Day 7 - Cork

Some travel days are meant for chores. This morning's chores entailed packing up Matt’s laundry into my main backpack and walking down to “The Laundry Basket.” I had hand-washed most of my clothes already. The owner remembered me and said, “Welcome back luv. Let’s see whatcha have. Oh 3 bags, lovely. I’ll have ya ready at half past noon.” It was nice not having to hand wash a weeks worth of Matt’s work clothes. Total cost= 12 pounds for 12 euro…not a bad deal.

I made it back to the hotel with the laundry just as the rain hit. It was the standard Irish rain that comes in diagonally and pelts you in the face even if you have proper rain gear. Since there was no point in going out again, I had a bowl of soup for lunch at the hotel while I waited out the rain. They tell you that if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it will change. According to Yahoo Weather, I had to wait for an hour.

The rain finally stopped and I was able to get a long walk in along the River Lee. I made my way uphill onto Sundays Well Road to St. Vincent’s Church built in 1853. It’s the biggest church on the hillside across from my hotel room. It was a nice 4.5 mile loop.

Matt was home by 6:30, so I basically took him on the same walking loop again, but inserted a stop at the Franciscan Well for dinner. It’s a wood fire pizzeria with it’s own micro brew house situated on the site of an Old Franciscan Friary that was built in 1229. The well that the friars used to make their beer still survives today and is fabled to have healing qualities. Therefore, if I drink their beer brewed from the well water, I will have a long and healthy life.