23 mai 2009
May Holidays Part 2 : Sneem
After one night in Cork, in Sheila’s Hostel, I headed to Ringaskiddy, the little at the mouth of the Lee River, where the ferries from France arrive. That’s where arrived the Pont-Aven, the Brittany Ferry that my parents took.
A short embrace later, we headed in car to Sneem, less than two hours of a ride, first through the good roads between Cork and Killarney, until we reached the peninsula of Iveragh, the biggest peninsula of Kerry country, where the width and the quality of the roads decreases suddenly, but not the speeding limit !
We arrived then a the end of the afternoon at Sneem (in Gaelic : An tSnaidhm), a village, filled with leisure resorts made of cottages for people in holidays.
Not much to say about the village except, quite surprisingly, a monument dedicated to Charles de Gaulle, who used to visit the village in the sixties, and (not surprisingly!) the beauty of the landscapes around.
This village would be the head quarter of our exploration of the region.
22 mai 2009
May Holidays Part 1 : Cork
Cork is the second biggest town of the Irish Republic, and the third of the whole island behind… Belfast ! That’s where I was supposed to meet my parents who were coming by ferry from France.
Arriving 24 hours before them, I had plenty of time to visit and discover the city by myself and especially the city center which is surrounded by the two channels of the River Lee (first pic), where one can find the Holy Trinity Church (second pic), or the City Hall (third pic).
Not much more to say about this town, except it is mainly like Dublin, in reduced size : quite cosmopolitan, not particularly attractive but easy going, grey weather, but colorful little houses…. I found a bed in the dorm of the Sheila’s Hostel, a nice hostel very well situated :
From which i had a nice view on Cork, especially by night :
Saturday 23rd, i I left Cork for Ringaskiddy, 40 minutes away on the coast, where the ferries from France (Roscoff) arrive.