Becki and Nanci’s European Adventure

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Today we were up early as it was a moving day. We were leaving Dublin for County Cork and the surrounding area and we had to have our suitcases outside our door by 7:30 AM. One thing nice about this company is they porter your luggage, as long as you have it where it supposed to be at the appropriate time. We couldn’t be late or we’d have to drag our luggage downstairs onto the bus by ourselves! We again have a breakfast buffet, and we’re to be on and out by 8:30 AM

Today it was chilly. Plus it was raining. It wasn’t just a drizzle, but it wasn’t a hard rain…. Yet! Well I don’t mind riding the bus in the rain, but it makes it hard to take decent pictures!

It was a 2 to 3 Hour drive so we had a comfort stop at a Texaco station! I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen a Texaco station. Inside the Texaco station were several places to eat including a Papa John’s. It’s always fun when you’re in a foreign country and you see so many American products or food services.

As we continue to Blarney Castle, the rain got worse. Many times it was a complete downpour. We could see that some of the streams were overflowing, but nobody seemed concerned, so neither were we! We did pass a place where the water was flowing across the road, but it appeared only to be an overflowing ditch.

By the time we arrived in Blarney Castle, we had an hour and a half to shop, have lunch, take a bathroom break and then meet our group to go over and kiss the Blarney Stone. We were to meet our guide at 2 o’clock to head over to the castle. Sadly, when we met our guide, we learn the castle was closed. There was flooding all around and we weren’t even able to go to Cork. We were going to have to head straight to our hotel!

I got to give kudos to our bus driver for getting us to our hotel safely! I can’t tell you how many times we had to drive through water that I wouldn’t have taken my car through. You’ll just have to look at the pictures to see how bad things were. Even the police and the national guard were called into assist. According to our guide, this area received a months worth of rain in a few hours.

Our hotel was in the town of Macroom. It was called The Castle. It was an older hotel but such a nice place. The rooms were huge and the beds were so comfortable!

We were so glad to get to our hotel, but disappointed we didn’t get to kiss the Blarney Stone or visit Cork. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

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