The Exodus from Belgium:
With only a couple of days to go, our time in Brussels felt like it more or less evaporated out from under us. Having said that, we have seen a respectable amount of the countryside and experienced a range of different things during our time here.
Monday:
My birthday! And also the day before we leave for Ireland. As such, most of the day was dedicated to packing up in preparation for migrating elsewhere. However, we made an effort to get out of the house, and headed into Brussels to visit our new friends we’d made on Friday (at Nuetnigenough) at the Delirium cafe. Marjorie (superstar beer blogger extraordinaire) even brought me a birthday gift of some local beers to try, which was wonderful! Hopefully we will get a chance to meet again at Oktoberfest in September!
It was a nice trip into town, and I’m glad we made the effort to get out of the house one last time. Murray also make me breakfast, which was lovely. Can’t go past poached eggs you didn’t have to make yourself.
Tuesday:
Road trip to Paris! The cheapest way to hire a car is to rent it for an extended period, and return it from whence you got it. Hence, road trip back to the Charles De Gaulle airport so we can fly off to Ireland. Paris is also a good location to fly out from, certainly cheaper than many other locations.
We weren’t going to fluff around on this drive, since there was going to be a solid bit of driving when we got to Ireland. However, we took the scenic route as much as possible and took in the sights from the vantage of the car. Kind of wished we had more time, as we definitely spotted a few things worth taking a closer look at.
Notre Dame cathedral in Reims. From the back. In the car.
Saw plenty of double-butt cows. Don’t think I remembered to mention them previously. Peculiar looking things, they are everywhere in Belgium and appear to be cows on steroids (with the kind of muscles where it looks like the muscles have muscles of their own). They are a variety called Belgian Blue, which feature an interesting genetic feature of having doubled muscle fibers. Took me all month to actually remember to look the cow variety up, and when I searched and found out about this double muscle situation it certainly made a lot of sense. So I wasn’t wrong in dubbing them “double-butt” cows. They do, in fact, have secondary ass-cheek (along with all the rest of the duplicated muscle tissue). Now I wish I’d made an effort to buy some Belgian beef, just to see what these mystery cows taste like. Meant to be leaner (less fatty) but still tender as the muscle fibers are shorter. Maybe I’ll get a chance when we stay in France.
I’ve included a stock photo of these hulk-esque beauties, since I didn’t manage to take a photo of the double-butted mystery cows during our trip.
Not sure what the go is with the haircut, but, haircut aside, this is a representative picture of the Belgian Blue.
We mostly drove through farmland, which consisted of cows, sheep, wheat & rapeseed. The fields of rapeseed were very impressive, but difficult to take a decent picture of. Seriously yellow fields (almost fluorescent). Everywhere, and interspersed with still-green fields of wheat, making a bright checkerboard of agricultural art. The landscape was very flat, making it difficult to take any pictures from the car.
Despite giving ourselves an appropriate window to get to the airport, we were lucky to make our flight in time. We parked in the wrong rental car park, basically putting ourselves somewhere on the far side of the moon in respect to where our flight departed from. It took us some serious hoofing it with all our lovely luggage to get to the right terminal, only to get caught up in the slowest security line ever. Seriously, what the heck? However, we made it.
Random Rant. Topic: Flying. Anywhere.
It really chaps me that the process for clearing security is different everywhere you go. It’s annoying enough in the US with their ridiculously over vigilant security procedures, without the rest of the hypocritical measures that make the whole process rather meaningless.
In France:
You get to keep your shoes on (except it seems when they are high heels, steel caps or look like they might be packing something suspicious). Those having to take off shoes have the joy of putting on disposable booties.
Jackets off. Apparently including my zippered t-shirt (since it has a zip, I guess they figure it’s fair game). Thank goodness I had a singlet on under it. That could have been awkward. It’s a shirt made out of thin jersey, not a overcoat, what would I be hiding under there that you couldn’t already see? Nowhere else has wanted it off.
Normal(ish): Laptop out (always) and out of case (not always). Watch off (not always). Belt off (always). Liquids out (always)*. Separate trays for almost everything.
Not normal: Needing your plane ticket while you go through security in France. If you didn’t have your plane ticket in your hand, you had to then dig it out of your bag (after rescuing it from the security conveyor belt) so it could be scanned.
*I can’t figure out the situation with liquids. I’d been putting my contact lens packs through security in the liquids bags previously (since they are packed in liquid, and if they have a beef with Chapstick which is clearly a solid, then I wasn’t going to take any chances with something clearly containing an actual liquid). Seems that’s not ok, and they re-packed my liquids sans-contacts into another bag. Go figure. They even did it without asking (I’m sure there would be plenty of people in conniptions about that).
…And then if you get anything wrong, the staff look at you like you are the worlds biggest idiot for not following the standard procedure for security clearance. Except it clearly isn’t standard.
French security clearance gave me a serious case of eye twitch (more so than usual). Luckily for us, the gate we needed for our flight to Ireland was directly on the other side of security (not that we knew it at the time), but given how far everything was from everything else, it could have been another 5 or 10 min walk away. Boarding was in full force already, and was almost at the end of the posted boarding closure time by the time we got there…And we had thought we would have plenty of time to both acquire and eat lunch before boarding…Goodness no. But we made it. Huzzah!
Ireland:
We arrived safely in Dublin. The flight was uneventful, and actually arrived early. However, early is not necessarily better, since there was nowhere to park our winged steed, and we had to idle around on the tarmac until a gate became available. Once we arrived, the customs official laughed at us when we said we would be in Ireland for 5 weeks. Apparently it is too wet to be wanting to spend that long enjoying their wonderful weather. Admittedly, it was raining at the time, and the wind was insane. But surely, more time just increases the likelihood of scoring a few sunny days, yes?
…It took forever to get our rental car due to the wonderful mysteries of computer non-functionality, but eventually we were on the road.
As it was rapidly getting late, we visited only one of the stops we had planned to check out on the way – the Rock of Dunamase, which forms the first of many ruins that we will undoubtedly explore during our Irish adventure. We were there just as the sunlight was on its way out, and there were only 3 other people there. You could climb all over it if you so chose. It was lovely to explore in peace (although also in utterly freezing wind). Temperature definitely colder here vs. Belgium.
Rock of Dunamase.
Making the most of the sunset.
Stayed in Kilkenny for the night, and spent the following morning exploring the town and gardens. Also went on a guided tour of the Smithwick’s brewery. Not particularly familiar with Smithwick’s beer… Not even sure if I have seen it in Australia? Only in the US… The tour was most unusual. Certainly the most touristy thing we have experienced regarding beer. However, it was entertaining, and came with a pint at the end. No complaints.
It’s a giant gas mask. At the brewery. Why not.
On the drive to our new abode, we also visited the ruins of the Kilfane Church, another example of the “go forth and explore” Irish attitude. There was a tiny spiral staircase which we climbed to the upper levels. There was even a birds nest (with a clutch of eggs) squirreled into a nook in the stairwell between floors. It was pretty squishy (the stairs, not the nest), and if you were portly I’m very sure you’d get stuck like a cork somewhere on the climb. It was awkward enough just turning around to go back down the stairs…The church was a lot of fun to explore. And we almost didn’t find it, thanks to a distinct lack of signage (also seems to be a European commonality). Luckily, Murray spotted the top of the ruin through the trees while driving back past. From the road there was only an open gate to indicate there was anything in the forest at all.
Kilfane Church
In the Kilfane Church stairwell.
Making historic artefacts look substantially less cool.
I already love that Ireland (and Europe in general, so far) seems to be very relaxed when it comes to regulating access to attractions. You are free to climb on things and explore to your heart’s content. Even if it’s not necessarily safe as houses. Use your own judgment, you have a brain. In Australia things would have been barricaded off and almost completely inaccessible for 9/10 attractions you visit. It’s never been so apparent the whole Nanny-State situation that we have in Australia since being places (other than Australia). We are one over-protected, over-regulated bunch. If Australia was a parent, you’d accuse it of mollycoddling.
…And in Ireland at least, it seems like many attractions are also free. Huzzah! Having said that, we have since purchased a OPW Heritage Card each, which for the price of 25 euro p/p entitles us to free entry to many heritage listed sites, gardens and national parks. Alternatively, you could just sight-see on a Wednesday, as apparently it is free in a bid to encourage the citizenry to get themselves some culture (and/or exercise). Discovered this on a stop in at Jerpoint Abbey, where it happened to be Wednesday…So our first card use didn’t really count as it was free anyway.
Jerpoint Abbey
Jerpoint abbey.
Our home for the month:
We stayed in a small rural cottage (complete with loft) in the town of Skibbereen, in County Cork. Which, by the way, is more or less in the middle of nowhere. Cows-and-sheep-for-company style nowhere. The road doesn’t even get the benefit of being named (a common occurrence in Ireland). Made for an interesting adventure finding it for the first time. Had no idea it was quite so…in the middle of nowhere. Having said that, it was still only about 10 minutes drive to the middle of town. Still, suburbia it was definitely not.
View from the cottage most mornings. Wet.
Or foggy as. Mind you, this was 2pm.
Pretty sure we chose the cottage because it was a steal and looked like a good location, and don’t get me wrong, it is a great location and a lovely town. Retrospectively, however, probably should have chosen accommodation that was a little more central to the west coast of Ireland, rather than more or less right at the bottom. It has made our day trips somewhat overlong in the driving department, and there was simply no way we would get to see as much of the coastline as was initially planned.
Random Rant #2: Driving in Ireland:
Ireland might be a relatively small country, but driving around country Ireland involves some seriously windy, single lane, hedgerow-lined, steep and downright precarious roads at times. From what we have experienced so far, it seems like Europe favors single lane roads (where although technically catering for both directions, is only wide enough to accommodate a car driving in one direction at a time). Which requires a lot of driver courtesy, and frequent stopping to allow passing of cars is just part of everyday driving. Never seen so many courtesy waves in my entire life. The Irish are certainly a courteous bunch when it comes to driving! Didn’t get flipped the bird even once.
The speed limit is…interesting. Australia’s RTA would freak right out. On the smaller roads it is either 50km or 80km (or heaven forbid, sometimes 100km). However, the speed limit is often not followed, but not in the way it would be interpreted at home. Out in the country areas, more often it is slower, rather than faster, as to drive to the signposted limit sometimes feels like a death-defying rally car experience. With the added bonus of blind corners and occasional surprise oncoming traffic. Thank goodness I’m not driving or we would have been upside down in a hedgerow by now. Pretty sure our hire car features some battle scars from run ins with various brambles when pulling over to allow cars to pass. Hopefully this will not manifest as an extra charge on our credit card (fingers and toes crossed!).
What we have been doing with our spare time:
So… What have we been up to? This month has been relatively sedate, with Murray putting in a lot of work hours from the comfort of our little cottage. I’ve more or less been trying to figure out what we are doing for the next few months, as our planning only goes as far (booking-wise) as our sailing trip in Croatia.
When we have made it out of the house:
- We have been out to Lough Hyne (a local lake fed by the sea) a couple of times. Murray goes for a run, and I climb (read: walk) up the hill to appreciate the view. Features plenty of stairs. Oh, how I love stairs (sarcasm). However, stairs or no, the view is totally worth the effort to see it. Wish there was something like this close to home in Brisbane.
View from the hill at Lough Hyne
- Been on many forays up and down the coast of County Cork, checking out the scenery (and lunch visits to some of the more picturesque pubs). Plenty of cliffs, sheep, cows, more sheep, and ruins just about everywhere. The smell of the largely farming-oriented countryside leaves something to be desired. Turns out cows can be a whole lot stinkier than I had remembered.
Standing stones. We beat the tour bus of Germans to see this unmolested.
Cool ravine with mossy trampoline-like grass everywhere.
Out at Baltimore. With the mysterious suppository-shaped beacon.
- Drove the Ring of Beara. A major destination drive along one of the prettiest fingers of land along the West Coast of Ireland. Epic. More quality coastal scenery than you can poke a stick at. We even managed to see it on a day when the weather was good (mostly). Definitely recommend doing this drive. One of the best areas we visited for sure.
<I’d include photos here, but WordPress is being difficult. Weeks of failing at uploading photos.. I give up. Eventually I’ll put them on Flickr (link to the gallery up at the top of this page somewhere)>
Murray also did a ride over Healy Pass, leaving me to explore Derreen Gardens. (I saw/surprised a deer! And it saw/surprised me. We both freaked out. The deer ran away. All I’ve got to show for it is a grainy photo of its butt in hasty retreat.)
<Thanks WordPress. No photo here either.>
Ok, it’s high time to call it a day on this post. It is getting overlong!!! Until next post… Whenever that may be…