Dublin to Cork August 23

I always feel a bit sad when I hear people tell me they’ve been to Ireland and say that it was just in Dublin. Although it’s a beautiful city steeped in history it’s so metropolitan that it doesn’t actually capture the essence of Ireland. Nevertheless Pat and I took the tour but unfortunately the only thing I really wanted to see was the long room in the Trinity library and it was booked up. Check it out yourselves and book it when you go. There was of course Molly Malone, stag parties and fantastic food. And believe it or not they now do zero Guinness which actually tastes good.

I met up with Lisa and Damien for a brilliant day. They took us out to Dalkey, a very fancy beautiful part of Dublin and we went into the Royal Irish yacht club and the Royal George. They are right beside each other the first one established in 1831 and the other in 1838! There must be a story there? Both gave us a lovely welcome. We were invited to look into the Geraldine. Restored from 1908.

I can’t really express all the emotions I felt meeting up with Lisa and Damien. The craic and laughter and all that has gone between the years and how much I miss them. It was lovely that Pat also really enjoyed himself and enjoyed listening to our memories and Damien’s opinions 😜. But on to Cork

On our way we had to avoid a peacock strolling in front of us as we went up to see the falconry. I guess that beats the usual cows. And saw this man making a shelter for kayaks at the meeting of three rivers.

We toured around Cork, visiting the butter museum and remarkable success of Kerrygold. Well it’s not really remarkable it IS the best butter. I noticed in the pictures that the one of all the management are men and then on the floor it’s all women doing the grafting.

At the Shandon St Anne’s church built in 1722 you can climb the tower and ring the church bells. It’s a beautiful sound. It also stored old bibles and many sad monuments, one in particular to all the sons of a man what had died overseas. The son who errected the monument lived in New York. Sad times

Really narrow streets and that house you see with the branches growing out of the windows is inhabited.

The tree is the view from our Bnb. Our host Dierdre is fantastic, making suggestions providing a bit of craic. It is after a regatta weekend and a couple of restaurants are closed. The others are full. We’ve had to go to the take away fish and chip shop twice and it has to be said. Delicious fish with enough chips ( French fries ) to feed the sermon on the mount .

We happened on a music session in the pub next door. Initially I thought it was closed and we sneaked in the back. When I checked with the owner he realized the sign was still up from two days ago

The singers were are fantastic with different styles. All folk but a balladeer a raunchy woman a beautiful melodic lady’s voice and one guy who was just milk and honey. They invited me into the thro. No egos. all just great music

We’re off to Kinsale now. Excuse any grammar mistakes as I’m doing this in my phone