13th Sept Evening

Ballincollig and Cork Area….

Some confusion in the hotel after check in as Shaun somehow got allocated a rather flash room in their deluxe area and even though they told us that our room was also deluxe it looked rather standard compared to Shaun’s.  The room was baking hot so the only window was flung open and air con turned on, though we could not get the aircon to go below 19 degrees, Shaun could get 17 in his room.

A sign was hastily written by Steve saying NOT to close the window, for the cleaning staff.  Needless to say they ignored this!

We were given two bottles of mineral water by the hotel but we found that during our stay then never replaced them!  The cleaning ladies probably wondered why bottles of water kept dissapearing off their trolleys!

Our room was a bit like this:

Shaun’s:

The hotel was pleasant enough but the menu prices scared us so we resolved to eat out, which in the end did give us some extra variety.  Ballincollig is west of Cork and it takes about 20 – 30 minutes to get into the city centre, but not in the rush hour!!  One evening our return journey to the hotel took over an hour!

For the first night we ate in the Kin Kao Sian street food restaurant.  We also looked at the “Great Wall” restaurant but when we got there we realised they were one and the same.  One half was the Great Wall and the other the street food, we chose the latter.

The meal was pretty good but we were finding out that Irish portions are big so tried to keep things “lean and mean”, though we all had some Saki with the meal.

14th Sept…

We drove into Cork city centre to see what there was to explore/see. Shaun was keen to “do some shops”…..

One of the first places we went to was the English Market.

As we got into Cork near lunch time we found a nice cafe in the market.  The market itself was stunning, mainly all types of food, including one of the best stocked and stunning fish counters we have ever seen!

That was it we were going to move to Ireland!

The meal and phot0’s into the gallery from the cafe/restaurant:

This was the house Steve was set to buy – €375,000 – about £325,000 on that date….

6 bedrooms, 1.8 acres of land, GeoThermal Heating……

Tee Hee…..

After lunch we went walk about and shop visiting.  Shaun was looking for some walking shoes, Manda for some slippers.  Shaun = successful, Manda = not.

Whilst out and about we saw these buskers, playing Streets of London, by Ralph McTell in a sort of wierd Irish way!  They did’nt even change any of the words.  “Have you seen the girl, who walks the streets of London, dirt in her hair and her clothes made of rags” We suppose that “who walks the streets of Cork” does not quite have the same ring to it.:

Also stopped for a Gelato – why not!

We eventually found our way to the Butter Museum, on the north side of the river Lee:

We got there quite late and the guy was about to close up but he let us in for free and another family that arrived just after us.  The place was not hugely interesting, but at least did tell us the history of Irish butter.

So we left Cork about 5pm to return to the hotel and we had booked a table at an Italian restaurant near the hotel for 6:30pm. An hour and 15 minutes later we just made it back to the hotel.  The traffic was nose to tail all the way out of Cork!  But we just made the restaurant.  Ristorante Bacco….

The food was OK but the thought was that it was all microwaved instead of being totally fresh.  Steve had Salmon pasta but it was VERY oily….. Manda had Spinach and Riccota Canneloni, Shaun – Lasagna Bolognese, mangled at the edges. Manda had Tiramisu and Shaun chocolate gateau, Steve = no dessert as the only one he was interested in was Panna Cotta, but they did not have any.

It was quite interesting watching a couple who were dining on a table near us as they had a bottle of wine each and then went outside to drink and smoke…

Retired back to the hotel to get ready for the next day…..

So we left Limerick to make our way down to Cork.

The journey took us via Cahir, Co. Tipperary, where we stopped and had lunch at the Lazy Bean Cafe.  It was quite interesting as though it did have chairs outside it was also a “hole in the wall” where you could order food boxes etc.  We sat on some benches in the street to eat.

Manda managed to get a postcard and to post it in the local post office, to our friend Irene.

We are also going to check out the museum in the town but when we got to it, it was closed.  The town also had a castle – most Irish towns do! – but that too was closed.

So we left to continue our journey to Cork and we planned to stop off at the Michelstown Caves.  These were  discovered accidentally on the 3rd of May 1833, by Michael Condon who was quarrying limestone when he dropped his crowbar into a crevice.

To get into the caves, especially for Steve and Shaun was quite an event as the entrance way was so low.  Quite dramatic inside and they have a couple of places in the cave where they hold music concerts and educational talks.

Of course a bit slippery but quite interesting…..

So we continued on our way to Ballincollig where we were booked into the Oriel House hotel for 4 days:

And so to Limerick……

We left Roundwood House to start to travel down to the south of Ireland, via Limerick.  Our 1 week stay was greatfully received from Hannah and Paddy, though the “style” was not really Manda’s “bag”.  Never the less the accommodation was free so one cannot sniff at that!

The drive to Limerick was uneventful and we arrived early afternoon, checked in to the hotel then went into the city centre.

We visited King John Castle where they had a heritage centre and museum:

Then we had a look around, tried to see the St Mary’s Cathederal, but it was closed!

We hung things out until dinner and ended up in the Locke Bar, we had a reasonable meal, pretty huge!  There was also music too and we were fortunate to sit pretty close to the musicians:

We have a video of the band but it is too big to upoad to the site – over 400mb!

After dinner and music – back to the hotel, via a very cheap petrol station selling at Euro’s 159.9 per litre – about 139.00 pence.

10th September – chill out day.

We arranged to meet Kathleen and Brian for an afternoon and dinner, where Steve had planned a Monkfish Laksa.

We called in to Portlaiose to collect the pre-ordered fish and then drove over to Athy.

Spent the afternoon with K&B and the dogs and had a splendid dinner.

Brian has a new MASSIVE projector television and he offered for us to come back the next day to watch the Grands Prix, so we did!

11th September – Grands Prix day…..

Over to Athy to settle in for the GP on the huge tele….

Steve stayed until 3pm and then had to leave for a business meeting with Hannah at Roundwood House.  Steve came back to pick us up about 6pm as we had a dinner planned at an asian restaurant at Kildare Village.

This was a complete disaster and we did not really enjoy the experience.  Watered down satay sauce, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce!  They also messed up Manda’s dinner and when challenged just said that the “chef did not have the ingredients”.  So of course Steve’s view was in that case tell us or ask if we want to change our minds.  They took Manda’s meal off the bill!

Back to Roundwood, to bed!

Next stop Limerick……

Day 2 – 6th Sept….

Decided not to have a cooked breakfast, despite Hannah’s generosity, due the fact we were “stuffed” from the huge meal the night before.  Just had a light one.

We had to get provisions so set off to PortLaoise, after a short reccy in Mountrath to see what was about with facilities, basically very little.  A Spar, a Mace stores and some run down pubs and cafe’s and low level eating.

PortLaoise much better.  Has a Tesco Extra – that does not take UK clubcard it turns out!, though the assistant on the tills was English and had a “secret” clubcard which would allow offers but not cubcard deals/points.  We also found a decent fishmonger, Daly’s, where Steve ordered some Monkfish for Saturday when we are going over to Brian and Katleen’s for Steve to do a monkfish laksa.  We also bought some salmon from them for that nights dinner.

Drove back to Roundwood and as it was part way through the day we decided to go to the Kildare Village Outlet.

Ended up spending a few bob there!

Steve got a new Barbour jacked for £145, normally nearly £200 and some Sketchers shoes.  Shaun splashed out on a pair of branded sunnies…

Back to the cottage for a dinner of Cajun Salmon, courtesy of Daly’s.

Day 3 – 7th Sept….

Off to Galway.

Steve had a business meeting with the manager of Hidden Ireland (https://hiddenireland.com), Aidan.  Lunch was booked at a restaruant called Ruibin’s, which is owned by the owner of Roundwood’s brother, Richard.

Got to Galway about 10:30am, parked up and went for a look about.

Went to the Latin Quarter, which caused us some discussion.  “Why was there a Latin Quarter in an Irish town?”.

Apparently this is the reason:

“Galway has always had a close relationship with both Spain and Portugal, so much so that at one point the ruling class in Dublin once said that “Galway is more Spanish than Irish” due to the large number of Spanish residence.”

Had a coffee in the “pub” that is in the right hand corner of the first image above.  Then set off to meet Aidan at Ruibin.

After lunch had finished we did a little more exploring.  Spanish Arch being one:

We then went to  the Galway City Museum to have a little bit of a history lesson.

They had a hanging fishing boat in main area:

Steve wanted to go to the Clannagh, which is just over the river onto the west side of Galway but Manda’s leg was playing up a bit so we decided to call it a day and come back to Roundwood.  Here is an image of the Clannagh:

/ ……

Well finally a break, or is it a holiday?  2 weeks, or just over, in Ireland!

We were lucky that one of the country houses that Steve wrote their web site for, and also manages, offered a free week accommodation in one of their cottages – well partly commuted work and some days “on them”.  Very nice.

They have let us have their “Forge” cottage for a week.

The house is called Roundwood House in Mountrath, Ireland. An old country house dating back to 1731.  See Roundwoodhouse.com

Roundwood House, Mountrath, Co Laoise

Here is the Forge:

It sleeps two so Shaun was offered, by the owners, Hannah and Paddy Flynn, accommodation in the Yellow House for €30 a night, an offer not to refuse!

Here it is:

No that is not him in the dress, even though that is his door into the property!

We drove up from Farnham at 6am on the 5th, as Irish Ferries cancelled the Dublin Swift, due to ship at 5pm in the evening, and offered us the slow boat instead leaving at 2:15pm.!  The drive was some 5 hours or so.

The journey was fine, though Steve was knackered and as we had booked “club” we got onto the boat as a priority and could crash out in the club lounge, with free canapes, snacks and drinks.

The drive from Dublin was 1.5 hrs and we arrived at Roundwood Monday evening Sept 5th and Hannah and Paddy generously asked us to join them for dinner with them and their family.  Paddy did a roast chicken with veg.  Yummmm.  We also got stuck into the Tempranillo with gusto!  One of their daughters, Lucie, baked some wonderful chocolate cookies. Very naughty!  But nice.

The cottage has a wood stove, which was lit when we arrived and ceratinly gave off some heat.  The bed is on a mezannine so the heat rises and this can get quite warm so we turned down the one radiator downstairs, eventually to 10.5 degrees C and this did the trick.  We’ve not lit the fire since as there has not been a real need, despite all the rain.

As Hannah and Paddy had taken three days off there were no breakfast’s in the house but Hannah, again generously, furnished us with some bacon, sausages, black pudding and eggs for our breakfast, so we could have this in the cottage.

/…….