We landed in Cork not having planned anything, not even where we’d be staying that night. But Cork is in the south of Ireland, so it made sense to us to rent a car at the airport and work our way North to Dublin, where I discovered I had cousins (although they’re not Irish-they moved to Dublin from Boston two years ago- more on them later)!
David matches our car, which we name… “Red.” We just keep outdoing ourselves with these inventive names, huh? Note the steering wheel is on the right side of the car instead of the left!
Renting a car is actually not easy. First, their policy is to charge such a large security deposit (money they give back to you when you return the car in perfect condition, but keep if you damage it) that I have to call my credit card company to have them raise my spending limit. In addition, 2 out of my 3 credit cards won’t even provide insurance for cars rented in Ireland. Why? As best we could gather, there are a lot of accidents due to bad, narrow roads and possibly tourists who have never driven on the left side of the road before. In my mom’s words, “Don’t drive. Roads and drivers and sheep are crazy!”
David did an all-star job of navigating the Irish roads. And even if he sometimes got in the passenger side of the car by mistake (we had an ongoing competition to see who went to the wrong side of the car more often)- he was always on the right side of the road- and by that I mean the left side.
My mom informed me that my grandfather’s mother’s side of the family was from Cork. Although we don’t know of any relatives there now, it still made it that much more special walking around town and imagining my ancestors doing the same.
Wait a second- something about this picture looks familiar… I guess other cities besides Amsterdam are allowed to have rivers and bridges! This is the River Lee in Cork.
While walking around Cork, we were very happy to stumble upon the Quay Co-op. They have a vegetarian restaurant upstairs and a grocery store downstairs that reminded us of a smaller version of our favorite market in San Francisco: Rainbow Grocery!
We lucked out that there was a lovely flea market going on across the river from the co-op. I bought some earrings made from old vinyl records. Maybe you’ll spot them in a later photo.
At the airport and rental car spot we kept seeing signs for the “Wild Atlantic Way,” which is a (very!) scenic driving route over 1,550 miles mainly along the West Coast of Ireland. We initially headed South from Cork, following the squiggly symbol for this route and stopping in interesting-looking towns along the way.
Look for the start of the Wild Atlantic Way in Kinsale. It goes up to Derry in North Ireland, which is technically a different country (it’s part of the United Kingdom like England, Scotland, and Wales)!
Our first Irish Pub in Ireland was in a cute little town called Kinsale.
Tiger art in Clonakilty
We found a quirky AirBnb to spend the night in a town called, “Leap” (pronounced Lep). The owner, Ger, creates an elaborate Christmas Village in his backyard every year.
We are excited to visit a town with an American name- Baltimore- (hmm, although the one in Ireland was probably named first) because we hear it’s got quite a “beacon.”
At breakfast they warned us not to go near any cliff’s edge. At the Baltimore Beacon I realized they weren’t kidding… It was REALLY windy.
Other stops that day included Durrus, Kilcrohane and “Sheep’s head” where it was so windy we couldn’t actually walk to the head, but here are some of the views we captured from the road:
Can you spot the sheep?
We did get out of the car at Altar Wedge Tomb in Toormore:
In Dingle we visited a very Irish-seeming pub called O’Flaherty’s where a group of about 8 men were making Christmas costumes out of straw for Wren’s Day (the day after Christmas).
As we continued along the Wild Atlantic Way, we were lucky to get breaks in the rainclouds for some beautiful scenery. The Gallarus Oratory below is estimated to have been built between the 6th and 9th centuries which means it could be more than 1,500 years old! The stones are cut on every side and end to fit perfectly together so that no mortar was needed on the outside.
From the Dingle Peninsula, we took our trusty rental car “Red” on a ferry from Tarbert to Killimer. This saved us a bunch of time on our drive to Galway.
Galway, one of Ireland’s larger cities, will be our last stop on the Wild Atlantic Way before heading East to Dublin.
Having a little chat with 19th century Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet, Oscar Wilde. He’s telling me, “My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.”
Galway is a University town and you can listen to amazing live Irish music any night of the week.
We made it to Dublin in time for Hanukkah! Two years ago my cousin-in-law Barbara– who’s married to my cousin Ronnie of the wandering “Hardoon” tribe (though he spells his last name slightly differently than my family does)– got a job as a professor in the School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore at University College Dublin. Barbara and Ronnie’s daughters, who grew up speaking German, Hebrew, and English can now add “Irish” to their repertoire (which is English with a charming accent and word choice). I had last seen them about 7 years before when they were half their current heights, so I particularly enjoyed catching up with them and hearing about their Irish lives and schools.
The next day while Barbara went to work and Hannah and Mira went to school, David and I took the Dart Train (similar to the BART) from Blackrock into Dublin to do some exploring. Ah it feels good to be on vacation. PS Barbara had set out a lovely breakfast for us that morning, so we had the true European B&B experience 🙂
We decided against taking a boat from Northern Ireland to Scotland, which meant we could have a full day in Dublin and one more night with cousins (and a comfy bed).
Me and my “Irish” cousins eating Latkes in Dublin- From the left, Barbara, Hannah, and Mira.
Luckily there were cheap, last-minute flights (see the demand for seats below) so this change of plans worked out great. On to our last European destination!
Bye Ireland. Hope to see you again soon!
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