Around the ring

Day 27 -  Killarney

The Ring of Kerry is a very popular 179km scenic drive along the Wild Atlantic Way, starting and finishing in Killarney. Tour buses travel anti- clockwise and most cars travel clockwise. Killarney is packed with tourists and tour buses so we expected a fairly hectic day on narrow roads with frequent pulling over to let each other pass.

We left Killarney just before 9.30am with our first stop at the lookout called Ladies View, named after Queen Victoria who visited the spot in 1861, as it was a favourite place of her ladies-in-waiting. We were surprised that there were plenty of parking spots and not a lot of people, a good start to the morning. 

We skipped Kenmare as we'd visited yesterday, drove through the pretty town of Sneem then took the narrow road to Staigue Stone Fort. The ring fort is one of the largest intact and oldest stone forts in Ireland. It's dated between 300 and 400 BC and built in a circle with a high wall made of stone without any mortar holding it together. On the way back down the track we had some hairy moments with drivers who weren't really keeping up their end of the bargain in pulling over to give sufficient space.

We detoured to Derrynane Beach and went for a short walk along the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. We chose picturesque Waterville for a lunch stop only to find that there weren't many cafes, mainly pubs where the tour buses had got there before us so we drove on, stopping at a lookout along the way with great views of the coast.

We decided to branch off the ring and take the 50km Skellig Ring around the Iveragh Peninsula. We initially thought we'd made a mistake as the narrow roads and heavy rain meant we couldn't see that much. We reached Kerry Cliffs, by that time the rain had stopped so we decided to delay lunch and walk to the cliffs while the weather was good. The cliffs were very striking and definitely worth the detour as they were the highlight of the day. By the time we returned to the car the rain had started again so we we drove on to Carhersiveen for a quick lunch stop.

Cahergall Stone Fort, another prehistoric ring fort, was close by so we drove there, the rain quite steady now. From there we drove back to Killarney, arriving just after 4pm. Somehow we had missed most of the tourist buses and the large groups of tourists we were expecting, and had quite a peaceful day.

We decided we'd had enough of pub food and gambled on a Thai restaurant near the hotel. Although the food wasn't what you'd consider authentic, it was still quite tasty, M was especially happy with the Thai style potatoes, pretty much that restaurant's version of the spice bag, and something that really needs to be introduced back home!

I wish .....

Day 25 - Cobh to Killarney

After checking out of our hotel we walked the loop of the famous Deck of Cards, a steep street in Cobh with identical houses painted in different colours. They say that the houses look like playing cards, and if one fell down they all would.

It rained most of the drive to Kinsale, giving the impression we were not going to be able to see or do much today. However, as we arrived the rain stopped and we were able to walk around the colourful touristy town (along with all of the other tourists, it seems to be getting busier as we go on).

Kinsale is the start of the Wild Atlantic Way and after a quick stop at Charles Fort we drove on to the Old Head of Kinsale, a windswept diamond shaped headland with old ruins.

It rained again all the way to Kenmare but once again it stopped as we arrived. We visited Cromwell's Bridge, Our Lady's Well and the Stone Circle. 

The Stone Circle consists of 15 boulders arranged in an oval with a large round stone in the centre. The circle itself was interesting, but we could have done without the bit of card and the instructions to write a wish on the card and tie it to one of the trees. We did end up writing wishes, though - one was that we didn't have to pay, the other that they didn't ask people to write a wish and tie it on a tree.    

The rain started again as we left for Killarney, but it didn't get too heavy while we drove the first part of the Ring of Kerry, the famous loop that we plan to do completely tomorrow. Doing part of it today means we can skip some of it tomorrow, as we expect it to get very busy and it could be a long day.

We struggled for a car park when we arrived in Killarney, finally managing a spot after about 15 minutes of circling. We wandered into town and were unpleasantly surprised at how many tourists there are around. We had hoped that Ireland in September might be starting to quieten down, but so far it hasn't looked that way.

We found a quiet pub a short walk from the busy area and sat in one of the "snugs" - a small booth that were built so women could drink out of the public eye, before dinner and heading back to the hotel.

Surely that's unhygeinic!

Day 24 - Waterford to Cobh

We had to drive straight to Waterford yesterday so had missed some of our planned itinerary, so today we started by backtracking slightly to visit the Rock of Cashel, an ancient castle and building complex built up on a large rock by the town of Cashel.

We arrived in time for the 11:30am free tour. There was occasional sunshine but it was quite cool up by the exposed ruins, the guide was very knowledgeable and a gave a lot of good (if a little dry) information on the history of the ruins. We visited all of the main buildings, finishing in the chapel.

We stopped for a quick lunch in Cashel (note, sausage rolls seem to be quite popular in Ireland), then drove for an hour or so to Blarney Castle and Gardens, site of the famous Blarney Stone.

It wasn't as busy as we'd expected, visiting major sites during mid to late afternoon seems to be a good way to avoid crowds. We wandered around the gardens and joined the queue to climb the narrow spiral staircase to the top, passing rooms and features marked with explanatory plaques. It took us about 15 minutes to get up there, but the queue can get very long (an hour +) when it's busy. We also didn't realise that you need to lie down and kiss the Blarney Stone upside down, which is why the queue was moving so slowly. Each kisser had to be helped into a specific position (and it also looked like they cleaned the stone between kisses). We skipped the kissing bit ourselves, opting to watch a few people as they kissed the stone while a commemorative photo was taken, which they could buy later for 10 euros.

After wandering around the gardens for a bit longer we left and drove to our overnight stop of Cobh, a major cruise port, and also just happened to have a massive 4000+ passenger cruise ship moored just outside our hotel. Just our luck ......

We checked in and went for a walk into town, the massive ship looming large over everything else, wth hordes of passengers wandering the streets and crowding the bars. We went into one bar hoping for a quiet drink, unfortunately it was full of boomers singing along to the 80's songs played by the band. We legged it out of there and found a quieter hotel, where we had an Irish coffee and tried a local stout, while we watched the misty rain come and go over the ocean.

Outside our price range!

Day 23 - Dublin to Waterford

It took a while for us to get on the road today, we started by catching the 8.30am bus to Dublin airport to pick up our rental car for our loop of Ireland, and between the bus trip and car collection process it was 10:30 before we were finally heading out of Dublin.

We'd booked a tour of the Waterford Crystal factory for 1:20pm, so we unfortunately had to skip our planned stop at Kilkenny. The tour of the factory was very interesting as we were able to watch craftsmen blow, cut and engrave crystal in front of us. 

As beautiful as it all was it was also well out of our budget.

It was a short walk from there to see the Viking Triangle, site of the old city walls still with old Viking buildings such as Reginald's Tower, the oldest urban civic building in Ireland. 

We'd read that parking at our hotel in Waterford could be difficult so we headed there early to snag a parking spot, before walking through town and settling in to a pub next to the tower for our first authentic Irish Coffee of the trip.

Is this the perfect fast food meal?

Day 22 - Dublin

We started the day with a visit to the Irish Immigration Museum which had a very interactive experience tracing the history and geographical spread of the Irish people throughout the world. 

The Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship replica is moored opposite the museum and it's sobering to imagine 2500 people boarding such a small ship to travel vast distances in to the unknown.

We visited the National Museum and there was an interesting exhibition of the Bog Bodies, preserved remains of people found in bogs around the country.

On our walking tour yesterday we were told about a local fast food called a "spice bag", which is chips and chicken with some chilli salt, onion, peppers and spices. That sounded like a pretty good combination to M so he had to try one, and he was not disappointed. It was hot, it was spicy, it was crunchy, it was tasty. Hmm, I'm salivating writing this .....   

Yesterday we learnt that you should always carry an umbrella in Ireland - today we put our lesson to good use as it started raining around 4pm while we were out and about, and the cheap umbrellas we bought in the UK were put to good use.  

Lesson learnt

Day 21 - Dublin

Our hotel is in a great area, easy walking distance to all the tourist spots in Dublin. We started our day off with a free walking tour, usually a great way to learn some local history and get a feel for the area, and this one was no exception. The guide was excellent, engaging, informative and interesting. 

After some lunch we took in more of the city and the river, and in the afternoon M wandered through the National Gallery, Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green.

On our way back from our exploration we also learnt an important Irish lesson, which is to always carry an umbrella, as we were caught out at one point and had to change out of our wet clothes before heading out again!

Hello Ireland

Day 20 - London to Dublin (Ireland)

We checked out around 9am to get the train to Heathrow for our 1:30pm flight to Dublin. The streets around the hotel were very different to the the quietness of the long weekend, everyone was heading back to work after the summer holidays and streams of people emerged from the underground entrance as we tried to get our luggage down the steps. The train trip was straightforward and by around 10:30am we had dropped off our luggage and were enjoying the lounge to wait for our flight.

The flight to Dublin was short and only an hour or so after landing we checked into our hotel for the next three nights. 

We had a bit of a wander around town, a quick walk down to the river and through the Temple Bar district and we then found a nice pub for a traditional dinner of fish and chips.

Bank Holiday

Day 19 - London

Today is a bank holiday and the last day of the summer and school holidays (kind of like Australia Day), and it's also our last full day in England.

We walked to Covent Garden, we didn't find anything remotely green but there were lots of shops and people (apparently there was once a convent and a garden in the area, hence the name). We then caught the train to Camden Market to find lots of people and lots of tacky, Chinese made souvenirs.

We then visited the British Museum. It's free entry, but there were two queues, for people with and without tickets. We joined the "no ticket" line, only to find that the lines merged in just a few metres and we all entered together.

We visited a few of the museum highlights, like the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles, as well as the African section. It was very busy, much busier than we remember from out first visit in 2011. 

We finished off the day by visiting Somerset House (which is not a house but more like a grand palace) where K managed to talk our way into the gift shop of the M. C. Escher exhibition where M bought a small souvenir, while K snuck in to see a little bit of the exhibition.

We went for a drink in a nice quiet pub close to our hotel, the area where we've been staying has been very quiet because of the holiday weekend (which we like), but nothing like what the area would normally be like.

Some final observations for our last full day in the country:

• UK would be the the easiest country for Aussies to travel in, except maybe NZ.
• People in general seem much politer than at home.
• There is no "walk on the left" rule, just walk where there's a gap - unless if you're on an escalator, where you stand to the right.
• There appear to be a lot more smokers and vapers.
• Instead of  "Hi" or "How are you", the say "You all right"? That took some getting used to.
• There are still lots of bookshops and greeting card shops, at home they seem to be dying out.

Forever stained

Day 18 - London

We seem to have a knack of turning up to major cities to find out there's a major event on, this time we discover at the last minute that's it the famous Notting Hill Carnival. They were expecting between one and two million people to attend so we decided we should at least check it out.

We started with a walk down to nearby Fleet St and on to the Thames. The streets near the hotel were almost empty but at the river it became quite busy. There were lot of people around, the weather was mild and it was a bank holiday weekend.  

We crossed the Millennium Bridge then returned via Blackfriars Bridge. We hopped on the train at Blackfriars station, hoping to get off at Notting Hill Gate, only to find that the station was closed (too many people, we presume). The next stop was Bayswater so we jumped off there and followed the crowd to the festival. The carnival is Caribbean based and the crowd, especially the women, were dressed with that theme, many being very scantily clothed. 

There were a surprising number of police around, though many of them seemed to be in the back streets and well away from the crowds, though we did see two people pulled out of the crowd and taken aside. There were also a lot of event staff, arrayed in lines across the road. They were still letting people through, and many were taking photos and videos as if they were part of the crowd.

We watched a group of Mas band members and followers swarming the streets, they were heavily dyed in black and purple paint that was literally thrown around. K ran to try and escape the paint but it still managed to splatter her clothes with purple, effectively ruining them. It was only later that we read that it is recommended to wear old clothes to the festival ... too late for us!

After watching for a while we decided to move on as the crowds were getting quite dense. We stopped for a drink at a surprisingly quiet pub, though by the time we moved it was almost full as there was a heavy rain shower while we were there. 

We planned to visit Mayfair so we needed to get to Bond Street station, we walked to Queensway Station only to be told it was also closed, so we walked on to Lancaster Gate. We wandered the upmarket streets of Mayfair, then continued to Regent St and Soho, then Piccadilly Circus, before getting the train back to Chancery Lane and home. 

After that we popped in for a drink at the grand Old Bank Hotel on Fleet Street before heading back home to cook the Indian meals we'd bought from M&S, taking advantage of the cooking facilities in our studio apartment while we can.

Be careful out there!

Day 17 - Hope to London 

We were on the road by 9:30am for the four hour drive to Heathrow to drop off our rental car before our London stint.

There was a bit of rain and there were also disruptions on the M1, but other than that the drive into London wasn't too bad. We had to fill up car and have a quick toilet stop just before we reached the airport we stopped in a place called West Drayton. The place looked impoverished and the locals were surprised we had chosen there to stop there and told us to be very careful with our belongings.

The car return went smoothly, we made our way to the airport railway station and travelled to Chancery Lane, with just a three minute walk to our studio apartment where we were staying for the next three  nights. The streets were very quiet as we were staying in a mostly commercial area, it was a Saturday and also the last weekend of the school holidays.