A Woman's Prerogative

I just can't deal with packing up, lugging my heavy suitcase and carryon and travel bag (all of which I thought would be parked in the Galway house this entire time or I would've packed lighter) to spend just one night in Adare.  I'd have to catch a bus after I take a taxi to the bus station only to do that all over again in reverse to get back to Limerick to catch the train to Dublin. (Have I mentioned I miss driving my car?!) So I booked the hotel I am in until Sunday when I leave for Dublin.  If I want to see the little thatched cottages of Adare, I can do a bus without all that luggage and spend a couple of hours there then come back.  And if I plan to do a "travel around" trip like this one unexpectedly turned out to be, I'll just use one smaller suitcase on wheels next time!

I researched taking the train to Cork for a few days, though I didn't much care to see the Blarney Stone and certainly wasn't going to put my lips where a million others had been.  But in the end, I opted to stay here and learn Limerick as well as I'd learned Galway.  I may try to prop open my eyes and actually go to a pub past 9PM when the music starts -- I've found more people strike up conversation with me when I'm a solitary traveler.

Since my hotel is completely booked now, I've had to change from my river-view suite to a regular room further back.  My view has changed, but as long as I can see movement (cars, people, cyclists) I am fine.  And I still have a tiny slice of the Shannon.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

To the left

Straight out

A little to the right

More to the right

All the way to the right (with reflections in the window, darn.)

Part of the hotel garden below

Close up of the two flat across the street.  Pretty.  And a garage!  Most houses don't have them.

Close up of houses across the street.  Love seeing the kids playing.

A convenience store, a deli, and a baby boutique or day care? -- I think they are all out of business.  Darn.  Would've been really convenient.  (Well, not the baby place.)

Close up of my snippet of river view.

Close up of King John's Castle, which no, I am not going to see.  When you've seen one...or I should say, "When you've wimped out of seeing one..."

6AM Update

Look who's readying the shop!  Maybe this means that little convenience store is open, too?

Update #2:

These are the little connections that are a balm for bouts of homesickness on an extended vacation in another culture:  I walked across the street this morning to the Wild Onion and to my delight, found a fellow Chicagoan to be the owner!  We chatted and laughed about coincidental things, she gave me a free to-go coffee, advice about traveling to Dublin, and exchanged some American dollars for Euros for me below the common exchange rate!  I bought a chocolate chip cookie.