Mer and I set an alarm for 8:00, which seemed to come pretty early. Our plan to counter jetlag works, but it does mean resisting sleep some, and I could have slept for a couple more hours this morning. We got up and got ready, and sat outside of our B and B while our hostess got our table ready. Breakfast was mercifully soft (scrambled eggs and bacon), so I did not have to worry too much about my broken tooth.

After breakfast, it was time to take care of that tooth. Mer and I got to the dentist’s office about 9:30, and we were seen before 10:00, which is pretty good for a drop-in appointment. The dentist was very nice, and he was able to put a temporary patch on my tooth. I am very grateful to modern medicine, and it never ceases to amaze me. I thought they might have to yank the tooth, but he put a putty in my mouth, molded it to shape, and then shone an ultraviolet light on the putty to make it harden. Magic. My tooth should be fine for vacation and until I can see my regular dentist.

After our exciting tour of the dentist’s office and a brief stop at our room in the B and B, we walked downtown to the local history museum. We had to wait a few minutes for it to open, but we spent them happily sitting on separate benches in a small square — Mer’s bench was in the sun, and mine was in the shade.

Once the local museum opened up, we were able to go in. We met a very kind and informative woman volunteer who specialized in Celtic history. She told us about the historical importance of Kinsale’s harbor (Ireland’s closest large harbor to mainland Europe), about a couple of battles fought in Kinsale, about the Lusitania being sunk off the coast, about the underground Catholic Irish culture when it was banned by England, and more. She was delightful. The museum is very eclectic, with everything from ice saws to pictures of famous Irish explorers to a “giant’s” boot (the man was 8′ 2″ tall) to artifacts from the Lusitania to pieces of the old town wall. It was fun in itself, but the guide to whom we talked several times really made the place for us.

Since it was about 12:00, we went to a local store to buy chicken wraps for lunch. Europe is expensive, especially food, so we skipped eating at a restaurant. Even so, lunch was eight euros (about eleven dollars). Happily, the food was very good.

After lunch, we took the low road path back out to Charles Fort, where we had been the night before, when it had been closed. Now, we wanted to tour the inside. I’m glad we did — while the buildings have no roofs or interior structures anymore because of a fire set in 1923 during the Irish Civil War, the stone exteriors all stand, so it is easy to see how the fort was laid out. It is huge — twelve acres are covered inside the fort, and the views of the bay are amazing. We caught a live guided tour at 2:00, and then we wandered the fort freely. I think we spent about three hours total in the fort, and learned about fort construction in the age of cannons, about how the enlisted men lived (not very well, with low pay and twelve men to a room), and about the weakness of Charles Fort (it commanded the sea in front of it, but there was ground higher than it behind it, so it was vulnerable to a land assault, which happened in the one battle the fort experienced).

Just outside the fort is a foot path that follows the coast for several miles. Mer did not feel we had time for that, but we did wander about a half mile down the path to admire the bay and Charles Fort. After a brief rest on a bench, we headed back toward town, but made a detour to go see a small church and its cemetery. We love to visit cemeteries when we travel, because they usually have great views. The views in this cemetery were blocked by trees, but the cemetery itself was interesting, with many worn gravestones, a nice gravel path, and its own kind of beauty. As this was the second cemetery to which we had been in Kinsale, we started to draw the conclusion that many headstones quote Scripture on the stone, and it’s touching to see what verse the family picked.

We then headed back into town, where we were delighted to discover that Mer’s missing bag was waiting for us at the B and B. She freshened up a bit, and then we went to Jim Edward’s pub for supper, where we had an excellent meal (great bread, and lasagna for me and soup for Mer).

Then, just to make sure we would sleep really really well, we took the two-mile walk out of town and around the bay to get to the older James Fort. The walk was very pretty, especially on the great weather day we had, which was good, as the actual fort was underwhelming when compared to Charles Fort. While James Fort is free, the stronghold of the fort was locked up, and the outer walls were earthen embankments. They gave great views, but were less intimidating than stone walls. We wandered down to the seaside tower that used to pull up a heavy chain to block ships when needed, and then we wandered the two miles back to town.

We were not quite done with the evening – after a short stop at the room, we went down to the pub owned by our hostess, which is called The Tap Tavern. They had live music, and we listened for about forty-five minutes, and we even danced twice, on very tired legs. That wrapped up our second day in Kinsale.