'iking in Ireland

‘iking in Ireland:

The trip from Pembroke to Rosslare was a doddle. Lovely smooth Irish Sea! May it be so in a few days time when we get on a fast cat from Dublin. We arrived in Ireland late due to departure and loading issues but the crew and trip were great. 2 pills and a bit of confidence was all I needed. We had accommodation booked at a Ramada hotel in Waterford so the first night was organised.

'iking in Ireland

Waterford crystal is all hand made. Did you know that? I certainly didn’t. The next US Open or tennis trophy that I see that is crystal I will admire with a lot more respect than I had before. Some of those trophies take 6 months to make. They make 3 of each, just in case. If nothing goes wrong, they display the “just in case trophy” at the factory. They are quite spectacular really. On telly they just look fleetingly good as they are held aloft and kissed.

After the tour we headed off towards the coast and drove on NARROW lanes with bushes trimmed neatly but higher than the car. One of these led us to a great road along the coast. It was clearer and the coastline quite rugged. There were people fishing, swimming, boating and all looked well with the world.

Cahir was a town where we discovered the first of two Butler castles. Quite a sight on a river bank. A short drive up into the hills brought us to a spectacular view and a lovely friendly B&B. We are using these as often as possible.

Sunday was our day of “possibles” or “almosts”.

We decided to go to church in the first place that we found that had a service as we approached (or nearly). In Tipperary we heard bells as we drove down an almost deserted street. A grey stone, quite large Catholic church was in front of us. We saw the priest hurrying in so we thought that we hadn’t missed the start of the service. In we went to find a church into which St Clements would fit twice. A most imposing roof was held up by 12 columns about a metre in diameter at the base. There were 4 sets of pews separated by aisles. Each pew would hold 8-10. Each side set of pews had a small altar at the front. There were 6 people in a group at the front. A few were scattered around the church and it was nearly 10.00am.

No action, no music, no announcements. A few more drifted in. Someone asked us to move over so they could sit down. We were in the back row, LHS. The place was nearly empty, why push us over? A few more drifted in. Please move over again. Why us? There are 50 empty pews.

More drifted in. We decide that there must have been a service after all and that the bells we heard were the “wake up” bells not the “come to church” bells. There were no more either.

At 10;30 they started with these words. ( Sorry, I can’t type an Irish accent.)

“Good morning. Welcome to the funeral mass for Joan Ryan.”

We had gatecrashed a funeral!

It would have been a bit off to leave at that point. So we didn’t.

That was almost a service we expected to be at.

After Tipperary we decided, on the basis of a brochure, to go to Limerick and Bunratty Castle. It looked like a REAL castle with battlements and all.

There we found a carpark near “King John’s Castle”. That looks good. But it turned out to be in the medieval quarter a fair way away. So that turned into an almost visit.

Then it RAINED.

Boy it can bucket over here. We were used to drizzle, wind, freeze, sun, cook and back to drizzle. But this was a really good soaking. Marg though she was a smarty pants for having an umbrella in her bag.

Drive to Bunratty Castle then. It turned out that the entry to the site was 14 Eur each and that the castle was at the end of a series of displays etc that would take the best part of a day to see properly. It was very well set out and must have been popular because there were 3 vehicle parks and the one for buses was full.

We almost saw that castle.

So we decided to drive to Kilkenny. It is, after all, the ancestral Butler castle.

En route we had a snack by the roadside. We almost had enough hot water in the thermos for 2 cups of tea.

As I wrote before, it RAINED. The roads were narrow and there was s reasonable amount of traffic.

We almost were involved in a car rollover but arrived after the driver had been removed from the upside down car and was being looked after. Our travel was even more careful after that.

Did I mention that it RAINED?

Kilkenny Castle had been visited by Margaret 5 years ago but not by me. It was fun to ask at the desk for a family discount but the girl there had no sense of humour at all. She did, however, give me a seniors discount when I produced my card. It has saved me a few $ so far. That was a really interesting tour. Marg had raved on about tapestries that she saw. We almost saw them but they had been removed for restoration and they almost fell to bits.

I decided that 2 nights in one bed in succession would be nice at this point and that we’d drive on to Dublin. How hard would it be to get a bed in the capital city, in the outskirts in a B&B or in a hotel? About an hour out of town Marg suggested that we stop and bunk down. It was, at this stage about 8.15pm.

“No! I’d rather drive on, get a bed for 2 nights and be able to spend a good day in Dublin. The ferry leaves early on Tuesday morning.” “Fair enough.”

We hadn’t eaten since 1pm mind you.

We had plans to stop in the same chain that we were in at Waterford as they had a hotel in Dublin and we could get a discount. We had clear directions from the Red Cow roundabout. We had driven through it before it registered, so I turned around at the next available stop (up the motorway). I did a U turn and came back. I almost did that right but ended up on the M50 which is a new ringroad around Dublin. I just could not get back onto the other side of this 6 lane monster. No turns. No sliproads. So I thought. “How hard would it be to get a bed in the capital city, in the outskirts in a B&B or in a hotel?” Drive on McDuff!

I did not know that Sunday was the equivalent of the AFL final for Gaelic football in Dublin and that I was looking for a room near the MCG on Grand Final eve. Dublin is also a city where they took down all the street signs in WWII and haven’t got around to putting them back up yet. We almost saw every street in central Dublin over 5 suburbs as I spent 1 1/2hrs asking people for help to get a bed. I was getting grumpy, frustrated, embarrassed, feeling useless and not really receptive to a reminder that Marg had suggested 2 hours ago that we stop in the outskirts. I responded with understanding, patience and consideration in rejecting the validity of her comment.

We almost had a fight.

Then I saw a police car on the side of the highway. I stopped. I walked over and asked for help in finding a hotel. They were, like everyone I have asked for assistance in the last 5 weeks, just obliging and helpful. They told me where 2 new hotels were just around the corner. I found the first and walked out when the reception clerk told me I had a sense of humour in suggesting stand by prices (it was after 10pm). The best he’d do was 140Eur bed only. I left. Marg suggested sleeping in the car. I drove out and just drove. When I passed a small country pub I stopped, went back and asked if they had accommodation. They almost did. But a helpful drinker gave me directions to a (excuse the lack of accent again) “lovely little B&B just down the road a bit.” I followed his directions to Saggart (the village), found the B&B, managed to get the owner just before she went to bed, arranged a night’s accommodation (only 1) and crashed. (into bed)

In the morning we found that we were 5 minutes from the Red Cow roundabout in the hills to the left.

At breakfast we met a lovely couple from Canada who let us know more of the areas we are going into shortly. The winter is not something I’d enjoy. He manages National Parks in Canada and was in Dublin for a world Parks Conference. His workers don’t stop working outside unless it is colder than -25C. There is no such thing as “wet money” if it rains. They have a system of putting an electric immersion heater into the car sump at night so the oil will still circulate when the car is started in the morning. That’s cool!

The B&B proprietor arranged for us to have our last night in Clontaft in a B&B just across the bay from the ferry terminal. “About ½ hr away”. It took us 1 1/2hrs because of the difficulties in finding out where we were at any given time. We resolved to not use the car until we were leaving the next day. I worked out the terminal was about 10 minutes away and that we should allow for traffic in the morning and give it 30 minutes travelling time. We planned to have breakfast in the car in the car park as we waited to get on board.

We found the bus service in Dublin to be super. They have dedicated bus lanes for vehicles with 4 or more people on board, taxis and buses. They run about every 10 – 15 minutes and there is a sign we read that said “McDrive In. The only reason to own a car in Dublin.” Pretty accurate too. There were also trains and trams as well.

We paid for a 24hr ticket on a hop-on hop-off bus tour and had “Kevin” as our driver. He gave us an hilarious 1 1/2hr ride around Dublin with jokes, stories, commentary, lies and more lies about the place. Unfortunately he was on his last round before knocking off. We would have stayed on for longer but he was replaced by a new driver and a taped commentary. The same places but different in some details and many places that Kevin mentioned were left out of the tape.

We did, though, work out what areas we would investigate on foot. That was good research.

We almost saw some museums but they don’t open on Mondays.

We almost paid 10Eur to see the Book of Kells exhibition in Trinity College. But we arrived at 4.45 and the exhibition closed at 5. (So we snuck in for free)

We almost spent money in a glass and steel shopping arcade. But our luggage is over the 20kg mark already.

I almost had a disagreement with a patron in the Arlington Hotel when he wanted to stand in front of me (between me and the stage) while Irish dancing and music was being performed. Fortunately I had only had 1 glass of Guinness (my first ever) and he took the hint from my tap on the shoulder in the gloom.

Our last almost for Ireland was this morning Tuesday 18^th. We almost missed the ferry. It left at 8.30 not 8.45 as our voucher had indicated. We almost had breakfast in the car park but we drove straight on. We almost had a smooth drive around but it took 45min to do the 10 minute journey in bumper-to-bumper traffic. 1 lane for buses etc. 1 lane for everyone else. There is lots of “everyone else” in Dublin in the seaside area of B&Bs we were in.

But we made it. Goodbye Ireland! Hello Snowdonia!