Ireland, UK 2017: 5/5 Day 3 - Irish Southern Roadtrip

“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers.” 
~Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns Fifty

Months before this trip, I bought an SD card with Ireland/UK maps for our Garmin GPS. Someone forgot to remind someone and someone forgot to pack the GPS. (Someone also forgot to bring our Guinness pouring certificates and complimentary bottles of Guinness when we checked out of the hotel.) No worries, we'll rent a GPS when we pick up our rental car! Little worry--all the GPS units at the rental place were reserved so we were out of luck. Ah well, I have an Irish SIM card so can use my smartphone GPS. Except that won't work in Northern Ireland. Ah well, we'll see if we can download and purchase maps before we lose internet during that part of the trip. Problem solved. I hope.

We picked up our rental (an Opel Corsa automatic) and then spent the next 90 minutes or so trying to get to and stay on the M50 highway. We made a quick stop for fuel (petrol is sold by the litre and costs the equivalent of $5.83/gallon) and "picnic" food. By the time we accomplished these feats, I felt pretty comfortable with the car and driving on the right side of the vehicle on the left side of the road. Eventually, I was even able to watch for my own road signs AND speed, so if my navigator nodded off for a few minutes, I did not panic. The speed limit in Ireland is 120 km/h (75 mph) on dual carriageways (divided highways) and 100 km/h (62 mph) on the motorway.

I have no idea how many miles we DROVE (what with all the missed turns in the beginning and re-routing), but we TRAVELED 172 miles and checked into our hotel in Cork at 4:30. We found a lovely restaurant for dinner. We  attempted to find some live, traditional music, but we didn't hear music when we entered the pubs that were supposed to have it and we didn't want to stick around with a crowd of sweaty, smelly, people. Driving in Cork was nuts with its narrow streets, lots of them one way that twist and turn and change names. And names don't matter so much because we couldn't usually see the faded street names up high on buildings. I didn't hit anything, Jeff didn't seem too petrified, and we feel that tomorrow we'll be old pros at this.

Today's driving route (thank you Road Warrior app):

First stop: Dunmase Castle ruins

Second stop: The Rock of Cashel (it was a cathedral)

Ruins of Hore Abbey as seen from the Rock of Cashel

Lots of dead people buried in the floors and walls, but most of the writing has eroded so much, you can't read the engraving.

Well preserved, or restored? From 1574.

Our first view of sheep...

Cashel, the town, as seen from the Rock of Cashel.

Many doorways in old buildings are built low.

  
Lovely dinner place in Cork, Perrotts Garden Bistro.

A note about floor numbering in Ireland and the UK...all buildings start at the ground floor, or floor 0. That means that a first floor room requires you to walk up 1 flight of stars. A second floor room theoretically means you walk up 2 flights of stairs. Sometimes, a "flight" is actually 2 sets separated by a landing. Such was the case at our guest house in Cork..."second floor" was more like 4 flights of stairs at my house--If I had 4 flights of stairs.