We did it on Adare

Well, after Abe and Roz got back from King John's castle, it was still early, so we got the car out of the hotel car park (car park=parking garage/lot) and drove to the lovely little village of Adare. Adare is located a short drive southwest of Limerick City in the county of Limerick. It is a very beautiful town with a number of traditional thatched roof cottages and a nice town park.

Thatched roofs on the main street of Adare

Adare's Town Park



Trinitarian Abbey Church in Adare - Founded 1230 AD, restored in 1852

After a pleasant walk around the town, we found a place to eat lunch. Naturally, it was a pub - called "Aunty Lena's Bar and Lounge". This was our first real Irish meal and it was very good. I am sorry to say that we disgraced ourselves by only drinking diet coke in the first Irish pub that we hit, but we were in bad enough shape from lack of sleep that I think we can be forgiven.

I should mention that the notion of Irish food being not being very good persists even today in the U.S. And in truth, in years gone by Irish cooking was not one of their high points. This was especially true of the Irish who immigrated to the USA. Michelle and I being from families who came at least partly from this tradition; we always sort of joked about Irish "cuisine" being essentially "boil it til it's limp" and add potatoes. In America, the Italians, Chinese etc. opened restaurants, the Irish opened bars.

Let me assure one and all, that in the Republic of Ireland, this has all changed drastically in the last 30 years or so. The food we had was, by and large, wonderful. I believe that Ireland's membership in the European Union has facilitated a cross-pollinization where in return for Ireland's wonderful fresh seafood, dairy and produce, European culinary skills have proliferated in the Emerald Isle. At any rate, it's the best of both worlds now. And I should mention that we didn't even eat in any fancy restaurants - just pubs and lunchrooms.

"Aunty Lena's" in Adare

Any rate, after a pleasant lunch at "Aunty Lena's" we wandered back to the car and returned to Limerick.

We semi-crashed in our hotel room for a while and eventually got our act together to go out for some dinner in Limerick City. The place we chose was (of course) a pub called "Dolans".

"Dolan's" - Limerick City

As it turned out, that night a big semi-final game for the Heineken Rugby Cup was being played between Munster (Southwest Ireland where Limerick is located) and Leinster (Eastern Ireland including Dublin). Since Dolan's is apparently a sports bar, the game was on about twenty TV screens throughout the pub and the place was filled with red-shirted Munster fans. It was kind of fun to be there with the excitement. Since Michelle and I are American football fans, watching the rugby match was kind of tantalizing since it was both like and unlike American football. I think our "football" is derived from rugby, but I'm not certain. The main difference to our eyes was the fact that the players wear no protective gear but they still get tackled and have these huge pile-ups on the ground-don't know how more of them aren't hurt. Well, Abe finally got on the internet with this super-whoopie Blackberry he has from work and looked up the rules of rugby while we were watching and then the game became at least semi-comprehensible to us. Unfortunately, Munster lost but they gave the other side a run for their money. Afterward we all agreed that it was kind of neat to be able to be there and experience a bit of Irish life and their version of sports fandom.

A U.S. college rugby game-note the lack of any protective gear!

I should also mention that the food in Dolan's was very good. We all had seafood which Abe and I each washed down with a pint of Harp Lager. Afterward, we drove back to the hotel in the rain and promptly passed out after being up for like thirty-six hours straight.

Next: County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher, Galway City and a medieval banquet (sort of).