Ireland, part 2

We took a long cab ride from DT Dublin to Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire [pron. Doon Leery] , a suburb on the coast southeast of the city, arriving around 3:00 but we didn't get into our tiny, tiny room until 4:00 or 4:30. While waiting for the room, we wandered around the marina area and then went back to have a drink in a clubby-feeling part of the lobby. After a while, a man came in and started playing the piano; a little later I went to the front desk to ask if our room was ready yet (“No”) and while there, I asked the young woman behind the desk the name of the song the pianist was playing. I was curious to see whether she would say “Danny Boy” or “Londonderry Air.” Her answer: “I'm sorry, sir; I don't know what that is.”

“For God's sake,” I shouted, "It's Danny Boy, you twit!”

For supper, we walked up to Rasam, a highly rated Indian Restaurant about a mile or so away. Our tiny appetizers were Chicken Tikki for TWW and aloo chole for me; entrees were Lamb Something-or-other for TTW and Chicken Tikki for me.

Friday morning, after eating and packing our bags, I walked a couple miles to Sixt Rental Car, arriving at noon. It took a while before anyone was available to help me. Filling out the paperwork took some time and then I had to wait for someone to bring our Toyota Yaris around, so I didn't get back to the hotel until around 1:00. TWW was waiting for me in the driveway, so we tossed the bags in the car (two in the “boot” and two in the back seat) and headed off to Newlands Lodge, arriving around 3:00. Much of the way, we were on divided highways, and even when we weren't, the roads were relatively wide, with well-marked lanes. Until we were 20 minutes or so from the lodge, that is.  At which time the roads narrowed, the lane markings disappeared, and 7-foot high hedgerows (or, sometimes, 4 foot high stone walls) sprang up next to the asphalt. TWW had been nervous before, but now she was a wreck!  And I can't say I blame her.

After checking in to Newlands and relaxing for a few minutes we were back in the car, driving the 15 minutes into Kilkenny. We walked along the River Nore and its canal, around the Castle and its walled park, looked through some shops in the nearby tourist area, and ate supper and enjoyed an hour or so of some jiggy Irish music (3 guys, 2 guitars, 1 harmonica, 1 drum, and 1 fiddle) at Kyteker's Inn, which our hostess at Newlands had recommended. TWW had soup and lamb stew; I settled for fish and chips. The food was OK; the music was a real treat.

Back to Newlands, which was was beautiful, clean, and spacious. Hosts, Jimmy and Mairead (we never did figure out how to pronounce her name), were nice, though she talked nonstop.*  Our large, comfortable room had three mismatched chairs (one of which, a wicker, was close to falling apart). I showered that first afternoon with no problem, but when TWW tried it in the morning, she had no hot water, presumably because someone in the room above us was using the shower at the same time.

After breakfast the next day, we checked out and drove to nearby Kells Priory to wander around a bit before heading out to the Rock of Cashel and then on to Cork. We arrived at the Rock just as a tour was about to start. James was our guide -- a nice young man who spoke very well. You can follow the link to read about the Rock if you have any interest. What struck me most about the place was the view of Tipperary in “the Golden Vale”; I'd been reading a wonderful book about the horror that was World War I. Those god-forsaken trenches in France sure as hell were “a long, long, way from Tipperary.”

Thence to Cork International Airoport Hotel. Five stars! Wonderful room -- the size of two normal hotel rooms. After securing our room, we drove to Kinsale, 25 minutes away, walked the town, strolled around the castle, and had another of those early bird, fixed-price dinner at Hoby's: me, stuffed mushrooms and stuffed sole; TWW, breaded mussels and grilled cod.

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* Mairead had been a banker before the crash.

Ireland, part 1

We landed at Dublin approximately on schedule (11 September at 11 a.m.), picked up our bags without any trouble — which surprised us a little because they, like us, had had to change planes several times and we had some trepidation that they might not have made that last switch in London — and headed off in search of the guy who was supposed to drive us to the hotel.*  Not finding anyone holding a sign with our name on it in the crowd near the exit from the baggage claim, I made to go into a tourist information office to see if I could use their phone — and that's where I spotted  him, leaning casually against the wall with a cup of coffee in one hand and a "Larkins" sign in the other.

The half-hour drive to our hotel was uneventful, but heavy traffic, riding on the wrong side of the road, and going the wrong direction at the many traffic circles made me wonder whether our plan to rent a car in a couple days was — what's the word? — stupid beyond belief.

We arrived at our hotel, DT (i.e.,DoubleTree) Dublin, around 1:00 — too early to get into our room, of course.  The lobby was in the process of being renovated, and each workman's tool of choice appeared to be a jackhammer,** so we left our bags and walked up Leeson Street, crossing the Grand Canal (which, we didn't know at the time but have since learned, cuts the country in two), and then along the eastern edge of St.Stephen's Green and wound up at Foley's Pub on Merrion Row for lunch. We sat at the bar, shared an order of fish and chips and drank Guinness while enjoying the chatter and activity of the friendly, witty, busy bar man and the friendly, pretty, busy waitress. Then back to the hotel to check into our room and rest a bit. At suppertime, we asked Google to find some restaurants nearby and we wound up choosing The Lobster Pot, which had received a lot of good reviews and which was a very pleasant mile's walk from the hotel and, it turned out, just a couple blocks from the U.S. embassy. Good dinner (appetizers: mussels for me and soup for The Wonderful Wife; entrees: chicken in mustard and cream sauce for me, salmon with Bernaise for TWW).***

The next day started — as all our days on this trip were to start — with a "full Irish breakfast," consisting of fruit, cereal, yogurt, potatoes, sausage, bacon (more like Canadian bacon than Oscar Meyer, and very good), blood pudding, eggs, assorted breads, coffee, tea, several kinds of juice, and god only knows what all else.  All the people over there should weigh 300 pounds!  Afterwards, we walked back up to St. Stephen's Green, actually going through it this time, and then wandered up Grafton Street (buying some Butlers (no apostrophe!) chocolate for gifts), made a half-hearted attempt to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College Dublin, but the line was long, so we walked over to the wonderful national museum of archaeology instead; highlights for me were the "bog bodies"  — fabulously well-preserved remains of people who died before Christ was born — and an exhibit on the Viking settlements around Dublin.

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* Before our trip to Turkey, we had arranged for an "airport transfer" only once.  After using the service a lot in Turkey, we'll always use it.  What a convenience!

** Fortunately, the noise did not carry.  We didn't hear a thing when we finally got to our room.

*** Most, maybe all, of the restaurants we ate in offered fixed-price, "early bird" dinner menus that include an appetizer and an entree for about the same price as the entree alone on the a la carte menu.  Hours vary from restaurant to restaurant, but at The Lobster Pot, "early bird" dinner is from 6:00 to 7:30, just the time we normally eat.  At Jackson's Restaurant in Galway, "early bird" runs until 8:30, if I remember correctly.  Who the heck wants to eat any later than that?

922 km on the wrong side of the road

A somewhat zoomable version is here.

More to come . . .

Update:  After checking the rental agreement for the car, I see that we actually drove 1172 km, not the 922 that Google Maps told me when I used it to reconstruct our road trip.