The Grand Hotel Waterford

Well as it turns out, I chose a good week to visit Michelle and George, as they had already planned a weekend of surfing on the West Coast.

The day started off right, with a proper Irish breakfast. As Michelle puttered away with breakfast prep, George rolled in, busy getting his gear ready for the weekend.
'Do you have any pudding?' he inquires
'no' is the sheepish reply
'well it's not exactly breakfast without pudding now is it?'

Michelle can ...

... roads in Ireland are miniature versions of the variety we have in Canada, but the speed limits don't reflect this. We clipped along, squeezed between rock walls and oncoming traffic.

"The side mirrors on the car fold in if they're hit" Michelle informed me.
That was immensely reassuring.

We arrived home in record time, Michelle threw together a proper feast, and I was in bed by 8.

... now there is a car up my ****... sorry Dad!!

We then continued onto Waterford.. the oldest city in Ireland. Lovely mixture of new and old and a very unusual piece of art hanging from the storage sheds over the river. See pics of girls face! We spent some time in our favourite place, the tourist centre and booked accomodation for tonight and our stay in Kilanery. Our guest house was called Portree.. very appropriate as we just came from that city in ...

Our next destination was the Hook Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in Ireland. I thought it was in Wexford City so we headed there. We found Wexford and drove all around the harbor area but could not find the lighthouse. I double checked the brochure and realized, much to my dismay, the lighthouse was not in Wexford City, it was Wexford County at least one hour south of our current position. It was getting close ...

... the driving.

Other interesting trivia--the recession has hit even harder over here. Our tour company, Globus, is experiencing a 45% reduction in business. Ireland is experiencing a 17% unemployment rate. Tourism is a big part of their economy so they are really getting hit hard. Also, (not related, but interesting) in every country we've been in so far, potatoes are ...

... all done by hand very casually with safety standards that would make Canadian safety officials gasp. From the glass ovens to the glass blowing to the glass cutting it is all done by eye with shockingly little protective gear. These guys are just walking around in shorts and t-shirts. They did manage to get masters degrees and apprentice for five years before even being allowed to work on anything that bears the Waterford name. They use diamond blades to cut the designs ...

... to Youghal with John - 40min drive from Cork - it was a lovely sunny morning and we thought that maybe the bad weather would stop for a while because the sunshine was LONG overdue, especially considering this is summer. (I actually typed winter...now there's a Freudian slip!) At 11am I had a massage with Maura, the massage therapist/healer at John's work. Very Irish. She talks a million miles a minute so I could see straight away why John finds it hard to understand her ...

... was gross. we didn't want to touch the floor at any time! we ended up sleeping some because we had woken at 5am to be on time for our train in the morning. we wandered out and found something to eat at a supermarket up a HUGE and very steep hill. we ate that in the room and then headed out to explore the town. it is a beach town with a carnival theme. there were small roller coasters and games to win stuffed animals everywhere. we walked along the shops and then ...

... and then stopped at the small seaside town of Dunmore East. The sun was now shining, the skies were blue and the water was clear with a shallow sandy bottom that stretched out for ages. Pale-skinned and sunburnt kids splashed around while the other members of their pale-skinned and sunburnt families lazed along a crowded sliver of dry sand with their backs against a stone retaining wall with white, yellow and light-blue painted cottages ...

... by the hire car company to get us out of the airport car park coming to a fee of €48, the unclear route signs heading south out of Dublin towards County Wexford leading me to take a slightly convoluted course, the struggle to find a pub still serving food at 9pm in the town of Arklow, and then when we did chance upon one finding out they didn’t have my first, second, third, fourth or fifth choices ...