Sunday, January 20, 2013

Day 3 - Friday aka January 18th, 2013

I am being specific with the day/date because I am rapidly losing track!

We started the day in Dublin and ended the day in Ratoath, County Meath.  Well, actually we ended the day in Ashbourne because there are no hotels in Ratoath.

We left Dublin in the morning and headed north to Ratoath.  The weather was awful.  Rain, sleet, hail and snow.  Fun enough driving weather when you are in your own car, on familiar roads on the right side of the street.  Now try it in a rent-a-put, in a foreign country and on the wrong side of the road.  It was less than ideal but we didn't let it stop us.

We had a bit of a time trying to find a place to stay.  We discovered that there are no hotels in Ratoath and the 2 B&Bs are not operational in the winter.  One looked really lovely - at a farm out in the middle of nowhere.  The other looked kind of like the house from The Brady Bunch but with the weather I was hoping they would just give us a place to crash.  No such luck.

We drove into the next town and found a very Neuvo-European-Chic looking hotel - The Residents Hotel.  The lobby was all white and glass with marble tiles floors (very slippery in bad weather) and funky looking furniture.  We got a decent room rate but we were 'warned' about the 'club' attached to the hotel and the noise that we might experience because of the patrons.  Apparently they got a lot of bad reviews online due to the noise and we had to sign a waiver that we were told and would not get a refund etc.  I guess the bad weather helped because we didn't have any issues - thank goodness.  The room was huge with a king size bed so that was very nice.

We stayed in the room for the afternoon because the weather was so ugly we didn't want to go out until we had to.  There was no way to go sightseeing and we definitely weren't going walking around.  At about 5 PM we headed out to dinner and had a wonderful meal at La Bucca.  It is another restaurant with an open kitchen and so we got to watch them prepare our food.  It was pretty quiet when we got there but got busier and pretty crowded before we left.  It was fun to watch them making food while we ate. We had a really nice waiter too, and that always adds to the enjoyment of a good meal.

After dinner we headed to The Venue Theatre at the Ratoath Community Centre for the first of the two Arlo shows on our schedule.  We saw Arlo briefly before the show - said hello, caught up etc.  The theatre is very intimate so although our seats were in the way back - they were still good seats.  We had a nice chat with the sound guy - who was wearing a Ramones t-shirt.

I'll post a set list tomorrow - I'm too lazy to go up and get it and if I bring the laptop upstairs, I am likely to lose my signal.  The show was very nice.  Jess Klein opened and Arlo did one long set before heading off the stage.  He came out and did one encore.  I think Arlo has some new fans in County Meath.

We headed back to the Residents Hotel and called it a night but not before becoming a statistic in Ireland - we lost a hub cap on the car.  Sadly, we didn't notice in time to go back and look for it.  I wonder how this will work out with our insurance....that should be worth at least a post or two when the time comes!

Ok - that's it....end of day three.



2 comments:

  1. It sounds like you aren't really having fun yet! :O If I were there, I would make you go for a walk in the rain. :) As for the hub cap... how does that make you a statistic? Do a lot of people lose hub caps?
    Love,
    Tina

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  2. I'd walk in the rain with you any day - but if memory serves your Dad and I were the ones walking in the rain while you went back to the hotel room when we were at Disney World :)

    And yes, a lot of folks who rent cars while they are here lose a hubcap!

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