Ireland - Ring of Kerry II

Ireland - Ring of Kerry

Ireland - Ring of Kerry map

We did the 'Ring of Kerry' which is a famous drive around the County of Kerry. We started from Killarney where we were staying and drove clockwise until we reached Kilorglin. We then took a detour to Dingle via Castlemaine and Inch and then drove back to Killarney. It was a great day's drive and a real highlight of our trip.

Ireland

The river in Cork














The photos above are from The Rock of Cashel (except the last one taken from Cork).
The Rock of Cashel is in the county of Tipperary!
It's a long way to go!
Most of the buildings on the Rock of Cashel are from the 12th and 13th century and are built on Limestone.

Edinburgh - German Xmas Market

Mulled wine..very nice.















Pouring the mulled wine from the copper kettles.



















Drinking mulled beer..also very nice. Mulled beer is hot beer with honey, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.


On Saturday we visited the German Xmas Market on Princess Street and had a great time.
It was very very busy though..people were crammed into the market but still a great time.
There were lots of gifts but mostly quite expensive to buy.
Next to the area where we had our mulled beer, was a food stall that looked very good (but we had already eaten). They were selling german sausages and saurkraut, and fried potato with bacon and all sorts of other german dishes that looked really good.

Ireland - Kilarney

Excuse the poor quality photo! Looking down one of the many streets that a full of really nice pubs.














A nice lake..not sure of it's name.















We stayed in Kilarney (see previous post for map) for 2 nights. It was a nice town and a good base for us to do the Ring of Kerry which is a drive around Kerry Castle. The Ring of Kerry was definitely the highlight of our trip..beautiful scenery of lakes, snow capped mountains and beaches!

Ireland - Blarney Castle II

You can see how thick the fog was. Cold too!














If you look at the top of this tower, you will see a small gap. This gap is where you are lowered head first and face up to kiss the Blarney Stone. Kind of scary but they do have bars in to stop you from falling!














I like this photo for some reason!














We really enjoyed visiting Blarney Castle. Probably one of the better castles we have visited. That may be due to the fact that it was quite dramatic with the thick fog being about that morning.
We visited quite early in order to avoid the coach tours etc.
Blarney Castle is over 600 years old! More information can be found here if you are interested in learning about the history of the castle.

Ireland - Blarney Castle

Ireland

Chilly! The roof on our Nissan Micra rental car in the morning in Blarney.














Nice view on the way to Cork.














Looking over the water in Kilgarvan.



















Enjoying a pint of Kilkenny in Kilkenny.


We arrived in Dublin at about 9:40 a.m on Thursday and spent the first night in Blarney.
Once we got off the main highway out of Dublin it was a lovely drive down.
We stopped in at Kilkenny and had a look around the town and grabbed lunch at one of the many many pubs! Then we stopped at Waterford and had another walk around before continuing on to Cork. Cork is the largest county in Ireland. We got to Blarney at about 6 p.m and stayed at a really nice Golf Resort.



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Paris - Last shots

The hustle and bustle of Place De La Concorde.


































The beautiful Hotel De Invalides. They used 12kgs of gold to renovate the roof recently!

Paris - Peugeot Concept cars

We called in at a Peugeot showroom featuring these cool concept cars. This is the Peugeot 4002 concept car. It was actually designed by a German rather than frenchman as part of a design comptition in 2002 (but was only mocked up this year).

Paris - Basilique du Sacré Cœur

We visited the Musée de l'Armée, also known as the Hôtel des Invalides. It is a military museum and houses Napolean Bonepartes tomb. Very impressive.















These are the spectacular views taken from the top of the Sacre Coeur. Breathtaking.










































Another view of the Notre Dame..from the back.

Paris - Louvre Museum

No trip to Paris is complete without visiting the Louvre! Stunning architecture and lots of famous art including the Mona Lisa, the victory of the Samothrace and the Venus De Milo.
Was interesting to also visit the Medieval section of the Louvre in the basement...this was a large section of the original castle dating back to 1193. Most of the castle was demolished in 1527 except for the walls and moat that are able to be seen in the basement.