DebbieK
Registered User
Posts: 13
(5/25/03 10:48 pm)

Debbie's trip - Chapter 3 - April 7 - 9 (Kilkenny - Kinsale)

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Day 7 – drive to Kilkenny over the Wicklow Gap – Which according to Mom, Dad, and Steve, was a beautiful drive. I on the other hand didn’t see much of – I was concentrating on keeping the car on the road. Total drive time was only 2 hrs – much faster than I originally thought. We found Laurels pretty easily and got checked in by about Noon.
Oh My! I don’t think my dorm room in college was as small as one of the rooms we had. Mom & I took the room with two twin beds. They had to be put in an “L” layout, to fit them both in the room. And the Bathroom? It was so small; you had to step away from the toilet, scoot around the pedestal sink, and practically step into the shower to pull up your pants. (Honest – I am not kidding here ) I swear the one morning I heard Mom clock her head on the wall, trying to get dressed. Dad & Steve had a bigger room, but still a tiny shower. The best thing about the B&B was the location. It was a straight shot up College Road into the city center. Took us about 15 minutes.
Brian (the owner) pointed us to Marble City Cleaners so we could drop off some laundry. Then we were off to find some lunch. We ended up at Paris, Texas. (Who knew we would fly across the ocean to go to Texas? Kind of like how I went all the way to London to see CHICAGO… ) Lunch was great, and we got to sit on the upper level and people watch for a bit.
Off to wander around town – First stop, Rothe house. Somewhat interesting but not really worth it. Then up the road to see St Canice’s. This was a very interesting church, but unfortunately, they do not allow photography in it. We had hoped to do the brewery tour at St Francis, but they were not doing tours that day. (was it because it was a Monday?) Off to the Black Abbey. Very Impressive stained glass windows. Trying to find our way back to the main street was a bit of a challenge, but we made it. After hoofing it all the way back to the Castle, we managed to get in on the last guided tour. This was a very impressive tour and well worth it.
We had planned on listening to music that night, but after seeing how wild the driving was in town, we decided against it. The B&B was too far from where the music was to walk it at night, so off to the Hotel Kilkenny for dinner – pretty much the only place serving food near the B&B.
Total miles today = 69

Day 8 Surrounding area – After some dubious directions from Brian, and a few wrong turns along with the pre-requisite stop at a gas station for directions, we find our way to Bennettsbridge. First stop - mostly by default because the entrance was right in front of us, was Nicholas Mosse Pottery. For an accidental side trip, this was a really cool place to see. They have viewing stations all around it, to see each stage of pottery making. Then upstairs there is a whole room of ‘seconds’, which to our eyes looked just fine. Guess where we made our purchases? We also decided to ship these items home, as the bowl Mom chose would never had made it in her carryon.
Next on to Mount Juliet. Woah. Oops, we drove right by Jerpoint Abbey. Well, since we are hungry, we decide to head on to Mt Juliet for lunch, and will back track to the Abbey. Lunch was very good, although, I don’t think Dad tasted much – he was too busy drooling over the golf course. He made sure to pick up all the info on greens fees, almost planning in his head how he can come back and golf next time. A little backtracking, and we find our way to Jerpoint Abbey. We got an absolute GORGEOUS afternoon for this. It was sunny with perfect blue skies. I got some of my favorite pictures of this trip here. And as and extra bonus, because they were under construction, there was no admittance fee. Dad, as usual, had a blast looking in every nook and cranny.
Now, for one more bit of backtracking, we head over to Jerpoint Glass Studio – yep – past Mt Juliet, so by now, we know this road pretty well. As we park the car and look over the field, about 8 cows are lined up in a perfect row, looking at us. The front room of the studio is a ‘seconds’ area – although, again, we are want to figure out what is wrong with them. You can just walk up to the viewing area, which is right inside the door and watch them make the glass pieces. Then if you walk around to the back (through what almost looks like a junkyard area…) you can get even closer and see them make the really large pieces. They were so nice there. We were standing at the edge of the door, and one of the glass blowers waves to us, “ come closer, come on” so we stepped in – only about 10 feet from them. Very Cool.

After picking up our laundry (18 euros), we had dinner at Paris, Texas, we walked back to the B&B. Since there was no place for all of us to sit in either of our rooms, we went next door to the corner pub - The Sceilp Inn, to have a drink and play some cards. As we had found in our trip so far, we ran into some really nice locals, one even took a picture of the four of us, and chatted with us for a bit.
Total miles today: 36

Day 9 - Driving to Kinsale. This was actually our most difficult and stressful day. It was a lot of driving, and in an area that I was not familiar with, so it was like uncharted territory for me.
1st stop – Middleton Distillery (- actually first stop was a ‘layby’ along the road at Lough Aderra, a lake with all sorts of swans and ducks swimming around.) The distillery tour ended up being a private tour for us, as there was no one else signed up for the 11 o’clock tour. Dad & Steve really enjoyed the tour and all the old equipment. Dad even got to do the taste test of the different whiskeys. We decided to eat lunch right there, which was the WORST DECISION OF THE ENTIRE TRIP!!! They were expecting a tour bus full of seniors to be sitting down after we placed our order – not that they told us this. They mentioned that the kitchen was busy, but that is not usually a big problem. Not here. They obviously have no clue how to manage independent tourists as well as tour groups. They served Mom, Dad and Steve their entire order and I ended up waiting more than 45 minutes for mine. And it wasn’t even a cooked item. It was a cold turkey sandwich with cranberry dressing. It totally ruined the whole morning for me. Dad did bring it up to the manager, but all he got was a “ I’m sorry, all of the wait staff was supposed to let everyone not in the tour group know that there would be a delay, before taking the order”. A DELAY? There was only one other table other than the big group. How could one sandwich take over 45 minutes to prepare?
Then to top things off, by the time we found our way out of Middleton – not the easiest town to maneuver, we were all a bit crabby.
On to Cobh. I really wanted to see the Heritage Center, but as we drove into town, we did not see it or any signs for it. We ended up parking near Kennedy Park and walking around a bit, and after asking for directions, realized that we had indeed passed the HC on the way in – It is attached to the Train Station. Since we now knew where we were going, we found the sign pointing to the HC. This had to be the TINYEST direction sign in all of Ireland – the pointers on this sign were maybe 2 inches wide. The Queenstown exhibit was very interesting , and we ended up staying a lot longer than I planned for.

We found the ferry right away, and the timing was just about perfect. Now, trying to find our way to Kinsale – not so easy. We followed the signs, but still ended up taking probably a 45 minute loop , coming almost back to the ferry area. Another friendly local pointed us in the right direction, and we did find Kinsale at just about 6pm. The Charthouse was very nice- not a great view, but gorgeous rooms. This is one place that the pictures on the web site are very accurate. And the Showers!!!! The best water pressure by far of the whole trip. Since we got in too late for any shopping , we decide to walk into town to find some dinner. Guess what we found? An Amusement Arcade – which is Irish for a Slot machine only Casino – Mom & Dad are in heaven. The machines there are really odd though. We really had no idea what to do on some of them or what paid what. After dinner , we went back to the Arcade for a while , then when all of our money was gone, we headed back to the B&B for some more cards. ( I know – it seems that we play a lot of cards, but , you know –it used up a lot of down time )
Total miles today: 133

Michele Erdvig
ezOP
Posts: 1492
(5/25/03 11:54 pm)

Enjoying Your Trip!

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Hi Debbie,

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip. I have Nicholas Mosse seconds too. Never did find anything wrong with them. Now if only Belleek had seconds...wishful thinking.

Michele