We started the say off on our private tour bus with our best buddy Mr. Bus Driver aka John. He was loving the saturday morning energy we were giving off, and I think he got some entertainment out of us. He first took us to Charles Fort which is near the town of Kinsale in County Cork. It was a chilly morning, and there was frost on the ground, bringing us back to the start of Minnesota winters. I'm going to add some pictures from Charles Fort below and explain what each of them is under the picture.
This is one of the corners of the star shaped fort viewed from outside the Fort
This is the entrance to the Fort which includes a bridge over a dry moat
The view right when you walk in. Big open area with barracks on the left side overlooking the water
This is a bird's eye view of Charles Fort
Some of the "newer" barracks
Overlooking the center of the Fort from one of the Bastions (corners)
One of the bastions that is both a land and sea attacker
More of the "newer" barracks on the right, with the hospital off to the left
After we were done at the Fort, John drove us into Kinsale. On the drive we were driving past a cemetery with gravestones that had lots of Celtic crosses and he asked if we wanted to stop to take a picture. What I'm guessing he was envisioning as a 30 second stop, turned into about 10 minutes and a trip back to Charles Fort to recover a camera lens cap. Once we finally made it to Kinsale, we had about an hour and a half to do whatever we wanted. A few of us grabbed a coffee to keep warm and explored the town.
Brightly colored street of shops in Kinsale
This was a really good chocolate store, and she gave us samples!
We found a cool old church with this interesting door
A few boats in the Harbor in Kinsale
The water in the Harbor was like glass, and reflected the buildings perfectly
Once we were done in Kinsale, John brought us back to Cork, and gave us a short tour of the city, in case we hadn't seen certain things yet, on our way to Blarney Castle. Luckily we had a beautiful day, with clear blue skies (an actual rarity in Ireland, they aren't kidding), not so luckily, the sun was right above the castle as we got there making it a little hard to get good pictures, but I'll provide some attempts. Of course we walked around inside the castle, and once we got to the top, each took a turn kissing the Blarney Stone to become eloquent; hopefully it helps when it comes time to write all these term papers!
My roommate Tierney and I outside Blarney Castle
A View looking up from outside the castle
This group all climbed into a storage room area through a tunnel you had to crawl through, so we decided to take a picture as a reward
Side view of Blarney Castle
Inside the family room of the castle
Up at the top of the Castle right after kissing the Blarney Stone
In the process of kissing the Blarney Stone...not the best angle for a picture ever, but they give the good spot to their professional photographer in the hopes you will buy a picture of yourself for 10 Euro
We stopped in the gift shop on our way out to get some post cards and took our final journey back to Leeside with John. Overall it was a beautiful day, and we were able to see lots of historic sights and explore some interesting parts of Ireland. I would defiantly suggest both locations if you ever come to visit.
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