We headed southwest out of the city along the same route taken on our Kilkenny trip. We stopped near
New Inn along the M7 at the Gannon Inn for lunch. Also filled the car's fuel tank with diesel, our first fill up since we arrived. 75 euro at $1.59 euro per liter. Quick estimate of cost: about 3.8 liters in a gallon, so 6.04 euro per gallon. 1 euro = $1.25 so about $ 7.55 per gallon. And diesel is about 0.10 euro per liter cheaper than gasoline. Gasoline is about $8.07 per gallon!!
On the road again, we took the M8 now onto Thurles. Pretty big "city", large shopping plaza located
there. We drove through Thurles and quite a few turns few turns and 20 km later we're in Upperchurch and headed up the "road" to our cottage. I say road with a laugh because at home this would be a farm path at best. One lane, twisting, bumpy, no shoulders (well, there's a hedge!), and the speed limit is
80 kph (50 mph). Most everyone tries to go that fast, too.
We found the cottage - looked just like it did in the Google Earth view! Our booking agent soon showed up with the keys and gave us a quick tour. The owners have everything labelled as to what it is and how it works. The agent left us to unpack a bit and returned with a big box full of milk, eggs, juice, cereal, etc.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Upperchurch. Next, a phone call....
We were meeting up with another person we know from Celtic Woman, Maggie Ryan. She is Irish through and through. She now lives in Orlando, but all her family is in Tipperary. We drove back into Thurles and parked. As we walked down the street she came running up and gave Kasey a big hug and then Cindy and then me and Eric. It was like we all knew her our whole lives.
Then off we went on a short road tour of her hometown, Loughmore. It just happens to be the hometown of
a fiddler named Mairead Nesbitt, from Celtic Woman, too. We drove around the town and Maggie provided us with its history. We stopped at The Cottage for a quick snack. Cindy had carrot cake and I had chocolate cake and ice cream. Delicious. Then the owner asked us to come out back to the patio - we were
greeted with one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. There, through the trees, was
Loughmore Castle. Stunning doen't do it justice. It is on private property and is not open to any tours. So, all one can do is admire it from a dstance. Pictures were taken and we headed up to the Abbey Cemetery for some more history and pictures. We ended our tour of Loughmore at the local pub, Stapleton's.
What else would expect us to do?
Next, we headed off to Maggie's relatives in town, the Maher's, Tony, Siobhan (pronounced sha-vonne), and daughter Caiohme (pronounced kwee-va). We had a nice conservation over some tea (the other what else??).
Time now to get ready to go to THE highlight of this part of the trip, Jim O'Mills. Every Thursday Jim opens his home/pub to anyone and everyone interested in listening to, singing, or playing music. Tony offered to pick us up before and drop us off afterwards! A very nice gesture on his part. We've heard the sessions can go until 2 to 3 in the morning, but Tony said it would be earlier since his daughter had school.
Jim's gets very crowded! We got there about 9:30 and found some of the last seats in the main room, a space about 16 x 16 feet. There were probably 30 people in there! Guitars, fiddles, pipes, drums,
banjos, harmonicas, to name some of the instruments people had. Someone would start, and the others
would join in. When the music stopped, anyone with something to offer could start. Many sang without instrumental help and many times multiple people played their instruments. Tony sang a couple songs - he sounded to me like the stereotypical Irish singer. Very nice. His daughter, the youngest one there at 15, played a beautiful fiddle and sang with her guitar. Talented young lady.
Lots of beer poured all night long. It became VERY crowded over time as many people showed up,
many more than usual. We found out that some had traveled from Dublin (2 hours) to come to Jim's.
They were Notre Dame fans here for the weekend football game vs. Navy. Even the lineman who played
for Notre Dame and threw the block that allowed Rudy (of movie fame) to score was there. Very cool.
About 1:30 a.m., Tony decided he needed to get his daughter home so offered us a ride first. Cindy and I were ready, not sure about Kasey and Eric. But they came along because there would be no other way for them to get the mile or so back to our cottage. Tony's daughter, Caiohme, is to the right in the last picture playing her fiddle.
We had turned the heat on in the cottage to take some of the chill and dampness out. We fell asleep
pretty quickly.
The pictures below show some of the things I mentioned above. I'm finding this blog software to be a pain at placing images within the area of the text, so I'm placing them all at the bottom.
No comments:
Post a Comment