Category: Buses

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Buses Covid-19 Ireland Youghal

Youghal, and an update

The Covid-19 situation remains fluid. As of last night, there are 34 confirmed cases in Ireland (population just under 5 million), and an additional 16 in Northern Ireland (population 1.8 million). Nearly 1800 people have been tested in the Republic. Authorities are still urging calm, and saying that closing schools and public transport remains unnecessary at this time. France, our next potential destination, has around 1800 confirmed cases (population 65 million), or roughly 5 times the infection rate of Ireland. They are expected to escalate their response to Level 3, which will involve closing most public transport. At that point, we expect our trip to be canceled for us by the airline.

Portugal remains relatively unaffected, with 41 total infections recorded out of a population of roughly 10 million. Travel to and from Italy has been suspended pretty much everywhere, as well as travel within the country. Spain is canceling most public events and large gatherings. Our itinerary puts us in Portugal and Spain between 5 April and 22 April, so we are keeping close tabs on both of those. We have confirmed that we can pick up our rental car from Cork to Dublin at an hour’s notice (currently we’re planning on making that drive between 1 April and 4 April), and that we can change our flight back to the US at no cost. So, if we decide in the next few weeks that it’s time to get out of Dodge, and ride this out in the comfort of our own home, we can do that in basically 24 hours.

Once again, our thanks to all of you who have expressed concern over our well-being. We are somewhat stressed, possibly inconvenienced and disappointed, and likely out some money. But we think our risk of catching this virus remains relatively low (my personal assessment is that it is no greater here than in the States), and there are far many people in much worse shape than we are.

Back to our travels!

Today is the midpoint of our planned trip. Yesterday we took the bus to the coastal community of Youghal. On our 2017 trip to Ireland, we passed through this town on our way between Waterford and Cork, and spent a couple of hours walking around. It was high on our list of places to return to.

We misread the bus schedule, and thought there was only one stop in the town, so we inadvertently got off 2 km from the town center. That turned out to be fortuitous, as we found ourselves at probably the nicest beach in the Republic. It was cold and windy, but gorgeous. And at low tide, flat and sandy.

I didn’t take my shoes off, but i did dip my hands into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time this year.

While some of the beach features are clearly man-made erosion control, there are some fascinating rock formations as well.

This little memorial would be called “Brandy” if it were in the States.

The story of the Youghal lighthouse is pretty cool. There’s been a light on this site for pretty near a millenium. A couple of hundred years ago, some town leaders thought it would make sense to move the light to an island a mile or so offshore. Construction got about halfway through, when the faction arguing that the light should remain in its traditional location returned to power, and the island project was abandoned. You can see the island in the second picture above, although at blog resolution i don’t think you can make out the light. It’s now a bird sanctuary. A new lighthouse was completed on the original site in 1852.

The village green reminded of nothing so much as the Willoughby epsiode of the Twilight Zone.

At the entrance to the green is a statue memorializing 4 men killed by British troops in the town in 1798. As i’ve mentioned previously, i’ve had a couple of conversations with people here about Confederate statues back home. (All initiated by locals. I’m doing my best to avoid politics on this trip). They have all made the “history” argument that removing memorials to the Confederacy violates “history.” The responding argument, of course is simple: where are the memorials to the British governors of Ireland who ordered these executions? They don’t exist, nor should they, because although they are clearly a part of history, their actions are not those we want to commemorate. The Confederacy is the same.

We walked about the town for a while, ate a fantastic lunch at McCarthy’s, in the Old Imperial Hotel, and otherwise enjoyed the relatively benign weather. Definitely high up on the list of places we’d consider living in.

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Buses Ireland Kinsale Traveling

Kinsale

We took the bus down to Kinsale the other day. It’s a picturesque port town near the mouth of the River Bandon, accessible via a 45 minute bus ride from downtown Cork. It probably caters a little more to the tourist trade than either Cobh or Midleton, despite not having a major specific draw like the distillery or the Heritage Center. Even so, enough of the restaurants and coffee shops were open, to make a full day of it. And it turned out to be a pretty nice day for taking pictures, so I did a lot of that.

We started with coffee and pastries at The Poet’s Corner bookshop and cafe. And, seriously, their scones were the best I’ve had on this visit. And I’ve had more than my share the past 5 weeks.

I’m going to divide the pictures up into waterfront, and town, and mostly post them without comment.

Lobster boat
Kinsale harbor from The Ramparts

We had fantastic skies most of the day.

Like most Irish towns, Kinsale has old churches and castles, not to mention some old pubs. Not all of them were opened on our visit, though.

St. Multose, Church of Ireland
Some people think that’s the best kind
Your basic 330 year old pub, sadly, not open for business this early in the day

Houses and house names in Kinsale seemed to me to exhibit more of a sense of humor than some of the others I’ve seen.

I understand you need a special invitation to spend the night here
Nobody knows what goes on behind this one

And just an amazing little street that we happened to turn up on our walk.

I’m hoping we’ll get another opportunity to go back and spend some more time in Kinsale before the month is out.

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Buses Ireland Ring of Kerry Traveling

Ring of Kerry

We’ve been busy again for the past week. Blarney, Crosshaven, the Ring of Kerry, and Kinsale on alternating days. Fewer than 4 weeks remain until we leave Cork, and make our way to Portugal and Spain. We’ll spend one of those weekends in Dublin, and another in Paris, external conditions allowing.

Although most of our time here is spent on quotidian affairs, we’re not averse to being tourists when the occasion warrants. Earlier this week we hopped a tour bus and went round the Ring of Kerry. The bus departs about 6 blocks from our apartment, and this guy saw us off.

Passed through a couple of small towns on the way from Cork to Killarney, where we picked up a couple of additional passengers. Of those, I thought Macroom might be worth a standalone visit in the next couple of weeks.

Killarney was picturesque in theme park kind of way. The scone i had there was disappointing, though. Bland and bready. (Don’t worry, the one I had later in the week at the Poet’s Corner in Kinsale made up for it.) But on the way, we passed the far-famed Cork and Kerry Mountains, where once upon a time a young highwayman robbed the English Captain Farrell, and all whack for the daddyo broke out.

I like the sight of snow, off in the distance.

The advantage of touring the Ring in early March is that we were virtually the only tour bus on the road. I hear that during the summer months it can be bumper to bumper with them. So not only are the roads more pleasant to be on, but the stops are empty as well, which means more time to enjoy them.

Irish coffee at the Red Fox.

Glenbeigh is the first, strictly photo opportunity stop of the tour. I took advantage.

We also stopped for lunch in Waterville, where Charlie Chaplin had a house for much of his life. It’s now owned by one of the local golf clubs, and for a super premium price, you and your group can stay there for a couple of nights while you play some of the local courses. They also honor Chaplin with a film festival and look-alike contest. Our bus driver told us that towards the end of his life, Chaplin entered the contest, and placed 12th. I have my doubts.

More art in Waterville

We also had a pretty nice lunch at The Lobster, which was one of the few restaurants open on a weekday this time of year. I’m finding the Irish know how to smoke a salmon.

After lunch, we had another photo opportunity in Castlecove. I took advantage again.

Our next stop was in the charmingly named village of Sneem, where I’m sure that J.R.R. Tolkien must have spent at least one night of his life. We bought some post cards, which gives me the chance to remind you that if you’d like a postcard from us on our travels, you can email me your postal address at corkspringblog at gmail dot com, and I’ll get one out to you.

We were detoured on our return to Killarney by a road closure, so we didn’t get an opportunity to pass through Killarney National Park, nor to see the Torc Waterfall. We did get to stop for a bit at the road closure, and chat with some of the locals, who were curious about us since they don’t seem to get many visitors.

The markings, according to our unreliable narrator of a driver, are to indicate which herd the sheep belong to. I believed him on this one.

And then we were home. Next post – Kinsale.

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Buses Cork City Crosshaven Ireland The Lough

Exploring the south side of Cork

Barry has been better than I about keeping up with our travels. I have some catching up to do! Be sure to check out his posts as well. He takes better photos with a better camera!

Here are a few of our travels on the south side of Cork, and beyond.

One of our first walks south of city centre we discovered the Elizabeth Fort, which Barry describes fully in his post. I used the opportunity to take a few shots of the surrounding neighborhood.

Looking west and north from Elizabeth Fort; River Lee

That large construction project with the crane is at the opposite end of Main Street from our apartment. It’s walled off from the street, so you can’t see much of what’s going on inside. On the wall, they list the architect, builders, etc., and I was interested to see that they also have an archaeologist on the project.

The site was in the news today, when a “treasure trove” of documents from the 1790‘s were found in an old safe. Apparently at the heart of the construction is an old Beamish brewery, that from the photos appears similar to the Tudor style building below. The documents are related to that and to properties all around the city.

Looking down from Elizabeth Fort at the immediate neighborhood; St. Fin Barre’s cathedral grounds is the greenery to the left.

We also walked around St. Fin Barre’s cathedral a bit. There was a service going on so we did not go inside. The architecture was quite stunning — especially the gargoyles.

St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral

My favorite part of this trip, though, was discovering the labyrinth, which was lovely to walk. I may return.

So peaceful!

We found ourselves back in this part of town recently, and decided to venture a little further out to The Lough, a small urban lake.

A nice place to sit and enjoy the view, except that it rained earlier and the bench was wet. I’m guessing that’s a frequent issue.
There were two walkways, one right next to the water, the other a little further out. Lots of waterfowl, although they seem to be mostly hiding in this picture.

We took another impromptu walk recently to Blackrock Pier. We’d run an errand on that side of town, decided to have brunch there, and then just kept walking. We’d been out that way before, to Blackrock Castle, but this time, we walked along the river.

Before we reached the river, we walked through one of the more industrial neighborhoods than we’d seen to date. We were surprised that the sidewalk was so much wider and better paved than in most of the city, where a lot of the sidewalks are quite old. There were tons of joggers for a neighborhood that didn’t seem to generate a lot of pedestrian traffic. But that road connected to the greenway along the river, than in turn intersects with a greenway that goes a considerable way south of the city (which we hope to visit this month!) So the sidewalk was truly as much a greenway as a sidewalk.

Barry, not jogging on the greenway.
One view across to the north side of the river. I love this row of houses.
The greenway also ran alongside a park surrounding this small lake. Daffodils have been in bloom everywhere we’ve been, all month long.
Some port activity on the river. If you look to the right of the ship, you can see Blackrock Castle. We had a beer in an inn at the pier, and watched them unload the shipping containers, which was oddly mesmerizing.
I’m not sure why they call this little village Blackrock Pier, since there is no docks or marina and very few boats. There was this little enclosed oval of water, surrounded by a walkway and benches, but judging by how it looks at low tide, I can’t imagine many boats docking here!

I wrote earlier about our walk out to the village/neighborhood of Douglas. It was one of our longer walks, but we managed it without hopping a bus either way. This week we decided to go even further south, though, to the harbor village of Crosshaven. Be sure to look at Barry’s photos from this trip, the one of the sailboats and the wind turbine is spectacular!

This was our first trip that was long enough that we had to take the bus both there and back. The bus ride was about 40-45 minutes long. We quickly discovered that the best seats for curious tourists are the front seats on the top of the double decker.

Some of the countryside south of Cork, between Douglas and Carragaline.
Carragaline had a lovely old town with a river running through it, but it was also our first look at U.S.-style suburban sprawl.
The village of Crosshaven.
The Owenabue River empties into Cork Harbour at Crosshaven. You really need to look at Barry’s post to see his photo of this scene!

This was the first place we saw actual pleasure boats. I’ve been surprised that in the Lee River and Cork Harbour in other places, all the boats have been industrial, with nary a marina to be seen. This was the first place we saw sailboats, and there were lots of them! There appeared to be three different sailing classes going on, as pods of white, red/blue/white, and translucent/red boats went around in circles, or proceeded downwind into the harbor.

There wasn’t a greenway here, but there was a “scenic walk”, a one-lane residential road that went up the hill along the harbor to Camden Fort Meagher.

I am sure this edifice at Camden Fort Meagher has profound historical significance, but I really didn’t pay attention. It was much more pleasurable to watch the sailboats in the harbor.

There were other roads and paths that went further, or that cut across the peninsula to the ocean, but this wasn’t a day we were up for a big walk, so we went back into the village for lunch at a lovely pub.

I am becoming spoiled by having Guinness, Murphy’s, and Beamish on tap absolutely everywhere we go. We’ve both discovered that Murphy’s is our favorite.
I love my traveling companion!

We’ll be heading south again today on the 10:05 bus to Kinsale.

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Buses Crosshaven Ireland

Crosshaven

Days slip past easily in Cork. We’re exploring something new almost daily, and, when we’re not, we’re recovering from our explorations. Sunday, mostly on the recommendation of some folks we’ve met here, we took the bus down to Crosshaven. Tuesday we put on our tourist hats and took a bus around the ring of Kerry. Today’s been a successful day of errands, including repairing a camera lens, printing out some travel documents, tracking down hard to find vitamins, and topping up our mobile plan.

Here’s a little bit from our Sunday trip. Crosshaven was our longest ride on Bus Eirann so far, about 45 minutes from town. We passed the first 1960s syle car based suburb of the trip, outside of Carrigaline. As a friend back home pointed out, it’s still got narrow lanes, bike lanes, and sidewalks, but it’s also not a convenient bus ride or walk to shopping. As a result, the roads get pretty congested, especially during rush hours. Old town Carrigaline, on the other hand, was charming, but congested. Of course, i made the expected joke about catching the 220 bus on our next trip. Whatever it takes.

But, you go to Crosshaven for the harbor views, and they are worth the trip.

I assume the outdoor section of the arcade/amusement park is operational in season, but there’s something about on in the off-season that fascinates me. Occasionally, we visit the Jefferson Pools, in Bath County, Virginia. Across the road, is the Warm Springs Inn. The Inn was run, and may still be, it’s been a few years since we’ve been there as the Pools have been closed for renovations for a while, by a couple who have traveled with various carnivals. They kept some rides and stuff behind the inn, and I loved walking around back there.

We climbed to the top of the hill behind the town, where Camden Fort Meagher sits adjacent to the GAA fields. It was closed for the season as well. We’d been told that the far side of the peninsula, Church Bay, was the really pretty part. Sadly, we weren’t up to the extra mile or so of trekking, as it would have meant a long hike back up the hill. Maybe next time.

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Blarney Buses Ireland

Blarney

It’s been substantially wetter in Cork, and indeed all of Ireland, this February than normal. So we’ve kept our eye on the forecast for sunny, or at least cloudy days, in order to explore the surrounding areas.

Blarney, or at least the Blarney Stone, wasn’t high on our list. But it is an 800 year old castle, and it does have a nice set of gardens, and, most importantly, it’s a 20 minute bus ride in the local zone, about 2 Euro each way.

Wednesday was our day.

Pretty much downtown Blarney

The bus stops adjacent to the Blarney Woolen Mills, which, having been shuttered 45 years ago after a 150 year run, is now a tourist destination where you can purchase all manner of Irish woolen goods and trinkets. And i guess there are some folks who come to Blarney just to buy a sweater, but i assume it’s mostly the kind of thing you do after climbing the castle steps and kissing the stone.

Only 1 restaurant in town, and the one at the mill, were open when we were there. I was having a hankering for sausage rolls, and they weren’t on the menu at either, so we skipped it, and ate when we got back home.

Anyway, from town, you can get your first view of the castle.

Actually, this photo is from the castle grounds, but the view is essentially the same as from town.

Had a nice chat with one of the groundskeepers, who seemed eager for a break, about native species, invasives, both in Ireland and North Carolina, some of the odd ferns growing on the grounds, whether he had given names to the trees he was tending. He had an interesting theory that, after the last Ice Age, almost all of Europe and much of the Americas had been denuded of plant life, so whatever took in the aftermath couldn’t be considered invasive. I told him about kudzu, so maybe that data point will lead him to modify his philosophy.

Tiki fern
One of several waterfalls on the grounds

There is, of course, a lot of history on the grounds. This old lime kiln, where limestone was converted into quicklime to use as fertilizer, fascinated me. On the placard was a reminder that “lime enriches the father, but impoverishes the son.” Referencing that the continued use of lime as a fertilizer ends up depleting the soil in the long run.

I like to think of these as the servants’ quarters, but in reality it’s a residence built in more recent times (late 19th century) by the family that currently owns the castle

This formation of nine rocks, 7 standing and 2 toppled, supposedly dates back centuries. The story is that the king on the land, father of 9 children, led his people to a war in which he lost both his sons and so, in mourning, toppled the two stones representing them.

There was also this fallen dolmen, whose portal i passed through. Perhaps i now have some mystical powers.

On to the castle itself! We obviously were not the first to be here.

Also had some company on the way up.

The view from the top is pretty spectacular.

And, finally, the great stone itself. It’s the smooth, almost bluish thing at the bottom of the wall. And no, i didn’t put my lips on it. But i did tip the two attendants who help contort you into the ridiculous position you need to assume in order to get your face near enough to kiss it.

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Blackrock Buses Cork City Ireland

The planetarium inside an inflatable igloo inside a castle

Yesterday we walked four miles east and a bit south of the city to the Blackrock Castle Observatory. There was a clear blue sky when we left, within 10 blocks there was a few minutes of sleet, then it was lovely enough to remove our coats, and by the time we arrived at the castle there were gale force gusts of wind. The walk took us through some of the more posh residential neighborhoods than we’ve seen thus far, as well as a couple of small villages/neighborhoods, and a stretch along the Lee River.

Blackrock pier

The base of the castle — the squarish part below the towers — was built in the late 16th century to intimidate pirates who were sailing upriver and wreaking havoc. Later, when England was at war with Spain and the fighting spilled over into Ireland, the towers were built, although the war ended without the fort ever being used in battle. It went through a number of uses in the ensuing centuries, primarily as a sort of country club for the wealthier citizens. There were a couple of fires that destroyed any of the furnishings and tapestries that we normally associate with castle life. By the end of the 20th century it was a restaurant and event center. In 2007, the Cork Institute of Technology had the winning proposal of what to do with the property, and along with the City of Cork turned it into the science center it is now.

View from below the castle. The circular display in the foreground is for spotting landmarks on the view of the river.
It gets bit windy up there.

This is not just a science museum for kids, but also a working observatory. While we were getting the tour, a young scientist worked his way through the crowd and into the lab that we were viewing through glass doors. They have a telescope, but the Irish climate does not allow for a lot of clear skies for viewing. So the scientists there focus on software development that they share with other observatories.

It isn’t as big as other kid-oriented science museums that I’ve seen, but the kids who were there were clearly enjoying themselves. In addition to the few exhibits, interactive and otherwise, there is the planetarium.

I’ve been to planetariums (planetaria?) in New York and San Francisco, and even the one in Chapel Hill is a sizable auditorium with the sort of show that evokes Ooohs and Ahhhs.

The planetarium at Blackrock Castle was nothing like those.

Inside a room in the castle stood a dome made out of fabric: the inflatable igloo. You enter through a rather, um, evocative slit between two inflated tubes, into a small chamber no bigger than a person, then through another slit. The room inside is maybe 15′-20′ in diameter; there were roughly 10 adults and 8 kids at our show. In the center is the planetarium apparatus; the audience sits on the floor in a single row around the edge of the circle. The presenter sits on the floor, too.

The show itself was very basic: what’s in the sky tonight, when is the best time of day or year to view various planets, a bit about some constellations. The presenter runs the show from a tablet, and she seemed to be fairly new to it as there were a few Ooopsies as she sped through months instead of hours, or couldn’t get the button to work to highlight Ursa Major.

But it was utterly charming. Unlike auditorium shows where everyone is suitably hushed, this was more of a conversation, with kids shouting out comments or questions, smaller ones squirming in their parents’ laps. It may not be Hayden planetarium, but it was a hit with the kids, and families were lined up for the next show.

We took the bus back into town, our first foray by (double decker!) bus. The castle is also the starting point for a greenway that extends several miles south along the river, so we will likely take the bus out there again at some point and enjoy the walk.

View of the greenway along the Lee River from the castle roof. We were on the roof of the fort portion of the castle. They were not taking visitors to the tower roof because there had been gale force gusts that day!
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