Kinsale the loverly

I could devote a thousand words to the prettiness of Kinsale, and more no doubt, but a ton of pictures will take much less time. So I'll try to keep myself from rambling on about the beauty of nature as it reclaims a piece of Irish history. What's more, Laurie's told you most of the particulars, so ye can use this as a supplement anyway.
Our first view of Kinsale's harbor.


And here it is from the fort. Mika and I were in the first taxi to make it to Fort Charles, so I had plenty of time to soak up the view while waiting for the others.


Here we have one of the first visible bastions of the fort.








Mika, playing on random circle things. maybe they were wells.




See how the trees have grown inside that building? Sarah and I went exploring within and found a bird sanctuary. We couldn't so much see them as hear them, but it was very inspiring.

Hopefully Sarah didn't mind my pointing out things every two seconds...
"Oh, oh, Sarah, check out this spiderweb!"

"Hey Sarah, how bout this lichen?"

"Look Sarah, you can see the ferns blowing in the breeze through this old vent!"

We also found a bunch of huge snail shells. I'm talking monster snails. The picture below has one of our smaller, but more complete finds in the bottom left corner.



Sarah and I also spent a lot of time around Charles' Bastion. There were two of the circular look-out posts connected by this grassy arch.

They provided a wonderful view of the sea.
Makes Sarah look like a lonely girl lost in her thoughts of the distant shore.

But don't worry, she has me!!

There were also many great views of the surrounding countryside (when I could tear my gaze away from the sea).

I took a picture of Charles Bastion on the mosaic map out front, because I liked it so much.

Sarah and I finally caught back up with the rest of the group and we headed to the Bulman. The half hour we had to wait for lunch time to begin was worth it. My seafood salad was amazing!! and the toasted sandwiches were really good too. and my irish coffee. Oh my goodness the kitty cat was so adorable!!! With one blue eye and one yellow and so small and cute! The cat may have been my favorite part.

We finally began our walk back to town along a scenic path called the Scilly Way. Not, however, before witnessing two cars sideswipe each other pretty viciously. Everyone seemed perfectly fine and the cars didn't seem to be damaged either, so we found it funny as we had just been talking about how a one-lane sized street shouldn't be a two-way and how scary the speedy taxi ride had been.

I know Laurie already posted this picture, but what I read it as was "Caution Children, magical dwarves are on the loose and will try to get you with their green ladybugs!!"
Meanwhile, the walk was really relaxing and beautiful and Sarah and I once more fell behind as we basked in the loveliness.





You can just make out the ruins of James fort on the dark hill. Apparently a chain once ran from James fort to Charles fort. When enemy ships tried to enter the harbor, they pulled it taught, destroying their assailants. James fort is also built in the five-pointed star shape of Charles Fort.

The end! From there was the pub and waiting for the bus. Sadly the bus arrived before my coffee did. Oh well, at least I got to use the money I saved on not buying coffee to take the bus home! Overall, a really nice weekend. I've been really pleased with the places API has taken us thus far. I think I'm just a sucker for old ruins.