Sunday we went to church, John was to read one of the lessons but in the end he didn't as there was a baptism. From there we went to the Abbey Court Hotel for lunch then back home and had a lazy day.
Penny and I decided to go to Wexford and stay over for the night and come back on the Tuesday. We set out in wind, rain and miserable conditions, in the satnav we programmed in the short route and ended up on some very small roads! The place we were staying was quite remote and we only discovered it by accident but boy oh boy was it worth the find. Rathaspeck Manor is a Georgian manor house that has been converted to a 4 room b&b, It scored 9.2 on trip advisor and is 5 stars and worth every one as you will see from the pictures but you won't be able to soak in the bath or taste the full Irish breakfast! The bathroom, which used to be the chapel, is as big as the bedroom with underfloor heating, nice.
After we checked in we drove the few kilometres to Wexford to look for a restaurant for dinner. On the way was the catastrophe , as we drove along the narrow road from the b&b we were passed by a local shuttle bus only he didn't pull over far enough and our wing mirrors connected. The sound was quite loud but the damage we suffered was relatively minor, it snapped off the plastic mirror surround and the actual glass hit the road with several other bits of plastic. He didn't stop but we did to pick up the pieces a couple of which had been run over by other cars. In a left hand drive vehicle on the left hand side of the road the right hand mirror is quite important. At the time it looked bad but in the morning I managed to get most of it back together, the actual mechanism is ok and folds in and out with no problem so we have now to go through the insurance claim and repair that can wait till we get back to Coventry.
Considering that there are fishing boats tied up at the dock there were few open and none were seafood, we will understand why in the morning, however we found a pub and had a meal there. Penny had a nice sea trout which was very nice but the two huge torpedoes of mash were salty and very dense, nothing like my mash……..
Then we set the satnav again to get back to the manor however this time we didn't jag it as we approached from a different direction and we started to drive around in circles, where was our lovely room………… In the end we stopped at a shop in the village and asked. As it turned out it was just down the road and round a corner, so much for sat navs.
Tuesday we were off to the Irish National Heritage Park but via a little village I saw advertised called Kilmore Quay, this turned out to be inspired.
Kilmore Quay in Irish means quay of the big church and has a population or 417 and is a fishing village but also a major sailing centre where Irish yachts leave for France. The quay was really buzzing with fishing vessels coming and going all very interesting. We got into a conversation with one of the fishermen who told us some very interesting things. The European Union is really stuffing up the Irish fishing industry with uneven quotas, Spanish and French vessels are allowed twice the quota of fish than the Irish, he said that they had brought back 225 cases of Monkfish from a weeks fishing but have to dispose of around 90 of them to comply with regulations and most of fish were destined for the Spanish markets, which explained the lack of seafood restaurants in Wexford.
He also said that they were policed by the Irish navy but last week they were also boarded by a Spanish Naval ship in Irish waters to check their quota, bloody cheek but allowed under EU rules. No wonder the British want to get out………...
The Irish National Heritage Park is a brilliant place where they have sought to portray Ireland through the ages through a series of villages or living areas set in a forest next to a lake. For instance the Viking area is a a replica of a shipbuilding village built next to the lake…… We spent a very pleasant two hours walking around even though there was some flooding due to the heavy rain.
It was time to head back and the sat nav worked well even though it found Cloughjordan Park. Tuesday night was dinner at Lucky Bags restaurant….
Wednesday is another lazy day with Penny cooking, weather has got a little colder but the rain has gone away, mostly.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Carrie's passing and there is a memorial service at Ballymackey church yard at 12 noon ( 10pm EST or 9pm daylight saving).
