Day Two - Mallow
The B&B we'd been booked into was the Rivervale Lodge, run by Mrs. Ann Doolan. B&B's are apparently (traditionally?) listed under the lady of the house, but several of the ones we encountered were run by couples. The address was simply: Bearforest Lower, Mallow, County Cork. Precious.
We were quite exhausted by the time we arrived in Mallow (even though it was only about 6:00 — or 18:00, as they insisted on calling it). Luckily, though, checking into a B&B in Ireland is like arriving at Grandma's house. The lady of the house welcomed us warmly, asked if we needed help with our bags, warned us that there was construction going on (I never heard a sound), and told us what time breakfast would be served. Here, as in almost every place we stayed, there were no formalities about names or credit cards or signatures. They hand you the key and say “have a good night!” So quaint, and much-appreciated after this particularly exhausting day. We went to bed early, slept rather fitfully (still adjusting the body clock) but got in a good 9-10 hours of sleep before getting up for breakfast, which is never, ever, under any circumstances, served before 8:00 (and usually 8:30).
At Rivervale, breakfast was served in a lovely sunroom overlooking the River Blackwater and a field behind the adjacent Castle Mallow where a herd of white deer were known to live. According to the host, these were the last deer of such breed left in the world (?) but I haven't fact-checked that on the internet. I didn't actually see any, but he seemed intent on making sure we did, so I pretended to have spotted them — “Oh, yeah! There they are! That's great!” Breakfast was yummy and quite extensive (it's called the Big Irish or Full Irish, and they served it, with only minor variations, almost everywhere we went). It consists of:
~ One egg, sunny-side up (happily, just the way I like them)
~ A couple of sausages (links, just like the ones we have here)
~ A couple of “rashers” (bacon, but not like what we have here)
~ Sometimes a slice each of black and white pudding. This is not really pudding, but a blood sausage that appears to be mixed with a grain (possibly at one time meant to stretch the meat to feed those large Irish families!) If I took a bite without being told what it was, I would guess it to be a vegetarian attempt at sausage, which is a bit ironic, if you think about it.
~ A grilled tomato and sometimes sauteed mushrooms
~ Coffee or tea, with milk, not cream
~ Orange juice
~ An assortment of cereals, of which we never partook
~ Soda bread — yummy, thick and cake-like (but not sweet)
~ Toast (made with “regular” bread) and jam
They will provide water if you ask for it, but it's by no means assumed that you will want water with this or any meal served in Ireland. For an island, these folks have a strange relationship with water. This was further illustrated by the plumbing:
We didn't know it at the time, but this first B&B was to be the nicest place we stayed in. We struck gold here in the shower sweepstakes (as dubbed, quite appropriately, by my friend Jamie on her recent trip to Ireland). There was plenty of water pressure and hot water, and if I'd foreseen the showers or lack thereof that I would be faced with in the days to come, I would have savoured that a bit more. All-in-all, this was a very nice place, and we got some good advice from the host, including a bit about a ferry that served us very well later in our journey.
He also told us to swing by and see the Castle Mallow. Lots of towns have castles and we were getting used to driving by them if they weren't on our “agenda”, but I'm awfully glad we stopped in to see this one, as it was really lovely, and one of my favorite memories.
There was no one there but us when we arrived, which would be true of nearly everywhere we went. There were many (ahem) naysayers (you know who you are) who raised a skeptical eyebrow when told that we were planning a trip to Ireland in February. But we decided very early on that we were quite glad to have been there when we were, as the chilly weather was more than offset by the miraculous lack of crowds. This opinion might have something to do with the fact that it didn't rain or even threaten to rain for our whole trip. Quite lucky that, as I'm told it rains 300 days a year there.
Anyway, we poked around Castle Mallow for a while, taking in the castle itself and the lovely surrounding view.
We were joined after a while by a groundskeeper of some sort, who was friendly and chatty like all Irish folk we encountered. He seemed to know we were American without being told, and this is even after only speaking with Thierry. This is a phenomenon we were to notice again and again. The Irish seemed to be able to guess where we were visiting from, and they invariably did not seem curious about Thierry's accent. We still don't have that one figured out... When we left, we realized that the guy had been waiting for us to leave so he could close the gate, which he'd come through to do grounds work. It's indicative of how warm and lovely these people are that he just waited for us to finish looking around.