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Ireland Day 3 - Tralee to Dingle
We fell asleep late the night before, but we got up in time to grab breakfast in A CASTLE. On the menu, are pancakes, Eggs Benedict, and these incredible scrambled eggs. If there are two things not to miss here, it’s the butter (with bread) and the coffee. The food has been splendid everywhere we have been, but the butter is from outer space. The first experience here is very close to Downton Abbey, I feel like I am on a set and none of this is real – also I now only want to stay in castles from here on out.
After breakfast the family wanted to rest so I did what I do often on trips…explore the area. Walking the grounds you get the sense of how old the place is and it is groomed by a fleet of robot mowers which was fascinating to watch. That said, as I was walking down the driveway to the road a pack of dogs is coming up the drive to the castle as if they were heading to work. It might be the most surreal thing I have seen on this trip. But if you know me a land of castles and dogs might be the ideal place for me to live forever.
After introducing myself to the hounds of the grounds, I can honestly say I stayed in a castle in Ireland with an Irish Wolfhound named…Zelda. Which feels like a highlight. Soon after the kids bounded down the stairs, we set off towards Dingle which is this quaint town that doubles as a perfect fishing village. The ocean was angry that day my friends…so we couldn’t take any of the tours but did hit up the aquarium called OceanWorld, which is the largest in the country and had these two stunning Sand Tiger Sharks and an intense piranha exhibit. While we were there, they had a butterfly exhibit and they were about to feed the Asian short-claw otters and I had no idea they were so terrifying. Did you know the Amazonian cousins to these otters are pack animals whose bite can fracture a black caiman’s skull…that skull is bulletproof by the way. Perhaps I am easily entertained but the incredible ways that nature adapts to its surroundings never ceases to amaze me.
After the aquarium we had lunch at The Diner…yeah needs some work with the name but the food was very good. Calamari along the water with some goat cheese bruschetta, and my son decided on just garlic bread (the pediatrician keeps telling me one good meal a day) What I find delightful is that every meal we order comes with some version of a side salad and this spot did some fun mix with microgreens that balanced out the fried squid. There was a moment towards the end of the meal where I am looking out the window at the wharf and at my family and thinking I might do about anything to travel like this for the rest of my life.
We stopped by the tourism office, and they gave me a very cool seaside route to take but honestly, it is a lot of driving for the kids, instead, we opted to spend afternoon tea at the castle and more time with the hounds. The children think 7-Up is medicine which made me laugh, instead of tea we opted for Irish coffee + Guinness. While we sat the server gave us some great tips to getting to Galway and a dinner recommendation for tonight in Tralee. Meanwhile, the kids were feeding full slices of ham to the dogs so there might be extra guests in our room tonight looking for more smoked meats.
We drove to Tralee which was the first time I thought “I am not sure about this place” it is like Vegas if it was a medieval European town. Online betting billboards, vape shops, + pubs. I am sure there is more to Tralee but based on the restaurant we were given as a suggestion I am not sure at all about Tralee.
After dinner, I took the kids back to the castle and decided to take the 2-hour drive back to Dingle. Let that sink in, two days ago I had no idea what to do on the road, now I am taking a 5-hour side quest to see more of the oceanside of Ireland. I am also racing to see if I can catch a sunset. I did a bit of the Wild Atlantic Way which is 2500km in total and would be an incredible trip if you just drove that route. I drove along the coast through the winding roads up through Shanacill to Brandon’s Creek which is this distant pier surrounded by cliffs, absolutely worth the drive. The clouds came in off the ocean and it got too cloudy so I got back in the car to see if I could get any other interesting shots. I am so excited to see these film shots and if any of them are any good.
Back at the hotel, there were no wolfhounds to be seen so I sat with my wife and had a nightcap before heading to bed.
Ireland Day 2 - Kilkenny to Tralee
We woke up at Hotel Kilkenny and went downstairs to grab coffee which was served in China and came with all the stuff you wanted like cream and sugar. One of the things that you will hear before you come to Ireland is how nice everyone is, what I can say at this point is they certainly always want you to feel comfortable – like visiting family. Dress and ready for the first full day we got in the car and drove downtown town for breakfast at the Cave at Playwrights which was very Irish. We had walked by it the day before and it had a fun patio/outdoor area and was busy with people that didn’t look like tourists which was something I was looking for.
When traveling I try very hard to get into the heads of the locals to connect with not only the beautiful humans there but get a taste of what the city is like when you live there. At the Cave they had a bacon sandwich which was something we had to learn in Ireland – typically unless you ask the bacon tends to be boiled instead of crispy especially the further west you are in the country. The sandwich was fantastic, it had this Ballymaloe relish which is a condiment created in Cork and has “secret recipe” vibes to it and the best way to describe it is a tomato-based tapenade. With the family fueled up it was time to explore a bit more before heading back on the road to our next stop.
My wife had two stops she wanted to hit up while here. The first in Kilkenny was the medieval mile museum which was stunning. It is the most intact church in the country and is still a live dig site which means they are still permitted to dig around the church because it had been essentially a meeting place for weddings and dances til 2013. In 2016 they found 3 skeletons that are on display. The museum uses the audio tour tech you see everywhere and while we were doing that the kids were on a hunt for LEGOs hidden throughout the church. Once on the second floor, we saw our first sword and the oldest ledger/book in the country outside of Dublin. There is something about old books I cannot get enough of and this country has lots of old books to enjoy.
On the way to Tralee, I wanted to make one of the out of the way stops as we hit up the Rock of Cashel which sits on this rocky cliff over the highway and is a stunning reminder of where the ancient world meets modern conveniences. There is a tour but we had other stops on tap for the day so we walked the ground looking at the ruins along the countryside, talking to the sheep, and in general taking in the breathtaking view of this defender of the countryside.
When my wife was in middle school she had a teacher who took his family to the Blarney Stone and that story had a huge impact on her growing up, so there really was no way to visit Ireland and not take this detour. Blarney Castle is more of an event than the Rock of Cashel, the car park is bigger, the grounds sweep across the countryside, and it has more of a Disney feel to it. Meaning it is a destination rather than a stop on a trip. On the day we are here the castle is empty, there are signs all over telling us how long the wait can be to “kiss” the stone, and apparently, you can wait in a queue for over 2 hours on some days, just not today. Once at the castle, two things leap out at you if you’ve never been to a real castle before. First is how cramped (and cold) the living quarters are compared to what you watch on Game of Thrones and the second, and depending on what you fear, perhaps more important is how tall the castle is and how small the stairways are. You climb and climb and climb until you are high atop Blarney Castle and you walk around the wall the inner ward below and there it is, an unassuming stone on the side of the high walls of the castle. The legend of the stone is hard to nail down but the version I like it is the version you read right before you kiss the stone. It tells the story of Cormac McTaidhg Láidir MacCarthy who rescued a woman from the river who turned out to be a witch and explained to Cormac there was a stone in the castle that already had magical properties. But you pick whichever story moves you.
The thing about the kissing is how far back you have to lean, it is quite unflattering but we both did it. My son wanted to but saw how high we were, how far it was down, and how small he was and decided it couldn’t. He was pretty bummed he didn’t try but he cheered up with the Irish treat ice cream with a chocolate stick. Imagine soft-serve ice cream with a stick of chocolate stuck into the ice cream and you get the appeal.
As we were walking from the castle my son turned to me and said “Dad, are dragons real?” Without missing a beat I turned and said, “If you had asked me a week ago I would have had a much different answer but right now, I have no idea” Honestly, if a dragon had landed on the castle wall while we were exploring the poison gardens I would have thought, that seems on brand right now.
After Blarney we were driving to what was sure to be my favorite part…we are spending two nights in an actual castle. The Ballyseede Castle is just outside of Tralee and as we turned down the drive and the castle came into view, it was everything I wanted it to be. We arrived shortly after 5, freshened up, and got into some muscles, chowder, incredible Irish bread (eat all the bread and butter you can get here) and I had my first Guinness of the trip, while my wife wanted to order a Sex on the Beach but because there were kids around she just pointed at the menu. Not picking up on what happened I asked to keep the drink menu because I thought the other side was full of drinks in Gaelic which is why she had to point. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.
Every trip we take my daughter and I find ourselves walking around at night check one or two places out before heading to bed. Since it was our first time at a castle we had lots to explore and the way the ground is lit up at night makes you feel like you have been thrust into Cinderella moments before the pumpkin carriage arrives.
Ireland Day 1
After the longest travel the family has done, we have arrived.
A quick trip through customs and it was time to grab the car…which was a manual. As it turns out wrong side of the car, the road, and manual transmission was too much for me to handle, so we swapped for an automatic.
Holy shit is driving stressful.
Roads are narrow, there are all the roundabouts and very little is intuitive. It is interesting all the things you do on autopilot back home you are suddenly very aware of here.
Right mirror to make sure you aren’t out of your lane, left to make sure you aren’t too far in your lane, rear view to check who is behind you, GPS so you know where you are going and your family fogging up the windows sweating with nervous energy watching all of this happening.
You either get good at driving or clearly die here.
Our first stop is Kilkenny, and it was a welcome change from learning to drive in Dublin. I only hit one sidewalk 😉 we found a car park (turns out the parking here is awesome) and went to FoodWerks for a late lunch. Kids had French toast (this will be a theme later I’m sure) On the menu was a three-meat burger (beef, lamb, and pork I think) and I had fish and chips with mushy peas. As it turns out I had no idea I needed mushy peas in my life…I am taking notes on the proper way to create this surprisingly yummy dish – let’s be honest peas can be kind of boring usually. Kilkenny was much busier than I think we imagined it would be - we wouldn’t learn til later Monday was a bank holiday which meant the entire country joined us on holiday.
After lunch, we crossed the street to Smithwicks and then over to Castle Kilkenny. If you’ve not been here there is just a castle in the middle of the city, technically there is more than one but still is stunning the permanence these cities have the only thing that seems close is Washington D.C. and that is not a very close analog. It’s actually hard to wrap my head around the crashing together of modernity and the rift in the multiverse that has brought with it buildings from the 1500s. We shopped around a bit getting the lay of the land, I love walking cities because I find I can understand a place much faster. One of the things we had to learn with kids is that they have pay toilets 🚽 which is sort of genius, I might rethink that sentence later but for now, I am fascinated. It being a city-wide holiday the energy was that of celebrating and what better way to celebrate than with ice cream from Scrumdiddly’s, home of the Scrummy tub which is their answer to a Pump House or anywhere you take ice cream and add candy. Already though I can see the Irish have a very different interaction with sugar than we do. The toppings are behind the counter and measured before being given to your children which gives a sense that there was not just care in its creation but an understanding of how many gummy worms you need on your ice cream.
From ice cream, we head to our first hotel, Hotel Kilkenny for night number one. This was one of two hotels we were staying at that had a pool so the kids went straight downstairs and I was shortly behind them after finding out there was both a steam room and a sauna – if you have not jumped into a sauna after a long day of travel, allow me to give you that gift. The pool itself was large but felt more like it was in a grotto than it was a hotel which gave a cool vibe to the whole experience.
Quick story, if you are a parent and you are doing activities with your kids there is an invisible clock that is always counting down til they are all out of energy for the day the trick is to beat that clock to bed or everyone suffers the consequences. After an hour in the pool, I could tell it was time to grab some food and get to bed so we cleaned up. It was straight to the hotel restaurant called Rosehill Bar 1831 which was a very modern spot with some very cool art on the wall and what you might imagine the wallpaper in Europe to look like, timeless and inviting, so it was time to eat. I had the sea bass which was exactly what I was after and I paired it with a pour of Yellow Spot an Irish whiskey that has these amazing brulee notes (that burned sugar, custard note that I LOVE), honey, and barley on the end. Yellow Spot is a Jameson brand and one I was very interested in trying – I hear there is a 15 year in Ireland and after this, I am on the hunt for it knowing I can probably find it in Dublin at the end of the trip. Angie had a salad and the kids ate some fruit and pasta before it was time to head upstairs.
Then the world stopped.
We crashed HARD at 7p not waking til after 10a the next day.
Are Grades Meaningless
@erichultgren I love this question? What is the actual measure of education?
♬ original sound - Eric Hultgren