The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
The Road to Cashel
After the standard overnight flight from New York -- six hours; too long to stay awake and too short to really sleep -- we
arrived in Dublin right on schedule at 9:15am. The plan was to pick up the rental car, drive to Cashel (about two hours
south) and have some time to re-acclimate. It sounded easy but of course proved to be a bit more problematic.
Car rentals in Ireland require collision damage insurance (CDW) and most credit card insurance won't cover it for some reason. An exception is [some versions of] the World MasterCard. Since not having to buy insurance from the rental agency would save about $1500 for the three weeks' rental (yikes!), I dutifully got a World MasterCard specifically for this reason. Wouldn't you?
The snag was that I forgot that I needed to bring a letter from MasterCard dated within 21 days of my arrival that specifically said they would cover the CDW in Ireland. Without it, my car rental would be almost six times what I was expecting to spend! After 45 minutes on the phone being passed around between various night shift departments, we finally determined that only the MC claims department could provide the required assurances and they didn't open until 8am Eastern time (1pm in Dublin!) Had all this happened on a weekend, I would have been totally screwed since the claims department is only staffed Monday-Friday.
There were two options: sit around the rental office for two+ hours and hope that MC would say the magic words or bite the bullet and buy CDW from the rental agency for an extra 1000 euros. Having more time than spare change, we crossed our fingers, fired up the Kindles and waited it out. The good news is that MC came through and the agency, perhaps feeling sorry for our situation, upgraded us to a brand new (as in never-been-driven-before) car. The bad news is that I was sleepless for three hours longer before we finally hit the road ... as if driving on the left while operating the gear shift with my left hand wasn't enough to addle my aging brain!
Fortunately, we were on divided motorways most of the way to Cashel so there were no major challenges while I got used to the car and started to figure out where I was on the road.
The main attraction in the area is the Rock of Cashel, also known as St. Patrick's Rock, once the seat of the ancient kings of Munster and a natural defensive position back in the days when that was of primary concern. Eventually it was given to the church and evolved into a religious center. We'll check it out tomorrow morning.
Joy's Rockside House, our B&B, is right at the base of the hill going up to the Rock. Very convenient not to have to move the car to see the sights. Our hostess, Joan, was most welcoming and hospitable, filling us in on the local attractions and offering restaurant recommendations. Even though she's said exactly the same things to countless other guests, she made it all sound personal. That's something for everyone in the service professions to keep in mind. Even though you may have said something before, it's the first time you've said it to the people in front of you. If you can't come up with different ways to deliver the same message, at least you can keep it sounding fresh.
The town itself is a pleasant little place with some evidence of former glories and, unfortunately, many empty storefronts providing evidence of current troubles. Joan recommended Fahy's for dinner. I don't know if I'd consider it a pub or more of a restaurant, but the food, if a bit basic, was tasty. The waitress was friendly enough but appeared to be the only one working in the front of the house, so between seeing to the bar and trying to service the tables as well, she wasn't able to be responsive anywhere. Had the owners taken the risk to put one or two more people on the floor, they could have easily seen 20-30% more revenue even without an increase in guest counts. As it was, they were only educating the public not to patronize the place.
© 2014 Restaurant Doctor
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