July 31, 2019 On our way to Kenmare

We really loved Castletownshend, so before our departure we took an early morning walk along the bay.  Had we known of the trail we might have spent the previous day staying at the castle.


                 

 

                                       

Another delicious breakfast and then we were off!

                                       

We headed for the Beara Peninsula stopping along the way as well as Castletownbere.

                                   

 

                                             

         




  

                                   

  

                                     

And the Beara Penninsula

                 

             
This was a really old guy bicycling way out in the middle of nowhere!



   

Then we arrived in Kenmare at our B & B.

Another room with a view :-)

We took a rest then headed out to dinner.  Guess who we found?  Our Germans! Kerstin and Karsten!

They decided to meet us in Ireland! We will meet up at different locations along our route.

Next is the pub crawl looking for good music and new friends from Norway.

                       

Castletownshend day 2

Today we scheduled a rest day, starting with a leisurely breakfast in this gorgeous old castle.

                                       

 

We took a quick look around the village church, then onto Toe Head Bay.

View from the Church which is perched on the hill

Toe Head Bay                  

                                   

    

We found this ruin on a hill overlooking Toe Head Bay

     

 

We took a walk around and ran into a couple who told us they had a vacation home next door to MaryAnn's pub. They were out hiking, and we planned to do the same.  She was concerned about me getting cold and offered to give me her jacket....really??  Those Irish!

On our way to Skibbereen we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some Irish toothpaste. Yep!  A requirement in every country :-)  We enjoyed seeing an Irish grocery store similar to Whole Foods.

                   

 

What, free samples of gin?? Sure!! Who does that!!

Skibbereen

 

  

Then, back home!

                                    

   

                                     

   

                  

   

Back to MaryAnn's Pub for a delicious Irish dinner!

                                      

  

Monte was asked if he wanted to race a sailboat during the Maritime Week.  He declined, but I know he was tempted!

A great day!

 

July 29, 2019 off to Castletownshend

We are heading south to Castletownshend to stay in a very old castle on the bay.  But, along the way there are wonderful sites to see.  But, first.....


 
           

   

                            

 


And then there it is......

The Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel is a 13th century Gothic cathedral and a 15th century Castle built on a limestone outcrop.  It also includes a 12th century round tower.

We see it on the hill behind us as we pull in for gas.  Our first time at the pump.  Oops, we forgot to ask if we had diesel or unleaded fuel.  Monte is quite sure it is unleaded, but then hesitates because that would be a big mistake if he were wrong.  So, he asks the nice man pumping next to us.  He comes over, and does his own investigating, and he isn't sure.  So, he goes in and brings out the owner of the station.  Together they start investigating.  We get out the owners manual,  etc.  In the meantime we have a line of people in the little station waiting for gas.  Monte suggests he pull the car to the side, but the owner says, "Oh, no it's fine".  Then the owner gathers our car rental paper work, goes back into the station to call the car rental agency.  He comes back with the news that it is just unleaded.  This is an example of Irish kindness.  Never did we hear a honk or words spoken as we are keeping people waiting.  They asked about our travel plans and gave us a thumbs up on our itinerary.  Off we went to see the castle!

                                   

  

                                  

  

                                 

  

This is Hore Abby down the hill from the castle

Next we were off to Cahir Castle 

And the quaint town 

It has been a very full day so we called it, and started out for our own B & B castle!

As we headed south it began to rain.  It wasn't long before we noticed how bad our windshield wipers were.  We could hardly see out the window!  We knew we needed to do something, and fast.  It was close to 4:30 and we had no idea where to go to buy wipers.  I googled auto supply and we followed our GPS to a very small village that probably never sees tourists!  We walked in to find several burley men behind the counter.  They had wide eyes as we walked in, looking totally out of place. They were so gracious to us.  They went out in the rain to remove our wipers, and installed new ones.  They told us the rental car company should refund us what we spent. Then, we were off again, good as new.

This was Castletownshend!  A gorgeous castle sitting on the bay built in 1650 by Colonel Richard Townsend.  Population 196, with two pubs and one church!

Dinner in a very old pub.  Magical!