Today began with hotel coffee since they had a Nespresso machine and that coffee isn’t too bad. We’ve avoided all the little packets of freeze dried (at least I’m assuming it’s freeze dried), but Nespresso will do. I’ve yet to figure out the kinds of coffee though: there were three colors and none were labeled (so Dan can’t figure out if any are decaf). After getting dressed (for me) it was just waiting until Dan was also ready so we could head on out.

Our first destination, or so we thought, was to be Elizabeth Fort. It wasn’t open to enter, we knew, but we at least wanted to walk by. So off we went, taking some photos as we walked, Dan with his Fuji and me with the iPhone for the moment.

We managed to get sidetracked — no surprise — when we saw this church, St. Finn Barre’s. We shot from the outside, as the gate was closed, but soon a man came up with a key. I suspect opening to get ready for the service. But he said, “Let me open it for you.”

Do you see the gold angel (perhaps easiest to see in the fourth photo)? Apparently the architect of the church, William Burgess, put it there and the legend is that if it should ever fall the world will end.

From there we continued on our way to the fort. I saw the organist’s house and the choristers’ house, but I couldn’t find the oboist’s house. Strange.

Some of the photos of a wall above are from the fort. I neglected to take a photo of the entrance. Oops!

Our next destination was a good walk away. For the first time on this trip I was actually getting too warm while walking. Where did that sun come from?! But on we walked.

I saw a fork in the road but I didn’t take it.

And then we arrived: this was the Marina Market. I thought perhaps it was a market that would have, oh, you know … things that are in a market. Veggies. Fruits. Meats. But no, it wasn’t that kind of market. The area around this is run down, with lots of vacant buildings, broken windows and all. I think they are attempting to change the area. (One building is going to be housing with 25 stories and it’s so strange as they are starting by building two extremely tall — gee, maybe 25 stories tall! — skinny structures, but the photos show a more normal looking building. I should have taken a photo of what is to be the finished structure, but of course I neglected to do so. Oh well.)

But I ramble. Back to the Market. As we started to get close I saw a little girl carrying a tiny violin case. When we reached the entrance of the market I saw why: there was to be a Suzuki performance there. Sweet!

The entrance:

When we entered the building we saw a large number of food options so we toured the entire building in order to search for our first meal of the day.

We settled on a place and while Dan ordered our breakfasts I headed to the coffee spot and ordered our coffees. It took a while to get our food, but oh dear … SO MUCH FOOD! Here I thought today would be a day on which to be responsible. Never mind. I opted for the vegetarian meal and Dan went for the meat. We should have ordered one meal and shared and had we known how much would be in our “breakfast box” we would have. Too late to do that, though. And no, I couldn’t finish. Nor could Dan.

After we ate we walked by the Suzuki concert. I shot only a very short bit. But so doggone sweet to see all those young musicians!

After our meal we ventured back out, ready to walk to our next destination: the train station.

We bought our tickets for a 25 minute or so round trip, and also purchased tickets for a tour at our next destination, and shortly after boarded the train and headed out.

And hello Midleton! We had another mile or so walk then. Since we were early for our tour we looked at a few other things in the village. Every village we’ve been in, be it Ireland or Scotland, always has memorials to the war or wars.

And then it was time for our Jameson Whiskey Tour! We of course had to go to the distillery since they clearly named it after our youngest! Heh. Or not. We hung out for a bit, shopped a little, and finally the tour began. It was really very informative and I enjoyed it. It ended with a sampling of three high end whiskeys. My only complaints about the tasting: it was rather rushed and they didn’t have the little bottles that Talisker had so if you couldn’t finish your whiskey (and who could in that short time?) you just had to leave it behind. Too bad! From there we were taken to another spot where they gave us a final drink. Dan and I opted for the whiskey with lime and tonic water (at least we think it was tonic water). Yum!

Do you see the wings above? That’s representing the “angels’ share” of whiskey. As it ages it evaporates and they say they it rises up and the angels get it. The longer it ages the less whiskey you get from a cask, which can explain why older whiskies cost so much. I also showed a photo of the final whiskey we could sample. It is €240 a bottle! It could only be purchased there, I believe, and no, we didn’t buy a bottle.

When the tour was finished we started our walk back to the train station.

We had about twenty minutes to wait. I was fine with that, as I was quite tired of standing. Then on to the train we went.

I wish I’d taken a photo of the tons of people (most in red shirts that resemble soccer shirts in the states) who were getting on to the train. Wow! BUT as we walked back to find dinner (as if we needed food) there were absolute masses of sports fans. We had noticed some when we were at the Marina Market in the morning and since so many were young children we assumed it was a sports event for children. Nope. It was Cork versus Clare.

But what were they playing? Well, I had to look it up and here’s the answer I received:

Cork defeated Clare by 1-30 to 1-14 in Round 5 of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship on Sunday May 24th at Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

So now you know.

As we looked for dinner we continued to run into crowds of people. Some were walking to who knows where, some were at bus stops, and many were at various drinking establishments. Most were in the red and white shirts, Cork’s colors. Clare’s colors are saffron and blue (as I later looked up to verify) and I did see a few of those, and one little boy looked rather dejected as he was walking. Poor guy! I wish I’d gotten a good photo of the crowds, but honestly it was hard to get through some areas so I could only grab this one after we made our way through.

We were searching for a place with room for us, so we could grab a bite. We went into one place, thinking it might work for dinner, but the noise was deafening. Thankfully we did find a place called The Raven (looked like no Cork fans were there) and we ordered, surprise, surprise, far too much food. I think I need a fasting day! I had a shrimp sandwich and Dan had chicken. HOW he managed to eat that huge thing is a wonder, don’t you think?

From there we walked back to the hotel. A bit of laundry was done, and I got this entry typed up. What a long and full day it’s been!

Yawn. Time for sleep!

Oh …
21,582 steps, 8.59 miles, 1 flight climbed