This guy could really play the fiddle.
It turns out Cork may be the best place to hear traditional Irish music.
First impressions of Ireland’s second largest city were a bit misplaced. After a run of small towns, Cork has the makings of a big city.
Our hotel is about a mile from the city centre, and the return trip is all uphill. Steeply.
The first issue was that the Tourist Information Center was not where it was supposed to be. The corner across the Lee River via the St. Patrick’s Bridge was under construction. Fortunately a kind stranger looked it up on his phone and gave us alternate directions.
At the center we learned the opening of the new center, identified on the tourist maps, was delayed. We had a good laugh over it, and got some maps for self-guided tours. There were supposed to be informational posters at key points of interest along the route, which were not immediately obvious.
It turned into something of a scavenger hunt, which added an element of fun and helped to break the ice.
In addition to the modernish buildings and whizzing cars, Cork has a fascinating maze of pedestrian-only streets, and two forks of the river surrounding the city centre.
The view out our hotel room window.
At night the bustle of the city dies back, and a pleasant, vibrant nightlife emerges.
And one easily finds numerous pubs featuring extremely high-quality music.
One such pub offered a lengthy menu of Irish, and not-so-Irish, whiskeys. It took them about twenty minutes to find the bottles of the two Irish whiskeys I ordered.
The day had begun in Killarney, where we embarked on the national park stretch of the Ring (in this case the Arc) of Kerry.
It was a beautiful drive through the mountains of Killarney National Park.
Filbert Hockey's Travels 