Ireland in Retrospect: Heading West

Heading West September 18

This morning we had a simple bowl of cereal for breakfast before taking the bus to the Budget car rental in city centre. Actually, they call in "car hire" in Ireland. That took forever. Like, seriously, is there any more boring place in the world than a car rental lobby? One cool thing is that while Justin was in line, a man next to him saw that he was from Wisconsin based on his driver license. Turns out he was born in West Bend, Wisconsin! They chatted for a few minutes. And then finally it was our turn to get the car!

Almost all cars in Ireland are manual transmission. And of course, they drive on the left side of the road. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and the shifting is done with the left hand. Justin requested that I don't give him a hard time with his driving since it had been a while since he'd driven manual, and a long time since he had driven on the other side of the road. Well, other than stalling a few times (had it in 3rd instead of 1st) in the driveway, he got the hang of it pretty quickly!

Our first driving "issue" was when we got to an intersection with a traffic light that had a green light and a red light at the same time! We're pretty sure the red light was for the turn lane, so he went through with no problems. It definitely threw us off a bit, though. I got used to being on the other side pretty quickly too.

So, on our way to the west coast of Ireland, we decided to stop in a little town called Kilbeggan, because they have a working distillery and tours. We got there shortly before lunch, and found out that the next tour wouldn't be until 1:30. We walked around the village, but there honestly wasn't much to see. It seems that that distillery is the only real attraction. Plus there was nothing to eat on the main road. Funny, though, we saw three butcher shops! Apparently folks in Kilbeggan like to cook their own food. Eventually, we drove to a nearby petrol station and got a couple hot sandwiches, and gobbled those up before heading back.

Here are a few shots of the outside of the distillery I took before we went in for the tour.

Our tour guide's name was Tracey. She was very knowledgeable about the whole distilling process and the whiskey itself. She'd been working there for like 16 years or something. I'm not going to lie, I didn't pay THAT close attention. Justin was pretty fascinated though. I do remember that it was only in the last 10 years that they've started actually distilling small batches of whiskey, after many years of the distillery just being a historic tour. We also learned that one man is responsible for the entire distilling process. And we got to meet him, so that was kinda cool.

A barley masher thing.

A big mixer thing.

Some sort of turny thing. I'm pretty sure it's important.

We went outside...

The water wheel.

Closer pic of the stream.

Another sunny day in Ireland!

Are these called pot stills?

This is a warehouse! I know that much for sure.

At the end of the tour, we got to sample four Irish whiskeys: Kilbeggan Single Grain, Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey, Tyrconnel Single Malt, and Connemara Peated Single Malt. My favorite was the first one. Second one was okay. The other two were not great for me. Justin hated the peaty one. It had a very smokey flavor. I'm really not a whiskey kinda girl.

Finally, my reward.

After we completed the tour, we walked next door to the little coffee shop to get a cup before we got back on the road. We got in contact with Uma, who was the lady who would assist us at the apartment in Kinvara, our next destination. She told us to meet her at the Centra, which is another grocery store.

Late this afternoon we arrived in Kinvara. There' a small, ruined castle on the outskirts of town. We drove by a happy old man with a long beard riding his bike like he didn't have a care in the world. That was a fun and unexpected sight.

We met Uma, and she was an older, sweet, non-Irish woman. I couldn't tell you where she was from though. She pointed to our home for the next three days. It was just down the street a bit. She showed us everything we needed to know about the apartment and a few things about the town before she left us with the keys.