Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 10

I got up a couple times over the course of the night to use the bathroom. Luckily, I was able to get back to sleep quickly each time. We set our alarm for 8 and slowly got out of bed. I saw that the weather was terrible outside. We got worried that we weren't going to be able to go on our Blarney Castle tour. We specifically came to Blarney and County Cork for that tour. 

We got ready and went downstairs for food at the breakfast nook. Ben ordered a full breakfast of the menu, and I had the continental breakfast. It had the usual English breakfast plus other goodies. We talked about altering our day due to the rain. We decided we were going to drive into Cohb and do the Titanic exhibit first, then the Blarney Castle tour later once the rain lets up. I was not happy that we had to change our plans and there could be a possibility of not being able to go see the castle.

We got ready to go and headed out. We aren't sure why the GPS took us on some really sketchy, narrow and water filled back rural roads. We just went with it and trusted that it got us there at the correct time. Along the way, we saw a lot of the hustle and bustle of a Saturday morning in Ireland.

We got into Cobh and thankfully found some parking along the street. We had less than 15 minutes to check in with our tour, but we made it. I couldn't believe I was going into a building, that still stands today, that all of the passengers who boarded Titanic walked through. The history geek in me was nerding out hard! 

We checked in and they each handed us a card, a replica of what the tickets would have looked like, and I was a first-class passenger, and he was a third-class passenger. 

Our tour promptly started at 11 a.m. and it was us and a family of 8. Our tour guide, Sofie, was doing her first tour. I loved her accent too. This Titanic tour specifically told the stories of the 123 passengers who left the Queenstown Port. Back then, Cobh was known as Queenstown because Queen Victoria visited in 1849. This port was the luxury liner's final stop on its maiden journey, before setting sail on the longest leg of the voyage to New York City and ultimately its sinking into the icy Atlantic.

Sofie took us around the historic White Star Line Building retracing the footsteps of the Queenstown passengers. From purchasing the tickets, to boarding the Titanic - they had to be ferried to the moored vessel because it was too large for the harbor - to their experiences on the Titanic to fighting for their lives one of the world's most tragic maritime disasters. I was in complete awe that this was the same building these passengers walked through. 

After our guided tour, we were able to walk around the museum part learning about the ship, the passengers, the timeline of the sinking, looking at various artifacts, historical data, photos, diagrams, etc. All of it was exciting to me and I knew most of this stuff already. At the end, we both found out our passengers survived. I took various photos and we even purchased a few items from the gift shop. I asked Ben what he wanted to do afterwards and he said, walk around the town for a bit.

We spent about an hour walking around Cobh. We walked along the coastline towards the train station/boat terminal to go grab a cache on the dock. Welcome/Welcome Back (GC9RHJX) was a magnetic micro and it was easy to find. I let Ben grab it from its hiding spot. We got our names on it, took a few pictures and put it back. No one was around which was nice.

We walked back towards town and stopped inside the Cobh Heritage Centre to check out what was inside. There was a restaurant, a shop, public bathrooms and a museum that showcases the history of the area from when it was Cobh, Queenstown and Cobh again. There was some stuff about the Titanic as well. We quickly used the restrooms while we had a chance to and then went into the shop to look around. I ended up buying some Claddagh rings (friendship rings) for my Mom and Rhonda and I bought a Celtic knot ring for myself. The lady was very knowledgeable and even told us how we could get our taxes back when we went home on the goods that we bought in Ireland. We thanked her and we walked back towards the car. But first, we went into a candy store across the street from where we parked. We bought a few things including some Irish cream fudge.

We drove back to Blarney only to discover that the castle was closed for the day due to the rain. That meant, no tours whatsoever. It would have been nice to know it was closed especially since we ordered the tickets in advance, why didn't they send us an email or call or something? We wasted so many hours driving back to Blarney when we could have just moved on to the next part of our trip. It definitely affected the rest of our day. Oh well. We walked around the Woolen Mills store for a while. Then we left for the Copper Coast.

We followed the GPS and these roads are so narrow, and we got stuck behind several vehicles along the way. The it was difficult trying to pass them too. We were sad we didn't get to the Copper Coast UNSECO Global Geopark before it closed. We just moved on and tried finding a pullout or a viewpoint to stop and see the Irish Sea. We stopped at two different viewpoints. The first stop was a view of the sea. You could walk up and touch the ocean, which I did, just to say I did, but you had a hard time walking around because it was so windy. I almost slammed myself in the car door.

The second location was an overlook, and it had a geocache! We enjoyed the cliffs and I walked over to Ice, Fire and Water (GC4ZB3H) to grab the hidden container. It was checked on by the cache owner in September. It was next to a sculpture that looked like a colored razor clam. I barely made it back into the car. I thought I was going to fly away. It was getting dark and decided we should drive to our hotel in Kilkenny and forgo Waterford. It was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive to the hotel. We listened to music and talked about random things.

We got into Kilkenny and made our way to the hotel's address. It took us down a skinny one-way street to a covered parking garage. Of course, we had to pay for parking. We grabbed a few things and walked across the street to check in. Once we found out where our room was, we went back out to the car, grabbed our stuff and walked up to our room. Our room was actually pretty cool. We got settled in and went downstairs for dinner. 

The restaurant inside the hotel was called Embers. I ordered half a chicken, potatoes and salad (it actually came with Ranch dressing) and Ben got the surf and turf. I got a beer and he ordered a double shot of whiskey. The food was delicious. After dinner, we went back upstairs and chilled for about an hour. I wrote in my journal and did my daily Facebook post. 

We went back downstairs to the bar to listen to live Irish music and drank another pint of beer. I really didn't need another beer because I was super full from dinner but drank it anyway. We stayed for about an hour and the went back up to the room to get cleaned up and relax. 

I went to bed around 11:30-midnight because I was tired and Ben ended up taking the bed apart because it wasn't comfortable. I had to get up twice because I was so full and had to pee a bunch of times. I felt blah but eventually fell asleep.

Next Adventure: Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 11

Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 9

We got up around 6:30, got ready and packed up our stuff. We went downstairs for our reservation breakfast. We felt fancy. I had some yogurt, granola, watermelon, eggs, bacon, sausage, orange juice, beans, hashbrowns and a chocolate filled pastry. Ben had a lot of the same thing, but he tried the blood sausage and had coffee instead of orange juice. I tried a bite of the blood sausage, and it wasn't that bad. The beans for breakfast were a little weird but other than that, the food was delicious. We finished our food and went back upstairs to grab out stuff. We went into the executive lounge one more time to grab some snacks and water for the road. 

We grabbed our stuff from the room and took it downstairs. We walked over to the stadium to grab the geocache, Dublin's Stadia Series 1 - Croke Park (GC23W86). It was a quick walk but glad we had time to nab one in Dublin. 

We tried to leave but the parking garage gate wouldn't let us leave for some reason. Ben had to go get help from the front desk. It finally worked and we were now on our way towards Cashel, our first stop, avoiding tolls - there were so many roundabouts, highways and very narrow back roads. I spent some time trying to get my phone hooked up so we could listen to music as we drove. I finally succeeded and we played a bunch of stuff off my Spotify playlists.

Just before 9 am, we got to Cashel and found the parking lot. We were getting more used to the car on the highways. We walked up to the entrance, presented our tickets on our phone and went inside the grounds. We had great weather, but it was a little chilly. We had a choice of a guided tour or a self-guided tour; we chose the self-guided tour. I loved learning about the history, the architecture and the graveyard around the property were stunning. 

According to local legends, the Rock of Cashel originated in the Devil's Bit, a mounting 20 miles north of Cashel when St. Patrick banished Satan from a cave, resulting in Rock's Landing in Cashel. The picturesque complex has a character of its own and is one of the most remarkable collections of Celtic art and medieval architecture to be found anywhere in Europe. Few remnants of the early structures survive the majority of buildings on the current site date back from the 12th and 13th centuries. 

We stayed for about an hour and did a couple of geocaches, a virtual, The Rock of Cashe (GCAJG0A) and an earthcache, April: It's the Story of a Cache and a Rock (GCAQ287). 

We walked back down to the parking lot but stopped into the two gift shops to see what kind of stuff they had. It was fun to browse, and we got a couple things, including some drinks to tie us over for a while. We had a little bit of time to kill so we walked into the town of Cashel. It was everything we thought a little Irish town would look like. Most of the shops didn't open up until later. It would have been awesome to go into a bookstore. 

We walked back to the car and programmed the address for the Midleton Distillery. Off we went!

We stopped in a small town called Castlelyons to get out, stretch and to find a geocache, Castlelyons Friary (GC4GY8G). We picked one that was near some more castle ruins. The original container was missing but there was a baggie with a wet logbook inside. 

We got into Midleton early and decided to see where the distillery was. The address did take us down the wrong road and we had to turn around. We did figure out where we were supposed to go but had to figure out what to do for an hour. I looked at the map. Ben! They have an Aldi here! Let's go! He agreed. We needed to get some snacks and drinks for the next couple days. We went inside and we got some popcorn, a couple candy bars, wine gummies, bananas, chewy bars and some drinks. Of course, I had to get a really cool reusable Aldi bag.

We drove over to the distillery, parked and went inside the check in. They gave us our tickets and a badge. We were a little early for our tour time, so we wandered around, sat in the bar and pregamed. We each had a shot of whiskey and then started our tour. Our tour guide was in his late 20's and had a fantastic Irish accent. I enjoyed listening to him talk about the history of the distillery, how they made the whiskey and everything in between. It was a great tour of the facility.

He took us to a tasting room and that is where we got to do the regular whiskey tasting. We tried three different whiskeys - Jameson, Powers Gold Label and Green Spot. I've had Jameson before, but the others were good as well. The rest of the tour group was dismissed to get their free drink from the bar while the rest of us went upstairs for our premium whiskey tasting. It was us and another couple vacationing from Ohio. They were huge whiskey fans and have been to many places throughout the US.

We introduced ourselves and shared where we were from and why we were in Ireland. They placed four special whiskeys in front of us and the whiskey sommelier explained each type, how it was made, what flavors, aromas and characteristics we were to expect from them. She was available if we had any questions about any of them. We all enjoyed the specialty/rare versions of Jameson, Powers, RedBreast and Midleton. They were great whiskeys and I see why they were specialty/rare ones. 

Between the first tasting, the highball at the bar and the second tasting, I was pretty much hammered and tried to keep myself from being super obvious about it. I don't drink this much very often so it hit me hard. We sat in the bar area while Ben had another shot of whiskey. The couple from Ohio came to sit next to us to chat about hockey. They saw me wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins sweatshirt earlier and apparently it was a great ice breaker for more conversation, lol. We sat there for about a half hour talking before it was time to move onto our next thing.

We visited the gift shop before we left. Ben ended up purchasing a $300 bottle of their rare Midleton whiskey. I told him it will be interesting getting it back to Portugal and then into the US. We might have to fill out paperwork, but we will see when we got to the airport in the next few days. We hopped in the car and set the GPS for our next destination, County Cork!

We got back on the highway and followed the road about 45 minutes to Blarney.  It was already starting to get dark, so we just drove to the hotel and checked ourselves in. This hotel/good store/restaurant was pretty cool. It used to be a wool mill built in 1823. We took our stuff up to our room and settled in. We thought we'd figure out some dinner plans. 

We went down to the bar and found out we needed reservations and they said they were full. Then we tried looking for a place that would deliver food, but every place was closed. Why are all the restaurants in the area closed? This area is busy and full of people. We thought it was odd. We eventually gave up and ordered food from the bar downstairs who originally said they were full but allowed us to order. We both decided on chicken wings and celery. They called us when our food was ready to go down and get. We watched Sisters, got in a shower, I wrote in my journal for a bit, did my Facebook post, relaxed and went to bed before midnight. 

Next Adventure: Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 10