UMTravels

A slow morning around the house — guess last night was later than I thought.

Mindi was worse for wear this morning, enough so that she is staying in bed rather than coming on the road with Jeff and I on the tour to the south. As it turns out, it was a good idea with the zig-zaggy quality of the roads and the condition of said roads — I think we would have been stopping a lot by the side of the road.

We got out of the house around noon for the 2 hour run to Waterford Crystal to see the showroom (but not the factory as they are in receivership) — luckily they no longer make the pattern that Helene gave me two martini glasses a couple of years ago. All in all, a C- as a stop. It was nice to shop for chandeliers — but I don’t have a spare 5K for lighting.

That stop over — we were off to Lismore (one of my favorite Scotches, but we are in Ireland) for an overnight at the Lismore House Hotel. We have a room for three — with two singles and a double — and generously sized with free broadband (cable at front desk).

Here is the view from our hotel (210 years old) window:

We will be touring the castle (Lismore Castle Gardens and Gallery) tomorrow after our full Irish breakfast.

After we checked in we did a walking tour of the town — voted cleanest Irish city in 2002. It is a clean town — we only say one pile of dog poo, luckily in front of a cemetery. We did find a bunch of nice knockers on the doors. You can find them in the link below:

Dinner was in the hotel restaurant… I had the fish and chips even though I probably shouldn’t have… but they were good. And that will be enough for the trip. Jeff had the pasta/chicken/bacon/cream. At least mine came with a salad.

With a bucket of ice from the bar, we headed back to the room and settled in with TV, computers, and Irish Whiskey.

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