Northern Immersion - Under Irish Skies

We grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel, less than satisfying, and then hit the road.  My wife did better with the car today.  The only incident we had was when she was turning right and didn’t swing out wide to the left and instead turned into the oncoming traffic.  But all was fine, as she swerved away from the cars, ran over a kerb, took out a wayward sheep, and managed to get back on the correct (but really wrong) side of the road again.

As we drove, I witnessed an ever-changing sky.  One minute it was gray and dull, the next minute it was blue and intense, and the next minute still it was black and foreboding.  I watched the clouds change and move in an endless dance.  I watched the sun burst through in startling brilliance before being suddenly swallowed up again.  We were pelted by rain and buffeted by wind…and always the sky was changing and shifting.  The sky in this country has so much personality…so much beauty.

It was late afternoon by the time we made it to Limerick.  So, we checked into our hotel, the Absolute Hotel, and headed out for lunch.  Upon the recommendation of John at the front desk, we headed downtown to the Cornstore Bar & Restaurant.  He said the place was so good that it was booked with reservations on the weekends for weeks in advance.  That was enough for us.  Thinking that we might have a pretty good chance of just walking in at 3:45 p.m., we walked through the drizzly rain over to Thomas Street.  When we arrived, the hostess told us that they stopped serving lunch at 4 p.m., so we had about 5 minutes to order.  We both decided on the penne pasta, and my wife decided to try the soup of the day as well.

Both the pasta and the soup were phenomenal.  My wife had me try the soup first, just in case, and the hostess slowed her walk as she passed to see how I’d like it.  When I declared that it was absolutely delicious; she smiled, nodded her head, and kept on walking.  The food was definitely worth its reputation.  An absolute must if you ever come to Limerick, Ireland.

Tonight, we decided to eat in the hotel bar, the Absolute Bar & Grill.  Since we had had a late lunch, we split the fish of the day (due to the heavy, indecipherable accent of the waiter, we still to this day don’t know what kind of fish it was…even after asking twice) and some caprese.  It was okay, but not great.  That seems to be my experience with hotel restaurants over here.

After dinner, my wife ordered the Lemon & Blueberry Trifle, and we both ordered hot chocolates with marshmallows.  The hot chocolate was divine…I slowly savored every steaming chocolately, sip.  My wife on the other hand devoured her trifle like a starving man eating his first meal.  She even went so far as to try to lick every last bit out of the glass.  Unfortunately for her, they had served it in a wine flute, so she could only get her tongue a couple of inches into the glass.  She gave up in an exasperated huff and drank her hot chocolate instead.