Really? What is that horrible noise? It is 4am and it sounds like someone is bouncing a metal ball against the building! So I get up and look outside. Low and behold – those “metal balls” are full kegs of beer being thrown off an open lorry by a worker onto a thick rubber mat, where they bounce and are being picked up by another worker and being stacked onto a dolly to be brought into the hotel. This delivery must be for the Moxy side of the hotel as I know the bar at the Residence is not open yet… Okay, back to sleep!
Now, having gotten up at a normal time, gotten breakfast from downstairs and spent some time knitting, we have decided to go on another day trip to a nearby town which has been written up as having a really cool downtown area – its name is Kinsale. So off we go to drive a triangle – to Kinsale then to Innishannon and back to Cork! Kinsale is near the mouth of the River Bandon and quite a nice little town! By the time we got there I was thirsty and a bit hungry so we decided to go for coffee and after looking up gluten free places on my friend Google, I saw a coffee house nearby named “The Flying Poet Aviation Cafe” which sounded just perfect! It also listed gluten free items! So we walked a couple of streets over from where we parked to find it, including past a yarn store, and were pleasantly surprised by this cozy cafe! The Flying Poet is owned by a former 747 captain of South African Airlines (which by the number of SA Airlines pictures is pretty obvious) and sitting there and looking at the wall and all the books was surely a memorizing experience! Andrew had his usual coffee and I had some hot chocolate and a GF browning which came with whipped cream on the side – such luxury! I looked at some of the book collection on planes, stared at the pictures on the wall and then we decided it was time to leave. I could have pulled out my knitting and curled up in one of the armchairs and spent all day there!
Across the street, a lady was carving a pumpkin she had grown which was really cool! She was using toothpicks to create the illusion of paned windows which I had never thought of before! We continued to walk to the riverfront and saw the washroom that you pay to use that cleans itself afterwards and also a really cook parking program – an “age friendly parking spot for older people”. That is an awesome idea! I later heard that this has started catching on next to the accessible parking spots. Getting an accessible parking permit is getting to be challenging in Ireland, as they are finding that many seniors are applying for them however the reason has more to do with age related issues rather than physical disabilities. These parking spots solve that issue! This might be something that needs to be looked into in other countries too – such as Canada as in BC, we definitely have an overabundance of accessible parking placards issued compared to accessible parking spots available. After walking back to the Main Street and doing a bit of shopping, we then decided to move onto Innishannon which we were driving through to take a different route home to Cork.
Well, tonight I pack in preparation for our travel to Iceland. I had already started by going through our extra bags and getting rid of some extra brochures etc that we no longer needed for traveling. Now we had to put the luggage back together and have it weight balanced for the flights. Luckily wool is not that heavy but it does take up space! When we got back to the hotel there were 2 packages waiting for us – one a new carry on bag on wheels (which I am planning on checking in) for my wool purchases and 2 sets of long johns! One set for Andrew in black – one of his favourite colours and of course purple for me! So looking forward to trying them on for a short period of time – do not need their insulation in Ireland but with the forecast now for Iceland they just might come in handy. Wish me luck with our packing!
Here was our route for the day…
