Ireland – Wandering Toward the South Coast

Early on a Sunday morning, with very light traffic, we escaped from the Dublin metropolitan area.  Our eventual goal was the south coast of Ireland but we quickly got off the M7 Motorway so we could see more of the countryside at a more leisurely pace…

We thought that it was a good start for our day when Laurie spotted this horse wandering along the road… You never know what you’ll see when you’re a little off the main routes!

It was Sunday, so not too much was going on in the little town of Castlecomer…an area from which part of Laurie’s brother-in-law, Bill’s family, might have emigrated from. 

Castlecomer is a former coal mining town in County Kilkenny.  It has a population of about 2,200 residents.  The ‘castle’ in the name refers to a long gone castle built nearby by the Normans in 1171.  The earliest record of a settlement here dates from ca. 1200 when William Marshal, 1^st Earl of Pembroke erected a motte (mound) and built a castle on it.

Laurie and her sister Bonnie posed for this photo at the entrance to St. Mary’s Parish Church at the town of Castlecomer.   Much to my surprise, St. Mary’s is a member church in the Anglican Church of Ireland...not the Catholic Church.

 

The Catholic Church in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) has a total of 3,700,000 members.  The Church of Ireland is second in total members with about 375,000 members, only 126,000 or so in the Irish Republic itself with the remainder residing in Northern Ireland…   

Saint Mary’s Church stands on the site of the ancient parish Church of the Holy Cross.  It dated to ca. 1374 but no traces of it remain.  In 1637 the area was conveyed to Christopher Wandesford.  He built the current church.

The town of Castlecomer itself was destroyed in the 1798 rebellion.  Subsequently Lady Anne Ormonde offered incentives for rebuilding the town and she restored Saint Mary’s Church…

Notes:

·         The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was a short-lived uprising against British rule in Ireland.  French forces with 14,000 troops attempted to aid the Irish forces but were deterred by rough seas and were either captured or had to turn back.    The area around Castlecomer was one of the worst sites of retribution by the British with the massacre of captured and wounded rebels… To learn more about this rebellion, just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1798.

Castlecomer Discovery Park opened to the public in 2007 with the launch of its “Footprints in Coal” exhibition, a visitor’s center and this grouping of craft studios.  The park is set in the former grounds of the 18^th century Wandesforde Estate.  This park began as a community project to rejuvenate the town of Castlecomer itself.

FYI…Coal mining continued in the area until 1969!

Since it was fairly early on Sunday, there wasn’t too much going on at the Castlecomer Discovery Park, but we did go through the Visitor’s Center to see what the park was all about.  These buildings are all located in what was originally the farm yard and kitchen gardens of the estate.

There were a lot of photos on display in the visitor’s center showing the estate back in its more recent heydays… This particular picture, one of my favorite themes, shows the arrival of the first passenger train in Castlecomer on 2/21/1921.

Other photos showed the Estate Yard in 1914 and two family members on horseback and in uniform at the estate gates.  The estate’s horses were requisitioned for service in Northern France at the outbreak of WWI.

As you can see from this photo and the one that follows, the Castlecomer Discovery Park is very much a work in progress. 

The town itself was laid out in the 1600s by Christopher Wandesford.  The town owed its development to the wealth generated from the coal mines.  Castlecomer not only served as a market town for the area, but it was an ‘estate village for the Wandesford family, who owned the mines.  Some homes in the town itself date all the way back to the 1640s…

Castlecomer House, which was the family home of the Wandesfordes, was located on the opposite side of N78 across from what is now the Castlecomer Discovery Park.  After the first house was burned down during the Battle of Castlecomer in 1798, Lady Anne Ormonde built another massive home in 1802.  Apparently it was very big and very imposing… It is reputed to have had 365 windows, one for each day of the year!

To learn more about the Castlecomer Discovery Park and its many activities, including trail rides on horseback, go to https://www.discoverypark.ie/.

We then headed down the road…following our GPS rental unit.  That proved to be a challenge more than once as she took us down some ‘interesting and sometimes challenging’ roads on the most direct route to our next destination.

The sisters were just happy to see the woman along this little back road with her dogs!

…and of course we had to stop and visit!  The lady was very friendly and her dogs were curious.

…did we stop to chat or to admire the dogs!?  What a nice smile!

Here’s one more photo of the Irish countryside in County Kilkenny.  The narrow road is actually wider than many of the roads that we traversed in Scotland…

We would both like to thank whoever developed or provided that wonderful and proper voice giving directions via the GPS unit.  She was invariably polite, never rasping out “Recalculating”, but rather taking any missteps in stride, accepting my direction and gently providing adjusted directions.  Never once, in Scotland or in Ireland, was I told to ‘make the next legal U-turn!’ 

A bit further on down the road, we stopped to ask directions from this local resident.  We couldn’t communicate well with her though as her native tongue was Irish Gaelic…

In my next post from Ireland, we reach our destination for the day…Kinsale on the south coast just a little south of the City of Cork.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for coming along on our journey!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Taziki’s Mediterranean Café

When Dawn Marie’s visit ended in early December, she flew home via the Chattanooga Tennessee airport.  The air fares are quite a bit less expensive for several markets if you fly in and out of Chattanooga vs. Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson airport.

In any case, we wanted to have lunch before she flew home to Miami Florida…

We discovered that it isn’t all that easy to find a place open for lunch in downtown Chattanooga on a Sunday in December… Our first choice was the Maple Street Biscuit Company but we discovered that they aren’t open on Sundays. (Note: Checking that company’s website, it appears that the downtown location for Maple Street Biscuit is now closed)

We passed a couple of other places that weren’t open and then we spotted Taziki’s Mediterranean Café.  We’d seen one of these in the Knoxville area but hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet…so this was an easy choice for us!

Taziki’s Mediterranean Café is another entrée in the burgeoning fast casual dining business.  Customers order at the counter and they bring the food to the table.    

The dining area has that industrial look…with lots of metal, wood and stone with concrete floors. 

Taziki’s Mediterranean Café is on a fast track growth-wise.  They are primarily located in the South and Southeast but they are branching out across the USA.  The company either has or is opening locations in 17 states.  The company’s first restaurant opened in 1998 in Birmingham Alabama where the company is headquartered.  As of this past November, this franchise based operation had 82 locations…

That industrial look carries over to the clever use of space with a balcony seating area above the entrance into the main area of the restaurant…

Now onto the food… We were very hopeful as we love quality Greek cuisine.  I don’t recall, but this bowl of red sauce with goat cheese and pita must have been gratis as it didn’t show up on my bill.  It was tastier than the appetizer we did order.

This is the Taziki Dip appetizer. ($5.49) It was OK…but not very distinctive.  We had expected Tzatziki Sauce with the pita chips…but this combination of cucumber, dill and lemon just didn’t have any zing…or the expected garlic either!  We should have read the menu more closely…

We all ordered the Lamb Gyros with chips and fresh fruit or a salad. ($9.99)  The lamb gyros came with taziki sauce (not tzatziki sauce!), tomatoes, mixed lettuce and grilled onions. (I skipped the onions)

Once again we were disappointed!  We should have noted that the menu item was called “Lamb” gyros.  I should have learned by now to ask about the ‘gyros’ before ordering them.  We love what is termed gyros in the Chicago area based on our long tenure in that market.  In reality, what we love is a mixed lamb and beef version which is cooked in loaf form on a spit and then sliced off as needed.  It can be called doner kebab (Turkish) or Shawarma (Levantine preparation).

Gyros, strictly defined, can be pork or chicken (Greece) as well as beef or lamb in other Mediterranean locales…not usually the mixed meat version that we are used to and love.  However, we do like lamb but we thought that this lamb was overcooked.  The restaurant’s ‘taziki’ sauce just didn’t help these gyros by providing any flavor ‘pop’.   

Dawn Marie did opt for a piece of Dark Chocolate Cake which she said was pretty good… ($2.75)

The employees at Taziki’s Mediterranean Café were very nice and the service was fine.  All the food was fresh and since one of the themes of this chain is a healthy Mediterranean diet, they probably hit that mark right on the money.  Perhaps we’ll give it another try in the Knoxville area as the menu is much broader than just gyros to included sandwiches, roll-ups, soups, salads, and complete entrees.   

The Taziki’s Mediterranean Café in downtown Chattanooga Tennessee is located at 432 Market Street.  Phone: 423-779-3100.  The company’s website with all their locations and the full menu can be found at http://tazikiscafe.com/.

Our search for good Chicago style gyros continues!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Dinner in Downtown Dublin Ireland

Our search for a restaurant for dinner on a Saturday night in late September of last year continued after we left the more popular/’hip’ area in the Temple Bar section of Dublin.  No luck there with everything booked or with long lines.  We crossed the River Liffey to the north shore and kept looking for places that could serve us on this busy night. 

We came across The Lotts Café and Bar and decided to check it out.  This time we got lucky!  We were told that if we could be finished with our dinner by a given time, they could fit us in.  Since we had over an hour before we would have to be done eating, we readily agreed!

The interior of The Lotts is ornate and comfortable.  Our table was by the window so we could watch passerby’s as we dined.  We found it interesting that so many restaurants in both Scotland and Ireland were so cautious about ensuring that reservations were honored on time by not seating additional customers.  We are not so careful about the timing here in the USA…

When I saw this sign on this big mirror, I just had to follow the arrow and check out the smallest bar in Dublin!

My curiosity was rewarded… This bar, which is appropriately named “The Snug”, was so small that I actually felt uncomfortable taking this photo!  It was indeed tiny and busy too…

I took this photo just to show how ornate the main dining area bar is at the Lotts Café…with its mirrors, fancy back wall and chandeliers. 

This was an appetizer.  It’s the Bacon and Cabbage Potato Cakes…two crispy potato cakes with bacon mixed in and topped with a poached egg. (9E/$10.80 US) This is something that I’ve never seen in the USA so I had to give it a try… It was very tasty indeed but if it were me serving this dish, I’d put a poached egg on top of both potato cakes.

The first of the entrees was this Mixed Seafood Pasta. (13E/15.60 US) A mix of smoked haddock, cockles, mussels, prawns and squid are cooked in a creamy white sauce and served over fettuccine pasta.  It was very good…and it was also something that you don’t see in the USA.  I’ve never seen cockles on the menu stateside.

Note:

·         A cockle is a small, edible marine bivalve mollusk.  There are 250 species around the world.  The common cockle is widely distributed around the coastlines of Northern Europe with a range extending west to Ireland, north to the Barents Sea, then east to Norway and south as far as Senegal in Africa.

My selection was this Pork Chop entrée with champ mash and topped with an apple cider gravy. (12E/$14.40 US) It was pretty good although the pork chop was a bit overcooked.  That was partly offset via the moisture provided by the cider gravy.

Note:

·         Champ is an Irish dish made by combining mashed potatoes and chopped scallions with butter, milk, cheese and optionally, salt and pepper.  I learned from this experience that I much prefer colcannon, a traditional Irish dish that combines mashed potatoes with cabbage.

This was the chef’s special… (15E/$18.00) It wasn’t detailed on the receipt because it was a nightly special and then I neglected to write it down at the time, so I’m not positive what this entrée was.  However, I seem to remember that it was deep fried chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes and mushrooms…

Laurie decided to try the Spinach and Cream Cheese Fettuccine. (10E/$12.00 US) The fettuccine was served with a garlic and cream cheese sauce and Laurie really liked it!

As it turned out, we weren’t rushed at all even though the kitchen was a little slow on this busy night.  Another table turned over early and our replacement diners were seated elsewhere.  Better yet, we all were very happy with the service and the food!

I checked TripAdvisor when I wrote this posting and The Lotts Café and Bar has had 1,441 reviews…with 93% ranking the restaurant as excellent or very good.  Only 2% of the reviewers gave it a poor or terrible score!  We definitely lucked out in our desperate restaurant choice! 

The Lotts Café and Bar is located at 9 Lower Liffey Street in Dublin.  Phone: 353 18727669.  Website: http://thelottscafebar.com/.

When we finished our meal, we headed back to the trolley/tram stop for the ride to our hotel on the light rail system.  The tram was packed for most of the trip back.  The streets in the city center seemed safe enough and the only police officer I recall was working security for a store.  We chatted about the shoplifting problems in the USA and Ireland…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Downtown Dublin Ireland on a Saturday Night!

Saturday night in a major European city… What to do?  We decided to explore the city center!

This was our light rail stop in downtown Dublin.  We’d taken the ‘Luas’ trolley/light rail system from the Kylemore stop.  There were about 11 stops along the way and all the cars really filled up too!

Despite the presence of quality stores like Marks and Spencer in this pedestrian friendly area, we didn’t do very much shopping. 

Marks and Spencer was founded in London in 1884.  Today the company has 979 stores in the United Kingdom, of which 615 are grocery stores.  Internationally, the company has another 454 locations with stores in Ireland, India, Turkey, Russia, Greece, France, Poland, Hungary, Finland and Spain.   Worldwide sales in 2017 were approximately $13.8 billion US.

There were lots of people downtown in the late afternoon…shopping, drinking and dining.  Unlike big cities in the USA, tall buildings are the exception and many structures have been around a long time.   

Not all structures in Dublin are low rise… This view down the busy pedestrian mall shows The Spire of Dublin.  This 397 foot tall stainless steel sculpture was the centerpiece in the regeneration of O’Connell Street, a major thoroughfare/area that had become a bit worn over the years.  The area was cleaned up and brought back to life and the Spire was intended to be a replacement monument for Nelson’s Pillar. 

Nelson’s Pillar was a large granite column that was capped by a statue of Horatio Nelson.  He was a famous British Admiral who is best known for his victory (and death) at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  Completed in 1809 when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, the 134 foot tall ‘Pillar’ survived until March of 1966 when it was severely damaged by explosives planted by Irish Republicans…

This is O’Connell Street…formerly known as “Sackville Street”, which it was referred to during the 1916 “Easter Rising”.   The Rising was launched by Irish Republicans to end British rule in Ireland while the United Kingdom was fighting WWI.  This was the most significant Irish uprising since the rebellion of 1798.   FYI…Ireland became a self-governing Dominion of the British Empire in 1922, (Irish Free State), and it officially became a Republic in 1949.

O’Connell Street is Dublin’s main thoroughfare and it’s the city’s widest but not longest street.  It may be one of Europe’s widest urban streets.

Note the statue in the center of the boulevard walkway along O’Connell Street.  This particular statue is of James Larkin.  Larkin was an Irish trade union leader and socialist activist.  He founded the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, the Irish Labour Party and the Workers’ Union of Ireland… Several other statues of famous Irishmen are prominently displayed along O’Connell Street.  To view and learn about them, you can go to https://www.tenontours.com/the-monuments-of-oconnell-street-dublin/.

We tend to stick to small towns, villages and the countryside wherever we travel, so this excursion was a bit unusual for us.  There is a lot of history in Dublin and there is a lot for visitors to experience.  Still, given our limited time in Ireland, we wanted to focus on the countryside.  If we had the time we would have definitely focused on Christ Church Cathedral (ca. 1038), St. Patrick’s Cathedral (13^th century) and the many museums around the city.  To check out some popular sites for visitors around Dublin, go to http://www.dublintourist.com/directory/places_to_visit/.

Well heck…all that walking and exploring eventually required a break of some kind!  We selected The Gin Palace, home to the largest selection of Gin in Ireland, with 156 different brands from all over the world!   

Notes:

·         Gin derives its predominant flavor from juniper berries and its one of the broadest categories of spirits, with all of the various origins, styles and flavors revolving around juniper as the required common ingredient. 

·         In addition to the required juniper, botanicals/flavoring agents for gin often include lemon, bitter orange peel as well as such items as anise, angelica root, orris root, licorice root, cinnamon, almond, cubeb, savory, lime peel, grapefruit peel, dragon eye, saffron, baobab, frankincense, coriander, nutmeg and others…

The interior of The Gin Palace is colorful and ornate with a big Victorian themed bar and they were busy on this early Saturday evening.  We managed to fine a table and all of us ordered gin drinks of one sort or another…one choice being the Premium Gin Sampler Tray.  That included 3 premium gins for 18E/$21.60 US.  The Gin Palace serves food as well but we didn’t want to spoil our dinner…

You can learn more about The Gin Palace and check out their menu at http://www.louisfitzgerald.com/ginpalace#about.  

When we started looking around for other sights and possibly someplace for dinner, I led us to this busy footbridge across the River Liffey to Dublin’s Temple Bar area. 

The Temple Bar (Irish: Barra an Teampaill) is located on the south bank of the river.  The area is promoted as Dublin’s cultural quarter and its lively nightlife is popular with locals and tourists alike. 

This photo is looking east along the River Liffey from the pedestrian bridge.  The Liffey or more popularly, the Ha’penny Bridge was built in 1816.  In 2012, the Dublin City Council removed a large number of ‘love locks’ from the bridge and then in 2013, they removed another 660 lbs. of locks!  Signage now asks people not to put padlocks on the bridge.    

The River Liffey is only about 78 miles long but it supplies much of Dublin’s drinking water as well as for industry.  For much of history, from Viking beginnings of the city up until recent times, the river was used for navigation and trade. 

The Temple Bar area of Dublin is colorful, lively and interesting.  It’s a great place for people watching as well! 

There are various theories as to why the area is named Temple Bar.  One possibility is that it got its name from the Temple family.  Sir William Temple built a house and gardens her in the 1600s and later he served as the provost of Trinity College, serving in that post from 1609 until 1627.  However, it’s more likely that the name was directly borrowed from the Temple Bar district in London…where the main toll-gate into London was located back to medieval times.

We walked around Temple Bar for quite a while…gawking at the sights and the people…before we began looking for a place to have dinner. 

We didn’t realize that we were just a few blocks from Trinity College or we would have wandered over for a look.  The college was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I as the “mother’ of a new university.  It was modeled after the collegiate universities of Oxford and Cambridge and it’s the ‘newest’ of 7 ancient universities of Britain, Scotland and Ireland. Oxford is the oldest of these universities, having been founded in 1096!

Along with a couple hundred other people, we stopped for a little street performance by this band...

As attractive and appealing as the area is, we finally stopped casually strolling about and starting focusing on a place for dinner!  Good luck with that mission!  It was Saturday night and without a reservation, our mission was daunting.  We certainly couldn’t get into the Oliver St. John Gogarty Pub…that big yellow building…with a line waiting for entry!

We kept looking for a place to eat.  We walked several blocks, checking out the possibilities at Quays Temple Bar, The Old Storehouse, Toscana, The Boxty House, The Temple Bar Pub and even 'Thunderbird'…shown above.  It was all to no avail!  The restaurants were completely booked or packed with patrons. At least my bride was able to see a few horses along the way!

So it was back to the Ha’penny Bridge and across the River Liffey to the less popular and crowded north side of the river!  Coming up in a future posting, we finally found a place for dinner on our first night in Ireland…

That’s all for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping along and sharing our walking tour of a small part of Dublin’s center city!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave