There was no rain forecast today, and out we went. In the morning we went to the Cork City Gaol, a state of the art 19th century prison that is quite beautiful architecturally and as old prisons go, didn't seem quite that bad. It was actually a mixed gender prison and the conditions were surprisingly good, except when they threw a bunch of Republican rebels (in the 1920's, not after the debates) in there and jammed as many as they could in a cell. Some of their graffiti is still visible.
Looking for something more uplifting, we then went to the St. Anne's Church of Shandon, at the top of a hill near our hotel. We had heard from the owner of the B&B we stayed at in Kilmare that you could actually ring the bells of the church. Sounded good to me, so up the hill we went. Sure enough, you can ring the bells by pulling on cables. I chose that Irish churchbell standard, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." You can then climb a narrow spiral staircase up and look at the bells, but you have to wear those kind of headsets that they ground controller wear at airports, because it's pretty deafening when someone down below is playing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
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| No, I don't have a mohawk, that's the frame |
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| Very loud when you're standing next to it |
From there we went to, what else, the Butter Museum, tracing the rise and fall of the Cork County butter industry. I will say, the butter here is very good.
I think our favorite touch was the recorded churning noises you hear as you walk up the stairs. It was actually interesting, in an obviously limited sort of way. And we weren't likely to get such an opportunity again.
We then had a nice lunch at a café near the hotel and then rested in the room for a while, and then decided that we would drive down to a nearby seaside town called Kinsale for dinner. Kinsale is known, at least in Kinsale, for being the gourmet capital of Ireland. Honestly, the food's been pretty good here in general. Too much, mostly, but good, Anyway, I called a few places and got one someplace we weren't crazy about, so we went to our first choice, a wine bar called Black Pig, to see if we could squeeze our way in. It was completely full when we got there. All that was available were two stools by a teeny platform on a column, but then we got to move to two chairs with a kind of box table, and eventually to the bar itself. It was a great meal (especially good butter), and the people in the place just couldn't have been nicer to us and to everyone we saw them interact with.
It really is genuinely friendly here. At the pub the night before, I overheard a guy say he was a bookstore manager in Dublin. Later on, I was standing at the bar near him, and struck up conversation. It was really easy and natural. We talked about the book business and he asked my name and it was really quite nice. There's no agenda. People just want to chat.
That was our experience in Kinsale as well, with everyone we talked to. After the meal, I struggled to drive back to Cork, partly because I got lost, and, not coincidentally, because the headlights on our car are awful. The brights were almost as strong as the regular lights on my car at home, so I had no visibility at any point. It was very hard. All the driving is hard, but this was particularly bad being at night.
But we made it back safely. Tomorrow we're off to Kilkenny.
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| Ronnie is excited to visit the Butter Museum |
I think our favorite touch was the recorded churning noises you hear as you walk up the stairs. It was actually interesting, in an obviously limited sort of way. And we weren't likely to get such an opportunity again.
We then had a nice lunch at a café near the hotel and then rested in the room for a while, and then decided that we would drive down to a nearby seaside town called Kinsale for dinner. Kinsale is known, at least in Kinsale, for being the gourmet capital of Ireland. Honestly, the food's been pretty good here in general. Too much, mostly, but good, Anyway, I called a few places and got one someplace we weren't crazy about, so we went to our first choice, a wine bar called Black Pig, to see if we could squeeze our way in. It was completely full when we got there. All that was available were two stools by a teeny platform on a column, but then we got to move to two chairs with a kind of box table, and eventually to the bar itself. It was a great meal (especially good butter), and the people in the place just couldn't have been nicer to us and to everyone we saw them interact with.
It really is genuinely friendly here. At the pub the night before, I overheard a guy say he was a bookstore manager in Dublin. Later on, I was standing at the bar near him, and struck up conversation. It was really easy and natural. We talked about the book business and he asked my name and it was really quite nice. There's no agenda. People just want to chat.
That was our experience in Kinsale as well, with everyone we talked to. After the meal, I struggled to drive back to Cork, partly because I got lost, and, not coincidentally, because the headlights on our car are awful. The brights were almost as strong as the regular lights on my car at home, so I had no visibility at any point. It was very hard. All the driving is hard, but this was particularly bad being at night.
But we made it back safely. Tomorrow we're off to Kilkenny.
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