A drive through Southern Ireland

With thousands of instructions from Nora, we finally took off on our Southern Ireland adventure.

We drove all afternoon passing through towns like Eniskerry, where the old castle is right there on the main drag surrounded by pubs and other small shops. At about 4:30 we arrived in New Ross and stopped to walk around. This town, as many we had passed before, were congratulating some town (was it Wexford?) on the "hurling championships," which I thought sounded like a vomiting contest. But apparently it isn't. We wandered around the town a bit looking at the historical sites. One of the three remaining city walls was the one that Oliver Cromwell marched through. Across the road from it is the ancient tower, which is now used for graffiti. I'm sure that townsfolk thought it strange that the yanks were interested in what are apparently not very revered town sites.

We took a tiny car ferry from Ballyhack, near New Ross, to Passage East, near Waterford. Watching the ferry come across the channel made me just a tad nervous because the water was very rough and I (a) feared for losing my lunch, and (b) wondered if the car would actually stay on the darn thing. But though we apparently tossed and turned, I didn't even feel it. And it is, thankfully, a short trip.

We started looking for a B&B by finding the "row" just past the crystal factory, and just going from one to the other. The first was full, but the second (The Laurels) had a room available and seemed comfy. It was run by an affable woman named Katherine and the only other two occupants we met were Anthony and his wife (whose name I never did get) from Australia, who had also just arrived. Mrs. Anthony reminded me of Roseanne Roseannadana. Katherine's husband or father also met us on the stairs and was quite chatty, and told us that they had a Jack Russell terrier in the house, which we never did see. The Australian couple told us they had just heard about fires in California.

We went to dinner at a restaurant Katherine suggested, The Holy Cross, which was "a mile and a bit" (which translated into about 5 miles) down the road. What a meal! I had crab claws in garlic butter for a starter and could easily have ordered 3 more of that and skipped the main course entirely. But it was too late for that, so I also had lamb chops which were good, but not nearly as memorable as the crab claws.

After dinner, we sat in the tv room and channel-surfed until we found a news program which gave us information on the Malibu and San Diego fires. Then I sat up reading until about 10:30, showered and went to bed. It was raining today.

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