irish Super Bowl.

Dingle to Kinsale direct is about a two and a half hour drive, passing through Killarney, a city we have visited in the past. We bypassed it and then detoured through Clonakilty for a look at their Model Railway Village. It was cute but not really worth a detour. No worries as we time to kill before we could check into our B&B in Kinsale.  It was mostly outdoors, but the rain had mostly stopped by now.

By the time we reached Kinsale, the rain had gone completely and the sun was out under partly cloudy skies.  Kinsale is an old town with narrow streets. We found a parking lot and did a walkabout the downtown and harbor area. We got a map from the tourist office, had a beer at Kitty O’Shea’s (not connected with the Boston one), and found the Fishy Fishy Café and made a reservation for dinner tomorrow night. Then we found the White House, which has a highly rated restaurant, and booked in there for tonight.

It was a short drive to the Old Presbytery, our B&B, which fortunately has private parking as parking is at a premium in town.  Our room is on the third floor and has a lovely balcony with a grass floor that overlooks the rooftops of Kinsale. The king size bed is comfortable.

We walked to dinner at the White House. The food was good but not memorable. Then we strolled back to the Old Presbytery for a good night’s sleep.

Can we really be in Ireland? This morning is starting as another cloudless sunny day.   Showers are forecast for Friday followed by more good weather. It’s very odd that Scottsdale has had more rain than the UK and Ireland during our stay here across the pond. Today begins our last full day in Ireland before we head off to Kinsale.

I did some computer housework yesterday. I managed to book our seats on Virgin Atlantic for our flight to London in November. It’s annoying that Virgin Atlantic only lets you books specific seats 60 days before the flight; most airlines let you pick seats immediately when you book. And I have made dinner reservations in the four specialty restaurants on board Oceania’s Riviera for our cruise back to Miami from Barcelona, also in November. You can book those restaurants 75 days in advance. FYI, my little TEP wireless has performed pretty flawlessly. Connections speeds have been good to excellent everywhere but in Portstewart where it must have been using a 2G connection. It has made life a lot easier having an internet connection readily available wherever we go. (The TEP device even runs on battery, supposedly for four hours or so at a time, but my battery won’t take a charge. No big deal to me as I only use it in places where I can plug it in. Oddly for a device provided by a UK company and planned for use only in the UK and Ireland, it came with a European type two-prong plug, not a UK/IE three-prong plug. Again, not an issue, as I have two universal plug converters with me.)

We enjoyed another outstanding breakfast at Greenmount House. Elaine had her usual scrambled eggs and bacon. The eggs here are outstanding and they know how to make excellent scrambled eggs. I had pancakes (more like crepes) prepared with cream cheese and gooseberry jam. Oh, goodness, how good!

Today we decided to drive across Conor Pass (sometimes spelled Connor) to the other side of the Dingle Peninsula, mainly to visit our favorite beach, Ballyquin Strand. It is a relatively unknown location with no signposts but is supposedly a good spot for fishing off the beach. It was deserted as we arrived and still was when we left. We had a good walk on the beach looking for sea glass. On our first visit here back in 2000 we found a treasure trove of sea glass, picking up bags and bags of it. Elaine uses it in her jewelry and craft projects. Since then the pickings have been slim, but she found a few pieces while I amused myself photographing the sheep grazing near the beach and wandering to the far end of the strand.

We drove back to Dingle the other way, passing through Annascaul, the home of the South Pole Inn, a pub founded by Antarctic explorer Tom Crean who was born here. The pub is full of pictures and mementos of Crean’s adventures. We had pints of Crean Lager, a nice beer produced by Dingle’s microbrewery.

Back in Dingle we separated to do some shopping. I bought some books while Elaine found a good deal on a windbreaker in a bag to replace one that is wearing out. We met up again at the Dingle Pub. A pint of Guinness there for me while Elaine experimented with a Jameson’s whiskey served with ginger ale and lime.

Our final dinner in Dingle was back at the Chart House described in a previous post. Again, the food was outstanding.  After dinner we went back to the Dingle Pub for a little music and a farewell to our friend Tom.  We promised to come back within the next two years and stay longer.  Then we moved on to O’Flaherty’s Pub for some more wonderful music.  Mr. O”Flaherty plays numerous instruments and has a wonderful voice.  And, finally, home to bed.

FRIDAY

We spent a relatively quiet day. Drove to nearby Mussenden Temple, a National Trust site, and happened to encounter a wedding taking place in the temple. Also met an annoyingly talkative (one way conversationalist) bus driver who was shuttling wedding guests in his restored antique bus. Then we had lunch at a mountain overlook with a view of Benone Strand.

SATURDAY

This was the longest driving day of the trip, so we didn’t expect to have much to do, but there were two unexpected developments and a wonderful dinner. The drive is about seven hours, mostly motorway from Belfast to Dublin and on to Limerick, then normal Irish two-lane roads the rest of the way. It being Saturday, traffic was light except for some congestion around Dublin.

We made a couple of rest stops along the way. One was in Barrack Obama’s ancestral Irish town of Moneygall (population 300). Moneygall is the home to Obama’s great-great-great grandfather on his mother’s side. There is a service area located on the motorway here. We had to stop if only for Jane and Fred. We even had our lunch at a picnic table in town.

Then we arrived in Dingle to find that it was mobbed for the Dingle Tradfest (music festival).. We’ve never seen Dingle so crowded! Before checking in at Greenmount House, we stopped at the Dingle Pub to have a pint with publican and friend, Tom Geaney. Music at the pubs in Dingle usually starts between 9:00 and 10:00 PM, but because of the festival, there were multiple events scheduled throughout the day. We got there at 3:00 PM and to our luck we discovered that Tom’s son, David, was scheduled for a dance performance at 3:30 (which means about 4:00 in Irish scheduling). David Geaney, age 19, is a five time world champion Irish dancer. We also know David’s grandfather, Eddie, who was the publican at the pub before Tom took over. He brought David over and introduced us. He is a very poised and polite young man. We sat at the bar, chatted with Tom, and watched David perform right in front of us. Video is next to impossible to upload to my blog.  I do have a pretty good video which I upload sometime later when I work out some technical glitches.

Checking in Greenmount House threatened to be a potential crisis as Garreth, the young manager, told me immediately that he had screwed up our reservation (made months earlier) and didn’t have our room available for the first night. Uh, oh! But he had also had an amazingly good solution. His parents, the former managers, have just finished renovating a home in Dingle near the seafront, and they had agreed to let us stay there for the night (or, at our option, for the whole four nights).

We settled in and definitely decided to stay in the house for all four nights. It meant a leisurely walk or short drive back to Greenmount House for breakfast, but once settled in, we didn’t want to move.

Dinner was at our go-to Dingle restaurant, the Chart House (no connection to the US chain). We know Jim, the proprietor and his wife, and we were greeted like the old friends we are. Dinner was grand! Most of the food is locally sourced. After Kir Royales, pictures best describe what we had to eat:

SUNDAY

The weather continues to be unbelievably good. More sun. No rain. We drove from our house up to Greenmount House for breakfast and dropped off some laundry for them to do for us. Then we drove to the gas station to top off the tank. And we discovered through some posters and some inquiries at the gas station that the Bhéal Bhán races were on for today at 1:30. These are horse races on the beach at Smerwick Strand in Ballyferriter, so that cemented our plans for the day.

We drove over to Ballyferriter at noon and secured a good parking spot for the races. This is real horse racing complete with bookies taking bets. The jockeys are pre-apprentice – i.e., they are very young, some as young as nine or ten. They can only ride in these sub-apprentice races until they are fifteen; then they have to graduate to become real apprentices at the major tracks or “retire” from being jockeys. There were 11 races, but we only stayed for four. I hit one of the four races because I bet on a jockey whose mother we had met and chatted with near the sandy paddock.

Then we went back to the Dingle Pub for a couple of pints and a little conversation with Tom Geaney. We learned that Tom has two nephews, one from each brother, who will be playing for Kerry against Donegal in the All-Ireland Irish Football championship game next Sunday. Up Kerry! There was a duet playing pleasant instrumental Irish music, but the crowd was much less than on Saturday as the music Tradfest winded down.

Dinner tonight was at James Ashe’s Restaurant – we had booked a table yesterday. I had local Glenbeigh oysters (from County Kerry) to start while Elaine had Glenbeigh mussels. Elaine had her new favorite fish, hake, for her main while I had delicious cod prepared Cajun style. No desserts. The family that still owns Ashe’s is well known in County Kerry, and it has been open since 1849. Gregory Peck, a cousin whose grandmother was an Ashe from Dingle, visited here a number of times, and his family continues to drop in when in Ireland. Several picture of Gregory and his wife Veronique Passani with the Ashes are on the wall.

MONDAY

We walked to and from Greenmount House for breakfast (which was delicious as usual). Then we had a walk about Dingle. We went to St. Mary’s Church where Doc and Lena attended mass back when they visited us here many years ago. It was a normal Sunday mass but also a funeral mass for publican Tom Sheehy. Both Doc and Lena talked about that experience for years and years. We bought some flowers to leave at the church, and Elaine lit candles in her mother’s memory.

It being yet another perfect weather day, we took a ride around beautiful Slea Head revisiting many of our favorite scenic wonders. It is one of the most beautiful drives on earth. We stopped in pretty Ballydavid by the harbor for a lunch outside a pub on picnic tables by the sea. Lovely. The bartender was a transplanted Chicagoan.

Then we stopped at the fish market in Dingle and bought some seafood chowder for tonight’s dinner at home. All-in-all a brilliant day. Come back tomorrow for our last day in Dingle.

We learned early this morning that Elaine’s Mom passed away yesterday. She was 92. She’s been in ill health recently but still lived alone at her condo in Albuquerque not far from Elaine’s sister, Ann. We will be going to Dingle tomorrow where Doc and Lena visited us for a week about 15 years ago. They had a wonderful time there. We will remember them both as we see sights familiar to them and us in Dingle. Lena’s funeral will be on Monday.

Out of respect to Lena the blog will be suspended until Monday night.

 R. I. P. LENA

Well, almost perfect. It was fogged in as we woke up, but by 10:30 it had all burnt off and we had another cloudless sunny day. Three in a row. That just doesn’t happen in Ireland.  It’s almost like we are in Scottsdale but with cool temps.

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We decided to take it easy today staying fairly close to Portstewart. We drove about five miles to Portrush and then realized I had forgotten my camera. After circling back to get it, we were ready to roll with our picnic lunch in hand. First stop was at White Rocks Beach. When we in the area two years ago, it was pouring rain most of the time, so we hadn’t yet stopped to view this impressive spot. Thoroughly picturesque and enjoyable.

Next stop was the ruins of Dunluce Castle which dates back to around 1500. It was established by the MacQuillans who were soon enough ousted by the MacDonalds, a dominant family in the Antrim region. In the 1600’s Randal MacDonald and his men participated in the Irish Rebellion which was devastatingly put down at Kinsale. Randal was spared when he surrendered to King James VI. Randal and then his son, also named Randal, became Earls of Antrim and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle at Dunluce Castle. Randal II was arrested in 1642 in another Irish uprising. He regained control of Dunluce in 1655, but the castle gradually fell to ruin as the MacDonalds moved their seat of power to Glenarm Castle where it remains today. (TMI = “too much information” for most, but this blog aims occasionally to educate as we go along. Snicker.)

Next it was time for lunch under the beautiful sun along the ocean.

Then we stopped for a good look at White Park Bay. There was a long path down to the beach, but we decided not to take it on, enjoying the view from above. There is a hostel located here that looks nice enough to be a three-star hotel.

We headed back to Portstewart where we stopped along the promenade to have a delicious ice cream cone sitting by the sea. Elaine decided to take the cliff walk home from here, so I went to Shenanigan’s Pub for a pint, watched a couple of horse races on TV, and reached our street just as Elaine exited the cliff walk. We went home after getting the car washed at a self wash not far from Kinvara Cottage. The wash was needed as there was ample evidence of seagulls (“rats with wings” as they are called by one Aussie we met in Caernarfon) on the car.

Dinner tonight is a return visit to Harry’s Beach Shack.  Elaine started with Courgette Soup (indescribably good) while I had Fisherman’s Scotch Egg (different and exquisite). We both the house specialty, haddock and chips. 30 years ago we had fish and chips on Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia and have been looking for its match ever since. Tonight we found it. The best!

See you tomorrow!

We’ve been to southern Donegal on past trips but never to the north. Wednesday morning greeted us with cloudless skies yet again – very un-Irish weather we are enjoying – so we decided to drive and ferry to Donegal. It was a short ride through Coleraine to Magilligan in No. Ireland where we got the hourly Lough Foyle Ferry at 10:15 to Greencastle in the Republic of Ireland. It’s only a 15-minute crossing.  There were only three cars on this first crossing of the morning.

As we left the ferry we turned immediately north and stopped first at Stroove, a beach and lighthouse.

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Geography lesson: Northern Ireland consists of the six counties in the northeast of the island, still officially still part of the UK. No. Ireland uses the UK Pound for money and measures distances in miles. The Republic uses the Euro and measures distance in kilometers. Now, the northernmost point in all of Ireland is in Donegal which is not part of Northern Ireland but rather in the Republic. It sits on the northwest corner of the island and extends father to the north than the six counties of Northern Ireland. Confused? Reread and study a map.

After seeing the lighthouse we drove the back roads to Malin Head, the northernmost point in all of Ireland (refer back to geography lesson). We stopped at Five Fingers Strand along the way.  This is spectacular scenery in a country that has plenty of that. Pictures tell the story. And we stopped (how could we not?) at the Ferran Pub, the northernmost pub in Ireland. We had pints and good craic (fun) talking to the bartender and the two local customers. Real characters all (including us).

Then it was a picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips, and cookies that we bought at a SuperValu (Ireland’s Safeway) in Carndonagh. We enjoyed them at a picnic spot overlooking the water and next to an Irish photo radar van (go figure!). A leisurely drive took us back to back to Greencastle for the 15 minute Lough Foyle Ferry (their motto is “Ferry Friendly Service”) ride back to Northern Ireland. We met an interesting family on the ferry. The husband and wife live near Malin Head and they had an aunt with them who had just celebrated her 80^th birthday. She was Northern Irish by birth but has lived for 60 years in Somerville, MA and was here visiting. She worked for many, many years for Legal Sea Foods as a waitress, starting in the original Legal’s in Inman Square. The family also had friends that had lived in Melrose. Small world.

Dinner was at home. Smoked garlic steak burgers, with potato, cheese, and onion croquettes, and sliced cucumber. Gimlets, of course, preceded the meal. And Wolf Blass Cabernet with the meal. Delightful.

A couple of interesting sights along our travels today (courtesy of backup photographer Elaine):

The morning was gorgeous with bright sunshine so we took an early walk on Portstewart Strand (Beach).

Then we decided to take the train from Coleraine to Derry for a walkabout. We could easily drive there in less than an hour, but the train ride is supposed to be a beautiful ride, so why not give it a try? The ride definitely lived up to its reputation. The modern train made two stops and arrived in Derry on time in just 45 minutes.

We have been to Derry before, so this was familiar territory. The city walls are a good walk as is a stroll through Free Derry, the site of Bloody Sunday (the Bogside Massacre) in 1972 which remains among the most significant events in the Troubles of Northern Ireland. We skipped the very interesting Free Derry museum as we did it on our last visit here.

After the train ride back to Coleraine, we returned to Kinvara Cottage in Portstewart for a short rest. Then we walked down to Portstewart Strand for dinner at Harry’s Beach Shack. (Hmmmm, shouldn’t it named Harry’s Strand shack?)  It’s a new restaurant run by a restaurant family from Donegal in the Republic. It’s so new that they don’t take bookings yet, don’t accept credit cards, and do not yet have a license for alcohol. So we brought our own bottle of wine. Dinner was wonderful. Starters: mackerel cakes with a beetroot sauce for me; chicken liver parfait (pate) for Elaine. Then she had hake for her main while I had Megrin, a sole like fish. And we had desserts: chocolate pot with caramel salt ice cream for me; sticky toffee pudding with honeycomb ice cream for Elaine.

As we walked up from the beach back toward Kinvara Cottage, we got a good glimpse of the famous Portstewart sunset. “Red Sails in the Sunset” was written by prolific songwriter Jimmy Kennedy. The song was inspired by the “red sails” of Kitty of Coleraine, a yacht Kennedy often saw off the northern coast of Ireland near his adopted town Portstewart.

 

Dinner at the Anchor Inn last night was solid pub food, good but not memorable. I started with very good seafood chowder while Elaine had one of her favs, potato and leek soup. I had a Meat and Guinness pie for my main; Elaine had locally made sausages with garlic mashed. We shared an order of chips and a decent bottle of Australian shiraz.

The weather was expected to be cloudy but dry today. We decided to visit the Giant’s Causeway. We had been before, but it was mostly rainy two years back and we never visited the new Visitor Center. As National Trust members now we get free parking, free admission to the visitor’s center, and a free bus ride from the VC down to the main viewing area. A self guided audio guide is also included. The visitor center is modern and informative if you want to know a lot more about the history and geology of the formations.

We took the bus down to the formations and took a walk along the trail as far as we could go. The trail ends abruptly at the site of a landslip (landslide) some years back. It was nice to see the area without dodging raindrops and we also arrived early enough to avoid the big crowds that come here.

After viewing the interesting formations we headed back up to the VC and then immediately to the nearby Nook Pub where we enjoyed pints of Harp Lager and delicious bowls of seafood chowder. Just the thing for a cool day!  We chatted with a nice Australian couple who are doing a bus tour of Ireland with a busload of Americans. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)  I cringe at the thought of bus tours – “Have your bags outside your room by 6 AM”, “OK, we have ten minutes here for pictures”, etc,

Next we drove to Coleraine for a stop at the big Tesco to get some essentials that we missed last time. We plan to eat in tonight, so we bought some chicken and salad as ingredients for dinner. Elaine made a nice meal of chicken in sauce, sautéed potatos, and a lovely green salad. We had a bottle of Australian Wolf Blass wine. Wolf Blass seems to be our go-to wine in Ireland. It’s reasonably priced, very good, and seemingly available everywhere on the Emerald Isle.

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