Two Curious Souls

Leaving Cork and the Kinsale Coast, we took one last look at the beautiful town of Kinsale. We made our way up the M8 to Cahir and to the Cahir Castle. We had come to learn what type of road to expect based upon the numbering system. 'M' roads were motorways - divided highways and we loved them. Sure easy to drive on the correct side of the road when everyone's going the same way.   The 'N' and 'A' roads were national roads and were the next step down. By the time you got to an 'R', the width of the road was iffy. Finally, at the bottom were 'L' roads, the local roads that were mostly one lane roads with two-way traffic. We tried to avoid these.   Also, I want to commend the Irish for their driving skills. No one actually drove in the right lane. It was for passing and as soon as you passed, you merged into back into the left lane. But the Irish do suffer from the same problem that Americans do. I'm convinced that the best thing to ever h...

Wherever we go, we always seem to see the beauty in the landscape and the surroundings. We see it in the  mountains, the streams, the gaps, and the oceans. But more importantly, we see it in the people.  As we said on one of our prior trips, the things that always jump out at you are not the differences between us, but the things we have in common.  I'll illustrate this with some stories from some of our encounters. In a restaurant in Dublin, we sat back to back at a booth with a couple with two young children. A precious little girl who was almost two and her older brother who was four. As happens in every country, the children get bored. So what do they do? The two young kids start dancing the Macarena. A skilled 4 year old leading his eager two year old sister to learn the Macarena. It was a site to behold. Something I would have expected from Lisa and Heather when they were young and bored.  In Castlebar, after the Christy Moore concert, we're standing up at the ...

We were so looking forward to our drive around the Ring of Kerry. From Knightstown to Cork, with a little side trip back into the Killarney National Park. It did not disappoint and the weather cooperated.  As we left Knightstown, we saw the lighthouse right outside our room. It is interesting that this seems to be one of the westernmost parts of Europe and the site of many of the early attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) to install the trans-Atlantic cable to connect Europe with the United States. When you think of that effort, to lay down cables on the ocean floor, from a boat, you are truly impressed with how inventive our ancestors were. And to think, today, you call customer service and it's handled by someone in India, or Nepal. The gentleman running our B&B told us to get off the beaten path and take the Ring of Skellig. It's the western most edge of County Kerry and the Ring of Kerry and takes you along the coast. As we left the lodging in Knightstown, our fi...

 Our stay in Doolin found us in the middle of an Atlantic storm. At least that's what the locals called it. The Cliffs of Moher were fogged in and we were so excited that we had the chance to visit them the afternoon before. As we drove by the entrance in the morning, we watched people walking out to the viewing areas in dense fog and our hearts went out to them. We were thankful. As we passed through Lahinch, just south of the cliffs, we passed the local golf course which was loaded with golfers. In spite of the dreary and cool morning, they were carrying-on through their rounds. On the other side of town we spotted surfers in the water at the beach. You'll have to zoom in on the picture to see them, but they were there.  The surfers are in here. Crossing the River Shannon on the ferry. A 20 minute crossing that saved us 4 hours of driving.  There is a road called the Wild Atlantic Way. It runs from Inishowen peninsula in the north to Cork in the south. It meanders into ...