Ireland Adventures – Rock of Cashel to Kinsale. 7 September 2018

If our first few days in Ireland are any indication the Irish people are some of the friendliest in the world. After we got off the airport bus in Dublin a man passing by stopped to offer us help with directions to our hotel. And then this morning when we missed the turn for the Rock of Cashel and had pulled off the road to do a u-turn the lady driving the car behind us pulled over too. She jumped out came over to our car, asked if we were going to “the Rock”, said she had seen us looking lost and proceeded to cheerfully give us directions!

We got to the Rock of Cashel not long after it opened. The parking lot was pretty much empty. By the time we left though there were about ten buses in the lot and no parking places left.

The Rock of Cashel is a group of medieval buildings on top of a limestone outcropping. It was originally the castle of the Munster kings and later belonged to the Catholic Church.

From the Rock we hiked down to the nearby Hore Abbey.

Tonight we are in Kinsale on the South coast. We have a lovely room in the Long Quay House with a view of the harbor.

This afternoon we hiked along the water to Charles Fort. It is s star fort and was built in the 1600s. The Spanish and Irish used it to protect the harbor from the English. The English won.

For dinner we ate at a great restaurant called Fishy Fishy. We started out with gin and tonics made with local Kinsale Blacks Gin. Then we shared mussels. For the main course Duke had brill and I had sea trout.

The Adventure Continues – Kirkenes, Norway to near Cashel, Ireland – 5-6 September, 2018

Yesterday we flew from Kirkenes to Oslo and then on to Dublin. This morning we walked to a bookstore and bought an Ireland Road Atlas and Guidebook. Then we picked up a rental car and headed out of Dublin to explore Ireland.

On our way to the book store we walked through the gardens of the Royal Hospital Killmainham even though it was raining it was a lovely walk. The building that used to be a hospital is now the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Tonight we are staying at a hotel called The Horse and Jockey not far from the Rock of Cashel. Tomorrow we will visit it.

For dinner tonight we each had a Guinness to celebrate being in Ireland. We shared a bowl of potato cabbage soup and then Duke had a mixed grill and I had a burger.

The end of our Hurtigruten trip up the Norwegian coast.

Today was the end of our Norwegian Coastal trip on the Richard With. It was a wonderful trip. I would recommend a Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal trip to anyone who likes adventure. The service was excellent as was the food and accommodations. The expedition staff who provided information about the land we were sailing through really added to our enjoyment of the trip. They were not only very knowledgeable but they seemed to have a true passion for the country, it’s culture and history.

We arrived in Kirkenes about 9 this morning. From Kirkenes it is less than ten miles to the Russian border and we are further east than Istanbul. We stored our luggage at our hotel and went for a walk around town.

We had dinner tonight at our hotel, the Thon. We started with scallops and then I had salmon and Duke had char.

Day 6 Aboard the Hurtigruten, Richard With – Today we were at the Highest Latitude in Continental Europe and got off the ship in Finnmark County.

Today was our last full day on board the Richard With. We are now sailing eastbound in the Barents Sea. This morning we got off the ship briefly in Havøysund.

We made a longer stop at Honningsvåg. The Såmi people graze their reindeer on the island in the summer. The reindeer swim the channel to get to and from the island. From the boat we could see reindeer grazing on shore in the distance.

In the town we hiked first to the church and then to a viewpoint overlooking the town. During World War II the Germans burned everything in the town except the church. After the war the town was rebuilt.

After leaving Honningsvåg the wind came up and we were bounced around the most we have been on this trip. We actually couldn’t stop at two of the harbors we were scheduled to stop at because of the wind.

Day 5 Aboard the Hurtigruten, Richard With – we are now more than 69 degrees North Latitude

We got off the boat at two stops today. The first was a very brief stop at Finnsnes. We had a quick look around then reboarded.

We spent more than three hours in Tromsø. Tromsø bills itself as the Gateway to the Arctic. It has a population of about 72,000. We had a really interesting lecture this morning about Norwegian Arctic explorers especially Fridtjof Nansen. Learning about his expeditions made our visit to the Polar Museum in Tromsø much more interesting because the museum had several exhibits about the explorers.