Ireland: Ballyvaughan to Kilkenny

5.31.09 - The biggest news today is that there is now a real-deal post with pictures and everything below! Hopefully, more of that will follow soon - but it's not happening tonight. It's nearly 1:00 a.m., so here are the highlights of today:

We eat another amazing breakfast at Cappebhaile House. This time it is scrambled eggs with smoked salmon smoked in Irish oak at a town about twenty kilometers from here. It is the sweetest, silkiest textured smoked salmon we have ever had.

We fill up and head south throughout the south Burren. Some highlights:

Poulnabrone is a portal tomb dating to about 3,000 B.C.   The remains of thirty-three people are contained here.

This is the Carran Church.  It's a 15th Cenutry medieval church ruins. 

Located at the intersection of the R476 Corofin-Kilnaboy road and the R480 road is Leamanagh Castle.  The first section of the castle was begun in 1490.  It's most famous resident was Marie Rua, who was historically a remarkable person and by legend was a husband killer. 

After passing through the south Burren, we head east through Limerick toward Kilkenny. As we approach the town of Thurles, we come into thousands of people, some in red jerseys, some in blue, walking through the streets, taking all of the lanes of traffic, all walking toward Semple Stadium for the Munster Championship in hurling between Cork and Tipperary. Hurling, you say? Right. Not something everyone knows about, but it is indeed a very big deal here. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling to learn about hurling.

We finally reach Kilkenny. After circling different blocks many times, we finally find our hotel, the Butler House. Our room in this 1800's building is huge and great. We have dinner at Langston's and, funny enough, get to watch the Munster Championship on the television there. We then call it an early night. Tomorrow we see Kilkenny castle, drive through Wexford, then head to Dublin for our last two nights in Ireland.

Ireland: Ballyvaughan to Cliffs of Moher

Doonagore Castle near the Cliffs of Moher

5.30.09 - We start today with a full Irish breakfast here at Cappebhaile House. That includes homemade brown bread, which could be cake it's so moist and good, cereal, a fried egg, four Irish sausage links, two large slices of bacon (more like large slices of ham), both black and white pudding (pork sausage patties - black with blood, white without), mushrooms, tomatoes, toast and tea. There is so much left over that we make sandwiches out of the bacon, sausages, bread, and toast to have for our lunch today.

We drive into Ballyvaughaun for the Burren Valley Crafts Fair and Farmers Market that happens here on Saturdays. This is some very good fun, seeing the different types of people, food, and crafts.

At the Farmer's Market/Crafts Fair.

A black lobster at Farmers Market. I've never seen a black lobster before.

At breakfast, we met the owners and our hosts Connor and Margaret. We met their daughter Sinead last night when we checked in. Connor was very helpful in pointing out sights we should see today. He also tells that the Volvo Round The World yacht race will be coming around Black Head, a coastal point around 1:30 p.m. These are $20 million dollar yachts competing for a big title. Connor recommends we head up to Black Head, a point on along the coast, where we might see some of the race.

To Black Head we go, on the way to the Cliffs of Moher. Some wildlife we saw on the way there.

This area we are in is called The Burren. On the way to Black Head is where we see what The Burren is really about. It is like no land I have ever seen. Nearly everything is rock or rock formations of some kind.

Approaching Black Head.

The landscape along the water.

A keyhole walkway through a stone wall.

We do see the yachts, by the way. They were a ways off, but we could see them as they lined up to race.

The drive from Ballyvaughan to the Cliffs of Moher is unusually, ruggedly beautiful. There are lots of ruins of castles, abbeys, and churches along the way, some from the 12th century.

Kilonaghan Church

Ballinalackan Castle

We finally reach the Cliffs of Moher. As you can imagine, pictures don't nearly do them justice. They were spectacular.

After trekking around the cliffs, we return to Ballyvaughan. We have dinner one more time at Logue's Lodge, then head back to Cappebhaile House. We decided today that tomorrow we will drive to Kilkenny tomorrow. This is a surprise move as we had never discussed visiting there. However, it makes routing sense. About 11:00 p.m. after an hour or two of trying, I finally secure us a hotel room. It's a holiday weekend here, so everything is booked. Time for some sleep!

Ireland: Dublin to Ballyvaughan

The one intersection in Ballyvaughan above.

5.29.09 - We wake up today at the Dalmaroy Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland at 5:50 a.m., sail through the breakfast buffet ("No haggis today, thank you, I'm flying"), and drive as quickly as legally possible to the Edinburgh airport. We get nailed with some hefty overweight baggage fees by Aer Lingus. Even so, the Aer Lingus people are extremely nice and helpful. After talking to two different people, we pay less than half of what we were originally told. We board and land in Dublin, Ireland after a short hour-long flight.

The Dalmahoy this morning.

We have some crazy car business with Hertz because of our large American suitcases not fitting in the rental car we reserved. Like the Aer Lingus staff, the Hertz crew is great and helpful beyond expectation. The only problem is that we spend over an hour getting the car rental completed. In the end, however, we trade time for money. They upgrade us to a larger vehicle at no extra charge in return for our patience.

By 11:00 a.m., we are finally ready to depart. But, to where? We're winging the Ireland part of this trip by choice. After some discussion of whether to travel south to Wexford or west to the opposite side of the country, we opt to go west. Our friend David had suggested a bed and breakfast in a village called Ballyvaughan in Burren County Clair, on the south side of Galway bay opposite the city of Galway. We call Cappabhaile House (pronounced kap-puh-b'WAIL). They have a room available and are glad to help us.

We travel the estimated three and a half hour trip in about five hours due to lots of construction and it being the begining of a bank holiday weekend (unexpected news to us). We also make some stops along the way to eat and rest. Oh yes, and there is that time we have to pull to the side of the narrow road to let the herd of cows go by.

When we're close to Ballyvaughan, we stop to take a break in the village of Kinvara and see the Dungaire Castle below, built in the 1600's.

We finally arrive, fairly exhausted from the little sleep the night before, the early morning, and the long drive. Fortunately, they have a very nice room for us with a beautiful view of green fields rustling and waving in the high winds where cattle are grazing. All of this is at the foot of the mountiain that bears the name used by the B&B, Cappabhaile.

The view from our room at the back of the B&B, Cappebhaille.

One of our first glimpses of the Burren. Thousands of years ago, it was all covered by sod and forests. Now many places are just rock.

We eat a fine dinner at the Logues Lodge in the village. We come back, make some more plans for our time in Ireland, and are ready to get some sleep. Tomorrow we head for the Cliffs of Moher.

Scotland: Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

5.28.09 - Just a quick note again. Hopefully will be able to fill in lots of details soon. Had my first taste of haggis (not bad!) and black pudding, or sausage made with blood (okay, but don't feel compelled to have it again). We had a great time exploring Edinburgh castle and had some good shopping fun. This is a shoe town like none we've ever seen! Teresa had some big fun with that. It's nearly 1:00 a.m. Need to be up in five hours to fly to Dublin, Ireland. More blogging on this post soon!

Buying a kilt outfit is no cheap proposition.

National Gallery of Scotland

Entering Edinburgh Castle

Walking down the Royal Mile.

England: Thornbury Castle, Thornbury

A painting from Thornbury Castle's great hall above.

5.27.09 – We spend this morning enjoying our time at Thornbury Castle. We hope to get some nice pictures of the castle before we go. As soon as I’m ready to shoot, however, there’s a “power call,” or power outage. It’s actually kind of interesting. It gives us an idea of the old days of the castle, with the fireplace and windows providing the only light. Just as we’re about to leave, the power comes on. I get my last photos of the room and the castle.

Our room, the Howard suite.

The bed headboard.

Stafford family symbols carved into the canopy of the bed.

The Howard suite door from the inside.

Details of the plaster work on the ceiling of our room.

A 1708 wardrobe in our room.

Two of the three sitting areas in the room.

Inside the castles great hall.

We make a quick stop to see the Abbey next door before driving into the town of Thornbury for lunch and to buy some art. An artist in town sells reproductions of vintage prints of Thornbury Castle.

We go to the Wheatsheaf Pub for lunch on the recommendation of the castle staff. Good eats and nice people.

We walk to the gallery only to find the gate locked with a chain and padlock. We’re hoping the artist is just gone to lunch. We walk around Thornbury a bit to have a look around. We ask some people in a thrift shop next door if they know anything about the artist. They don’t, but some small framed watercolor prints of Paris and London selling for two pounds each catch our eye. We might have to come back for these.

Looking around the town of Thornbury.

Finally, a little after 2:00 p.m., James Liddiard of the gallery returns.     We shop in his eclectic stone studio and find a few prints to take home.   A quick stop by the thrift shop to pick up those Paris and London prints, then we’re back to the car to head for Scotland.

The drive to Scotland is good.     We make a couple of stops for fuel and to break. We stock up on some local versions of magazines we like and Cadbury chocolate bars of various kinds. The Cadbury bars here are completely different than those at home. They’re smooth and delicious. As we go down the road, we see the exit for Cadbury World. Man, would I love to go there! Unfortunately, no time to stop. This is going to be at least a seven hour drive if not more.

Along the way traveling north from Thornbury, we pass close to Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Stratford-upon-Avon, Birmingham, Stoke-On-Trent, between Liverpool and Manchester, then past Blackpool.   As we go further north toward Kendal, the scenery becomes amazing.           Beautiful green mountains everywhere. This is the Lake District National Park. This area would be worth another visit. It’s stunning.

Not long after this, we pass the border into Scotland. I’m excited as this is a new country for me. I’ve never been here before. After an hour or so, and with it nearing dusk, we come to our exit to go to Edinburgh. Just as I’m coming around the curve, I see a big, beautiful, whitetail deer standing in the middle of the road. I hit the brakes and the deer runs into the woods.

It’s a little after 9:00 p.m. It’s been so nice to have very long days of light here. Dusk isn’t usually until after 10:00 p.m. It is light to some degree until after 11:00 p.m.   Sunrise is early, before 6:00 a.m.

From here, it practically feels like we’re going off-road. It’s a two-hour scenic trail. We see most of it before it gets completely dark. It’s a little tense though as it is a two-lane road with hairpin turns, ascending in altitude, and with some of the oncoming traffic traveling at high speed.

We finally make it to the Dalmahoy, a golf resort outside of Edinburgh that will be our home for the next two nights. After checking in, we do our best to get some sleep as soon as possible.

The Dalmahoy, Edinburgh, Scotland.