Glad we made a stop at Cashel, Ireland!

We headed out at exactly 10:00am. First stop was at a Tesco Extra grocery store where we did a bunch of shopping, then arrived at the checkout to find they didn't want our business.

Tesco has a "Club Card" where you get fairly big discounts on some products. The card is free, so just about anybody shopping there would have one. You'd be crazy not to. 

But we haven't been able to download the app because we are from Canada. We found this out the first time we tried when we arrived here a month ago. Their in store customer service at the time said to just ask someone else in line if we could scan their card before paying, and so that's what we've been doing.

This time, the cashier said she wasn't allowed to do that. We asked for her supervisor and was told the same thing. Ridiculous, and they made no effort to be helpful at all. They just said it wasn't possible. So we left all of our goods right there on the conveyor at the cash and walked out. 

Waste of an hour. We went and did our shopping at Lidl. 

Later in the day I sent an email to head office customer service, and they weren't much help. I then went to their Club Card website and was able to apply for a card and they emailed me the number. I don't have the bar code, so the cashier will have to enter it manually, but it should work. 

Anyhow, with grocery shopping done, we made our way on the ring road around Dublin and headed west back towards the Atlantic coast. We were on the main highway most of the time, so didn't take any photos.

I remembered that one of our readers said that we should stop in Cashel and see the Rock of Cashel. We drove right by it on our way up to Dublin and I felt bad at the time that we didn't have time to stop in. It wasn't much of a detour, so we made our way here.

And it is impressive!

The Rock of Cashel.

As seen from where we are parked with Max.

I thought that the Rock of Cashel is actually a castle, but it's not. It's actually a cathedral and chapel, built in the 1100's. Although they say the history of the hill goes back almost 2,000 years and that there was a fortress of some kind on the rock prior to the cathedral.

Off in the distance, just over one km away is the ruins of Hore Abbey.

We wanted to go up to the Rock of Cashel first thing in the morning to avoid the crowds, and it opens at 9:00am. So yesterday evening we went for a walk over to Hore Abbey and back through town.

Looking back at the Rock of Cashel.

Hore Abbey is located in the middle of a farmer's field, but you can simply walk in and explore.

The Abbey was built in 1270 and was occupied until 1540.

Hore Abbey, with the Rock of Cashel in the background.

You can just wander around on your own.

Just us and the cows.

Looking back at the Rock.

The holes are from the wooden scaffolding that would have been erected to build the walls.

Hore Abbey.

Walking back through town, we came across this mural.

The central part of the town of Cashel.

The ruins of St. Dominic's Abbey are right in town.

It's all closed off thought, and I stuck my camera through the gate to get this shot.

Really nice town, and we're glad we made the effort to come. Now we are looking forward to our visit this morning to the cathedral located on the rock, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that!

Yesterday's drive, 197 kms (122 miles), from Stamullen, around the outskirts of Dublin, then on to Cashel.

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Great del on an Acer 15.6" Laptop with Intel i3.

And in Canada...

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