Mike's problem with coffee in Ireland that was made much worse at the Ibis. He stays in hotels in the states a lot and enjoys his coffee when he gets up in the morning. In Ireland, a tea loving country, they aren't necessarily as attune to the coffee drinker. Everywhere we have stayed there is a caffeine set up in the rooms. Nice cups, sugar, creamer, tea and INSTANT coffee with a hot water pot. So Mike has suffered until he has gotten down to the excellent breakfasts we have had for really good coffee, most of which has been made in French presses.
Well, at the Ibis, it was again instant in the rooms, but when he came down for breakfast, the coffee was dispensed by machine....not great! Better than instant but not REAL coffee. I dealt with one cup and switched to hot chocolate that the machine did a very good job of. Scott made espresso then added cappuccino on top of it. Mike kept trying with mixed results. Even when he tried Scott's method, he ended up with it pouring over the sides. He was VERY happy to get to our next B&B.
When we headed off on Friday morning, our one planned stop was to be at the Irish National Stud Farm. It had been suggested to me by one of my favorite clients, Maribeth Walsh of the Irish Georgian Society and Scott, as a vet, really liked the idea. I have to say, it was incredible.
In addition to the Stud Farm, they had a Japanese Garden that walked you through the stages of life. We did that first and it was really lovely. The designer had done it at the request of the original owner over 50 years ago and although it doesn't have anything to do with horse, it was great. There were many steps in the path of live from the Cave of Birth to the Hill of Mourning...Mike made sure he chose the Path of Bachelorhood instead of the Bridge of Engagement and the Bridge of Marriage.
Then it was the guided tour of the Stallions before we headed for the mares, fillies, colts and pensioners on our on. Our guide was a knowledgeable but opinionate and amusing Irish lad who described the stables, birthing facilities and introduced us to each of the stallions. I have to say his comments on the disposition of the studs didn't sound very different from a description of males of the human species.
We then continued on to see the foster horses who were very friendly.
The mares and foals.
On to the retired champs.
And finally to the museum where we had an education on the history of horses, horses in Ire land and Irish horse racing, both thoroughbreds and jumpers.
Before we left, we gathered at one of the picnic tables to have lunch. It was a beautiful day and a lovely setting. Then back in the car and onward.
Mike had thought he had booked a B&B in Limerick City, he booked it in Limerick County in the town of Newcastle West, quite a distance south. After a long drive made longer by the very slow traffic through Adare (I have got to go back there) which turned out to be a piece of farm equipment on the road, we got to a very nice B&B where we were greeted with tea and Guinness cake. Scott fell in love with the cake and hopefully the proprietress will send Mike the recipe.
Newcastle West is a very pretty town with a restored castle that we were 30 minutes too late to see. We parked in the square and walked around.
We had our last dinner in Ireland together at a family owned and run pub on the square where the really good waitress/bartender was proud to show off her grandfather's picture and talk about how much she loved her time living and working in San Francisco.
We had not taken our cameras the night before so I went back the next morning to take the pictures (hence the annoying van in the above picture. And the square was setting up for market day. Cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment