Ireland

We just returned from a visit to the emerald island. We went to Dublin for a conference and decided to stay a few days to see more of Ireland. Here are some pics and a few stories about our trip through this beautiful country.

We enjoyed a couple of days in the capital city, Dublin (province Leinster). The conference was held in a nice setting at the Dublin conference center, which is situated near the harbor where the river Liffey meats the sea.  Dublin is a pleasant city with lots of modern buildings but also nice old cathedrals and castles, Trinity college (one of the seven ancient universities of Britain and Ireland), the Guinness brewery and lots of nice cosy pubs – with lots of Guinness (more on this later).

Dublin, Liffey River

Trinity College where we saw the impressive Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells (the four gospels written by Celtic monks, dating from ca. 800)

O'Neill's Pub, Dublin

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Following the conference and the few days in Dublin we went on a “railtour”. The first part was a visit to the southeast of Ireland, including the Blarney castle, and the two cities of Cork and Cobh  (pronounced Cove) in the province, Munster. The Blarney castle is a lovely old castle just outside Cork, dating from the 1400, built by the MacCarthy clan. The castle is famous for the Blarney stone, which according legend endows the gift of eloquence to people that kiss the stone. The stone is built into the battlements on top of the castle and to kiss it you have to lean yourself over a gaping five story drop and kiss it from underneath. It’s still a bit scary even though today the gap have a grid of steel bars covering it (apparently, quite a few people have lost their lives in the endeavor). Below are pictures of the castle and kissing adventure and also the “poison garden” and the “witches’ cottage” near the castle. Quite a dangerous place it seems…

Approaching Blarney castle

Ronnie at Blarney castle

Exploring the castle

On top of Blarney castle, people queing to kiss the stone

Kissing the stone

People kissing the Blarney stone, view from the ground

Poison garden

Witches Cottage

After Cork and the Blarney castle we visited the picturesque harbor town of Cobh. Cobh has quite a prominent, though a bit grim, place in history. It is the port where millions of Irish people left Ireland for America during the great Irish potato famine in the years 1845-1852. It is thus a popular destination for many American tourists tracing their roots. It was also the last place where the Titanic docked and also the place where the American passenger ship, the Lucitania, was torpedoed by a German U-boat during the First World War, playing a role in the US joining the war. But in spite of its ominous history it is a very nice little port city with a beautiful cathedral overlooking the harbor.

Cobh cathedral

Leaving Cork and Cobh, we traveled to the southwest of Ireland and stayed in the city, Killarney. Killarney is also a very nice town with lots of nice pubs and small shops. It is situated in the county Kerry and is close to the “Ring of Kerry”, an awesome panoramic coastal route around the Iveragh Peninsula. Below are some photo’s of Killarney and the “Ring of Kerry” tour. During this tour we also had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of how a sheppard with three sheep dogs herds his sheep on the hills of Ireland (we may have a post on this).

Navigating in Killarney main street

I just had to put this one up for the people of a certain town in SA

Touring the "Ring of Kerry"

Touring the "Ring of Kerry"

Touring the "Ring of Kerry"

Touring the "Ring of Kerry"

Sheep dog demonstration

We also travelled to the north-west of Ireland (province Connacht) and visited the city Limerick, the awe-inspiring “Clifs of Moher” on the West coast and the beautiful Galway Bay. On the way we visited Bunratty castle. What is nice from this castle is that the interior was restoured with furniture from the same time-period that the castle date from and the surrounding old town has been converted to an open air museum with shops and home dating form the Middle Ages:

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Bunratty castle

Bunratty castle - the lords chair

Bunratty castle - Sleeping room

Restored farm cottage in small village surrounding Bunratty castle 

While travelling through Ireland there are a few things one immediately notices:

Lots of livestock on green hills.

Some funny trees standing in the middle of the field – These are “fairy tree’s” and apparently no one in Ireland would dare to cut these trees down. An old legend says that a life of bad luck will follow. Apparently the tree/bush in the lower photo cost the government 50 million euro’s because nobody was willing to cut it down and the highway needed to be re-routed.

"Fairy tree" in middle of field 

50 million Euro bush

A frequent feature of the landscape all across Ireland are deserted stone cottages known as "famine cottages". These were cottages that were deserted by people who left Ireland or died during the potato famine.

In some most parts of Ireland the whole landscape is a patchwork of small fields divided by stonewalls. These were the small farms/holdings that farmers worked in the past. The farmers paid taxes to a lord of the county who offered them protection. The lord usually lived in a stone fortress.

Lots of old deserted stone fortresses and castles. Some of them have been restored and are in use again.

Lots of rainbows, pot o’ gold’s and leprechauns :)

Thanks Ireland for a wonderful visit :)

C&R

Food filled Thursdays: Birthday dinner.

For my birthday this year we went to a very nice restaurant: Frantzén/Lindeberg. The restaurant is reasonably well known but not "fancy" which makes the whole experience very nice and comfortable. They have a single set menu with the option to have the accompanying wine. I chose to skip the wine while Carina chose to test their wine selection :) I recommend this restaurant if you enjoy eating good food but not necessarily the wine pairing, especially if you are not used to consuming a couple of glasses of good wine in a single night (Carina did say the wine is extremely good but the last few courses are a bit of a blur to her). 


Below are all the coures, as described on the menu, with an accompanying photo: 

From left: Carrot, foie gras; "Vichyssoise" with summer truffle; Beef from A. Larsson & ash: 

Peas & beans, feta cheese of goats milk & mint: 

Oyster, frozen rhubarb, cream & juniper: 

This was extremely good :) An interesting fact is that rhubarb leaves are poisonous. In the following post we will have pictures of a garden filled with poisonous plants, including rhubarb.

12 day old halibut "sashimi" & duck egg & crab: 

 Bonemarrow with caviar & smoked parsley: 

 This was extremely good :)

Coal flamed veal "tartar", tallow from 11yrs old milk cow (Stina), smoked eel, bleak roe:

On site coal flaming. Final product in the picture above.  

Satio Tempestas (this is one dish that they always serve and had 40 different vegetables):

 Best vegetable dish ever :)

Bread baked over open fire. Just churned butter:

On arrival the raising bread is in a box on the table. This is actually the only "decoration" on the table. At some stage during the earlier courses they take the bread away and return with extremely nice freshly baked bread 

 

Similar to the bread, the butter is freshly made during the meal. At some stage after the bread in the box disappeared a canister with cream appears on the table. One of the members of staff (we had head sommelier Niklas Löfgren) comes to the table and churn the cream, making butter.

Yellow onion, goat's milk, almond & liqourice: 

 Very nice:)

Divers scallop. Truffel puré & bouillons: 

After the scallop is consumed from the shell, it is filled with the bouillon  

and drank. 

Whole turbot baked for 4hrs. White asparagus baked for 3hrs with pine, lemongrass & mint:

Frozen lemon verbena:

4-week old spring chicken from Bretange: 

Goatsmilk ice cream with grass puré. Malt, olive oil & hay ash:

A slightly intoxicated Carina:

Beer, yeast &yolk from the first egg the hen warps:

Extremely nice :)

Buttermilk & roses. Hibiscus, flowers & Jasmin tea: 

Coffee :)

Macarons:

Every single course was delicious. Although we, at other occasions, had a single course as good as these, at no other restaurant were all the courses consistently as good as every single bite at Frantzén/Lindeberg. It was definately one of the best experiences this year.


R&C

p.s. Carina will soon make a post on a bit of our recent holiday where Guinness were often consumed.