Ireland #13 Middleton and more

When we got back to the B&B the night before,

Dave and I talked with the owners about our itinerary

and realized that our plans weren't feasible.

Joe and Noreen were very helpful and gave us some   

great advice.  So we ended up going to Middleton.

We arrived right around lunch time and found a wonderful

little gourmet sandwich shop called Monty's.

My sandwich was fabulous!

"Spiced beef, leaves, horseradish mayo, gherkins on white bread"

This wasn't just any white bread, it was absolutely delicious.

I know the others enjoyed their sandwiches too.

Dave had a bit of Jane's and said he wished he'd gotten it,

it was one of the best sandwiches he'd ever eaten.

Once lunch was finished the other 5 made their way to the

Jameson Distillery.

I'm not a drinker at all and really have no interest in whiskey

of any sort, so they went and I wandered around town a bit.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture.

There really wasn't much to take pictures of.

I did find a discount store and wandered around in there 

and low and behold, look what I found!

One of our favorite kinds of candy!

We discovered Orange KitKats on one of our previous 

trips and fell in love with them.

We've never seen them in the States and they are sooooo good.

I picked up what they had, only a couple packages.

These were supposed to be to bring home with us,

I knew the kids would be thrilled to have them.

Ha! Fat Chance!

Now don't jump to any conclusions,

I shared them with the others!

And we bought more to bring home,

along with this other treat.

Orange Aero Bars, another candy we had discovered on

previous trips that we didn't have at home.

These both became a couple of our favorite little treats 

while traveling.

I spent a little alone time, writing in my journal and reading

and to be honest, falling asleep in the car.

We had a set of walkie talkies and Ed's voice woke me

up, they were on the way back to the car.

We needed to get to the 

Cobh (pronounced Cove) Heritage Centre 

before it closed.

We made it just in time.

This centre had exhibits about the emigration of people from Ireland.

Many left from this port.

Over a period of about 100 years, over 6 million people emigrated

from Ireland.  About 2.5 million departed from Cobh.

People were picked up here for the fateful journey of the 

Titanic. Cobh was the Titanic's last port of call where 123 

passengers embarked.

At that time Cobh was called Queenstown.

When the Lusitania was torpedoed and sank near Kinsale,

survivors were brought to Cobh and cared for in the local 

hospitals, homes and lodging houses.

This picture shows the building of the Titanic.

These next 3 pictures below depict life on the ships 

headed for British North America, now Canada, 

but the majority of those people settled in the 

United States.

From the late 1700s till the mid 1800s nearly 40,000 

convicts were placed on ships and sent to Australia.

Life on the ships was extremely hard.

There were no staterooms, people were packed into the hold of

the ship.  The food often was insufficient and often spoiled

there was very little fresh water and disease ran rampant.

For these people it was either board the ship for 

America, or face sure death in their homeland.

This was their only chance at survival.

This statue stands outside the 

Heritage Centre, it is of 

Annie Moore and her two brothers.

Annie Moore was the first ever emigrant to be processed in 

Ellis Island when it officially opened on January 1, 1892.

A similar statue of Annie can be found in Ellis Island.

She and her bothers sailed from Queenstown (now Cobh)

on the SS Nevada on December 20, 1891 and arrived after 12 days

of travelling in steerage.

After our enlightening visit to the 

Cobh Heritage Centre

we were off to Kinsale for dinner.  

This evening we ate at 

Kitty O'Se's and unfortunately we were not impressed.

The food was, at best, mediocre.

BUT we did make the best of it, enjoyed each other's company

and picked up some Magnum Ice Cream Bars

for our dessert.

And I must say the facade of the restaurant was beautiful.

Then it was back to Kilcatten Lodge for the evening.

Believe it or not, I have no 

Flowers of the Day 

for this day, the ones on the front of the restaurant 

above were the only ones I took any pictures of.

But, I can tell you a funny story.

When we arrived in Middleton earlier in the day,

Dave dropped some of us off on the main street,

mostly because I was not having the best of days and

we didn't know how far it was to park the car.

He and Jane went off to find a parking lot, 

while the rest of us would check out the lay of the land.

They found a parking lot and parked the car.

Many of the lots in Ireland are "Pay and Display" lots

where you go to a central "machine" to pay 

and receive a ticket to display in your car.

So they walked up to the Pay area,

the window said "in use" so they waited.

And waited some more, until they realized that it was

a public toilet that they were waiting at

not a pay machine and it was a free lot.

We all had a good laugh over that.

This is a picture of the kind of public toilet they were

waiting at.  This one is in Kinsale, but it's the same kind.

I actually used the one in Middleton.

You put in your change and the door opens for you to enter,

once you are inside, it automatically closes.

It's actually very nice and roomy inside.

The soap, water faucet and dryer are automatic.

Once you are done, you hit the 

"door open" button and it opens and you walk out.

Then the door is closed again and the entire inside is cleaned.

The walls, toilet and sink are sprayed down and dried

for the next person to use.

When you enter, the room is clean and fresh.

How cool is that?!?!

But it does NOT give you a ticket to park your car!

I hope you are enjoying my trip to Ireland.

We are about half way through the trip now.

Next post will be about a golf course that got in our way, 

the sad blue wall,

a pink elephant 

and this little piggy.