We are starting to wind down our activities as the trip nears its end. We leave Wales on Saturday, overnight near Newbury, England, spend a final night overseas at Gatwick Airport, and fly back to Las Vegas on Monday. We’ll be home on Tuesday.

Today was the coolest and rainiest day of our trip, but it was still only an on-and-off drizzle, nothing to get excited about. We started the day doing something indoors, a visit to the Sunderland Heritage Trust just across the channel in Pembroke Dock. A Sunderland is a British flying boat (or sea plane) that was an important coastal defense and submarine hunting aircraft during WWII. It was thought that they were all had been lost in battle during service. Then divers right in Pembroke Dock, once a Flying Boat Station, discovered a Sunderland T9044 submerged in the harbor. The Sunderland Trust is dedicated to eventually bringing the T0944 to the surface and restoring her. It’s a huge undertaking.

Meanwhile, the Trust has restored the old base chapel (and movie theatre during the week) into a museum containing many stories of both ship building at Pembroke Dock and the Sunderlands. Artifacts from the sunken T0944 are on display. One amazing story is about Sgt. Ogwyn George whose Sunderland was shot down over Norway by the Nazis while on a reconnaissance mission. The nine RAF airmen who lost their lives that day, 9 April 1940, were the first Allied servicemen to lose their lives in the defense of Norway. They are remembered with a special ceremony each year at their graves in the Sylling churchyard, north east of Oslo. There was one survivor – Welshman Ogwyn George, the radio operator – who fell 3,000 feet without a parachute, hitting trees and landing in unusually deep snow. He was discovered and rescued by a Norwegian.

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Then we decided to take a chance and drive to Angle, a small village on the coast, despite the clouds and rain. It was only about 12 miles but on very narrow roads. We stopped at West Angle Bay for a look at the beach and had a walkabout. Right at the beach we discovered the newly opened Wavecrest Café and decided to try it for lunch. It was excellent. Elaine had a nice cheese and leek pie while I had a locally caught crab removed from and then served in its own shell (no claws to deal with).  Both came with couscous salad and delicious home-made coleslaw.  We saw the ferry going by as we ate as Elaine is indicating in the photo, but it doesn’t show up.

After lunch we returned home for a quiet afternoon. Cocktails at 5:00. Dinner was at the Marina Bar and Restaurant where we dined on Tuesday night. We had deemed it worthy of a return trip.  The servers there are all young, enthusiastic, and very friendly.  Our server tonight had gone to high school and college in Florida but was now back living in Wales.  And the food is excellent.

Can it be? Another sunshine filled day is in store. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and then dry again on Friday. No matter what happens now, we can’t complain even a little bit about the weather.

Wales seems to be filled with castles and beautiful coast line. Today we opted for a short trip from Llanstadwell, our tiny town, to Pembroke, the main city of Pembrokeshire, for a visit to the well developed Pembroke Castle. The castle is most famous as the birthplace of Henry VII who became king of England by overthrowing the despised King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of England to win the throne on the battlefield. Henry VII ended the dynastic wars known as the Wars of the Roses, founded the Tudor dynasty, and modernized England’s government and legal system. Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Henry VII.

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The castle itself has been restored to good effect in many places and is well endowed with interesting displays and historical markers. There is a labyrinth of passageways and lots of towers to climb (or not). There is also a brass rubbing centre – my mother would have loved it and spent hours doing rubbings.

After the castle we wandered into town and happened on the Town Hall. The first floor is dedicated to a series of wall murals (no pictures, sorry) describing the town’s history. They were created by a retired husband and wife artist team from 2006 until 2009. Upstairs s the town museum, an eclectic collections of Pembroke memorabilia looked after by a pleasant and chatty curator.

The we drove to Milford Haven for a picnic lunch along the River Cleddau before returning home early to Kiln House for a leisurely afternoon reading and napping as we awaited cocktail at five (ish). Elaine saw the afternoon ferry go out to Rosslare, Ireland as I was napping. It was a beautiful afternoon on the River Cleddau, the wide tidal estuary that runs in from the Irish Sea.

Dinner and drinks at home (Kiln House) tonight.  See you tomorrow.

During the night a heavy fog rolled in and blanketed the area. The Isle of Inishmore ferry makes its second daily visit each day at 12:15 AM and then leaves again at 2:45 AM. We have been hoping to catch a glimpse of the ferry all lighted up, but we are always asleep. This morning we didn’t see the ferry depart, but we sure heard it as its foghorn goes off every couple of minutes from the time it prepares to leave until it is out of earshot. As you looked out at the water just outside our bedroom, you could not even see a glimpse of the ship through the fog. When we got up at 7:00 AM, the fog was gone. Did we dream it all?

This morning we went down the marina and had breakfast at the Brunel Café which is run by our hostess, Carol, at Kiln House and her sister, Pauline. It’s a small place catering to the yachting crowd that uses the marina. Breakfast was excellent. I especially enjoyed a piping hot cup of hot chocolate.

After breakfast we drove back to Tenby, the seaside town I described in Monday’s posting. This time our purpose was a boat trip from Tenby Harbor to Caldey Island, a twenty minute crossing. We spent about three hours on the island exploring what it had to offer and found it to be a quite an enjoyable place. It is a thriving and active monastery that survives financially through tourism, a perfume industry, and a chocolate factory. We partook of some fudge and an extra dark chocolate bar at the chocolate factory. We passed on the perfume.

Getting on the boat to return to Tenby required a duck boat like vehicle to take us to the actual boat. We landed normally at a dock on the way over, but the tide was too low for the boat to dock for the return trip. After the return trip, we had a nice lunch in a pub in Tenby and headed home with a stop at Tesco for our final stock up of necessities.

Dinner tonight was at the Bar and Restaurant at the Neyland Marina.  The food was very good and the view over the marina was nice. Elaine had grilled salmon while I had a new dish for me, smoked haddock with poached eggs.  I had a lemon meringue pie for dessert; Elaine enjoyed her new favorite: honeycomb ice cream.

As we left the restaurant, it was raining.  It has rained some at night and when we have been driving, but this was the first time we had rain as we walked.  Scottsdale has had more rain since we left than the UK and Ireland.  Very weird.

Lo and behold, another cloudless sunny day. Brilliant! Breakfast at home and then at about 9:30 we ventured out, headed to Dale Village, a quaint little fishing village. Elaine collected bunches of sea glass on the rocky beach. I helped a little and then walked around a bit as Elaine continued collecting.

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We then headed toward our next destination but diverted to Martin’s Haven, noted for its deer park. We saw no deer but quite a few cows, seals way below us on the rocks, and gorgeous scenery. It’s a National Trust site.

Back in the car, we stopped at Broad Haven for our picnic lunch. No seagull encounters today!

Then it was on to St David’s, the smallest city in the UK. Smallest city, mind you, not smallest town. And it is home to St David’s Cathedral. We walked around the magnificent cathedral, part ruin, part active church and enjoyed the organ music.

Then it was back to home base where we stopped at Neyland Marina for a pint and made a dinner reservation for tomorrow night.

Dinner tonight was just down the road from Kiln House, our cottage, at the Ferry House Inn, so it was walking distance. It was good solid pub food. We both had the fish special, a huge amount of nicely cooked plaice.

 

We woke to a return to beautiful blue skies. After a simple breakfast at home (tea, Welsh cakes, and yoghurt), we set out to explore one corner of the area in which we are staying.

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We drove about ten miles and stopped for a look at the tiny town of Manorbier. The roads in and out are narrow and twisty and really test your driving skill. The town has a castle and a small but very beautiful beach. Elaine had a nice chat with a local lady picking blackberries (“Don’t eat the red ones!”)

Then we drove on to Tenby, a bustling town (population 5,000) right on the hills overlooking the sea. The word picturesque was coined to describe this place. Elaine fell in love with it. It has three beaches which become one at low tide (which it was). On Castle Beach there was a sand sculpture competition, and lots of families were participating. Right on the beach there is an island with a fort atop — St Catherine’s Island.  It has been closed to visitors for over 35 years because the stairway up had eroded so badly, but a new restoration project is under way and one is now able to climb to the top of the island at low tide. They still have much work to do before the fort might again be accessible though.

Then we had our picnic lunch on a bench on the grassy hillside overlooking the beach. Well, I had my lunch. Two bites into her sandwich Elaine was holding it when a sea gull (rat with wings) swooped in over her shoulder and snatched the sandwich. The scavenger and the sandwich landed right in front of us and was gone in two quick seagull gulps. Video would have “America’s Funniest Home Video” material, but, of course, the camera was not at the ready at the time. I gave Elaine some of my sandwich, we shared our potato chips, and then we had a short walkabout. We ended the walk back on the beach where we enjoyed an ice cream cone and viewed the sand sculptures.

On the way home we stopped at a big Sunday flea market (boot sale to the Brits). There was everything imaginable for sale. A few miles down the road we stopped for a look at Carew Castle and the Carew Cross. We met two elderly brothers from the midlands who were vacationing as well and had a good chat with them. They insisted that we come over to their car to meet their wives (which we did, of course).

Then it was back to Kiln House, our home, and we walked down to the Ferry House Inn for a pint (or two). Dinner was at home again. We will eat at the pub tomorrow night. Cheers until then!

We had a wonderful breakfast at Archways B&B. Chris raises a few pigs and makes his own sausages; they are delicious. We left at 7:45 to drive the few miles to check in our for our 8:45 ferry from Rosslare to Pembroke on the Isle of Inishmore of Irish Ferries. It takes just about four hours. It was overcast but the seas were calm as could be. I stocked up on duty-free vodka for our final week at a cottage in Wales.

Getting off the ferry, we looked for a pub and a grocery store in the town, Pembroke Docks, near where the ferry docks.  Bad idea. The pub was filled with rowdies, and we ended up eating at a McDonalds filled with annoying little fat kids and their oblivious parents. And the Tesco where we did our shopping was packed. The whole experience gave us a bad first impression of the area in which we were going to be living for a week.

Then things got better quickly. We crossed the toll bridge (75 pence) to the other side of the channel and quickly found a nice pub called Martha’s Vineyard (named after the Massachusetts island) near the harbor in Milford Haven, an area decidedly upscale area from Pembroke Docks. The bartender was entertaining and gave us some good tips for restaurants. Then we headed for Kiln House, our self-catering home for the next seven nights. It’s a glorious place right on the water. The pictures tell most of the story. Not shown are the third bedroom, the second full bath, the downstairs half bath, the laundry room with washer and dryer, the back yard parking spot, and a second grassed patio.  We could live here!  (Oh, and there’s a nice neighborhood pub juts 200 yards down the road on the sea.)  Elaine prepared dinner at home and we had an early night.

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.