May 19 Last day in Ireland

Photos

Today is our last day and the best weather of our trip. It was warm and sunny all day long. We were up early and ready to go out and walk around Waterford without rain. Unfortunately, we were locked inside! We waited around in the lobby about 5 minutes when a couple of people appeared by the reception desk and one unlocked the door and removed the sign.

Breakfast at the Granville Hotel was the very best of the CIE trip and maybe the whole trip. I had Blaa Eggs Benedict and it was really special. Richard, the Granville Hotel Manager and workingest man in Ireland stopped us as we left the restaurant and asked us how our breakfast was. I told him I loved the Blaa and he asked if I got a brochure. I said no, you have a Blaa brochure? He walked us back into the restaurant and to the cold buffet which I had not visited. There were loose Blaa to have with butter and jam as well as a display of brochures. I was very disappointed I had had toast and jam after my Blaa eggs.

Anyway, it is a Waterford bakeries' specialty best served warm in the morning. It is a light floury biscuit or scone-looking bread roll. It has a crispy outside and a light fluffy interior. It was really special with the Eggs Benedict.

We started our last day by touring what is left in Ireland and Waterford of Waterford Crystal. It was interesting. Then we had a comfort stop at the Hibernian Gifts shop and tea shop.

We had a midday hour or so long stop in the medieval city of Kilkenny where we wandered around the castle. We had a pain au chocolate across the street that was delicious. Then back on the bus for our final stop of the tour.

We drove inland and north to the Irish National Stud facility on the limestone plains south of Dublin on the east coast. It is in Tully, County Kildare. We had a couple of hours there with a comfort stop, lunch and a guided tour. It was interesting and scenic. They had a lot of young colts and foals and they were cute and frisky.

We have now been in 20 or 21 of the 32 counties of Ireland. I think we were in every coastal county and only skipped landlocked ones. There is no point in Ireland that is more than 70 miles from the sea in any case. Martin, our bus driver, says we have traveled over 2000 miles! It did seem like we were spending a lot of time on the coach and I guess we were. But, we also did plenty of walking on this trip, if not on the CIE portion, because I have almost completely worn off the tread on a pair of Merrell Jungle Mocs. Just let me make a product endorsement here. These were some great shoes for this trip. They slide on and off with ease for security screening and to relieve my cramping toes. They are comfortable and supportive and heavy enough to ease walking on cobblestones, etc.  But, most importantly for this trip, they are waterproof! Now I just need to find a new pair on sale.

I’d like to say a few words about CIE Tours. I picked them for our trip to Ireland because I heard lots of good things about them and they had been in business for a long time. The longer you are in business, the harder it is to only have good word of mouth. They have been in business a long time and I couldn’t find much negative about them. Tommy told us that CIE are the initials of the Gaelic name of the company, Coras Iompair Éireann, which translates to the Irish National Transport System. Since the company’s inception, it has run all the trains and buses within Ireland. That may explain a lot about how they are able to do such a good job at such reasonable prices. While we saw lots of other tours and tour buses all over Ireland, CIE certainly predominated.

We were in The Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced done leery) on the far outskirts of Dublin from the airport. It was near the ferry terminal for Holyhead Wales, UK. That was the only thing it was convenient to, but it was a nice big old hotel. At 6pm or about 30 minutes after we got our bags, it was time to load the bus for an inordinately long drive in traffic to Taylor’s Three Rock pub for dinner and a traditional show. We were I think the 6^th or 8^th large tour bus. Certainly we were the final bus to arrive. We got seated along the wall by the bathrooms on the far side of the auditorium-like room. We got the last food delivered after the 5 minute all call for lights out and use the bathrooms now. It was not nice. The food was not good. They charged extra for all drinks other than water and an Irish Coffee at the end. I don’t like mixing dinner and entertainment. The comedian was funny. The show was not as good as Celtic Steps in Killarney. This was not a good finish to the tour. The Royal Marine Hotel is OK, but it is too remote from everything. This was especially true for those people who had extended their stay in Dublin at the end of the tour. They were a long commute from anything people wanted to do or see in Dublin. It was inconvenient to Taylor’s Three Rock for dinner and a show. It was inconvenient for those of going to the airport to fly out of Ireland. The show was not a nice group farewell dinner. The tour had us out from 6pm to 11pm and most of us had to get up and going early the next morning and needed to pack for flying. It was just not well thought out or well done. This was the only really big misstep by CIE in the whole tour so that is good. It was unfortunate that it was the last thing on a 12-day tour and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

I fell into bed. I forgot to put DiVertigo behind my ears and I could hear Clay just banging away in the bathroom. I thought I’d just sneak an arm in and get my bottle. I opened the door and stuck my head in and didn’t see Clay in the shower stall. I was mystified. I went further in because I could still hear him banging around. I saw him in the mirror over the sink. He was standing in the bathtub that had no shower curtain holding a handheld shower and spraying water all over the bathroom floor. I asked him what in the world? He told me he was holding an IQ test in the morning to see if I could figure out this shower. I was speechless. I pointed to the shower stall on the opposite wall and when his mouth fell open I told him he was unqualified to issue any IQ tests on showering. He acted like I had just magically conjured up a corner glass-walled shower stall and said he just literally had not seen it until I pointed to it. We both lapsed into coughing fits we were laughing so hard. I had to pee! Clay got in the shower stall and I sat on the toilet and then I mopped up the bathroom floor behind him. I was still laughing so hard I had a hard time falling asleep and it was well past our bedtime when we went to sleep!

Photos