St. Patrick's Day Continued.........

It's Tuesday morning and I want to finish yesterday's adventures now that I have had a good night's sleep.

After we left Blarney, Patrick wanted to go to Kinsale to see and old fort that he had read about. Kinsale is on the ocean and had an incredible harbor. We got lost in Cork trying to get through the city. On one street, there was two way traffic and cars parked on either side of the road and it was very narrow. Two cars could not get down the road. It was scary because people drive very fast here. We finally got headed in the right direction. The road to Kinsale was very narrow and winding, but is was a beautiful drive. It was very cold, windy and overcast yesterday. We got to Charles Fort and the view was breathtaking. It is the closest port to Europe so it was a place invaders came. There has been so much information about so many things, I need Cameron here to remember everything!!!

We then drove on what was an even narrower, more winding road which is a main road in Ireland. They have the initial "N" in front of the number of the highway--if you want to call it a highway. "R" is for the routes off the beaten path so to speak. They are in the process of building "M" roads which are more like freeways, but they are few and far between. The road from Kinsale went along the coast and then took us over the mountains. Patrick was getting very nervous driving!! We stopped in Bantry Bay which was unbelievable beautiful. As cold and overcast as it was, the water was an aqua color. We also saw more brown land in the mountains. Everything is so green here that this was unusual. From Bantry we went along the Ring of Kerry and through Killarney National Forest. I was amazed by the different landforms and vegetation.

One thing that I have noticed is that there are a lot of new homes everywhere. They all look great. In the middle of town is where you see the old buildings and the old churches. There are so many churches and they are all beautiful!

Most of the towns were having parades yesterday for St. Patrick's Day. We didn't stop for a parade as there were too many things that we wanted to see.

Last night we went into the center of Limerick for dinner. Limerick is a town of about 100,000 people. There were many young people out on the streets and you could tell that they had a fun day.

We found a great pub that had traditional Irish music from a band of four men. It was definitely not a tourist place which was so much fun. The crowd was getting into the songs, dancing the jig, etc. Many of the songs were about the English and the IRA. Many of you know my stories about the "little people." Well, it happened again. Patrick had gone outside and a very drunk (I'm going to call him a leprechaun) asked me to dance. I said no and he stood there and kept grabbing my arms and pretending to dance. I thought Patrick was going to laugh himself somewhere when he came back in and witnessed this. Of course, he took pictures and the leprechaun didn't even notice!!! I called my friend, Mary, to tell her about it!!!!

It was such a great St. Patrick's Day! I thought the one we spent in New York was the best, but this one tops it!!!!

The dollar is very weak right now so things are expensive for us. One Euro is equal to about $1.61.

We are off to Galway today. I'll write more later!.