Kinsale August 3 Friday

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August 3 Friday – Kinlay

Today the weather was a bit cold but nice and it warmed up after I walked into Kinlay. I toured the Kinlay museum and then hiked up the hill to Desmond Castle which is really only a tower house. It was used as a customs house first then by the Spanish to store arms. Then it was used by the English first to keep French Prisoners and then American Prisoners from the Revolutionary War. It is now a wine museum.

I didn’t visit the museum but just took some pictures from outside, then walked along upper O’Connell Street to the other side of town till it fed back into Pier Road. I went into the Trident Restaurant and had a delicious albeit pricy lunch. Then I walked all the way out to The New Bridge and back.

When I got back into town I noticed that they were recovering small sailboats that had been sailing. Kinsale has some sort of sailing school or something and dozens of little sailboats with young children were landing and being pulled up out of the water onto small trailers and then being hauled across the street. It was quite a spectacle and I took lots of pictures of it.

After watching the sailboats being recovered I eased back to the west side of the harbor and did some grocery shopping. I started to walk back up the hill to the hostel but it started raining and a cab pulled up so I just caught it up the hill. For €5 it was worth it not to have to walk back in the rain…..or wait for it to quit.

When I got back to the hostel I marked all my food purchases and put them in the fridge. Then I had some tea and caught up on my blog.

Right now I am planning on using the Dempsey hostel as a home base and renting a car next week to explore the southwest coast of Ireland. At least that’s the plan.

Looks like it will be a busy weekend in Kinsale this weekend.

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