07-27-2023, 02:15 PM
May 9 Limerick
I don’t know when my affection for Limerick first started but it certainly didn’t start when I lived there. I felt like I moved to the 1950s. The city seemed kind of grey and run down. My dislike probably stemmed from being a teenager away from all the usual paths I enjoyed like going to McDonald’s or having pizza. I also bemoaned my like of Doritos Nacho chips to all who would listen.
But now, coming back to Limerick does feel like coming to one of my home towns. Plus, I have built a repertoire of things I really enjoy doing when I am back in Limerick. Foremost among those being walking along the banks of the Shannon. They call the loop I do the Three Bridges walk because you basically encompass the three main bridges in Limerick: Shannon Bridge, Thomond Bridge and Sarsfield Bridge. Shannon Bridge only came in to existence in 1988. Limerick was a two bridge town when I lived in Castletroy. And I do mean main bridges. There are plenty of other bridges around town, too. But the Three Bridges walk takes in the main bridges. Because of the Limerick Strand hotels location, the Three Bridges walk starts just outside the hotel’s door.
I took the elevator down from the fourth floor to the lobby. The glass elevators in the Strand do afford you a lovely view of Limerick as you descend. Accesibility rules in Europe make sure the elevator tells you what floor you are on but my elevator was having a breakdown and kept getting the floor number wrong. For some reason, you have to navigate through four couches to get to the revolving door and then to the outside. I had a fight with the revolving door the night before on the opposite side of the lobby. The doors kept crushing me as I tried to make my way through with all the bags.
I took Clancy’s Strand up to the Treat Stone at Thomond Bridge. Clancy’s Strand has undergone a lot of improvements since I first started doing this walk including new railings and wooden foot path that extends of the original quays into the river. There is a boat ramp dock down into the water and at very low tide people walk down to the mud to go fishing. The area is called the Curragh Falls and was the farthest point up the river big ships could travel.
At the corner of the Clancy Strand and Thomond Bridge on a giant pedestal sits the Treaty Stone. The Stone and the Treaty is why Limerick is referred to as Treaty City. A treaty halting the fighting between the Jacobites and Williamite Forces in 1691. The treaty allowed the Jacobites to leave the country without repercussions and swore the catholics remaining behind would be treated fairly. The treaty was broken moments after it was signed. And legend has it upon this stone the treaty was signed. The Treaty Stone and the pedestal used to much closer to the road, but one too many accidents because of the giant rock next to the road forced the stone’s relocation.
I used Thomond Bridge to cross the Shannon River to King John’s Castle. Yes, that King John. King Richard’s King John. Quite the kerfuffle going on in Limerick as the local want to change the name of the castle to Limerick Castle. King John’s Castle is the only cast in Ireland named after a person rather the city where the castle stands. Plus, the Irish aren’t too fond of their historic structures named for British Monarchs. If you want to get a good view watch the movie called ‘The Rising of the Moon’ by John Ford. Ford used the exterior of the castle extensively. Rising of the Moon is an allusion to a rebel song by the same name. I’ve never been inside the castle. You don’t do tourist things in the towns where you live is my excuse. I keep meaning to go in but they want to charge me a lot of money. I should have visited when I lived in town. Back then there were a bunch corporation housing inside the walls of the castle. I could have visited for no charge. The houses were removed in 1986 to allow for the construction of the tourist exhibition. But oblivious me didn’t even know there used to be houses inside the castle. Although I have pictures from that time that clearly show the houses.
I walked around King John’s Castle along Nicholas Street headed towards St. Mary’s Cathedral. I was happy to see the new Dolores O’Riordan mural on the end of a house as I made the turn, but it also made me sad. The O’Riordan mural replaced the Eye Scream mural that had been on the end of the house since 2013. The Ice Scream mural stood out in the Medieval section of Limerick across the street from King John’s Castle. The mural depicted a man eating an icecream cone that had an eyeball atop the cone. The bald man also had a Hello Kitty tatoo on his neck. For whatever reason, the figure always reminded me of the Yeti. The mural kept getting vandalized and there were complaints about the mural so it had to go. In 2019, they had whitewashed the wall and now, it’s Dolores O’Riordan, lead singer of the Cranberries.St. Mary’s is the oldest building in Limerick still in continuous use. St. Mary’s and King John’s represent the medieval portion of Limerick and actually sit on an island with the Shannon on one side and the Abbey River on the other. Pieces of the city walls still stand scattered around the area.
On this end of Sarsfield Bridge with the Strand Hotel on the other, an old Dunnes Store has been converted into the Fab Lab Limerick, an extension of the Architecture department at the University of Limerick. All of this is unimportant to the walk. But what is important is the artists and fabricators in the Fab Lab have painted all the bollards along Honan’s Quay outside the building into fanciful caricatures. They are all quite out of place in gray old Limerick.
As I continued on under the Sarsfield Bridge and Honan’s Quay became Harvey’s Quay. I also noticed one of those information placards which informed me this area was also known as the poor man’s Kilkee. Kilkee is a resort to the west of Limerick and if you could afford the train ticket, that’s where you went in the summertime. If you couldn’t afford the train ticket, you hung out on Harvey’s Quay and went swimming in the Shannon.
Harvey’s Quay becomes the Bishops Quay and back in the day the area was much more industrial. There used to be a large coal warehouse along this stretch. Poor people would come and gather loose coal lost from the delivery trucks to heat their homes. When the Shannon Bridge opened this whole area was revitalized. Right at the entry to the bridge is a large hotel and restaurant complex that I’ve seen for years but have never entered.
One thing you see when you walk this stretch from the Thomond Bridge to the Shannon Bridge is Swans. So many swans. It just doesn’t seem like Ireland if i don’t make some swan pictures. The best part about the Limerick swans is they like to be fed. And a good place to feed them was on the way back to the hotel after I crossed the Shannon Bridge. Right next to the St. Michel’s Boat club is a public ramp down to the river. The club uses the ramp to launch their sculls into the water and lies right off of O’Callaghan’s strand. I use the ramp to feed the swans. Not today though.
Back at the Limerick Strand Hotel, I got to experience my number one reason for staying at the Strand: The breakfast buffet. The buffet used to be very inexpensive. The cost was about five euros with the price of the room. Now, the price for breakfast is about 15 euros. Still worth the price. They have everything including a chef to make omelettes. Yes, I just use the buffet to recreate the traditional Irish breakfast of scrambled eggs, rashers, sausage and toast, but I could have a ton of different things as well. I was disappointed though to see the size of the buffet has shrunk since I was in River Room last but I still think they have the same amount of food only on a smaller footprint. If you are going to be in the River Room, might as well sit all the way in the front at the tables overlooking the river. I don’t understand the people who sit in the back where they can’t see anything. It makes no sense.
In the planning world, after breakfast we would have headed out on a walking tour of the city center starting at Percy Square and walking over to King John’s Castle. In the real world, I sent a text off canceling the Queen and I’s tickets. I went down to the parking garage and headed over to the hospital to see the Queen and the Queen Mum spent their night.
The beauty of the Limerick Strand underground parking lot is that there never seems to be enough room to put your car in between the lines. I did find the perfect spot next to a handicap spot. Nobody every parked in the handicap spot so the regular spot next to it always had plenty of room. I was only able to use that spot once. It usually took me three or four tries to get the car aligned properly between the lines and the parking job never looked as good as the cars that surrounded me. There were also a ton of concrete pillars around to reward you with scratched paint for any misteps.
Over at the hospital, I parked in their terrible parking garage, although the University Hospital parking lot was much better lit. The Queen had alerted me that they were out of the ER and had been given a bed. It was now up to me to find that bed. I wandered around a lot. Once again, I was probably in areas I wasn’t supposed to be in but I eventually found the Queen Mum’s ward on the 2nd floor. There were about twenty beds in there. No room dividers. Everything was just separated by curtains on overhead tracks. You could hear everything going on in the beds around them.
The Queen had spent the night trying to get some sleep in waiting room chair or actually crawling onto the gurney with the Queen Mum. The best part of The Queen Mum getting the bed in the ward was that when they rolled the Queen Mum in there was already somebody in her spot. Some miscommunication had put another women in the Queen Mum’s bed. I’m sure the other woman was upset to be told she would be going back down to the ER.
Our big question for the doctors, if we could find one was when was The Queen Mum going to be released? Initially, they had given the Queen Mum a chest x-ray to diagnose the extent of her pneumonia. The chest x-ray revealed a dark spot on her lungs. The doctors feared the dark spot was a blood clot in her lung. There was no way they were going to release her with a blood clot. The doctors needed a CT scan to determine if the dark spot was indeed a blood clot or something else. This led to our next question when where they going to give the Queen Mum the CT scan? They didn’t know. It was an involved procedure. The doctor had to request the CT scan. A panel of other doctors would then review the request and decided whether the request had merit. If the request did have merit, the Queen Mum would then get her scan. But, there were a lot of people waiting for similar scans. Next question. Why don’t we let the Queen Mum come back with us to the hotel where she would be far more comfortable, while you make arrangements for the CT scan? That would have been far too easy. The hospital wasn’t letting her go. She’d lose her place in the queue. Our job was to wait for a doctor to come by. When the doctor visit would occur no one had any idea. In the meantime, they pumped the Queen Mum full of meds and let her use a Nebulizer for fifteen minutes. They also brought around food for the Queen Mum, which she seemed to enjoy. The Queen seemed to be exhausted. There was a man in the ER, who I had seen, who had a bloody white t-shirt on who spent the night going up and down the hall all the while groaning. Probably a good thing the Queen stood guard.
Since there wasn’t much to do but wait, I decided I would do my waiting elsewhere. Again. I’m a terrible person for leaving the Queen and Queen Mum to suffer by themselves in an unfamiliar town in a terrible hospital.
I love walking the town as I have stated. But the best of all possible walks is along the abbey canal to the Shannon River. The path then continues up to the University of Limerick. When I lived in Castletroy, which is very close to the University, then known as National Institute of Higher Education or NIHE, my father would leave the house, walk to the NIHE and then along the banks of the Shannon into the city center. My job was to drive down after an hour and pick him up. He couldn’t walk there and back because it would have been too boring. Everyone knew how much my father liked that walk on the Shannon banks that when he left Ireland to return to the states, his friends gifted him a painting that showed that path along the river.
Now, I have done the walk to and from the UL, it’s about a two hour walk up and back. I didn’t have that kind of time so I decided I would take the bus up to the University and walk back from there. Look at me using public transportation. And the bus fare was about $2. I picked up the 304 bus on William Street just up the street from where I worked at Burgerland and where I would take my connector bus home from school. They didn’t have such a thing as school buses. They just made you take public transportation. The bus was nice. There was a USB plug at my seat on the upper deck. I was able to take some nice pictures along the way of familiar sights. In no time at all I was at the Stables on the campus looking for a path to the river.
After a quick stop on the living bridge which connects the campus to student housing on the other side off the Shannon, I managed to make my way down to the river path. One thing about the living bridge, it’s a pain in the ass to take pictures on the bridge because the bridge constantly shakes from the bicyclists crossing the bridge.
All day, clouds had dotted the sky. By the time I was deep in my walk, the clouds completely covered the sky. Rain started to fall. And not that cool, I’m in Ireland moistened by a gentle mist kind of rain, this was the pouring, head for shelter kind of rain. There was no shelter along the path. A few pedestrians tried to get close to the trees along the path in the hope the branches and leaves would afford some protection. It didn’t. They looked just as wet as me. Since there was nothing to be done, I just kept walking.
I desperately wanted to continue along the river to the Athlunkard bridge and beyond, but time was precious. I turned at the Kevin Hannan (or Guinness, depends who you ask) footbridge and followed the path along the Park Canal. In the years, I’ve been walking this path, the brush along the banks has grown quite large. You used to be able to see for a fair distance along the waterway. Now, you can barely see the canal. I thought at one point, Limerick Council had spent a lot of money to clear the canal for boaters. The canal looks impossible to navigate at this point.
The walk ends where the canal joins the Abbey river. I then followed the sidewalk to the Abbey Bridge, which is the newest bridge in Limerick. I don’t like the Abbey Bridge all that much because it blocks the views of Baal’s Bridge. Baal’s bridge looks like what an old Irish bridge should like even though the bridge was built in 1831 replacing a bridge that had stood on that spot since 1340, connecting Irish Town to English Town. Further down Charlotte’s Quay, I ended up at the Hunt Museum, photographing for the millionth time the horses that stand in the forecourt. The Hunt Museum is another great Limerick institution that I have never fully explored but I was going to change that on this trip. Well, not really. I’ve been in the lobby plenty of times. This time I was in the lobby to track down a paving stone I had purchased in honor of my father. The stone was supposed to be placed in a new outdoor garden of the Hunt Museum. I asked the nice lady at the front desk where I might find my stone.
I was directed down the stairs and out the back. There I found a few sculptures and small path lined with engraved granite bricks. They looked great and I couldn’t wait to find my father’s so I could take a photo of it. I looked all over. I couldn’t find it. There weren’t that many bricks but my father’s was not among them. Saddened, I walked back inside and asked the nice lady at the gift shop counter if there might be a guide to where individual stones might be located. The nice lady passed me off to James Horgan, Facilities Coordinator. When I explained my problem to Mr. Horgan of not being able to find my father’s stone, Mr. Horgan explained they were having a problem with the Cobbles. Well two problems. The first problem was that the stones weren’t treated properly so they stones were actually washing away. Odd, because I had just seen a bunch of cobbles out in the yard that looked great. The second was that children had a tendency to move the stones around. All that being said, Mr. Horgan was going to track down my stone and get back to me.
In the lead up to the trip, I read an article in the Limerick Leader Newspaper about a man named Tom McNamara who in April had been inducted into the Limerick Person of Year Hall of Fame for being the oldest Busker in Limerick, if not Ireland. Mr. McNamara was 86. I don’t think I had ever seen a busker on the streets of Limerick and here was a guy who had been playing his accordion around the city center for the last forty years. I wondered if I was going to find him on this trip. As I made my way from the Hunt Museum to Thomas Street where I was going to have lunch, I spotted Mr. McNamara sitting half way up Todd’s Bow just after I left Cruises Street. Todd’s Bow is important to me because Burgerland, where I worked, was just around the corner on William Street. The back entrance to Burgerland used to open up onto Todd’s Bow as well. Plus, The Islands restaurant where I used to be able to get a pseudo pizza was also on Todd’s Bow.
I hung back from Mr. McNamara as he talked to another fan and when that person stepped off, I moved in and asked him if he was the famous Limerick Busker. That was the last word I spoke with exception of yes and sure as Mr. McNamara spun tales of his life and the local area. He talked about bicycles and tunnels under the street and running from the gardai and I would probably still be there listening if I didn’t have other things to do. The man could talk. He had stories to tell.
Over on Thomas Street, I had lunch at Sambros. I was having lunch there because Sambros had just won the award for best in Ireland from Just Eats. Just Eats gives awards for takeaway food. With that recommendation, I had to try the place. Best in Ireland. I don’t think Sambros won the award for decor because plastic chairs and laminate tables aren’t that enticing. The food was fine. I dined on the Smashbros BBQ burger which was two hamburger patties covered with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and crispy onions. Tasty. I don’t know about best in Ireland. I have to do more research.
By this time, the Queen needed a break from the University Hospital. Being stuck in Limbo waiting on doctors can wear on anyone. And she didn’t even have a bed to lie in. The plan was for me to come to the hospital while she took a taxi to the hotel. Before I left the hotel, I cancelled the Queen Mum’s room for the night. Looking ahead, I reserved our rooms for an extra night at the hotel. I didn’t think we would be rolling out of here on Thursday morning for Kerry.
Like ships we passed in the night. The Queen left. I took over her chair. I’m glad I brought a book. The whole ward was a bit depressing, sort of old and run down with older patients filling the beds. No one seemed like they were having a good time. The support staff were all very friendly and conscientious but our real need was to see a doctor to give us some clue as to what was going on. At some point, they asked the Queen Mum if she had seen a doctor yet. This caused some consternation when she replied no. She should have seen one of the doctors when they did rounds in the morning. Now that shift was getting ready to change, there was a chance we wouldn’t see a doctor that day. They ran off to find us a doctor.
Eventually, a doctor did show up. He explained the problems with the dark spot on the lung and the need for the CT scan. Fine. Sure. Why didn’t we do the CT scan this morning then? He didn’t have any good answers for us. The hospital never had good answers for us. I pressed him on when things were going to occur. No answer. It was up to the people deciding whether the Queen Mum got her scan or not to do their job. I asked for the doctor’s phone number. He said his number was in the paper work. The Queen showed up by this time and got to deal with the doctor as well. I joked with her via text about which woulds who up first, The Queen or the doctor. I also joked we should have started a timer when the nurse told us the doctor was coming to see how long that actually took. Basically, we knew nothing and we had to wait.
The Queen just missed the doctor but I shared the information about still needing the CT scan and waiting on the board to give the Okay for the scan. The Queen thoughtfully brought one of the Strand Hotel bathrobes so The Queen Mum could get out of her stupid hospital gown. One of the things the Queen Mum and I talked about was the need for the Queen to get out of the hospital for a little longer. I told the Queen about the agreement, thatshe would be leaving with me for a few hours to go get some dinner with some local friends, the Bradshaws. The Queen was not fond of the idea, she did not like leaving her mother alone with the hospital devils, but she came around. Part of the problem was the Queen was starting to come down with a cold. She was losing her voice so bad, she would text me her questions to my phone rather than speak. We needed to get to the drug store.
There was a drugstore located on the way back to the hotel in the Crescent Shopping Center. We stopped in and picked up a whole passel of Strepsils throat lozenges and paracetamol.
Back at the Strand, The Queen and I had dinner in the River Restaurant. Ann and Brendan Bradshaw were originally going to meet us for dinner but by the time we got to the hotel, they had already eaten, but promised to come by once we had finished our meal. Brendan was the first friend my father made in Limerick. Brendan’s local pub was in the Limerick Ryan hotel where my father stayed while getting Verbatim up and running. They also had offices near each other in the Sarsfield Office Building where my father worked while waiting for the temporary manufacturing facilities out on Ballysimon Road got going. My father and I have visited with them every time we’ve come to Ireland including the wedding of Brendan’s daughter back in 2014.
The Queen lost her voice during dinner. She resorted to texting me her questions and I would give the answers. I told her that our host down in Killarney had agreed to refund our money for the hotel stay once they learned the Queen Mum was in hospital. According to booking.com the owners of the Killaran House didn’t have to refund our hotel money, but they did once I explained the situation to them. Since we were now spending an extra night in Limerick, we would not be spending any time in Killarney and heading straight to Waterford. Well, we would do that if we could spring the Queen Mum from hospital.
The Bradshaws were happy to receive their Yosemite coffee mug. We made plans to do a proper dinner later in the week if the Queen Mum was up for it. After dinner, I tookthe Queen back to the hospital. Then I returned to the Strand and went up to the fourth floor to bed.
I don’t know when my affection for Limerick first started but it certainly didn’t start when I lived there. I felt like I moved to the 1950s. The city seemed kind of grey and run down. My dislike probably stemmed from being a teenager away from all the usual paths I enjoyed like going to McDonald’s or having pizza. I also bemoaned my like of Doritos Nacho chips to all who would listen.
But now, coming back to Limerick does feel like coming to one of my home towns. Plus, I have built a repertoire of things I really enjoy doing when I am back in Limerick. Foremost among those being walking along the banks of the Shannon. They call the loop I do the Three Bridges walk because you basically encompass the three main bridges in Limerick: Shannon Bridge, Thomond Bridge and Sarsfield Bridge. Shannon Bridge only came in to existence in 1988. Limerick was a two bridge town when I lived in Castletroy. And I do mean main bridges. There are plenty of other bridges around town, too. But the Three Bridges walk takes in the main bridges. Because of the Limerick Strand hotels location, the Three Bridges walk starts just outside the hotel’s door.
I took the elevator down from the fourth floor to the lobby. The glass elevators in the Strand do afford you a lovely view of Limerick as you descend. Accesibility rules in Europe make sure the elevator tells you what floor you are on but my elevator was having a breakdown and kept getting the floor number wrong. For some reason, you have to navigate through four couches to get to the revolving door and then to the outside. I had a fight with the revolving door the night before on the opposite side of the lobby. The doors kept crushing me as I tried to make my way through with all the bags.
I took Clancy’s Strand up to the Treat Stone at Thomond Bridge. Clancy’s Strand has undergone a lot of improvements since I first started doing this walk including new railings and wooden foot path that extends of the original quays into the river. There is a boat ramp dock down into the water and at very low tide people walk down to the mud to go fishing. The area is called the Curragh Falls and was the farthest point up the river big ships could travel.
At the corner of the Clancy Strand and Thomond Bridge on a giant pedestal sits the Treaty Stone. The Stone and the Treaty is why Limerick is referred to as Treaty City. A treaty halting the fighting between the Jacobites and Williamite Forces in 1691. The treaty allowed the Jacobites to leave the country without repercussions and swore the catholics remaining behind would be treated fairly. The treaty was broken moments after it was signed. And legend has it upon this stone the treaty was signed. The Treaty Stone and the pedestal used to much closer to the road, but one too many accidents because of the giant rock next to the road forced the stone’s relocation.
I used Thomond Bridge to cross the Shannon River to King John’s Castle. Yes, that King John. King Richard’s King John. Quite the kerfuffle going on in Limerick as the local want to change the name of the castle to Limerick Castle. King John’s Castle is the only cast in Ireland named after a person rather the city where the castle stands. Plus, the Irish aren’t too fond of their historic structures named for British Monarchs. If you want to get a good view watch the movie called ‘The Rising of the Moon’ by John Ford. Ford used the exterior of the castle extensively. Rising of the Moon is an allusion to a rebel song by the same name. I’ve never been inside the castle. You don’t do tourist things in the towns where you live is my excuse. I keep meaning to go in but they want to charge me a lot of money. I should have visited when I lived in town. Back then there were a bunch corporation housing inside the walls of the castle. I could have visited for no charge. The houses were removed in 1986 to allow for the construction of the tourist exhibition. But oblivious me didn’t even know there used to be houses inside the castle. Although I have pictures from that time that clearly show the houses.
I walked around King John’s Castle along Nicholas Street headed towards St. Mary’s Cathedral. I was happy to see the new Dolores O’Riordan mural on the end of a house as I made the turn, but it also made me sad. The O’Riordan mural replaced the Eye Scream mural that had been on the end of the house since 2013. The Ice Scream mural stood out in the Medieval section of Limerick across the street from King John’s Castle. The mural depicted a man eating an icecream cone that had an eyeball atop the cone. The bald man also had a Hello Kitty tatoo on his neck. For whatever reason, the figure always reminded me of the Yeti. The mural kept getting vandalized and there were complaints about the mural so it had to go. In 2019, they had whitewashed the wall and now, it’s Dolores O’Riordan, lead singer of the Cranberries.St. Mary’s is the oldest building in Limerick still in continuous use. St. Mary’s and King John’s represent the medieval portion of Limerick and actually sit on an island with the Shannon on one side and the Abbey River on the other. Pieces of the city walls still stand scattered around the area.
On this end of Sarsfield Bridge with the Strand Hotel on the other, an old Dunnes Store has been converted into the Fab Lab Limerick, an extension of the Architecture department at the University of Limerick. All of this is unimportant to the walk. But what is important is the artists and fabricators in the Fab Lab have painted all the bollards along Honan’s Quay outside the building into fanciful caricatures. They are all quite out of place in gray old Limerick.
As I continued on under the Sarsfield Bridge and Honan’s Quay became Harvey’s Quay. I also noticed one of those information placards which informed me this area was also known as the poor man’s Kilkee. Kilkee is a resort to the west of Limerick and if you could afford the train ticket, that’s where you went in the summertime. If you couldn’t afford the train ticket, you hung out on Harvey’s Quay and went swimming in the Shannon.
Harvey’s Quay becomes the Bishops Quay and back in the day the area was much more industrial. There used to be a large coal warehouse along this stretch. Poor people would come and gather loose coal lost from the delivery trucks to heat their homes. When the Shannon Bridge opened this whole area was revitalized. Right at the entry to the bridge is a large hotel and restaurant complex that I’ve seen for years but have never entered.
One thing you see when you walk this stretch from the Thomond Bridge to the Shannon Bridge is Swans. So many swans. It just doesn’t seem like Ireland if i don’t make some swan pictures. The best part about the Limerick swans is they like to be fed. And a good place to feed them was on the way back to the hotel after I crossed the Shannon Bridge. Right next to the St. Michel’s Boat club is a public ramp down to the river. The club uses the ramp to launch their sculls into the water and lies right off of O’Callaghan’s strand. I use the ramp to feed the swans. Not today though.
Back at the Limerick Strand Hotel, I got to experience my number one reason for staying at the Strand: The breakfast buffet. The buffet used to be very inexpensive. The cost was about five euros with the price of the room. Now, the price for breakfast is about 15 euros. Still worth the price. They have everything including a chef to make omelettes. Yes, I just use the buffet to recreate the traditional Irish breakfast of scrambled eggs, rashers, sausage and toast, but I could have a ton of different things as well. I was disappointed though to see the size of the buffet has shrunk since I was in River Room last but I still think they have the same amount of food only on a smaller footprint. If you are going to be in the River Room, might as well sit all the way in the front at the tables overlooking the river. I don’t understand the people who sit in the back where they can’t see anything. It makes no sense.
In the planning world, after breakfast we would have headed out on a walking tour of the city center starting at Percy Square and walking over to King John’s Castle. In the real world, I sent a text off canceling the Queen and I’s tickets. I went down to the parking garage and headed over to the hospital to see the Queen and the Queen Mum spent their night.
The beauty of the Limerick Strand underground parking lot is that there never seems to be enough room to put your car in between the lines. I did find the perfect spot next to a handicap spot. Nobody every parked in the handicap spot so the regular spot next to it always had plenty of room. I was only able to use that spot once. It usually took me three or four tries to get the car aligned properly between the lines and the parking job never looked as good as the cars that surrounded me. There were also a ton of concrete pillars around to reward you with scratched paint for any misteps.
Over at the hospital, I parked in their terrible parking garage, although the University Hospital parking lot was much better lit. The Queen had alerted me that they were out of the ER and had been given a bed. It was now up to me to find that bed. I wandered around a lot. Once again, I was probably in areas I wasn’t supposed to be in but I eventually found the Queen Mum’s ward on the 2nd floor. There were about twenty beds in there. No room dividers. Everything was just separated by curtains on overhead tracks. You could hear everything going on in the beds around them.
The Queen had spent the night trying to get some sleep in waiting room chair or actually crawling onto the gurney with the Queen Mum. The best part of The Queen Mum getting the bed in the ward was that when they rolled the Queen Mum in there was already somebody in her spot. Some miscommunication had put another women in the Queen Mum’s bed. I’m sure the other woman was upset to be told she would be going back down to the ER.
Our big question for the doctors, if we could find one was when was The Queen Mum going to be released? Initially, they had given the Queen Mum a chest x-ray to diagnose the extent of her pneumonia. The chest x-ray revealed a dark spot on her lungs. The doctors feared the dark spot was a blood clot in her lung. There was no way they were going to release her with a blood clot. The doctors needed a CT scan to determine if the dark spot was indeed a blood clot or something else. This led to our next question when where they going to give the Queen Mum the CT scan? They didn’t know. It was an involved procedure. The doctor had to request the CT scan. A panel of other doctors would then review the request and decided whether the request had merit. If the request did have merit, the Queen Mum would then get her scan. But, there were a lot of people waiting for similar scans. Next question. Why don’t we let the Queen Mum come back with us to the hotel where she would be far more comfortable, while you make arrangements for the CT scan? That would have been far too easy. The hospital wasn’t letting her go. She’d lose her place in the queue. Our job was to wait for a doctor to come by. When the doctor visit would occur no one had any idea. In the meantime, they pumped the Queen Mum full of meds and let her use a Nebulizer for fifteen minutes. They also brought around food for the Queen Mum, which she seemed to enjoy. The Queen seemed to be exhausted. There was a man in the ER, who I had seen, who had a bloody white t-shirt on who spent the night going up and down the hall all the while groaning. Probably a good thing the Queen stood guard.
Since there wasn’t much to do but wait, I decided I would do my waiting elsewhere. Again. I’m a terrible person for leaving the Queen and Queen Mum to suffer by themselves in an unfamiliar town in a terrible hospital.
I love walking the town as I have stated. But the best of all possible walks is along the abbey canal to the Shannon River. The path then continues up to the University of Limerick. When I lived in Castletroy, which is very close to the University, then known as National Institute of Higher Education or NIHE, my father would leave the house, walk to the NIHE and then along the banks of the Shannon into the city center. My job was to drive down after an hour and pick him up. He couldn’t walk there and back because it would have been too boring. Everyone knew how much my father liked that walk on the Shannon banks that when he left Ireland to return to the states, his friends gifted him a painting that showed that path along the river.
Now, I have done the walk to and from the UL, it’s about a two hour walk up and back. I didn’t have that kind of time so I decided I would take the bus up to the University and walk back from there. Look at me using public transportation. And the bus fare was about $2. I picked up the 304 bus on William Street just up the street from where I worked at Burgerland and where I would take my connector bus home from school. They didn’t have such a thing as school buses. They just made you take public transportation. The bus was nice. There was a USB plug at my seat on the upper deck. I was able to take some nice pictures along the way of familiar sights. In no time at all I was at the Stables on the campus looking for a path to the river.
After a quick stop on the living bridge which connects the campus to student housing on the other side off the Shannon, I managed to make my way down to the river path. One thing about the living bridge, it’s a pain in the ass to take pictures on the bridge because the bridge constantly shakes from the bicyclists crossing the bridge.
All day, clouds had dotted the sky. By the time I was deep in my walk, the clouds completely covered the sky. Rain started to fall. And not that cool, I’m in Ireland moistened by a gentle mist kind of rain, this was the pouring, head for shelter kind of rain. There was no shelter along the path. A few pedestrians tried to get close to the trees along the path in the hope the branches and leaves would afford some protection. It didn’t. They looked just as wet as me. Since there was nothing to be done, I just kept walking.
I desperately wanted to continue along the river to the Athlunkard bridge and beyond, but time was precious. I turned at the Kevin Hannan (or Guinness, depends who you ask) footbridge and followed the path along the Park Canal. In the years, I’ve been walking this path, the brush along the banks has grown quite large. You used to be able to see for a fair distance along the waterway. Now, you can barely see the canal. I thought at one point, Limerick Council had spent a lot of money to clear the canal for boaters. The canal looks impossible to navigate at this point.
The walk ends where the canal joins the Abbey river. I then followed the sidewalk to the Abbey Bridge, which is the newest bridge in Limerick. I don’t like the Abbey Bridge all that much because it blocks the views of Baal’s Bridge. Baal’s bridge looks like what an old Irish bridge should like even though the bridge was built in 1831 replacing a bridge that had stood on that spot since 1340, connecting Irish Town to English Town. Further down Charlotte’s Quay, I ended up at the Hunt Museum, photographing for the millionth time the horses that stand in the forecourt. The Hunt Museum is another great Limerick institution that I have never fully explored but I was going to change that on this trip. Well, not really. I’ve been in the lobby plenty of times. This time I was in the lobby to track down a paving stone I had purchased in honor of my father. The stone was supposed to be placed in a new outdoor garden of the Hunt Museum. I asked the nice lady at the front desk where I might find my stone.
I was directed down the stairs and out the back. There I found a few sculptures and small path lined with engraved granite bricks. They looked great and I couldn’t wait to find my father’s so I could take a photo of it. I looked all over. I couldn’t find it. There weren’t that many bricks but my father’s was not among them. Saddened, I walked back inside and asked the nice lady at the gift shop counter if there might be a guide to where individual stones might be located. The nice lady passed me off to James Horgan, Facilities Coordinator. When I explained my problem to Mr. Horgan of not being able to find my father’s stone, Mr. Horgan explained they were having a problem with the Cobbles. Well two problems. The first problem was that the stones weren’t treated properly so they stones were actually washing away. Odd, because I had just seen a bunch of cobbles out in the yard that looked great. The second was that children had a tendency to move the stones around. All that being said, Mr. Horgan was going to track down my stone and get back to me.
In the lead up to the trip, I read an article in the Limerick Leader Newspaper about a man named Tom McNamara who in April had been inducted into the Limerick Person of Year Hall of Fame for being the oldest Busker in Limerick, if not Ireland. Mr. McNamara was 86. I don’t think I had ever seen a busker on the streets of Limerick and here was a guy who had been playing his accordion around the city center for the last forty years. I wondered if I was going to find him on this trip. As I made my way from the Hunt Museum to Thomas Street where I was going to have lunch, I spotted Mr. McNamara sitting half way up Todd’s Bow just after I left Cruises Street. Todd’s Bow is important to me because Burgerland, where I worked, was just around the corner on William Street. The back entrance to Burgerland used to open up onto Todd’s Bow as well. Plus, The Islands restaurant where I used to be able to get a pseudo pizza was also on Todd’s Bow.
I hung back from Mr. McNamara as he talked to another fan and when that person stepped off, I moved in and asked him if he was the famous Limerick Busker. That was the last word I spoke with exception of yes and sure as Mr. McNamara spun tales of his life and the local area. He talked about bicycles and tunnels under the street and running from the gardai and I would probably still be there listening if I didn’t have other things to do. The man could talk. He had stories to tell.
Over on Thomas Street, I had lunch at Sambros. I was having lunch there because Sambros had just won the award for best in Ireland from Just Eats. Just Eats gives awards for takeaway food. With that recommendation, I had to try the place. Best in Ireland. I don’t think Sambros won the award for decor because plastic chairs and laminate tables aren’t that enticing. The food was fine. I dined on the Smashbros BBQ burger which was two hamburger patties covered with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and crispy onions. Tasty. I don’t know about best in Ireland. I have to do more research.
By this time, the Queen needed a break from the University Hospital. Being stuck in Limbo waiting on doctors can wear on anyone. And she didn’t even have a bed to lie in. The plan was for me to come to the hospital while she took a taxi to the hotel. Before I left the hotel, I cancelled the Queen Mum’s room for the night. Looking ahead, I reserved our rooms for an extra night at the hotel. I didn’t think we would be rolling out of here on Thursday morning for Kerry.
Like ships we passed in the night. The Queen left. I took over her chair. I’m glad I brought a book. The whole ward was a bit depressing, sort of old and run down with older patients filling the beds. No one seemed like they were having a good time. The support staff were all very friendly and conscientious but our real need was to see a doctor to give us some clue as to what was going on. At some point, they asked the Queen Mum if she had seen a doctor yet. This caused some consternation when she replied no. She should have seen one of the doctors when they did rounds in the morning. Now that shift was getting ready to change, there was a chance we wouldn’t see a doctor that day. They ran off to find us a doctor.
Eventually, a doctor did show up. He explained the problems with the dark spot on the lung and the need for the CT scan. Fine. Sure. Why didn’t we do the CT scan this morning then? He didn’t have any good answers for us. The hospital never had good answers for us. I pressed him on when things were going to occur. No answer. It was up to the people deciding whether the Queen Mum got her scan or not to do their job. I asked for the doctor’s phone number. He said his number was in the paper work. The Queen showed up by this time and got to deal with the doctor as well. I joked with her via text about which woulds who up first, The Queen or the doctor. I also joked we should have started a timer when the nurse told us the doctor was coming to see how long that actually took. Basically, we knew nothing and we had to wait.
The Queen just missed the doctor but I shared the information about still needing the CT scan and waiting on the board to give the Okay for the scan. The Queen thoughtfully brought one of the Strand Hotel bathrobes so The Queen Mum could get out of her stupid hospital gown. One of the things the Queen Mum and I talked about was the need for the Queen to get out of the hospital for a little longer. I told the Queen about the agreement, thatshe would be leaving with me for a few hours to go get some dinner with some local friends, the Bradshaws. The Queen was not fond of the idea, she did not like leaving her mother alone with the hospital devils, but she came around. Part of the problem was the Queen was starting to come down with a cold. She was losing her voice so bad, she would text me her questions to my phone rather than speak. We needed to get to the drug store.
There was a drugstore located on the way back to the hotel in the Crescent Shopping Center. We stopped in and picked up a whole passel of Strepsils throat lozenges and paracetamol.
Back at the Strand, The Queen and I had dinner in the River Restaurant. Ann and Brendan Bradshaw were originally going to meet us for dinner but by the time we got to the hotel, they had already eaten, but promised to come by once we had finished our meal. Brendan was the first friend my father made in Limerick. Brendan’s local pub was in the Limerick Ryan hotel where my father stayed while getting Verbatim up and running. They also had offices near each other in the Sarsfield Office Building where my father worked while waiting for the temporary manufacturing facilities out on Ballysimon Road got going. My father and I have visited with them every time we’ve come to Ireland including the wedding of Brendan’s daughter back in 2014.
The Queen lost her voice during dinner. She resorted to texting me her questions and I would give the answers. I told her that our host down in Killarney had agreed to refund our money for the hotel stay once they learned the Queen Mum was in hospital. According to booking.com the owners of the Killaran House didn’t have to refund our hotel money, but they did once I explained the situation to them. Since we were now spending an extra night in Limerick, we would not be spending any time in Killarney and heading straight to Waterford. Well, we would do that if we could spring the Queen Mum from hospital.
The Bradshaws were happy to receive their Yosemite coffee mug. We made plans to do a proper dinner later in the week if the Queen Mum was up for it. After dinner, I tookthe Queen back to the hospital. Then I returned to the Strand and went up to the fourth floor to bed.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm