European Adventure

Coach House with Des O'Keefe
see all photos »

Well, I finally made it to the cruise ship this morning.  But first, I must write about our adventure in Ireland.  We arrived on Thursday afternoon (after leaving Memphis on Wednesday morning) and rented a car.  Somebody unfortunately forgot to tell the Irish that your supposed to drive on the right side of the road.  Anyway, I actually got in on the right side of the car and began to drive.  I managed to make it out of the parking lot and around my first roundabout (they don't use traffic lights) and out of the airport area.  I only made one wrong turn, but managed to correct it fairly quickly and we were on the road to Waterford.   They don't have interstate highways but these things they call roads that if you hold your thumb and forefinger as far apart as possible the road might fit between them.  The roads usually have primhedges on one side and cars passing you in the opposite direction at 100 KPH (kilometers per hour) on the other side.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to our lodging, The Coach House, outside of Waterford and we were warmly greeted at the door by Des O'Keefe.  He helped inside gave us our room keys and a key to the front door.  He told us where the closest pub was located and said we might want to hurry because they don't like to serve food after 8:00 p.m.   So we rushed down the road and ate our first authentic Irish meal.  My father ate Irish stew, my mother ate bangers and mash and I had fish and chips with a Guinness. For dessert we shared a bread and butter pudding.  My father is a bread pudding  expert and he said it was the best he had ever eaten.  We returned to the Coach House and promptly fell asleep.  We were served a full irish breakfast the next morning and I found out that black pudding actually isn't pudding at all but rather a sausage type thing that is different than anything I have ever eaten before.  We left Coach House and went to the Waterford Crystal Factory.  I would highly recommend this experience to everyone.  We left Waterford about 4:00 p.m. but it took us over an hour to get out of Waterford and another 5 hours to make it to Boyle, Ireland.  Our host at Abbey House wasn't too pleased with our 10:00 p.m. arrival but we made do.  The Abbey House is just 20 feet away from Boyle Abbey which was built in the 11th century.  It was unbelieveable.  On Friday morning we drove around Boyle, did a little souvenir shopping and then drove to the Knock, Ireland airport for our flight to London.  The flight was over an hour late and we knew we had a large group of people waiting on us, but we had not idea until we arrive how excited everyone was waiting for our arrival.  The van we were in was completely surrounded by all of our friends and I was hugged and kissed more than I could believe.  Of course, everyone wanted to know about my driving experience and I will sum it up just like this.  I managed the driving in Ireland without accident or injury, but driving in Ireland SUCKS!.  When we arrived in Southampton last night, I drank 2 glasses wine and fell asleep by 11:00 p.m.  I woke up this morning about 8:30 refreshed and ready to take on a new and exciting adventure on my first cruise.  I was onboard the Golden Princess by 11:30 a.m.  I have already eaten lunch and had my first margarita (mmmm good.)   I have unpacked and just found the internet cafe on my walk around the ship.   I'll post again soon.   Love to all, Beth  

Driving in Ireland