Saturday 3 August 2013

Ireland Trip - Limerick County - Day 2

We headed off for Limerick on Tuesday with the intention of going to Limerick County Library to do some research. The guide gave the address as Lissanalta House, Dooradoyle Road, and putting this into the GPS brought us to a very residential area. It would have been nice if the guide had a street number, as it was a few miles away. Part of this facility is the Limerick Archives, but, as luck would have it, none of the archivists were in residence (all were at some other library for the day). The librarian who opened up for us, was very helpful, even if she didn't know much, and, she even did some of the searching for us. Eventually time came to leave, as we had further to go, so we found a shopping centre for lunch then drove north-west to County Clare. We had been interested in seeing the Cliffs of Moher. They are supposed to be spectacular, but as we neared we could see a huge car-park, and discovered that they wanted 6 euros each just to park the car! So, the Cliffs of Moher will remain one thing we didn't see. This area also has “The Burren” and the Burren National Park. The Burren is made up of interesting eroded limestone, and there aren't too many other features, apart from Poulnabrone Dolmen, a neolithic tomb from around 3200BC. At last! A site to visit that doesn't cost anything! Except that Darryl slipped over on the rocks, and hurt his knee. Our stay for the night was at Kinvara Inn B&B, which was quite interesting. It was fairly expensive for a B&B, and the woman asked Darryl what time he wanted breakfast (only Continental), and he said “oh, not too early, about 7am.” She replied that breakfast was on served from 8am-10am, that she was too old to be getting up earlier to prepare it, as she would have to get up an hour earlier. I am thinking...Why are you running a B&B if you don't want to be preparing breakfast? Why did you ask what time we wanted breakfast if you already have a set time? Why do you need an hour to prepare cereal, milk, coffee & toast? We agreed that we would have breakfast at 8am, but she came back into the room and told us that her husband had agreed to get up early and give us breakfast at 7.30am. I had indicated on my booking that I would only have yoghurt for breakfast, and she also made a 'hoo-haa' about that...apparently, her version of a Continental breakfast was only cereal, juice, toast and coffee. Every other one I have ever seen included yoghurt and fresh fruit at least. If I wanted more, then I would have to bring my own or pay and extra 5 euros for a cooked breakfast. In the morning they both got up, and served us at 7.30am, and other guests came in at around 7.45am. I also got my yoghurt!

Adare Castle
Another Castle Ruin...





The Burren Landscape



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