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.
