Tag Archives: history

Clonakilty and Galley Head

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Wednesday night at Charles Fort was a bit blustery as we were high up but it was still a peaceful one. We left around 09.30 on Thursday to make our way down towards Old Head of Kinsale to visit the Lusitania Museum. The sinking of the Cunard passenger ship in 1915 by a German U Boat was instrumental in the USA joining the First World War as there were many Americans on board. No one survived. The ship sank very quickly when a second explosion occurred soon after the first. At the time it was thought the U Boat had fired a second torpedo. The more likely reason is that it was carrying ammunition for the British Army! The museum itself is in the old Signal Point that had been established during the Napoleonic Wars to warn of imminent attack along the west coast of Ireland. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty miserable so the views weren’t great!

Lusitania Museum with Head of Kinsale in background
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Cobh and Kinsale

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Tuesday, April 28, was another lovely day so we were up at the crack of to get to Cobh (pronounced Cove) as we had tickets for the Titanic Experience at 09.00. We found a great park up next to the waterfront (P4N#13454) and a 15 min walk along the front to the old White Star Line Ticket Office – the last port of call of the Titanic before that fateful night of April 14/15 1912. Cobh used to be called Queenstown, renamed in honour of Queen Victoria’s visit there but was changed to Cobh after independence. Whilst small, it was a well guided tour with lots of artefacts and videos. Good value for money.

The original ticket office
Replica of First Class cabin
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Waterford to Ardmore

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Whilst we had a peaceful night’s sleep in the golf club car park, the greenkeepers appear to start work before 06.00 on a Monday morning! However, they did try to keep the noise down as much as possible. We left there around 09.45 to drive to Dungarvan via The Magic Road. It’s a road in the hills where you, apparently, go uphill when stationary. Clearly an optical allusion but we couldn’t find the spot to confirm it! We then diverted back to the viaduct at Kilmacthomas that was part of the Waterford to Dungarvan Greenway before going onto Dungarvan, a harbour town with a fort and, more importantly, a good supermarket. What was even better was that the supermarket (SuperValu) gave us several hours free parking so we could do the shop and then explore the town.

Kilmacthomas Viaduct
Dungarvan Harbour
Dungarvan Fort
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Waterford

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Saturday, April 25 was a beautiful day and perfect to explore Waterford city and surrounds. We were perfectly placed on the greenway to visit both Mount Congreve gardens and the city itself. The gardens were magnificent and literally next door to our park up. They also had loos which is always a bonus!

After a lovely couple of hours walking around the gardens, we then cycled into town along the Waterford Greenway. It obviously well used and well cared for. It stretches for over 45km from Waterford to Dungarvan. A joy to cycle into a city safely and away from cars. It even had a tourist train for part of the way with various art installations.

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South Wales Tour Part Two

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We left Freshwater East Caravan Club site on Thursday morning, April 2, to start exploring the next part of the Welsh coastline. It was a bright but blowy morning as we drove across the Castlemartin Firing Range into the National Park. The Pembrokeshire National Park was gorgeous in the sunshine and amazingly not very crowded. First stop was St Govan’s Chapel, which was built sometime between 8 and 14 centuries ago, and is hewn from the rock. Steep steps down to it as it’s almost at sea level but well worth it. We were able to park easily at all the sights despite being so close to Easter. Then onto Huntsman’s Leap where we found two climbers who were getting ready to abseil down! The gap is not as small as it looks. After that, it was Stack Rocks and then The Green Bridge of Wales. The Bridge is really an arch over the sea but still very dramatic.

St Govan’s Chapel
Huntsman’s Leap
Green Bridge of Wales
Stack Rocks

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Honfleur and home!

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We arrived at our car park/motorhone aire at 15.00. Luckily, there were quite a few spots free but these soon filled up even though there were 140 spaces. At just €15 per 24 hours with electricity, water and disposal available, this was a bargain and only a ten minute walk into town.

Honfleur motorhome aire

We hadn’t been back to Honfleur for over 20 years and the place still had a wonderful charm, despite all the day tourists who came by the coach load. We cycled, walked, ate and chilled in the 28 hours we spent there. The weather was generally kind although the evenings were definitely chiller now we were that bit further north.

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A Short Sojourn Away

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We had been invited down to Weston Super Mare to visit friends but as they had a full house, we took Dora to make life easier as we could sleep in her. We left on Sunday, June 2 around 13.15 after Liz had done her bit volunteering at a nearby wetland park and had an uneventful but slow journey down. We found a large enough spot to park right outside their flat which was extraordinary given we were close to the front and it was a lovely sunny day! We had time to catch up with old friends before eating out a local Greek restaurant, The Thatched Cottage, that evening.

 

Sand Bay
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