First Day of Tour

We left this morning around 9:00am to pick up the other people in our group.  They were all staying at B&B’s on the same road that we were staying on.

Our first stop was Adare.  We didn’t stay too long.  We met in the park and I took some pictures.  We were suppose to tell the group how we connected with Kate.  Some very interesting stories.  Jim was driving back from PA and he heard her for the first time on NPR.  He kept repeating her name all the way home so he wouldn’t forget the name and to be able to look her up on the net to search for her records.

Adare was all that one thinks of when thinking about Ireland.  The buildings had thatched roofs, and lots of flowers.  We didn’t have any time to take pictures, however, our wonderful bus driver, Hugh, said he would slow down going through town so I could try and take some pictures.  Not great, but I did get some.  I plan to go back to Adare and explore some more at a later date.

Nicole in the park.

Picture of Adare through bus window.

Just some pictures taken from the bus window.  They really don’t show just how beautiful Adare really is.

Our next stop was very dear to Kate’s heart.  Can you guess what it was?

The Jameson brewery.  Every one went wild over the thought of drinking some free Jameson.  It was good.  They had a restaurant in the brewery so we all had lunch.

Nicole had  the above while I had

the salmon salad.  Have you ever seen so much salmon on a salad before?  It was yummy!!

Nicole and Jane enjoying their lunch.

Rosie waiting for her lunch.  Rosie is from the Bronx (we won’t hold that against her) and was afraid to take this tour.  She thought being the only Northerner she wouldn’t fit in.  She did just fine and we all loved her.

Tom, our tour guide, and Rosie enjoying some of that Jameson!

After our tour we headed to our first hotel.   We had a wonderful room that over looked the river.  It’s named The Cork Hotel, and they serve a very delicious full course breakfast to their guest free of charge.  Double yum on their French toast.  I had it twice it was that good.

View from our window. Our room was closed up and the first thing I did was call the desk and ask how to turn on the AC.  They very nicely told me that there was no air condition in the hotels in Ireland.  They came up and showed us how to open our window(a hugh window that three people could stand in side by side) and they left us a small fan. Tom teased me the entire tour about asking for air condition.  And you know, we really never needed it anywhere we went.

After dinner that evening in the hotel, we had a private concert.  Don Stiffe is a famous Irish singer in Ireland.  We were thrilled to get to listen to him.  Before the concert there was some problem with me eating all the green pea pods, however, Tom forgave me and we carried on.

We drank some more before going up to bed.

Blessings.