Driving to Kilronan House in Dublin

Holy cow, THAT was an adventure. I'm exhausted. Last night, I got on Maps on the iPad and wrote down the dozen or so turns (road numbers) we'd need to make to get to the last B&B of the trip, and from there to the Budget car hire place where we needed to return the car by 11am. I was so confident that I could navigate us straight to the place that I insisted that Bill drive us in.  He is the more navigationally gifted of the two of us, but I was very sure of myself.  Once it was clear, as we both reached then passed Dublin, that I didn't have the first actual, reliable clue how to get there, we stopped and switched to our more suitable roles of me, driver, and Bill, navigator.  

There are no road numbers posted anywhere once you get to the outskirts of Dublin. The names of the roads are occasionally listed on the corners of buildings, but every block, the road names change. Seriously, every block.  And, even after Bill figured out where we were, the one-ways were not marked on the map, which gave us an added challenge.  Finally, we got to Kilronan House, which is amazing, beautiful, and in a nice part of town (Mimi rocked it out on finding really nice places for us to stay during our trip - thank you, Mimi!!).

We dropped our bags off, and left the kids with Mimi and Papa, and got back on the crazy roads to find Budget Car Hire.  Bill did a stellar job navigating and we wound our way around. We ended up on a road that Bill said when it came to a T, it would be the road the place was on, and we'd have to choose left or right.  As luck would have it, when we got to the end, we saw the Budget sign directly in front of us – hallelujah!!  We somehow managed to pick a road that took us right to it.  I loved driving in Ireland, but driving in Dublin (even as briefly as it was) was a nightmare, and I was very glad to be shed of the car. 

We quickly hailed a taxi and got back to Kilronan House in short order. Our driver was a hoot. Very opinionated and not at all shy. Mimi and Papa and the kids looked like they'd been shot with sleepy darts when we found them in one of our rooms. Kilronan House is beautifully appointed, and centrally located for easy walks to interesting parts of the city.