Joe and Françoise's excellent adventures!: We may not be cool enough for Dublin.....

The road from Cork to Dublin is a divided highway, which was a nice change from all the narrow roads we have seen along the West coast. But, getting out of Cork, we took what was the worse road we have seen so far (which is saying something!). This is a 2 lanes road! (I suspect that there was another way out of town that was not so harrowing, and that this was one of Tommy-the-GPS’s “shortcuts” - Still, the fact that people do use this road in both direction in just amazing) There is a high wall on each side, telephone poles sticking out and there is NO way two cars can pass each other in most places: passing a truck required some amazing maneuvering on Joe's part...But after that, it was highway, which was lovely.

We stopped in the medieval town of Kilkenny on the way ( we also passed the Rock of Cashel: saw it from the highway and it indeed looks impressive.... but if you stopped at every impressive castle in Ireland, you’d never get anywhere...

So we decided to take the detour through Kilkenny instead- where there is also an impressive castle: That one dates from the 14th century and was built by the Normans (I think I can see a distinctive French flair there....). The town has retained a lot of its medieval architecture, and the “medieval walk”

- from the castle to the cathedral- is indeed lovely. If I could suggest an improvement to the Ireland department of tourism: make ALL old medieval town centers pedestrian only, or at least all roads one way streets.

I simply cannot imagine any of the small towns we have driven through during peak season..... This is an example of a street (used by cars) in Kilkenny..... (the second one is a two way street).

The cathedral (at least part of it) dates from the 11th century, and some of the streets still have cobblestones (the one below is even a pedestrian one- the only such stretch in town).

From Kilkenny to Dublin is an easy 1 hour drive, until you get to Dublin. OMG!!!!! Dublin traffic is a nightmare! I had picked a hotel very near the center (indeed, it is an easy walk to Trinity college, Temple Bar, etc.... it is just impossible to drive around - let alone park... But we eventually did, and had time to get on the “hop on, hop off “ bus, for a quick tour.... the old town is indeed pretty, and very lively (and has a few streets closed to traffic) . Here is the quote of the day though, from an old guy on the bus who happened to be from White Plains: “ I've never been to a city where the majority of people are tourists.” Indeed, Dublin is just full of tourists! Even the bus driver- who does that everyday for a living- was complaining about how bad traffic was today (it is Friday night....).

BTW: the bus driver was great. He had tons of good historical information, silly jokes, and sang old Irish songs very well when stuck in traffic. Here is something I’ve learned about “hop on- hop off” buses today: if your first driver is not fun, or just plays the touristy tape instead of providing lively comments, just “hop off”:

we stopped at Trinity College (hoping to see the book of Kells, but it was the end of the day, and the line was too long, so we would not have made it. We will have to google it.....). We did manage to take a stroll through Temple Bar, and its busy cobblestones streets, full of pubs, full of both locals and tourists.

We first stopped at one restaurant where we had a drink waiting for a table, but then gave up.... it was just too crowded and the bar tender was just unfriendly- which I did not realize was legal in Ireland.....

We went down just one block,and ended up in the lovely pub, with good live music, and an Irish step dancer, and friendly staff..... Hard to understand why the first one was so busy.....

Walking back to our hotel, we were amazed to see every bar (I mean it EVERY ONE) completely full. And there are a lot of them!

Apparently, that’s what everyone does that here on the week-end. Thus the title of this blog...... we are not really bar people......

It’s all lively and fun to walk through though. From our funky little hotel room, we can hear people in the neighborhood bars, but have no inclination to join..... we are old and boring.... (and prefer wild landscapes to wild crowds.). We also see what may be a back deck marijuana plantation.....