Joint or Nice Place?

After a day of Castle Hopping from Cork to Carlow we finally decided to eat Linner - (you know, a cross between lunch and dinner) about 5:00 pm in Carlow and then attempt to find our B&B.  We decided to take the first parking place we could find and look for whatever we could find.  We ran into a cute couple and he asked us if we wanted to eat at a "joint or a nice place".  Well, you should know which one we choose.  What's your opinion?

 

Actually, the food was very good and affordable.  Rita had a wonderful plate of roast (carvey) with gravy, vegetables, croquette, and FOUR boiled potatoes.  I guess potatoes are cheap in Ireland. For me I had roast beef on a "floury bap".  What's a floury bap?  It's a "bap", you know, so I ordered it.  Kind of like an Arby's roast beef but healthy.  After our usual driving around the town lost for 60 minutes we finally found our B&B.  You  have to work off all those calories with something and I guess road rage is one good way.

Back to the Castle Hopping -
Once we got to Cahir we stopped at smaller castle with moot and swans.  It's always interesting to hear the back stories on the original owners and what everyone went through just to stay alive.  Ladies - be glad that you live in the 21st century.  You have no idea what our sisters went through back in the medieval times.

Finnegan thinks he can find a better way to travel

Inside Cahir Castle

Now by contrast we have the Kilkenny Castle.  It about takes your breath away.  You can see all the money that went into restoring it back to it's original grandeur.  The interesting thing is that the Englishman that built it ended up giving the Butler his own grand home with lots of "perks".  Well, you can't trust those butlers because he ended up buying the castle and ruling over the area for 500 years.  Till today, the Butler name is well known throughout Ireland.

Kilkenny Castle from the back where the carriages entered - I couldn't get it all in the picture

View from the rose garden.  The first floor terrace is the Dining Room the upper rooms the guest bedrooms.  Our room is in the upper turret to the left.


For those who keep asking about where we are staying here's a few pics, but mostly we are living out of the car.  You should see the empty sacks of cookies, M&M's, nuts, buscotti, gum drops and whatever other snacks we pick up along the way along with crumpled maps & directions.  
 

The Montenotte Adult Care Center - This is where the guests from the Montenotte Hotel go after they have spent hours driving the one lane road with stone walls while passing cars coming from the other direction.



Montenotte Hotel -  Below is our room - it was nice.

 

Lastly, but very much most important, here is a sweet smile for all of Rita's grandkids that she talks about and misses very much.

 

Tomorrow we head for Belfast. PLEASE PRAY for us.  If I can't get through these little towns what is it going to be like going on a 5 lane highway, but Rita wants to see her castle.