Wonderful day. Best yet.
No breakfast in the strand, so it meant that we out and on the road early doors.. First stop was to a lough, or large pond. They had a toilet, but unfortunately as we were up so early the visitor center had not even opened yet. So we had a quick look around and a wee wee, then off in search of breakfast. Half hour later we were in a little town where we went in search of breakfast. We found a little cafe, which was pretty much the only place open – so butties and sarnies all around and we were set for the day.
Next stop was a little place called Chruchtown, which is a little village with a pub. It’s claim to fame however is that it was the village that oliver reed spent a lot of his life, mostly in the pub. After he arm wrestled sailors in Malta and had a heart attack whilst filming Gladiator, he was brought back to this tiny place, with its tiny graveyard to be buried. It’s fascinating. I loved it.
In what may be a cynical marketing ploy, the graveyard is locked now, and has a note stating that grave digging is a criminal offence! You get the key from the pub… Luckily, although it was only about ten, the pub was open, and a couple of lovely, if perhaps slightly drunk people were inside. They were more than happy to pass the key over, so we opened the yard and trooped through the overgrown yard and onto a little path around to his grave. After whispering a prayer to the god of booze, and taking a few snaps – we left.
Next up was a special treat for Kate, and it was only a few miles away
And it was free – woohoo. It was a donkey sanctury, which was actually quite good, and Kate loved it, so it was well worth it. She had a lot of patting to do, and the sun was shining. It is a little odd that we have a society which has the time to invest in donkeys given the other suffering in the world – but it don’t cost me oot, so no problem.
Both Kate and I had our treats, so next up was Blarney for Sian. She had been here years ago on a cycle trip, so was interested to see how it had changed, plus we all need a little bit of blarney. Sun was out, parking was free, but of course there was a big charge to get in. In all it was worth it though. Nice grounds, little cave, and the castle itself is okay. You go up and up through spiral staircases to the very top of the tower, the staircase is tiny, how the fat Americans get up there I will never know. I don’t like these stairs, it makes me sweat, and i don’t like heights, so by the time we got to the top I was a wet mess. Then we had a queue for a short while which was high, my legs were now aching from attempting to save myself from falling. Then it was my turn to kiss that greasy stone. You have to lie on your back then grab some bars and lean backwards and downwards. I didn’t manage downwards, and only just managed to get my lips onto the saliva soaked rock. You are not allowed to take a photo, as they have an Alton Towers type camera arrangement which photos you, where thick tourists pay another ten euros to pick up later. Had a quick pint in the village, then headed for cork.
We tried to go to a neat church in cork where you ring the bells, but we couldn’t park anywhere, so we went to the hotel. Great place, we had room no. 001, which I have never had before. Top room, it was a suite, with a lounge and bedroom – i really liked it. Sian and Kate went for a swim and i had a couple of pints and had a facebook chat…
Took the train into cork and had a couple of beers in a couple of pubs – one of which was “The Woodford”, where I had a Molston Canadian – then a real top draw Chinese. We noticed the time and had around 15 mins to catch the train, which was at least 20 mins away, we went quite fast, and luckily just made it – I was ‘glowing’.
Grave – 8/10
Donkies – 6/10
Blarney – 7/10
Hotel – 8/10
Cork – 7/10
Food – 8/10