Adare
Trip Start
Nov 23, 2007
1
3
14
Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
Adare, Ireland
Friday, November 30, 2007
We set off from Dublin to Cork by train - but got the wrong airport bus and ended up at Connolly station instead of Heuston (We were told by information to get the blue airport transfer bus - no one told us there were two different services). This more or less set the tone for the remainder of the trip!
We arrived at Cork around 6ish where I proceeded to drop my 20kilo suitcase onto my foot... ouch!! We didn't see much the first night so we got up early and walked around the city the following morning. We picked up the hire car from the airport and headed to Blarney Castle.
Seeing as we're outside the tourist season there's hardly anyone else around, which at least means no queues! I climbed to the top of the castle (despite my fear of heights) and I ended up being the only person up there! The view was spectacular so it was definitely worth facing my fear of heights for!
After a few more stops we set off for Killarney - which turned into a real adventure!
By the time we decided to head for the hotel it was getting dark, it was raining heavy and we had no idea if we were heading in the right direction as the sign posts are really bad and there are no street lights - at all! We decided to take it easy on the narrow and very winding wet roads but we had cars piled up behind us that were obviously pissed off as we were going at least 10k under the speed limit!! They let us know when we got to an overtaking lane that they weren't impressed! Not that we cared as I was more concerned about arriving in one piece!
When we got to the B & B that we were staying in it was really dark and all I could see outside my window was the biggest f 'ing dog I have ever seen - an Irish wolf hound who turned out to be really sweet but scared the hell out of both of us! It took us a few minutes to get up the nerve to leave the car.
From Killarney we headed to Adare and went on a horse and buggy ride through Muckross Estate which was pretty cool - in every sense of the word (thank god the driver had blankets - even if they were covered in horse hair and smelt like the horse). The driver, or the horse, knew all the stops to take great photos so it was definitely worth doing.
Our hotel at Adare was interesting as they had no record of our booking, despite Cheryl having a printed email confirming our reservation, the shower rail fell on Cheryl's head while she was in the bath - so we had to change rooms as they couldn't repair it and they've charged my credit card despite us paying in cash!! Don't think I'd recommend that place - although we've laughed at our mistakes and misfortunes every day!
