March 29 – Thursday – Cloudy and cool this morning. Slowly we are getting things ready for our trip back home. Lisa has the bags out, and is putting things away, we start to clean up around here, I go through all the papers in things I have collected from here, it’s trash day so I get the trash tub out by the road. We take time for coffee in town at Patsy’s, but Lisa stops by the Baker to get his scone recipe. I bring Victoria her wireless router back, it never did work up here. Lunch is leftovers and cheese sandwiches. After lunch I call the electric company to get a idea of our electrical costs, very expensive over here! If I got it right, about 50 euro per week! Whew! I decide to update my blog and put up a few more pictures and check email, so it’s down to the I-café again. Should be the last time until we get home. A little nap before we have salad for supper, and we head to An Seanachai to listen to Liam O’ for the last time.
Not many people there at first, but it fills up a bit for a Thursday. Of course a lot of the crowd is American. Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York and Michigan are here tonight, and Liam does a great job working the crowd. He even dedicates a song to us, “Lisa and Liam who’ve become good friends over the last month”, and then “I want to tell Lisa and Liam that I won’t sing that song again until we meet again, whether it be here or in the states”. The song was “Old Man and Children”, very nice. We had a nice visit with him after the show, hugs and goodbyes all around, and made it home about 12:15.
March 30 – Friday – Sunny but cold today, the wind goes right through you. Head to town just after 10:30, trying to meet Victoria and settle our electric bill. She’s not there, so after a quick coffee at the bakery, we find out the Harbor Cruise is sailing at 12:00 today, so we make a quick trip back to the house for my camera and head to the harbor. The ship is the Spirit of Kinsale, maybe a forty footer, with a upper deck for us to sit on. The trip takes about an hour, and takes us all around the harbor as far out as Charles Fort, and south to the R600 bridge. I take a lot of pictures, and even get a couple shots of Victoria’s house. I show them to her after we get back and she would like me to send her some copies. The cruise was calm, but it was quite cold, the wind just enough to chill you, but there are blankets on board, so it’s bearable. The captain does a good job explaining most of what you see around the harbor, even if it is on tape, and we enjoy the cruise. Lunch finds us at the Armada, seafood chowder for me and a cheese board for Lisa. Back home, I down load the pictures, update my journal and take a short nap before supper. Peter Murphy stops by about 8:00 and we have a nice visit.
He fills me in on the history of the Rampart Lodge, as he was the owner that sold it to Bruce Roberts about 18 months ago. The house was built 167 years ago by shipbuilders in the area, they could tell it was shipbuilders as the damp course contained pitch, which was used between the layers of the ships in those days. The first record on deed was 1894, and the house was purchased for 3 nuns to live in while they built the Convent across the road. After the lodging was built for the nuns, the groundskeeper lived here, until the 1960’s at which time it was converted into a office. When Peter bought it, it had been in disuse for quite some time, and needed to be stripped to the walls and redone. The floors were 1 ½ thick California redwood, but they had rotted to the point they couldn’t be restored. It is 8 meters square, with four rooms, and contained a giant chimney with a fireplace in each room. The chimney was removed, and a false chimney installed on the roof, with half the roof slates needing replacing also. About 3000 used slates were found, to match they had to be Donegal Blue slates.
The four walls were stripped down to the limestone blocks, and the limestone plaster replaced. You can’t put cement on limestone as the stone needs to breathe, allows the moisture to escape the house. The walls in the house are just over 2 feet thick. All the windows needed replacing, and Peter bought new window sashes from a New England company, said they got here in 3 weeks, which was remarkable as the Irish companies were much more expensive, and wanted 14 – 24 weeks for delivery. The doors in the house came from Peter’s sister, who had taken them from her house in England and had them in storage. They are 1 ½ thick pine. Peter relished telling us about the place, and we found it quite interesting.
After Peter left, we walked down to the Swell to listen to the “Sons Of Steve McQueen”, a four piece 70’s and 80’s rock band. They are quite loud, so after a quick drink, we wander over to the An Seanachai to listen to Peter Returns, and after one drink here we call it a night.
March 31 – Saturday – Our last full day in Kinsale. Partly cloudy, still a bit breezy, but should be warmer than yesterday, in the low 50’s hopefully. Most of today will be taken up by packing and cleaning. We have to get ready for our drive to Shannon tomorrow. We did walk to town to check email, and I had to order my next prescription so they will arrive at the house next week. While we were there we stopped at Harte’s pharmacy and got Sue to go to coffee with us. We went to the reopened bistro on Main St, nice little place and it’s the first time we had been there. Back to the house afterwards so we could have lunch, called the kids, and I call to get our phones reactivated when we get home. Spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning, the house is back to the condition we found it in. We will eat in town tonight and for breakfast tomorrow so as not to dirty anything until we leave. We are almost ready to go.
Supper is at Le Bistro, a little expensive, but very good. I had the shank of lamb with potato and veggies, very good. Lisa had the goat cheese salad, also very good. After supper we head for the Vista, we want to listen to the boys there one more time. Then it’s off to Muddy’s to listen to a blues band that John is brought in. They are a local bunch, but quite good, and they draw a good crowd. John finds out it is our last night and buys us a drink, quite the host. We sit next to a Irish couple from the Clonmel area who is here for the weekend. They are so enamored with the area they are thinking of moving down here. We have a great time listening to the music and talking. One last stop to make, and we go to the Lord Kinsale to see Owen. I saved all my pennies, nickels and dimes throughout the trip, and give Owen 9 euro in change for our drinks, he takes the change as payment, grousing the whole time of course. At midnight we say our last goodbyes and head for home. It’s been a great trip!
April 1 – Sunday – Up early, a quick shower and down to Mother Hubbard’s for breakfast. Pick up a paper on the way back to the house, load the car, make sure everything in the house is ok and that we have everything and off we go. We have to make a stop at the market across the street from the Bunratty Castle, Mom had called and wants a coffee cup from Ireland so I need to pick one up. Lunch is at the Creamery, we sat at the same table that we were at last time we were there. We have a pint at Durty Nellie’s, can’t break tradition, we have had a pint there every trip so far. Drop the luggage off at the hotel, bring the car back to Budget, and supper is at the hotel bar. We walk over to the airport to look around, I thought I had read on the internet that you could shop duty free and they would hold it for you until you left, but it didn’t look like they would let us through, so we just picked up a ¼ bottle of wine and a can of Smithwick’s and head back to the room for the night.
April 2 – Monday – Up about 8:00, leisurely shower, load up the luggage on one of those airport carts, and make our way to the check in counter. We are quite early, the plane doesn’t leave until 12:30, and I ask the girl behind the counter for exit row seats. She tells me the plane is full, all the seats are assigned, but then asks me how tall I am, when I say 6’1” she makes room for us in row 12 next to the exit! Lots of leg room! It sure made the trip home much more enjoyable. Breakfast is in the airport café, and when it’s done we do a little duty free shopping. Lisa picks up a few chocolates and candies, especially for the grand kids, and I get some Powers 12 Year Old whiskey. The clerks in the duty free were sampling a new Irish Whiskey called The Irishman is I remember right. There was a blend along with a 12 year old single malt, both tasted good, but I get the Powers instead, and drag myself out of there before I go crazy and buy a bunch more.
The plane was on time, and we made good time coming over, landed at O’Hare a ½ early. Had a pizza at Wolfgang Puck’s for supper, and waited around until our flight to Grand Rapids took off. Brandie, Bradley and Nicole are waiting for us as we arrive at 11:30, they brought my truck down so I can load it up and take us home. We get home about 12:30, very tired, but happy to be here. The adventure is over, it was grand, one of those “happy to have gone, and happy to be home” situations.
There is only one word for the last six weeks - “BRILLIANT”
