Trip to Ireland
September – October 2006
Saturday 30
September
Gresham Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street, Cork.
The Gresham Metropole
Hotel lies right in the heart of Cork
city and
has long been regarded as one of the most well known landmarks in Cork. This Cork
hotel is
over 100 years old and has been a popular site throughout the century,
making
it one of the most comfortable and stylish hotels in Cork.
The Gresham Metropole
Hotel Cork
is within walking distance from the business and shopping
districts of Cork
city.
9:50 Tralee to
Cork Bus
route 40 €15.50 (train is €28.50). No one could tell us why the bus
cost €13.00
less than the train and only took 5 minutes longer.
The trip to Cork
went as planned but the seats were very tight indeed and it was hot. It took some time to find the toilets in the
bus station. The bus station is very
central and just across the river from the hotel. The
train station is not easily accessible
and one gets the impression that people are discouraged from going
there. I can't think of a worst station
other than
some of the American ones. This is the
second city in the country and the one with the prestige service to Dublin. The actual station is very much of a mess and
it is very confusing to find your way around - the platform signs point
in
three directions from the "concourse".
Images of Cork
- a man walking down the street with a cell phone
and a
take-out latte.
- a security on duty at a pharmacy.
- many businesses are decked out in red, the
colours of the Cork
team which won the
All Ireland Final against Kerry.
Lunch was at the Ivory Tower, a place which had
aspirations
above its station. The toilet was classic
Chinese but they had put in small face cloth-style hand towels. The salad was very old indeed and the
cassoulet was beans only - accompanied by confit de canard. The best part was a good Argentinean Malbec.
When getting money out of an ATM it warns you of
the
environmental impact of printing a receipt and asks you if you really
need
one. When you say "Yes" it
asks you to recycle the receipt. After
all this you get your money and the machine apologises that it is out
of paper
and cannot print a receipt.
It rained all afternoon after we had checked in,
the strange
thing was that there was a lot of light - so much so that it appeared
as if the
sun was shining.
