December 4 - 5 - 6 -7, 2009
Thursday, Friday, Saturday ~ Happy Birthday Kevin  
Sunday, today ~ Welcome Santa and Mrs. Claus 

Here are highlights from our birthday celebration adventure to Cork City.  We stayed at the Vienna Woods Hotel in Glanmire, fifteen minutes outside Cork city centre.  Unfortunately, Kevin was ill the entire time, but he persevered and we made the best of our road trip.  We returned today, in time to welcome the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus.

This is the nice gradual climb of the driveway up to the hotel, being repaired from all the rushing waters from heavy rains.  {Gentle reminder: double click on any photo and it becomes HUGE, then click the back button to continue}

Cork is a coastal city, surrounded by water, on the southern tip of Ireland.

View of Cork city from the roof of our downtown parking garage:

Notice the street going up hill - we're not in flat Florida anymore:

Great name for an Asian restaurant - TemptAsian - temptation!  Very clever.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . .

In the "English Market" of Cork, a collection of shoppes under one roof:

Notice the price of the lychee, .49 EACH!  I could eat them all!  And don't the figs looks delicious?!

Mussels by the scoopful . . . .

Not today!

Pick a fish, any fish:

Monkeys Huckleberry and Galway, in display of Brown Thomas:

Enough already.  Back to the hotel for the night.  Time for Kevin to take care . . . .

Friday

After a bountiful buffet breakfast around half nine in the Blue Room, we returned to our spacious hotel room and relaxed in luxury for the entire day.  My man was really suffering and just needed to relax, watch tv in bed and rehydrate all day.  As Kevin remarked, "It's cheaper than a hospital room."  Poor guy.  I guess if one had to be sick, this was the place to be.  We made dinner reservations for 6pm and hoped for the best.

Dinner was served in the beautifully decorated Conservatory.  We each ordered caesar salads, to be followed by their special Irish sirloin served with garlic butter, potatoes and vegetable.  Kevin almost made it through dinner - we retired to our room before dessert, but I took it with us.  A yummy strawberry cheesecake for me and a chocolate "bowl" filled with four flavors of ice creams for birthday boy.

Saturday

Slept in as late as possible, enjoyed another fabulous Irish breakfast buffet, then checked out.  We were on the road again at exactly noon.

 

Kevin felt well enough for a detour on our drive north, back towards Mullingar. We turned west in Thurles (pronounced turr-less), passed through Templemore, and right into Tipperary (it wasn't a long way).  We wanted to touch base again with Miss Clare in person, about our move to her place in January.  Here's a hint of things to come:

 

We left TIMOTREC [Tipperary Mountain Trekking Centre] around 4pm. The remainder of the drive home was in the rain, through small towns, down back roads, into the dark night.  Our ride was not confined to boredom.  We witnessed a bad accident where, thankfully, the Garda were cautioning traffic.  A jeep pulling a small trailer of peat had overturned, straddling two lanes.  We didn't see any people.  As we were directed around the accident our car thumped the ground as it traversed the deep gully that was the shoulder - probably what had overturned the vehicles. 

With all the "gatorade" fluids Kevin was drinking we needed to make many stops along the way and there weren't always appropriate places to do so.  At one stop alongside the country road, as I waited and listened in the dark and rainy night for Kev's return to the car, a lone vehicle approached from the opposite direction.  When Kevin climbed back in he was groaning with discomfort.  His topsiders were covered with mud and his socks and pants legs were soaking wet.  He explained to me that when he saw the car lights approach he took a small step back and found himself sliding down a slope backwards into a ditch of water.  What a scare.  He was wet and dirty, but all right.  Whew!

Not ten minutes later we had another good scare.  Rounding a hilly bend we (the car and us) actually left the ground and floated sideways, landing in the opposite lane, in order to stay ON the road.  It all happened so quickly.  I just reacted in the moment.  Double WHEW!!!!

I soon found the N7 and cruised safely back into Mullingar.  After a quick stop for fresh milk we arrived home, exhausted, at 9pm.

Sunday

Santa and Mrs. Claus, with Comet and Vixen, greeted children at the Farm Safari Park today.  It was grand!

Doesn't Santa bear a striking resemblance to someone we know?  Same height, maybe a little pudgier, but look at those eyes . . . . is there a Cotter in him . . . . ?

Santa Claus was brilliant!  The only difficult thing was remembering NOT to wish a "Merry" Christmas (that's considered British).  After forty years it was a mental challenge for American Santa and his spouse.  Anyway, it was good practice for the weeks to come.  Children will be coming to visit Santa and his reindeer in the little Grotto every weekend until Christmas. 

Have a Happy Christmas everyone.