Ireland’s Ancient East - Cork Ireland

 

We drove from Waterford to Cork on a rainy day with a stop in between at a country restaurant.  I actually went without a jacket a little bit on our last day in Waterford, but the wind and the rain meant it was again a chilly day when we left for Cork.  If the weather had been nice, we were going to stop along the coast, but dropped that idea and just enjoyed our lunch at Ballymaloe.

Ballymaloe

Is a country house hotel, restaurant and has an impressive cooking school or as they say here a cookery school.  We had first learned of the farm from the Feed Phil show.  He had a tour of the farm that is part of the estate and ate breakfast with the owner and daughter.  We had lunch in the restaurant of the hotel.  As I said it was cold and rainy so we both opted for warm things like soup and chowder then we had dessert which featured local strawberries - all quite nice.  It was a little bit of an adventure getting here since it is in the country we got to have Irish small country roads, but Jeff did well getting here and then on to Cork itself.  The real challenge would be finding the hotel's parking garage in a city!

patio and entrance to Ballymaloe

English Market

This was our full day in Cork; we knew Cork is known as a foodie town and that its English Market (farmers market) was supposed to be wonderful - even the Queen visited it when she came to Cork.  We headed off walking the very walkable city with little side trips popping up on our way - ooh a fabric shop, oh can I look at that shoe store.  We did eventually make it to the market.  We did not buy anything even though I was sorely tempted to buy some strawberries, but we enjoyed checking out all the different variations on vegetables we thought we knew and ones we had eaten recently wondering what they were!  The meat and fish markets were also enticing.

English Market

Elizabeth Fort

While eating breakfast our hostess had suggested that after the English Market we head to the nearby fort and cathedral.  We had the cathedral on our list of to-dos but not the fort.  Glad she told us to visit it.  The fort itself is an old star shaped fort from the 1600s and it was used until after WWII.  During that time barracks were built in it and had many uses including depot for convicts who were being sent to Australia.  Current day the old walls are still there so you can walk them some and have great views of the city and the river that runs through it.  During WWII which was called the "emergency" in Ireland they built a bomb shelter in it and then newer barracks which were used by Ireland's Garda and were used until 2013.  Side note.  WWII was an emergency and not a war to Ireland because they were neutral during it.  Kind of makes sense - new country so money was limited, and they probably did not feel too endangered by Germany.  The building that had housed the Garda is now an exhibition spot and had one called Women Water and Walls.  It talked about the women who were housed there before they were shipped to Australia as part of a criminal sentence.  One thing that caught my eye was how much better these women were treated than the people emigrating on the famine ships a couple of centuries later.  The government made sure the women had warm and cool weather clothing for the trip and that they were properly fed and cared for on their way to Australia which would take something like 160 days at sea.  The reason they treated them so well was that once they arrived in Australia, they were being put to work in a factory, so they needed to arrive healthy and capable of working.  Of course, they were also a source of brides for the men already in Australia since it was 10 men to 1 woman at the time.

walls of the fort

St Fin Barre's Cathedral

From the fort it was a short walk to St Fin Barre's Cathedral which while it was built in much of the French Gothic style it was built in the 1860s (like the ones in Waterford which felt much newer).  It is the 3rd cathedral on the site and before that there was a monastery as early as the 7th century.  We arrived at the church during a special service so had to wait a few minutes.  We read a placard out from describing some of the carvings on the cathedral (there are a lot).  We saw that around the front center doors on the sides were the wise and fallen maidens, we started investigating them trying to tell the difference and why one group was wise, and one was fallen.  While we were looking, one of the docents came over to talk with us.  He gave us quite a lesson on cathedral styles and hidden meanings.  The picture below has the wise maidens on the left and the fallen are on the right.  The wise are holding their lights up high and the fallen have theirs in all sorts of positions and they are looking downward.  Even what each maiden is standing on has meaning.  I also noticed that the placard said the gargoyles were cleansing the church.  Guess what else the docent taught us about.  Each gargoyle's talons were holding something that was a negative vice or belief.  Additionally, gargoyles are often downspouts for a church - who new.  Finally, the lefthand doorway had reliefs of different common occupations and the right doorway had common female roles.  Turns out it was encouraging the commoners/average people to continue to lead good lives.   Oh yeah, the inside of the church was impressive too.

center entrance to cathedral with the maidens

rear of cathedral

There are 70 stained glass windows telling 150 stories from both the old and New Testament and are considered to be the best stained glass in Ireland.  We also were surprised to as to where we saw some of the organ pipes - on the floor surrounded by temporary wood but with holes allowing one to peak in at them.  It might also be because an organ gallery was planned but never built.  I know this because there was a very pretty door with inlaid silver in it and a plaque said the room had never been built but the doorway had. Hmm wonder if anything is hidden behind the door?

UCC Campus (University College Cork)

Our final stop for the day was to walk around the UCC campus.  We had looked at top things to do in Cork and walking the campus and enjoying some of its outdoor artwork was listed.  We walked around the campus, which is nice, but never saw sculptures - a campus on each side of the river so maybe we were at the wrong campus.  Oh Cork has a tidal river running through it (River Lee).  

Kinsale

The next day we decided to drive out to the coastal town of Kinsale.  For once it was a beautiful day, I even wandered around in shirt sleeves a little bit.  Now some of the locals took it even further and went to the local beach.  Reality check here it was in the low 70s.  We got to town and started exploring.  Jeff had a nice, simple harbor boat cruise in mind then we saw that there was a new boat option - a sea safari.  It would be in a rib boat and the lady assured me the water was smooth outside of the harbor so we signed up.  First we needed a little food in us so we went off in search of a snack or meal.  Good old Phil had been here too, but it seemed like more food than I wanted before I hopped in this small boat so we found a popular outdoor cafe and shared a sandwich.  Then off to get dressed for our boat.  They had jackets and pants for us to keep us warm and of course life jackets.  We were a group of five plus captain and we had to walk a little ways to the boat.  I'm sure we were an interesting site to some of the cars passing us by.

downtown Kinsale

outdoor cafe for lunch

The boat ride took us around the harbor a little bit allowing us to see the forts that had been built on either side of the entrance for protection by the British.  We also saw an area that is popular with locals to hang out and watch the boats go by.  Then we went out into some protected coves where we could look up at the tall cliffs and see a lighthouse, golfers at a course up on this small peninsula, hang gliders and lots and lots of birds.  The land around here is heavily comprised of sandstone which is weak enabling the water to work its way in spots forming small caves.  Our boat went into the entrance of a couple of them and we could just see through to the other side of the peninsula.  Then it was time to venture out into the open water to go around and see the other side of the peninsula.  That is where we really saw the hang gliders and large rocks simply covered in birds.  I do mean covered in birds too.  We had your usual seagulls (3 types, black headed gull, great black backed gull and lesser black backed gull), kittiwake, cormorants and auks (a puffin relative).  As we were heading back into the harbor we noticed several sailboats with black sails - that's unusual we thought.  Our guide informed us that the sails were of a carbon racing type and those boats were competing in a race around a large part of Ireland.  They had come into shore because of the high winds.  

another view of town

beach goers in upper left corner, well named boat on upper right, bottom is the area where locals like to hang out and watch the boats go by

top left a close up of the golfers, hang gliders on top right

first cave

looking through the second cave
(Powerful zoom lens)

racing sailboat

bird pictures - look closely at right photo the rock is totally covered in birds

Blarney Castle

On our drive to Killarney we stopped at Blarney Castle.  Neither of us were interested in kissing the blarney stone but we had heard they had nice gardens so that was our destination.  We wandered those gardens for close to 3 hours and did not visit all of them.  A key area is the woodland garden, which is a trail through a very manicured forest.  Additionally, there was the pine forest, the fern garden, the Japanese Garden, the Vietnamese, the Himalayan, the rock close and the poison garden.  Just a little bit of plants to see!  I think I missed a couple of them too like the lake.  We were not the only ones wandering around the grounds checking out all these gardens - the signs and brochure encouraged you to check them out.  My only gripe was that it seemed like the only way to see inside the castle was to get in the long line to kiss the blarney stone so no inside views only garden for us.  However, we did get to wander in a cave that was an escape route at one time from the castle and in its dungeons a little bit,

Blarney castle

upper photo is the fern garden as in very tall tree ferns that are in a valley
bottom is a tree that grows that way naturally

forgot to mention all the sculptures that were interspersed with plantings in the garden, many were very lifelike in their pose and location

Ireland’s Ancient East - Waterford

View from our room

 It’s time to head for Ireland’s Ancient East so we pick up a rental car and start on our way.  We will visit:

• #3 of National Geographic’s Top Ten Gardens
• The Viking Triangle
• Waterford’s Copper Coast

Dublin

Can you see the harp?  A harp is a symbol of Ireland

We drive back to Belfast in a light rain where we return the car and then wait for a bus to take us to Dublin city center.  The weather turns worse, so we are very glad to be passengers on the 3-hour drive to downtown Dublin.   Happily, when we arrive the weather has cleared.  We had not completely unpacked since we left Belfast so it was time to discover some of our clothes.  

Antrim coast of Northern Ireland

 

We are driving to our next destination and yes on the other side of the road.   (My first time)  We picked up a car at the airport on the outskirts of Belfast, so an easy start.   All was well until we hit the streets of Londonderry/Derry with cars parked on both sides and a narrow track between.  The locals were far more comfortable with the space than I was as I carefully drove where I didn’t think the car would fit. Then I missed a turn repeatedly and had to go back through the narrowest parts again and again.

Belfast

 

Hi y'a (common greeting from people in Belfast).  We arrived in Belfast in the middle of the afternoon after over 24 hours of travelling.  We had ridden on 2 busses, flown on 3 airplanes and experienced a very long layover in Johannesburg to get here from Victoria Falls.  Wandering into our new hotel room was a relief.  We had a couple of things we needed to accomplish that evening:  unpack, start washing clothes and find some food (no food service at the hotel).  Oh, and one other important thing:  chill and relax after our busy couple of weeks in South Africa.  We did get the first load of laundry done and then went out for food.  We were aiming for a nearby Marks and Spencer (a department store with good grocery store we first used in England) to pick up something to heat up in our little kitchenette.  Oops we got turned around and showed up right after they closed.  Along the way we went past a restaurant that smelled good and I suddenly was hungry.  We ate there, right?  Wrong. We had not yet showered and felt grubby so ashamed to say we got takeout from the nearby McDonalds with a promise to eat better tomorrow.

Victoria Falls

 Victoria Falls is a town and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is not the widest nor the deepest waterfall rather it is the combination of width and depth/height of the falls that makes it so special.  We would spend 2 nights in a lovely truly old hotel where you could hear the falls and see the mist from them.  Our rooms were in the former stables building, but still quite quaint and old.  For example, our bathroom had a true clawfoot tub in it.  This hotel is on the Zimbabwean side of the falls so a new country for us.  We wandered around the hotel some, it is truly an old Victorian era British hotel.  As we wandered the hallways, we saw pictures from when the Royal family visited, lots of old travel posters pushing South Africa and relics and skulls.  We would have tea on the terrace the next afternoon.  There were also gorgeous murals around the bar named after Dr Livingstone the European founder of Victoria Falls. Then it was time for our Zambezi River cruise.  

Joburg aka “The City of Gold” aka Johannesburg

Just like its many names, Johannesburg has many different faces.  

South Africa Safari - Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge

Murray drove us to Sabi Sabi.  It was almost like another bush drive as we drove on single track dirt roads with animals in sight, including these zebras.

South Africa Safari - Lion Sands, Kruger National Park

We spent 4 nights in the bush of South Africa.  The first 2 nights we stayed inside of Kruger National Park at Lion Sands and the second 2 nights in Sabi Sabi at the Bush Lodge.  Both are quite nice, but Lion Sands was better for the room and maybe Sabi Sabi wins the view.   Between the 2 lodges we saw all 5 of the big 5 and many other animals and learned a lot about the bush and how its natives survive.  (Lion, Leopard, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Water Buffalo)