Advertisement
Published: October 5th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Monday 27th September to 3rd October 2010
Monday 27th Sept 2010
Up and into Blarney Castle and grounds. www.blarneycastle.ie . Built more than 600 years go. Lovely setting. We spent around 2.5 hours there. Did not kiss the Blarney Stone (the Stone of Eloquence) - as Tom already has the gift of the gab and Gaye can’t get a word in anyway. On site there was also the Blarney House -but it is out of season now and it was closed.
Drove to a campsite supposedly near bus route - it was 2.5 km up a steep hill, so the return trip was just not on. Told we could get a taxi or drive. That was no good so off to the campsite listed on the other side of town and also on a bus route. The bus stop was 1km walk away BUT the walk was along the 100kph dual lane road. It was the lesser of 2 evils, so stopped and set up . Went into Cork about 2pm and did the bus tour of the town.
Tuesday 28th Sept 2010
Up and into Cork to visit the Cork Butter Museum. www.corkbutter.museum . Very interesting history
- once the largest butter market in the world. They exhibited traditional butter-making craft and implements as well.
From there into the bus depot and out to see the Blackrock Castle Observatory. www.bco.ie . It was originally built as a watch tower and fort to guard to the river entrance against invaders. It is now used to house a team of scientists for planet discovery, and as an education centre for students. Great interactive displays and we stayed and played for a couple of hours on them, (the inner child keeps popping up every so often !!) , had a bite to eat and then did a tour with some history told by a Canadian who now lives there. Their telescope is connected to ‘The Very Large Telescope’ in Chile. (yes, that's what it called)
Back on bus to Cork and then another bus back to home. No need for dinner as the food at the Observatory was plenty .
Wednesday 29th Sept 2010
Went into Cobh (pronounced Cove). Walked around - weather magic today - warm and sunny.
Went to the Cobh Heritage Centre to see more of the 1840-70 famine and the history of Cobh.
Cobh was
the last port of call for The Titantic. It also played its part in the rescue of survivors of The Lusitania which was sunk by a German U boat near Cork . In its day Cobh was a major port for ocean liners. The town used to be called ‘Cove’, then after Queen Victoria came there it was called ‘Queenstown’ and then after the war of independence they renamed it Cobh (Gaelic for Cove).
Visited St. Colman’s Cathedral. Took 47 years to build (1868-1915).
Through Midleton and Youghal and up to Clashmore to see Amanda Murphy’s pottery - what a great time - talked to her mother and grandmother as she was not there- just had her first baby. She did turn up for us. She has lived in Dee Why as her hubby is from Aussie. Talked to her for a while - bought some seconds - 2 x candle holders./small bowls. Then off to Tramore for a campsite. When we got there, they were closed (end of season).
So we drove towards Waterford - saw a pub with large car park and stopped and they said it was OK to sleep there for the night. So drinks, talk
to staff and owner (he was under the weather and glassy eyed) but fun. Had dinner - great steak, but way too much food on the plate. Back to motorhome for the night.
Thursday 30th Sept 2010
Up and into Waterford. Went to Waterford Museum of Treasures for a self guided audio tour . Was very interesting in that the city of Waterford over the centuries kept its identity as best it could.
Then onto to an art gallery - not much to look at, but as usual we had a long chat with the lady at reception.
Walked through the town and had a look around. Went to a phone repairer, and so Tom’s phone is back on line - NFI what went wrong.
On to the Waterford Crystal showroom and factory. Did a 1 hour tour. It was very interesting. They are now letting the craftsmen do freelance designing to see if they might come with marketable designs - more contemporary.
Drove to Thomastown and looked at a craft centre and saw some great stuff. Went into a hand crafted hand bag shop - way out of our price range, but really very nice.
Then up towards
Kilkenny and stopped in a caravan park just out of town. We met an aussie lady, Kelly, a school teacher. She has been in Italy teaching English. We invited her over for dinner. We chatted for hours over dinner, wine, and Baileys.
Friday 1st October 2010.
Off to Kilkenny town. We went into the National Craft Gallery, where there were about 10 different crafts persons there. Left there about 3pm and headed off to Castlecomer. Another craft centre - some really nice jewellery by Carl Parker and some pottery by Andrew Ludick. Talking to the potter Rosemarie Durr and she told us of a nice place in Morocco to visit - Essaouira - a place on the coast and not too spoilt by tourism.
Headed out to Stradbally to look for the 2 artists/sculpturers, who did the large figurines . (www.artsculpture.eu) .No one there - but it was a nice drive, good roads. So we headed off towards New Ross. Just out of town, we had dinner in a restaurant/pub and slept the night in their car park.
Yep, it started to rain during the night.
Saturday 2nd October 2010.
Into New Ross to see the Ros Tapestry.
(www.rostapestry.com) Interesting history of Normans in Ireland told on a tapestry and had been in progress for 10 years and still has 3-5 years to finish it. We did the self guided tour of the tapestry.
Had look around town and then drove to Wexford and into the campsite at 2pm. Rain and strong winds are start/stop for the afternoon. We stay in campsite - getting travel blog up to date and photos and planning our trip to Bath in England. We depart Ireland tomorrow and head off on the ferry from Rosslare (just 15 minutes away) to Pembroke, England - a 4 hour ferry trip.
Sunday 3rd October 2010.
Up early and off to the ferry port of Rosslare. Had to be there 45 minutes before ferry departs.
To be continued on new diary as now in England @ 3.10.10.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.225s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0617s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb