The first stop was the Lismore Castle. It was a beautiful place, and just what you would imagine a castle would look like. It's been used as a place to film movies (BBC's 2007 version of Northanger Abbey, for example), and is a private residence open for rentals for special occasions. In more recent years, it has played host to people like John Lennon. I was under the impression that we would be able to visit the castle, but no, only the gardens were open to visitors. To be honest, it wasn't really worth it. Yes, the gardens are some of the longest cultivated lands in Ireland (dating back to the 1100s, I believe), but the flowers weren't really in bloom yet, and there just wasn't much to see, not to mention it had just finished raining. So, mom and I wandered the grounds, went into the small modern art gallery (neither of us are much into looking at art), and then headed back out. If you decide to visit someday, choose a time when the gardens are in full bloom, otherwise, the view from across the river onto the castle was the best part.
We took to the road again, and after a couple of wrong turns (silly directions saying to go 2.7 km then turn left on unmarked road, but our odometer was in miles, so we went too far, or not far enough), we stopped for directions and bought a sandwich to-go. The convenience store worker just said that the Irish never have problems with finding where they're going, even with the unmarked roads, which would be amazing if it were true. In any case, his comment about being happy wherever you end up turned true as we turned a corner on the road and overlooked Tipperary County. We had been driving in fog for a while, and then the sun burst forth and we had a great view overlooking the county.
We continued on the path he gave us and then made an unexpected stop at the Cahir castle. It was straight out of the middle ages - a real fortress. The insides were pretty much threadbare, but imagining what it once would have been was fun. You can see the warlords and ladies strolling through the buildings, and feasting in the banquet hall after a victory in battle. But then, when looking out over the moat at the modern city, the fantasy begins to dissolve. The rain then starting falling harder than ever when we were leaving, and we hadn't even brought umbrellas in with us, so we got a little soaked.
Since this day was so rain, shine, rain, shine again, we ended up not seeing one, not two, but three rainbows as we continued our journey by car! Unfortunately, we never made it to the end of the rainbow to find the Irish pot of gold.
The next scheduled stop along the way was to be the Rock of Cashel. We got there after it was closed, though, so all we really got to do was drive around and take pictures. This castle on a rock was up above the rest of the city surrounding it, and there was an abandoned friary nearby and sheep on the hill leading up to the castle. I wasn't too disappointed we didn't get to go in, though, because all of the others we had been to had been much more impressive looking from the outside than the inside.
We then made our way to our accommodations for the night. In Cork we had stayed at a real hotel. In Limerick, we actually stayed quite a ways outside of the city at a lodge that was somewhere between a b&b and a hotel. It was pretty awkward the entire time we were there - we were the only guests, and we never really saw the property owners. The beds weren't too comfy, and the phone rang all night long. I eventually went out into the lobby and unplugged their phone, but it was plugged in again by the time the morning rolled around, and there was no one to ask about it. But we're getting ahead of ourselves - that first evening, we went to the nearby village of Adare to eat dinner. There's another castle in Adare that is surrounded by a golf course, and you have to go on a tour with the city's tourism agency to visit it. We never went to visit it, but the town was quite cute. We ate at a place called Archer's, and it was one of the best meals I had had thus far in Ireland. Three types of potatoes, that carrot/cauliflower mash, and lean pork tenderloin in gravy. Scrum-didly-umptious!
We also made quite a discovery at a grocery store near the restaurant - fresh baked muffins (possibly pop-overs). With Irish creamery butter, they were the best thing to start off the morning the next day. After that died-and-gone-to-heaven moment, we drove into Limerick - on the same day the pope was there! Unfortunately, we didn't see him, but we saw the effect his presence had on traffic. We were routed around to enter the city from a different direction since he was at the university. We ended up getting lunch from a Chinese take-away place in a mall, and then wandered down the streets of Limerick.
Not really having a plan, we then took a leisurely drive by King John's castle in Limerick, then headed to the country. Our goal was a sign we had seen for Lough Gur. What was it? Who cared, there was a sign :-). Along the way to get there, mom noticed a sign for Grange Stone Circle. We stopped at the site, went up and started reading the sign, and before we knew it this older gentleman came driving up and started to talk with us about it. Most of the circle had been excavated, and bones and other relics had been found. The Grange Stone Circle is the largest of its kind in Ireland, and it is a bit of a mystery as to its purpose, but it probably had something to do with animal sacrifices. The man pulled out a book about Ireland from the early 90s in which his children were prominently featured playing in the circle, and they were even on the book's cover. Before leaving us to visit the circle, he pointed out that he was the person who took care of the circle, and he even installed a handrail for people to use to go up the little hill. He then asked that, if possible, we pay two euros apiece to visit it. Yes, that may have been a bit of a hassle, but he really wasn't asking for much, really. He left us, and we went over to the circle where cows were chilling along the edges, and we saw that the circle had been there for ages. There was one section in the rocks where people had put down coins, but who knows what that was meant to signify.
We also learned at the stone circle that Lough Gur was a lake, and we loosely drove around it, but never really got super close to it. We then went back to the lodge for another restless night.
After eating some of the yummy muffins for breakfast, we went to check out of the lodge, but there was no one in sight. I left the keys on the check-in book and we left without seeing anyone. Since I was a fan of the terrible roads, I decided we should drive by the Cliffs of Moher on our way to Galway. We drove by several more castles along the way - Bunratty Castle that was meant to be sort of like entering a period play, but also was quite pricey to enter (so we skipped it), and several others on tops of hills that may have been fortresses or maybe just ruins of ancient barns.
When we got to the Cliffs of Moher, it was just about lunchtime, so we decided to picnic with a view. Now, on a nice day, this would have been glorious. However, it was hazy and spitting a little bit of rain, so it wasn't the most leisurely of lunches. After eating, we went and walked up the northern side of the cliffs up to a viewing point. The cliffs were breathtaking - just what you imagine of when you think of Ireland (probably because they're featured in just about every film from Ireland). The cliffs are also home to puffins, which I'm sure I saw, but since they live in the middle of the cliffs, I wasn't exactly close enough to see one up close and personal. After going up the viewing tower, we walked back down and listened to a harpist that had set up shop on the stairs. I walked up the Southern side of the cliffs, and mom headed to the visitor center that was built into the hills surrounding the cliffs. I walked to the edge of the property used for visits, but there were plenty of people who hopped the fence and continued on a bit further, despite the no-trespassing signs. At the furthest allowable point up the hill, there was a plaque commemorating all of the people who had died from falling off the cliffs. I guess it's easy to get too close to the edge - I even saw a couple of people that went over the fence to get closer to the edge of the cliff, and a security guard went after them. You just have to stay safe!
On the last leg of the journey to Galway we drove through the rocky Burren area of Ireland, made a side trip to a beach where the rocky sand was dark gray and the shells were purple, and then we drove down Corkscrew Road into the heart of Galway County.
Can you guess what's up next?
No comments:
Post a Comment