From Blarney to Avoca
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2008
1
5
6
Trip End
Jul 22, 2008
Avoca, County Wicklow, Ireland
Friday, July 18, 2008
We spent part of a day in Cork City and then on to Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is the sight of the Irish Heritage museum and the place where literally millions immigrated to the US and elsewhere. The town changed its name over the years from Cove to Queenstown then to Cobh. Its the site of the Titanic's last port of call before heading east and the town where the survivors of the Lucitania were brought after being torpedoed.
After leaving Blarney, we drove to the village of Clonmel in search of Meg's great-grandfather's gravesite. Some of her siblings had been there and we had some directions. We found it pretty much as they described "at the end of a dirt road that looks like you are heading onto a farm ...". Once we got the location, we recorded the GPS stats so that they can get back a little easier! (See pics.)
Then we drove to the "expensive portion" of the trip --- Waterford Crystal factory. They gave a great tour and we saw some true craftsman at work. (Not looking forward to that Amex bill :-( ). From there we drove to a town called Avoca to the Ashdene B&B which, if it weren't for Garmin would have never been found by us! Evidently, the owner is used to people having difficulty getting there and staying once they find them because she had lots of outdoor room to lounge around in including a grass tennis court! The next door neighbours (sheep) put on a show but fortunately we were not down wind!
Next day we went to the Avoca Handweavers (woolen mill), saw an demonstration on weaving and, again, parted with some Euros! Actually, the demonstration was interesting and it was worthwhile.
We ended up in a suburb of Dublin ... more next time!
Hersheytravel
