Tour de Ireland Wrap Up

So after hunting Hogan’s in Ballinlass, we were off and back on our rapid rate plan. First, a quick stop through Limerick and John’s Castle. It was cool, but we missed the tour inside. Oh well, back on scheduled, we blazed down to Cork. After securing a charming B&B, renown for its vegetarian sausages, we went out for a look around. Taking a clue from the sight-seeing tour bus, we grabbed their route map and did a self tour with our own rental vehicle. What a budget & time saver! Who thought of that, oh yeah, I did.

John's Castle in Limerick

A quick stop at the four faced liar – an old clock tower with four sides and you guessed it, all telling different times. We hiked to the top bell tower, crawling throught the pigeon poop and the 6 to 13 ton bells. The views from the top were amazing and on the way down, we actually got to ring the clock/church bells. So cool and they even provided sheet music with rock songs to boot!

Climbing the bell tower of the 4 faced liar!

We next found ourselves in jail! That’s the cork city “goal” (Galwool). It was very interesting and creepy at the same time. Lastly, we made our way to an old castle on the water that the city turned into a Science and space observatory. We didn’t go inside, as it was used for admin stuff, but we did talk to one of the astrology people who gave us a great tip on a website: http://www.starmaps.net/ . You can down load the night sky for whatever latitude you are at, for the current month, for free – handy indeed! Especially for navigating.

Brian in the Cork city Gaol! Women fighting for him in the background

Right so, off we went as we still needed to get to the Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone. The town was quite charming and the castle grounds quite large. Among the cool castles we have seen this was a very cool castle. It was built on a small but solid rock bluff that made tunneling into impossible and the wall were 7 stories high, so no man could throw a line up. What I really enjoyed was the garden! Not only did it have neat nooks, water features and a witch’s tree, it had fairy glades. I felt like a kid again, running through the foliage, yelling at Brian every two seconds – “look at this”, “did you see that”, come over here, no you come over here”. Yeah, it rocked! Oh, and yeah Brian kissed the Blarney stone. Legend says it empowers whoever kisses it with the gift of gab. I’m not sure that was such a good idea for Brian. It’s not like he is ever lost for words.

Blarney Castle Grounds

More of the Castle

Kissing the Blarney stone

The Witches Tree - so Cool!

From there we blazed back to disappointment. As many of you already know, and for those who don’t, the sailing trip from Ireland to Malaysia was cancelled. We made it as far down at Arklow, just 50 miles before our jump off spot, south of Dublin before we had boat & personnel issues. As in, the engineer/ mechanic/ electrician went AWOL, and he took some crew with him, leaving only Brian and me, not nearly enough crew and well, boat issues. Brian and I returned the boat back to its original berth…. Enough said, it was tough.

Stage 4- The Family Tree

Okay, so this is only 5 weeks old behind. Oops, our bad but in our defense we either have had a difficult time procuring internet or, when we have, the keyboard is so crazy it's impossible to type. Anyhow, the stories.....

Driving around the "correct" Ballinlass

This story was started (writing) on 7/27/09:
So this was the day that we went hunting down Brian's relatives, on his mother's side of the family. First however, we wanted to stop by the smokehouse out west. It looked like a nice, scenic drive, along the coast, & not to much of a detour. Budget map in hand, we set out. Easier said than done. The streets were very skinny, roadside hedges high, signs funny, and road markers easily missed. Oh, did I mention Brian drives like a rally car driver? Anyhow, he kept saying, that's why I got the skinny car, as we came millimeters away from other passing cars. Yikes. The smokehouse had some excellent smoked salmon and it was on a beautiful little harbor. With half the day already gone, we blaze our way to where we think we should be. Cross referencing “Ballinlass, Ballinmore Bridge” on 3 different maps we pull into a pub next to what we think is “the spot”. We have a quick (free) beer and a chat with the local barkeep, who loved the letter Brian had from his Mom, but said she is too young & in her words, not been around long enough (only 40 years!), to point us in the right direction. The letter was sent in 1908. That’s okay, we snap some photo’s, re-read the letter and head over yonder. A few minutes later, and totally lost, we stop by the side of the road, next to the only house around, which just happens to have a lovely couple sitting outside in the front garden, to ask for some help. We got it. Next thing we know, the guy jumps in his car, and escorts us over to his friends house Joe, who is somewhat of the local historian. Who would have known? But, it gets better. Joe reads the letter, is thrilled, and invites us into his home! His wife, fixes us some tea, he pulls out papers and proceeds to tell us about Ballinlass and what the letter means, deciphering it through Irish eyes. Cool. Then, he determines, we are at the wrong Ballinlass, Which in Irish means “mud bog next to creek that floods”. No problem, the one we are looking for is close by and he knows who we need to speak to. A phone call later to John Joe, an 80 year man, an apt is set up. Great, but now we need to find a place to stay for the night as it is almost 9pm! We didn’t dare mention we were starving for fear they would make us dinner, and we did not want to intrude. Right, Joe drives us over to his friends B&B, calls him up, gets the drunken guy up to opens it, and negotiates a great rate. Wow, did I mention how cool this is? The next morning we meet with John-Joe. After calling to get instructions to his house, we make our way. No easy task, as the instructions are 3rd road on the right off the main road, once you pass the pantheon, then cross a small bridge (they’re all small), blah, blah, blah. We made it, but we were late. Great, keep the old man waiting. After showing John Joe the letter, whom is also very thrilled, he pulls out paperwork of his own relating to the time. Seems, he is just as excited as us. He tells us that the people in letter, Brian’s mother’s great, great aunt, were evicted from a rather large holding of land by the English. John Joe is spearheading a project to get the Ballanlass Evections some recognition. Right so, he’s a spry 80 who was in the middle of morning farm chores, so we drive and I relinquish the shot gun seat to take notes. Off we go, as he points out almost everything talked about in the letter. Taking us to old school grounds, cemeteries, farmland, plus additionally personal commentary. He even took us to the house of the grandson of the letter writer. It was just that cool.

Joe and some of his records


The Graveyard from the letter

Pictues will be posted to Flickr when we have time and a good connection. Sorry for the delays!

Greetings Update, our bad!

Okay, okay, forgive me father, it has been way too long since we last blogged. Anyhow, we are alive and well in the biergarten' s of Munich! Long story short, for those of you that have not heard, our sailing trip from Ireland to Malaysia was cancelled by the Captain. We are now on a bus tour (thanks Regina for the tip. The bus is half the cost of an Eurail pass.) around Europe, while we look for another crew gig.

Anyhow, look for these exciting stories to follow shortly (well whenever we can get to an internet cafe. Did I mention, wifi was virtually non exsistant in Ireland! Good thing we are in Europe now);

Stage 4 - the Family Tree

Tour de Ireland Wrap Up

London- Puppets, Porno & Big Ben

Amsterdam - A Coffee shop that sells no Coffee!

Paris - It's not that big - The Run Around

Munich - Biergarten

Blog at you all later.
Meow and the Man!