Where to Start.... June 3 and 4

Where to Start... June 3 and 4

When I travel like this I have trouble keeping track of what day it is. I am constantly checking my cell phone for the date. If I don't write blogs like this I really lose track of time and even where I have been. And that can only be within the last 24 hours!

So now I need to catch up with both yesterday and today. Both of these days were long drive days. If we had more time, we would have spent more time in Kinsale yesterday, and Kilmore Quay tonight/tomorrow. But time is of the essence now and we still have “places to go and people to see”! There is never enough time here in Ireland to do all I would like to do.

Yesterday morning we left Ballinskelligs and headed off to Mizen Head. Mizen Head is the most southern point in Ireland. Three years ago Rita and I were at Malin Head, the most northern point, and we had heard so much about Mizen Head, we thought it was a must for this trip. Malin Head is open and rugged, and incredibly beautiful. It's also windy, has narrow roads, and amazing views. On the other hand, Mizen Head is a commercial venture. The drive to the gift shop/cafe is not anywhere as scenic. When you get there, in order to get to the lighthouse on the point it's a walk and a climb of about 90 stairs, which you pay to do. It's also windy and yesterday it had started to rain. Views are quite limited unless you do the walk out to the lighthouse. On a nice sunny day with plenty of time, I would certainly take the time to do this. But in the rain and wind, with limited time (20-30 out to the lighthouse, then the same back) we opted to enjoy the one side view that we had and then head on to Kinsale.

We arrived in Kinsale around 7:00 last night, checked in to our B&B, and headed off for dinner at a place I've been to before, The Spaniard. It's just outside of town on a hill that heads up to Charles Fort. Last time I was there my friend, Tom Rourk, who had been to Ireland a couple of months before me, left an envelope with a receipt for a drink for me when I arrived. This time it was late, and we were tired from the long drive. We stayed only for dinner and then headed back to our B&B. I do have to say, the food was delicious.

Today, we headed off from Kinsale, after a full Irish Breakfast (we don't do this every day, but thought it would be a nice start for today).

Our first stop was Charles Fort. It's a partially restored ruin of a military star fort that was used to protect Kinsale Harbour from the late 1600's. The day was beautiful and sunny.... then it started to rain, and soon the sun was out again and we came out from under the protection of a doorway and continued our tour. The first Wednesday of each month all the sites that are part of the OPW (Office of Public Works) are free entry. That was the treat for today, even though we would have paid for this time to walk around and take pictures. It's spans 21 acres, so it's a huge site. We could have spent a couple of hours exploring, but again, we had places we needed to drive to.

Our next stop was outside of Midletown. We did the distillery last time, but this time headed to Shangarray to Ballymaloe. This is where Darina Allen has her cooking school. There is also a separate cafe which we also visited for lunch. As usual we spend more time than anticipated, so we had to make some adjustments in our plans for the day.

We had hoped to make a trip to Hook Head Lighthouse and Dunbrody Abbey, but postponed them until Friday (at least we hope they will work out as a Friday adventure) and decided to head directly to our “off the beaten path” destination in Kilmore Quay (btw, quay is pronounced “key”), a nice little seafaring town at the far south of County Wexford. I've been wanting to get here for ages. We finally arrived around 6:00PM and got sorted and headed off to Mary Barry's Pub for dinner. Fresh fish, or actually scallops, for me was tonight's treat.

Tomorrow we head into Wexford to stay for 2 nights, and meed up with Michael Londra's sister tomorrow afternoon for a bit. Rita and I met her 3 years ago and this is a little chance to say “hello” again.

But as I look at the clock, I realized it's time to climb into a nice warm bed and get some sleep. That 7:30am wake up alarm comes quicker than I would like. :)