Kinsale

It was overcast and gloomy as I collected my party at Cork airport on Friday . It was easy to see how excited and relieved they were to be here at last. Our destination today was Kinsale and as we made our way west the sky started to clear and the sun appeared in all it's glory. By the time we reached Kinsale we had a completely blue sky and it was like we had moved into a new season. Our hotel, the Kinsale Carlton, is located in a beautiful setting overlooking Oysterhaven bay and my guestes were justifiably impressed. After checking in we had a nice snack in the bar as we made our plan for the rest of the day. The seafood chowder was delicious and would keep me going for awhile. All of our rooms had magnificent views of the bay. My guests were also delighted to find that they had baths in their en-suites as a soak in a bath seemed like a great idea after all their travelling. After a brief break we headed for the town down the winding narrow roads by the old fort overlooking Kinsale harbour. This is a magnificent fort and tomorrow we will spend time exploring it. The views of Kinsale as we made our way down from the hills was special and the town itself with its narrow streets has retained a lot of its historic character. You have to spend time just walking through the narrow streets here to appreciate this and i left them to spend some time exploring the town for themselves. I was to come back for them later when they had finsihed their evening meal. It was late in hevening when i finally collected them and they were thrilled with my choice of restaurant as they had enjoyed a really nice meal in Jim Edwards pub. When we arrived back at the hotel they were ready to settle down for the night after what had been a lovely first day together.