I thought we would work backwards today, especially since I can't remember quite where we started. We're sitting in the camper, which we're getting more accustomed too, looking over Charles Fort and Kinsale Haurbor at the bottom tip of this lovely green island. While eating dinner at Jim Edwards restaurant in Kinsale, about 5 km from the fort, we overheard the owner telling a customer there would be live music at a pub around the corner. We finished dinner and found the pub. Andy enjoyed a Guinness and we both enjoyed the music.
Before dinner we did a little shopping in Kinsale. We found a neat framed piece of art, a duck and ducklings. It was signed and made in Ireland, we decided to add it to our collection of vacation art. It is so disappointing to buy something on vacation and discover it was made in China and that you could have ordered it on Amazon with 2 day shipping. Our ducks are not on Amazon, I checked.
Earlier in the afternoon we walked around Kinsale and toured the Charles Fort (opened in 1670). All the Irish/UK history about Cromwell, 8 year wars and rebellions is kind of lost on us. We don't have a very good background in the history of the area, we keep wondering who was English and who was Irish. The story of these two nations is long and interwoven. The fort is beautiful.
This morning we toured Blarney Castle. Probably the most "touristy" spot we've been to thus far. The line to enter the castle and kiss the Blarney Stone was over an hour long which was okay because we weren't planning on kissing some germy stone anyway. We walked around the gardens and enjoyed views of the castle. (Just a nod to Michigan, the Meijer Gardens by Grand Rapids are nicer, of course they don't have a castle).
We started the day at the Blarney Caravan and Camping park where we stayed last night. It was 10 minutes from Blarney Castle, but otherwise in the middle of nowhere. The park was fine and Andy was able to successfully deal with the cassette toilet this morning. We where supposed to camp there again tonight, but when we discovered we could boon dock in the fort car park (Irish for parking lot) we decided not to drive the narrow, windy roads back to the campground. We are sitting now looking over the fort, rolling green hills and the bay. Being able to do just this is why we decided to try the camper van in the first place.
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