Blogs from County Cork, Ireland, Europe - page 35

Rivermount House is simply stunning. The magnificent residence is perched on the side of the hill overlooking the valley. Not long after signing off yesterday, the weather came in and the view disappeared. It rained all night, not that I really know with the double glazing and quiet rooms. Breakfast was unsurpassed, a cooked breakfast with all the trimmings, with full dinner service and cutlery. After breakfast I packed up and headed outside. Whilst it looked as if it was raining, it was actually just low cloud. The cloud that skips by the top of lofty, but here is drifts along the surface. So it was 17 degrees, dry, with visibility to 100metres. Yey, the Irish are metric, a nice change after the yards and miles back in UK. Drove 5km back into Kinsale and went ... read more

We crammed 6 people and like 12 bags into a Euro-style minivan, an Opel Zafira, and starting driving south from Dublin. My dad Howie had to quickly learn how to drive on the left side of the road and in a stick shift car, no easy task. I may have pooped myself a few times along the way, because a lot of the country roads were tiny. Along the road south, we stopped in Kilkenny (great name) to explore the small-towniness of it and to see the Castle Greens. The next two days were spent exploring Cork in the south of Ireland. I swear, the people down here were some of the nicest people I've ever met. In Cork, we spoke for hours with a string-instrument-maker who's made a guitar on commission for James Taylor, and ... read more

Hi Ruthie I was up fairly late due to my illness. I found it hard to sleep anticipating what the day ahead might bring. I never thought this day would come. It's all new and I felt anxious about this new experience. Truthfully, I can't say what my feelings are, except there was a lump in my throat, and a knot in my stomach. I am so sad that I never met my piglet cousins, aunts, uncles and got to see the world. I got pictures recently and they look like they are having so much fun. Adorable little things. I have attached some pictures. Rumour has it all the pigs are herded into the slaughter house here. They are preparing for us. Say goodbye to all those in SHS. Everytime you eat eat a susauge, ... read more

Yesterday Anna and I went on a 10 mile hike! We walked to a waterfall and back. The waterfall was gorgeous. Not huge, but defintely very pretty. To get there though, you entered at this certain area and we had to walk about a mile into the woods, which was actually going back in the direction that we came from. At the beginning of the trail, though, there is this STEAP hill. On the way down you basically fall on your bum, and on the way back, you basically burn your bum off because it hurts so bad to climb. Anna went swimming at the base of the waterfall, and I took some funny videos of her (without her knowing), where she would scream every time she reached a spot that she could not feel the ... read more

Today was definitely an adoenture, for lack of a better word. We started out after breakfast from Kilkenny to the Rock of Cashel. The drive from one to the other is pretty easy (I still hadn’t done any of the driving at this point). The Rock of Cashel is a group of medieval limestone buildings that gained prominence during the 4th and 5th centuries as the seat of the kings of Munster. If you visit Cashel, get there as early as possible as tour crowds start filing in at about 11am Also, make sure you use the toilets by the parking lot as you come in since there aren’t any once you walk up the hill. After Cashel it was my turn to drive (eek!). It’s actually pretty easy to get used to the idea of ... read more