Leaving Dublin for the Countryside and Cork

Monday, May 14, 2012—Dublin to Kilkenny to Instioge to Cork

The Dublin visit is over.  We had to catch the bus to the airport today to pick up our rental car.  Fortunately, there was a bus stop just a 5-minute walk from our hotel.  Unfortunately, the two men (especially one of them) working at the Budget Car Rental counter were SLOW.  We got to the airport at 10:00, but it was 11:00 before we got away.

This has been the easiest time I’ve had of driving on the left and with standard transmission (which I used to have in all my cars, but which I haven’t had now for at least 15 years).  We left the airport without my making any mistakes such as accidentally pulling out into the wrong lane.  Our direction was south of Dublin although the airport was north of Dublin.  Therefore, we had to go around the toll loop to get to the highway we needed.  Tolls are registered automatically and must be paid by 8:00 p.m. of the next night.  Fortunately, it’s possible to pay them at any gas station in the country.

Our first stop was the medieval city of Killkenny and its castle.  We spent 1 1/2 hours exploring the town and seeing the castle and its grounds. 

From there, things got difficult.  Smaller roadways are not necessarily well marked.  We studied our map and tried to follow it, but several times we got on wrong roads or never found the right roads as we tried to get to the small village of Instioge.  At one point, we found ourselves in a farmyard at the deadend small road.  Another time, we found ourselves going the wrong direction from a small town and had to reverse ourselves. 

Eventually, we did get to Instioge.  It is a beautiful small village nestled in the green hills beside a wide and pretty river.  We walked the streets of the town taking photos.  We went down to the riverside.  We went into one of the churches and into the churchyard of the other. 

We had planned to make another stop at Lismore, but we had trouble finding the route and also realized time was running short for the day.  We headed, instead, toward Cork where we had our reservations at the Belvedere Lodge for the next two nights. We wanted to take the coastal route, but again, we got lost and had to return to the major highway (still only 2 lanes, though) to get there.

Our room isn’t as nice as the one in Dublin, but it is still good and has a good rating.  The place is more homey than where we were in Dublin.  I visited with the Slovakian student who was working when we arrived and with an Irish man who was checking in.  They were very helpful in answering questions.

We walked from the hotel to the downtownarea of Cork (about 30 minutes one way) just to do some exploring before it got dark.  So far, Cork is interesting while being different from what I expected.  It’s obviously an old town and one with many buildings that need restoration.  It has a HUGE downtown area for a city of its size (about 250,000), but that is probably due to its being the major city for all of southern Ireland and to its being a university city.

Tomorrow, we will explore the city more and then will get out and visit some smaller places nearby.