April 13 - I definitely fell off the "I'm going to blog every day!" band wagon....

April 13 - I definitely fell off the "I'm going to blog every day!" band wagon....

Well, here it is Saturday evening, and we're in the cute little town of Ennistymon. I'm so bad, and haven't blogged about the last three days! I have some serious catching up to do.

When I last wrote, we were deciding how to spend our day leaving Cork and heading to Killarney. We were debating whether or not to go to the tourist trap that the Blarney Castle is, and we decided to give it a miss. Turns out we are so glad we did - we've talked with several other travelers who have gone there, and they all said that we did the right thing.. So, we slept in on our last morning in Cork, and left the hotel at 10:00. We had decided to go drive the Mizen Head peninsula, which has some great lighthouses and also has the most southwestern point in Ireland on it.

On our way, we stopped at the super adorable small fishing town of Kinsale - what a beautiful place! It would have been lovely to spend a few days there. Next time! One of Kinsale's boasting points is the Charles Fort, which lies on the opposite side of the harbor, across from the town. Construction on the Charles Fort was begun in 1678, and it stands on the original site of the Ringcurran Castle, which was destroyed by (big surprise here) Cromwell's forces in 1656. That Cromwell - he wasn't content with destroying the last filaments of the English monarchy, so he had to destroy an ancient Anglo-Norman castle as well! Spoiled brat. The fort was fascinating to visit. The Governor's House within is still in good condition, but most of the other buildings are now roofless and home only to birds and plants. The buildings were largely destroyed during the Irish Civil War. It was eerily beautiful to visit, as it was quite easy to picture the soldiers who conducted their lives within the walls of the fort. The fort was impregnable by sea, but quite vulnerable to attack by land. Sir William Robinson, royal engineer, advised the crown to modify the land fortifications - his advice was ignored and his point was proven when the Duke of Marlborough and his forces quite easily defeated the Jacobite forces within in 1690. He, of course, attacked by land. (Just in case you're interested, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, was a total badass and is really interesting to read about.) We made a complete circuit of the impressive battlements, that have amazing views of the sea, and it was fairly easy to see how they would have easily been able to defeat any attack from the sea. The fort also houses a really great museum in the Governor's House, and we would have spent longer in it had the skies not been threatening rain! We finished viewing the fort right when the rain began, and ran back to our little car.

Driving through Kinsale, we headed toward the Mizen Head itself.  While on the road, we saw a sign for a monolithic area, and quickly exited to it. It  turned out to be a circle of standing stones! It was absolutely beautiful. Neither large nor particularly impressive, it was wonderful nonetheless. It was raining (shocker, I know) and the fields around the ring were so green, and it was easy to mentally transport ourselves back thousands of years. This stone circle is Bronze Age and is identified as being associated with the winter solstice.  We spent a really nice 20 minutes walking around taking photos, and then continued on our way. Upon reaching Mizen Head, we got gas in the little town of Goleen and headed out to the tip of the peninsula itself. We stopped in the picturesque little fishing town of Crookhaven for a bite to eat. Situated in a small inlet with a teeny harbor, this little town is sheltered from the worst of the storms blowing in from the sea. We stopped in a little pub and had some sandwiches, which were simple and delicious. We wandered the town for a few minutes, and then drove towards the Mizen Head itself. So we thought..... we spent about 20 minutes taking hairpin turns on teeny tiny farm lanes trying to find the right road! Turns out there are two signs for the Mizen Head, and one of them is wrong. Once we figured that out, we went back to the correct turn and reached our destination in about 5 minutes. Goodness! If only one could ask sheep for directions.....


The Mizen Head was stunningly beautiful - a little spit of land protruding out into the Celtic Sea, surrounded by pounding waves with accompanying serious winds. The cliffs jutted into the waves, the waves crashed on the rocks that have been honed to knife edges, and the birds soared on those winds, seemingly floating in mid air.  We walked down a path that has a view of the sea arch, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was a lovely little arch, and the blue water beneath it added to the beauty. We stood on the little jetty with the waves crashing around us, being battered by the wind, and felt like we were in our own little piece of heaven. After hiking back up to the top, we took the super scary bridge out to the signal station itself. Ok, the bridge wasn't super scary, but it was really high up! I definitely have my mild fear of heights to contend with, and at the halfway point across the bridge I had to book it to the other side while Brandon (the brave one) stood in the middle and took photos.  Yikes, my toes were tingling like crazy! The signal station had some really interesting information on the history of the signal station and the Fastnet Rock lighthouse that lies 8 miles out into the sea. This is the area where the Lusitania was sunk, and they had really interesting information about the history of shipwrecks in the area as well as the building of the Fastnet Lighthouse. We stood out on the point of the island for a while and took more photos and enjoyed the immense views.... if only we had seen some ships steaming by! This is also a great place for whale and dolphin watching, but we didn't see any.

After finishing up, we got back into our teeny car and drove to Killarney. The road to the town goes through the National Park, and we actually went over a mountain pass to get there! Not that high, of course, but very beautiful and reminiscent of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. It had tunnels!! I was driving, so of course I honked the horn and held my breath - true Colorado style! We descended into the park, passing the Ladies View (so named because when Queen Victoria visited the area, her ladies in waiting declared it to be their favorite view),  the Upper and Muckross (middle) Lakes, and the small town of Muckross. Everything was staggeringly beautiful. The mountain peaks had clouds sitting on them, like little puffy hats, and the colors were slightly muted by the grey skies. It looked just like driving into a postcard! We, with a little difficulty, found our way to our hotel. We only made about 5 wrong turns, which we thought was pretty good, considering that we didn't have any directions! For the first time, our hotel was not in the town center area, it was a 20 minute walk away. Due to this, our tiredness, and the fact that it was 8:30, we decided to have dinner at the hotel pub and just relax. We found some cozy chairs by a fire, and settled in with our books. We both had fish and chips, and it was delicious! Just what we needed after our long and fun day.  This hotel did not have wifi in the rooms, so we were pretty off the grid while there. It was available only in the bar, restaurant, and reception area.

On Thursday morning we woke bright and early (or not, since it was 9:00....) and headed off to the national park. We tried to find the visitors center,  and ended up doing a nice preview of the park while trying to find it. Turns out it was in town - whoops! Most things here are very well signed, but we've found that when something isn't well signed, it's really hard to find! We went into the office and asked the nice lady working there about hiking trails. First she only told us about paved paths that were shorter than 5 km. When we mentioned that we were interested in climbing actual mountains, she changed what she was telling us a little bit, but you could tell that she was still dubious about our hiking ability. Do we look that amateur? I'm just kidding, I'm sure that they get tons of inexperience tourists in there who have no idea what they would be getting themselves into. At this point she somewhat grudgingly told us about some loop trails by the Torc Waterfall. When I asked her about Torc Mountain, she pulled out a book and gave me a really hard to read printed sheet of paper with directions. She warned us that this 5 mile round trip hike was extremely strenuous, and that if it began to rain we should really turn back. She also warned us that this mountain summitted at 525 meters (or 1,722 feet) and we should be very careful. We thanked her and then went to a newsagent shop down the street to buy an Ordinance Survey map of the national park that we had head was really good. By now it was 11:00, so we were anxious to get on the trail.

After this we headed off to the fearsome mountain! Now, Brandon and I are by no means extreme alpine mountaineers, but we are pretty adept at conquering 14ers. We were told that this strenuous hike would take 4 or more hours - we did it in 2 1/2, and this was with about 20 minutes spent on the summit and with multiple photo stops both ways. The hike was wonderful! We started out on an old road in deep forest. Everything was covered in the most lush green moss! We kept saying how we felt like we were in The Lord of the Rings, or something like that. We ambled along that road for about a half mile, and then reached the end of the forest. The stark contrasts once we exited the forest were amazing! We went from the deep, vivid green of the mossy trees and rocks to the tundra like terrain of the heath. We were immediately in an area with short grasses, scrubby bushes and trees, and dark red moss on rocks only. It was beautiful in its own way. We started our ascent pretty soon after that, and were impressed by the condition of the trail. We started on a rocky path, very similar to Colorado hiking trails, but with more water and mud! The most interesting part of this hike was the next piece of trail maintenance. In the areas where it was marshy, or had lots of grasses, there were railroad tie looking pieces of wood with chicken wire stapled over it built on the trail. These were amazing to hike on! The metal took away any slipperiness, and they were ergonomically great to walk on. The entire trail was comprised of either these or the rocky paths. The only other park of the trail consisted of lots of mini waterfalls! We had great weather on our way up, and stopped often to take photos of the Upper Lake as well as the surrounding peaks. Upon summitting, we entered a cloud! The view on top was seriously incredible. Brandon crested the summit before I did, and he told me "get ready to be amazed!" I crossed the ridge and felt like I had been punched in the stomach! The entire national park was spread out before us, the Muckross and Lower lakes glimmering beneath, and the town spread out behind them. It was amazing! We spent a long time exploring the length of the summit. We went out onto some smaller points that had amazing views of the neighboring peaks. It started to get cold really quickly at this point, and we were watching the weather move in. We put on our rain coats and headed back down. For the first part of the descent, it rained quite heavily. It wasn't too cold, however. Once we reached the midway down point, the rain ceased and the sun came back out! Not too much blue sky, though. We made our way back to our car, overwhelmed with the beauty that we had just seen. It's like a drug!

By now it was around 2:00, and we were starving! We started driving back to town to find food, and on the way saw a pub in the little town of Muckross, which is right across the road from the Muckross estate. We decided to go there, and we were so glad! We walked into the pub and it was blissfully warm - I hadn't realized it, but my fingers were pretty frozen. Our food hit the spot and warmed us up wonderfully. Brandon had the "pie of the day," which was chicken and mushroom. Think Shepherd's Pie, but with different filling. It was delicious - perfectly spiced with lots of rosemary, and the mashed potatoes with it were so creamy. I had the lamb stew, with locally grown barley, carrots, and onions. It was so good. The lamb was so tender, and the barley added a really nice texture.  After this restorative meal, we headed across the street to the Muckross Estate. The mansion there is a beautiful 19th century built Neo-Elizabethan building, that we didn't go in because it was guided tour only, the weather was beautiful, and we wanted to be outside! Instead, we hiked around the Muckross Lake,  a lovely 10 k loop trail. We started off by the house, and then made our way through a beautiful forest. The midway point was at Dinis Cottage, an old hunting lodge that now serves coffee, tea, and other refreshments, and the Meeting of the Waters. The waters of the middle and upper lakes meet at this spot, and there is a beautiful old stone bridge built right over the water.  We then looped back towards the house, and saw the most beautiful rainbow! We were actually able to see the origin of the rainbow, out in the lake in front of us. It was so wonderful! By now it was sunny with blue skies, and we really enjoyed the rest of the walk back to the house. We passed through the estate gardens on our way, and saw lots of beautiful trees and flowers. Once back at the house we got back in our teeny car and headed back to the hotel. What a great day!

After hot showers and clean clothes, we drove into town to find some dinner. We were starving! We ended up going to an Indian restaurant right on the Main Street, Bombay Palace. Brandon ordered the butter tikka chicken, and I ordered the vindaloo naan. Everything was wonderful! The waiter tried to give Brandon the vindaloo, and then looked surprised that a girl had ordered such a hot dish. Brandon's butter chicken was very different than any we've had before. It had a coconut milky sweetness, and the chicken was so tender. It was delicious! The vindaloo was probably the best I've ever had. Brandon doesn't usually like vindaloo, and he loved this one. We polished it all off, along with naan and rice. So good! At this point we made our way back to our hotel in major food comas. We did go back to the hotel pub for a little bit to use the wireless, and then it was off to bed.

Stay tuned for our exciting Friday activities!

Xoxo

Linds