Iniitial blog posts

content/blog/day9.md

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+---
+title: 'Day 9: Killarny to Cork'
+date: 2013-06-16T14:51:14+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## The watery ring of Kerry
+
+Oh, Ireland. Such diverse weather! A slight drizzle, standard rain, rain with wind, heavy showers .. and this is
+just in one day! When we got up this morning, it was actually almost dry. After a bit of a disappointing breakfast we decide to visit the
+Ross Castle (Caisleán an Rois in Irish) on the shores of Lough Leane. We're there before they open up, so we seek shelter from the rain
+while we wait the few minutes until the doors open up at 09:30 sharp. After purchasing two tickets for the guided tour (which is to start at
+10), we visit the exhibition room to learn a bit about the castle's history. At ten o'clock Tom the Tourguide shows up and shows us around
+the castle. There are lots of defensive mechanisms built into the castle, and we learn about some interesting history facts along the way.
+Must've been pretty tough living in such a castle back in the day, but at least the view over the lake is spectacular (must be even better
+when the sun is actually shining).
+
+After the tour, the rain has gotten worse, so we quickly jump in the car and continue our road trip. The plan is to drive around the ring of
+Kerry, which we've heard a lot about. We'll just hope the weather will improve. Our first planned stop on the ring (not counting the castle)
+will be the Gap of Dunloe. It's only a short drive up there from Killarney, but unfortunately it's still raining. We decide to skip the gap
+and look for better (or at least drier) sights to see. We continue along the ring and see many beautiful places, all covered in dark clouds
+and very, very wet. We stop in a small town along the ring on a foraging mission. Salmon, salami, cheese, ham, baguettes and milk are
+acquired and we drive on.
+
+Pim prepares our lunch as the kilometers (and liters of rain) fly by. At one point it seems to clear up a bit as the windscreen wipers fall
+back to interval mode. But alas, all good things come to an end and before we know it we're back in a proper shower. Just before Sneem (this
+is a town in Kerry county, Ireland, not a character in a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings book), we hit 4096 kilometers on the odometer!
+(the wonders of switching between the imperial and metric systems...)
+
+So, we've just checked into the Radisson blu hotel in Cork. Let's find out what we can do around these parts (preferably something that
+doesn't involve being outside, as it is still raining).
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 9:06 AM**