DAY-27: Castles & Jamesons (Mon, Sep 18, 2017)

DAY-27: Castles & Jamesons

Day – 27: Monday, September 18, 2017

Starting Location: Waterford, Ireland

Ending Location: Kinsale, Ireland

We departed the Faithlegg Resort around 9:30 and headed toward to town of Lismore. The Lismore Castle and the picturesque town are stops along the tourist route of Ireland. 

Did we mention the narrow roads?

And then there was the Lismore Castle.

The castle is actually occupied by the local duke, viscount, earl or something like that, so access for the public is limited to the gardens. Upon arrival we headed into the castle area thinking the gardens were before us but turns out a few too many gates had been left open and we soon found ourselves in the house, yes the private residence. The butler quickly found us and politely told us of our error and redirected us to the gardens.

The gardens were very nice with a wide variety of plants including flowers, trees, shrubs and a section dedicated to fruits and vegetables. As with other gardens it's late in the season so some plantings were nearing the end of their life cycle.

Well I think it's this, no that way!

After the gardens we walked through the town's streets, well street, before returning to the bus and moving on.

Our next stop for the day was at the Janesons distillery in Midleton of County Cork. The tour provided an overview of the origins of Jamesons and an introduction into the methods and technologies associated with making "the best Irish whiskey in the land".

Well, it is an academy.

One of the last tour stops was a taste testing. Greg volunteered to be a taste tester along with five or six others on the tour. Greg's test was to differentiate between Jamesons whiskey, a single malt and an American whiskey. Greg's facial expressions might help relate his opinions.

This picture would suggest that the tasting isn't going so well.

The finale for the tour and included in our ticket price was a sampling of the Jameson whiskey. The tour had worked its magic, before we were done, a new favorite Jameson and ginger ale had been found. As with any tour we had to pass through the obligatory store. A few things were purchased but as far as I know, as least as of now, no one purchased the $5,000 bottle of "very special" reserved Jameson.

We continued with a stop at St. Mary & St. Anne Cathedral as Sheila felt some kind of distant-cousin bonding energy emanating from the chapel.

We moved on to Kinsale where we would stay for two nights. Our lodging was at the MacDonald Hotel & Spa. Since the hotel was a couple of miles outside of Kinsale we needed rides to and from the town for dinner.

The view from the hotel was okay but the chairs were worn and frayed. 

For tonight we opted for dinner at Man Friday. The food was good though the fish chowder again didn't stand up to the "best chowder" which had been consumed in Killarney. As happens on occasion we meet people from personally known places. Tonight was no different, two tables in addition to our own had a relationship to Boston, who would have ever guessed. 

Following dinner we stopped in to a nearby pub The Spaniard, the name relating back to the historical Spanish influence in southern Ireland.

As the night became late we hailed a taxi, actually a van driven by a local farmer moon-lighting for a few extra Euros. He made the ride to the hotel interesting as he navigated the narrow road at a relatively high rate of speed. Nevertheless we made it.