Day 226, 24 January 2015. Woo hoo! Fine Day = River Valley Road Trip! Dunbrody at New Ross and Fish & Chips in the sun, pretty Inistioge with friendly churches, Anglo-Norman Grennan Castle for a photo-stop, Thomastown and a "drive-by" of Jerpoint Abbey, Graiguenamanagh (we kid you not), then home via the back roads.
It was wet, gray and drizzly yesterday, and so perfect weather for our "carnic" picnic and outing. But today dawned bright, sunny and with blue sky all over the shop. So we got a wriggle on (slowly but surely) and headed out about 11 am to start the day in New Ross. We've been through the higgledy-piggledy streets before on various day trips, but not stopped for more than a coffee. Today we made a point of parking and paying and going for a walk. We ended up at the Dunbrody Famine Ship Visitors Centre for a coffee and scone (and warmth and loos) with a great view over the replica ship. No urge to actually cough up €13 and visit the ship, but we enjoyed the displays showing the extent of Irish migration - particularly to the USA. It's the time of year in Ireland to take opportunities as they present themselves - as many places are closed til March. So as we strolled the river promenade we kept our eyes open and saw a Fish & Chippy... Yay! About as close as it's possible to get to sitting at the sea side - and superb fish & chips. We piled back into the car and headed off on the River Valley route in one of our great little day trip books. Bounded by the Rivers Nore and Barrow, we figured we'd actually covered most of this route on a wild and woolly drive back from Kilkenny - but as we'd been returning after a long day out and it was dark, cold and wet, we'd not stopped anywhere. Today we stopped everywhere. Scenic view point (Stop!) Old Church/tower/pile of rocks (Stop!) You get the idea. Favourite little town of the day? Inistioge. Right on the River Nore, Inistioge features a 10 arch stone bridge and, rather unusually in this country, a Catholic church and a Protestant church (pictured) right next door to each other. We know. Scandalous indeed. We had a good look around and had a coffee and cookie (love our little flask) down on the river whilst basking in the sunshine. Even bought a Euromillions ticket... so if it's a while until you hear from us, you know why. From Inistioge on to Grennan Castle for a photo stop, then Thomastown. Suffice it to say that this village has a traffic engineer with too much time on his hands... no where near as welcoming as Inistioge, so we did a drive-by of Jerpoint Abbey (FOTM - F**K off til March) but took a great shot, on the move and through the windscreen. Finally wending down we headed home via Graiguenamanagh. Really will have to find a local to say that for us one day. Back at 4 o'clock on the dot and took the doggies out for a walk in the sun. Apparently the neighbouring farm has just manured their fields. We say apparently because though we've not seen it for ourselves, Ruby (the big dog) had been rolling in something that should be banned by the EU Government... (unlike hoovers over 1800 watts - which is their latest bugbear). Jay-sus! that dog reeked. We thought a hose down outside might do the trick - Nope, not a chance. Nothing for it but into the big tub and half an hour of lather, rinse, repeat (and repeat and repeat and repeat...) Very sad dog by the end of it. Her tail was so between her legs it was almost touching her nose. Also had a casualty the other day. Used to have roughly 30 chickens. Now we have roughly 29 chickens. One of the dogs got a bit snap-happy and the victim turned up dead in a coop after a hard frost. Ahhhh... burial was undertaken with due reverence. I warbled Amazing Grace during the service and then a rousing chorus of "When the Chooks, Go Marching In" on the walk back to the house. So there you go... it's not all giggles this travelling the world, housesitting on the smell of an oily rag, permanent holiday/retirement caper... But we wouldn't swap it for the world, that is for sure. We're planning our Spanish day trips even as we speak - Hola Amigos!