I am awake this morning in plenty of time to meet my traveling/playing partners at the airport, having arrived here in Dublin myself yesterday afternoon. Picked up our wheels for the next couple of weeks…….a hybrid Nissan Qashqai….……”Cash Cab”…….checked in at the Portmarnock Hotel with Jameson Links Golf Course attached, and managed a couple of Guinness and a plate of curry before hitting the sack. Sleep deprived after a week in the Azores with the boys, I am very happy to get a good solid ten hours before the alarm went off.
Jutta and Sibylle were texting all day yesterday, and we have a plan for a slick pick-up at the airport……..I am hanging out, illegally parked at a nearby hotel, awaiting the word. It comes, “We have our bags”, I instruct them to go outside of Arrivals and wave me down from the sidewalk. The ladies couldn’t find Arrivals, but did find Departures, luckily I couldn’t find Arrivals either and was driving past Departures when they walked out…….Perfect timing. May all your wrong turns be right turns!
This is their zombie day when you can’t decide if it is best to have a nap or just suffer through it and stay up. A short nap is the choice, and following that the ladies are off to chip and putt at the practice area which we can see right outside our hotel rooms. Very nice view of the course we will play a couple of times during our stay. The Portmarnock Hotel is built on the site of the old Jameson family estate………John Jameson III built a private 9-hole course here in the 1850s, among Ireland’s earliest links. The current 18-hole course, designed by Bernhard Langer in 1995, incorporates land from the original estate. Holes 8, 9, and 15, still resemble the original design from the 1850’s. The graveyard off to the side of the first fairway is where members of the Jameson family are buried, so tons of local history here.
Not content with the level of activity today, despite their sleep deprived condition, The Goats are anxious for some additional mileage, so we head to the beach for a hike……..the golf course/hotel property is completely fenced or walled in……..no access from the beach, or from the road. We have to leave the property and go next door to the public parking lot to gain access………I guess in the summer months the hotel parking lot could be overrun by beachgoers if they didn’t protect it. The goats are off, and I trundle around the dunes for a bit, and actually find a sneaky little path that gets me through the fence and back to the hotel. Report from the walk is that there are tons of people swimming in the ocean, and there is a large bunker like structure just down the way that serves as a changing station, shelter, complete with washrooms. I am sure the ladies will be in the sea before we leave.
There is just enough gas in the tank to head to the Jameson Pub in the hotel……..might be part of the original home??……and we order up 3 bowls of seafood chowder…….fantastic……..just what was needed before calling it a night. On the course at 9:30 tomorrow morning……..first balls of the year for the ladies.
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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