Another lovely Irish morning, cloudy, cool, and signs of a light rain ovenight. We enjoyed our first buffet breakfast this morning in the Dunraven Arms Hotel restaurant. Scrambled eggs, plus all the normal full Irish accoutrements were on display. The problem with buffet presentations is that there are too much food and hot items such as eggs which never hold up to their promised flavor. Nonetheless, we all walked away, having eaten more than our fair share.
We got off to a bit of a late start as we struggled in the parking lot and then again in the hotel lobby trying to properly load the Google Maps application on Deb’s phone. We finally threw in the towel and reverted to paper maps as we traveled through the town of Adare and headed south towards Tipperary. Yes it was a long way to go! We stayed to secondary roads this morning, enjoying the gorgeous mid-island scenery driving through the small towns of Hospital,Emly, Lisvernane and many more.
We traveled through the Glen of Aherlowe and a scenic view of the Galaty Mountains. This range of mountains is the highest inland mountain group of the island, with the tallest peak some 700 meters above sea level.
Next we pulled into the large village of Tipperary, parked the car on the Main Street and stepped out on foot in search of a bathroom stop and to stretch the legs. We stumbled into a lovely pub named Nellie O’Brien’s, settled in on a table and decided to enjoy our first pub lunch.
A round of Smithwick’s Irish ale, fish and chips and some garlic toast and chips arrived at our table for sharing and consumption. The pub was charming as were the bar man and our server, Mary. After lunch, we strolled a bit and stopped at an ATM to replenish our supply of Euros.
Next stop was on to the Rock of Cashel. This in the village of Cashel and is the ruins of an ancient church. This site, probably originally a fort and the seat of the ancient Kings of Munster (one of the historic provinces of Ireland) is reputed to be the place where St. Patrick arrived to convert King Brian to the Christian (Catholic) faith in the 5th century. Legend has it that St. Patrick threw the devil out of a nearby cave, and in the process the rock was thrown from the mountains and landed in Cashel. Around 1101, the King of Munster gave the site to the church and the church construction began. Finally abandoned in the early eighteenth century, the ruins are now a protected state site. We joined a public tour for some 45 minutes in the light rain and wandered around the graveyard (still in use for some lucky Cashelians who are on the ancient list) and enjoyed the views of the surrounding countryside.
Now, shortly after 4:00 PM we got back on the road and headed towards the town of Waterford and our site for the next two nights of Faithlegg Hotel & Golf Resort. This golf course and hotel were reputedly founded in 1783. The golf course is beautiful and the hotel is definitely upscale but in a kind of haphazard way. Not enough staff and some not too friendly. Our rooms are not adjoining as in previous stops so no knocking on each other’s doors to hit the road in the mornings! We had a 7:00 dinner reservation in the casual restaurant in the pro shop, overlooking the course. We dined on huge burgers, a fried chicken sandwich on a brioche bun, and a Caesar salad. All accompanied by some pints of Heineken and glasses of Multepuciano red wine. While dinner was good and the view of the Red Cedars (also name of restaurant) were breathtaking, the service was gawd-awful, as they say somewhere.
After a long day of driving and sightseeing, we returned to our respective rooms for some rest, looking forward to some exploration tomorrow of the Waterford area, a city that Deb has not even been to in past journeys.
