Day 8: The good, the bad and the ugly

It’s our final day in Ireland and our entire agenda involves getting to the hotel at Dublin Airport so we can fly to Glasgow in the morning. To try to make it seem like we are actually touring instead of merely transitioning, we plan some stops to pay homage to two of Ireland’s most famous names: Jameson and Waterford.

Frank had a change of heart after leaving Dublin and decided that it was worthwhile to learn about Irish whiskey afterall so we headed to the Jameson distillery in Midleton, Co. Cork. The tour covered the old distillery, in use until 1975, and was pretty interesting although Duncan objected to the videos that they showed at various stops; he was surprised that they had no real content and we’re really just advertisements for the whiskey- shocking! At the end of the tour, Frank was one of 8 people chosen to do a tasting and they compared Irish, Scottish and American whiskeys. He passed with flying colors and is now a “certified” whiskey taster with a certificate to prove it – as if he needed one! I also discovered that I quite like Jamesons and ginger ale. – who knew? That stop was the good for the day.

We wandered around town looking for somewhere to eat lunch (yup, whiskey tasting in the morning!) but were once again plagued by the lack of choices other than sandwiches which doesn’t suit me. Dejectedly, we left town and stopped at a pub on the road 5 minutes away in the middle of nowhere. There on the menu was the little “c” that someplaces here use to indicate that something is suitable for coeliacs – yippee!

Then back in the car and on to Waterford. The factory is closed now so all there is to do is walk around a display area and, of course, the gift shop. We dutifully did so but as Waterfors crystal fits neither our style or budget, none was purchased. But it was an entertaining break in the drive at least so maybe it really wasn’t so bad.

Then on the road to Dublin in what passes for rush hour traffic here. We made our way to the hotel, dropped off the luggage and the kids in the 2-bedroom apartment (which was nicer and cheaper than the one in town) and Frank and I went to return the rental car. That’s when things got ugly. Not with the car itself but later on when we realized that I had left the GPS unit in the glove box! Of course, we didn’t realize this until about 10:30 at night so there wasn’t much to be done but needless to day I was fairly inconsolable over my incredible stupidity! Which is why this post is being written a day late. The good news is that we got it back but now I must endure a full week’s worth of ribbing from the family – and deservedly so (she says contritely!)

/san/
Pedometer: 13,423 or about 6 miles Odometer on rental: over 1000 km travelled on a single tank of gas! Love that Jetta diesel!