Tuesday 22 May 2012 - The gift of the gab and gas
Day 40 and 119 to go
Another night spent in a
B&B and another Irish breakfast consumed. Oh my God I am going to explode I
am sure. Need to do more walking.
Today was cloudy with a misty
rain but it was quite pretty.
We returned to the ring of
Kerry route finishing off the 40km section we were yet to do. Unfortunately the
low cloud prevented us from seeing the view, only gaining glimpses every now
and then. We stopped in Muckross to climb to the Torc Waterfall. The plant life
was so green and the waterfall was flowing freely. It was really pretty.
We bypassed the main town of
Kilarney and drove on to Blarney, home of the castle and the famous stone. The
Blarney Castle is set on a large amount of land with many gardens. On a sunny
day it would make a great picnic spot where you could hang out for a few hours,
but the weather today wasn’t so inviting.
We walked through the front
garden and on to the castle, following the many American tourists. Despite the
weather it was still busy. The large stone castle was impressive and walking
the tiny stone, spiral staircase up and up certainly left you with the
impression they were a lot smaller back then. I only just made it through the
narrow openings with my foot just fitting on the stairs. I don’t know how Paul
fit through and some of the Fat Americans really struggled.
We reached the top after
ascending a few flights and joined the queue for kissing the Blarney Stone.
This required us to lay on our back on a piece of plastic, slide head first
into a hole over the top edge of the castle hang on to some bars and pucker up.
This was all done with the help of an attendant that is just as well because I
did not want to slip, heading head first for the ground 20m below!
With the stone kissed and the
gift of gab granted upon us we wandered the gardens and watched the trout swim
in the riverlet before getting back in the car and driving on to Cork 15m away.
We were going to stop but had trouble with traffic and finding a park so we did
a loop and hightailed it out of there heading on to Kilkenny.
We found The Fir Inn pub to
stop at and have a drink and some soup for lunch. We chatted to the friendly
publican and then continued on our drive to Kilkenny.
I found a B&B to head to
and after a quick drive through the centre of Kilkenny we headed out of the
city to the Mena House B&B. With a room to spare we were able to settle in,
have a tea and brief break.
With a map and directions
from Katherine, the owner, we walked back into town. We followed the riverbank with
views to Kilkenny Castle, stopping in at our first pub “Matt the Miller’s” for
a pint.
This gave Paul enough
lubrication to continue on to the castle where we wandered the outside taking
in the views of the grounds. From here we could see many historic buildings
that we wandered to.
The best was the Black Abbey.
This building had some amazing stained glass windows adorning the walls. We
were both very impressed.
With the old stuff out of the
way we went in search of another pub, choosing John Cleere. Paul had another pint
while I had a WKD, like a cruiser. Dangerous if you too many I am sure.
Apparently the rage is to mix this with a Bacardi breezer and a Smirnoff ice in
one glass. It turns green and is called a Fat Frog.
We noticed a postcard for
sale advertising the “Historic Pub Crawl” through Kilkenny that we bought. The
first pub we visited was listed along with this one, so with two of the eleven
frequented we decided to give it a good go.
Our next bar was only a few
doors down. This was a ratty old pub called O’Riada. Paul had a pint while I
abstained. Paul wasn’t impressed with the loos that flowed into an open drain, so
we left quick, walking past the Smithwicks Brewery, unfortunately closed to
tours. WE also passed the Tholsel, another old building.
The next pub “Kytlers Inn”
also on the list and recommended by Katherine for good music and it was. At
6.30pm Damien Walsh an Irish drummer began. He was a get ‘em involved bloke and
I joined 8 others with my own drum playing along to Irish music. It was so much
fun. Paul took video before he filled the card and couldn’t take anymore. With
his enthusiasm to clap along he didn’t realise that my camera strap was resting
in the tea light candle and was creating quite a flame. Another patron jumped
to it and Paul patted it out before he burnt down the pub! Seeing the Hightest
Pub in Ireland went up in smoke yesterday (on the Kerry Cork border) I am sure
they wouldn’t want two in two days.
With my drumming over we left
the Kytlers and crossed the road to the next historic pub “Marble City”. This
was has been considerably modernised. We had dinner with our drinks this time.
My stuffed chicken and cheesy vege was so delicious and filling, but Paul was
disappointed his scampi wasn’t a bigger serve.
With dinner soaking up the
pints we walked on to the 6th pub on the list the “Andrew Ryan”.
This pub had hundreds of photos stuck on the roof mainly of women’s cleavage.
It was quiet inside but the barmaid was great to talk to. A Scottish bloke came
in and we talked to him about places to visit here and in Scotland. I had opted
not to have a drink in this one so the barmaid made me the largest cup of tea I
have ever seen. She told us about pubs to visit and the ones to avoid, with
that information in hand we continued on to the 7th bar “Syd Harkin’s”.
This place was dead so we only stayed for a ½ pint, watching the end of the
Eurovision semi-final in which the Irish group Jedward were competing. Oh my
what a laugh that was!
The “left Bank” bar was on
the list and we wandered passed, but Paul decided it looked to yuppie so we
didn’t stop in.
The last of the bars we
visited was “Tynann’s Bridge House Bar”. This was the place to be. It was
packed with locals still coming in the door after 10pm. The band playing was
the Rob Strong band. He is the father of Andrew Strong who starred in the movie
“The Commitments”. They were fantastic to listen to, though we stayed only long
enough to finish our drinks before making our way back to our B&B.
Our room was toasty warm with
the radiator blowing, but after the long walk we were both melting. Paul was
ready to call it a night while I loaded pictures onto the net. With fast
Internet finally I was able to catch up on the past week. Finally getting to
bed by 11.30pm.
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