BeerAndDiesel

travelogue, cautionary tales, review and illustrated Road Atlas

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Indigenous Peoples’ day

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Happy Indigenous Peoples’ day some of America

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Dun Laoghaire Harbour

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Glasthule, Co. Dublin

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Poolbeg from Dun Laoghaire

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Rathangan, Co.Kildare

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M50, delivering the goods

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Dun Laoghaire, West Pier. Rare sunny evening

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Welcome to the exciting World of "That Doesn't Look Anything Like James Hetfield" Art. I've been dying to do a montage of this stuff since I stumbled across this fascinating genre

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Nice moment caught at Rock of Dunmase, Co. Laois. Sadly soured by shopkeeper in Stradbally unable to vend a can of Coke and a Snickers. #rockofdunmase

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Arrows, what are they for?

I'm going to assume that if you can read, you know what this symbol is and what it means. For those who don't, this cryptic glyph is an arrow. What you do is, you travel in the direction implied by the pointy end and you keep going until you come to another one which will tell you where to go next, hopefully before your brain implodes under its own immense density. If you don't know what arrows are for you shouldn't be driving, you probably shouldn't be allowed out of the house.

They have these on public roads and if you dont follow them sombody is probably going to die so mostly people follow them. However, when arrows appear in public carparks, some folk seem to think they can disregard them. If those folks are dithery, silver haired slo-pokes then it's excusable and I have derived much amusement from these old age non- conformists and sometimes I even get out of their way.

Today however I was almost run down by a taxi driving too fast against the flow in a carpark as I stepped out from behind a van. The roads are dangerous enough, I really dont want to be killed in the carpark of Kyles Pub in Cloughran. This is a hideout for Airport Taxis and as I found out today it is also an elaborate Death Trap. You have been warned.

It's not against the law to drive around a car park in the wrong direction, but it is colossaly inconsiderate and it is dangerous. Everybody has brain farts occasionally and that's OK too. But Jesus people, stop being such enormous f**ksticks and drive in the right bastard direction.

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City North Hotel, Co. Meath

This weekend the whole family decamped to the City North Hotel in County Meath for my brothers wedding and one of the few things the whole family can agree on is that this hotel is no good. This supposed four star hotel would struggle now to achive three stars. What visitors need to know is that the hotel acts as a staging area for Funtasia and the Tayto Park, two kidcentric attractions in the area. This weekend was severly rained out, the wettest weekend Ireland had seen in years and thats saying something. So what we had for our special weekend was a six level playground where children got served first in the bar and tribes of tykes ran amok until midnight doing nik-naks and pressing all the buttons in the lifts.

While the staff did a reasonable job running the wedding, the service rapidly deteriorated the next morning. Breakfast was an ordeal, fighting for choice morsels while trying not to trip over other peoples offspring. Tables were not cleared and we were left without cutlery, milk, pots of coffee etcetera as the staff were either overwhelmed or just didn't give a shit. When we read other reviews of the City North the only problem guests had was the rubbish attitude of the staff.

The bar closed at 11:45pm and there was no residents bar. The Newlyweds ordered breakfast in bed but it never came. Room service calls degenerated into Kafka-esque fiasco. If you are planning a grown up excursion I would seriously avoid this shop.

And one last gripe, why "City North"? It's in Meath, the city is three quarters of  a hour drive away.

Nice views from the sixth floor. Also the food is actually quite good, the wedding meal was superb, the bar menu was tasty, I had the stinky but toothsome camembert and bacon panini and the breakfast produce was top end and nicely cooked.

This could be a fine hotel if all the staff were retrained or fired.

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The Worst Vehicle I Ever Drove

We rented this to get my dad to a wedding and it is without any shade, the worst car I have ever had the misfortune to drive. It goes worse than most vans. Don't buy one, don't rent one. It's horrible.

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The smell that goes with this picture is hot garbage and ketchup.

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When you are driving across the Chesapeake Bridge and you need an Emergency Pull Off you can do that here. You should too, its a long drive.

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Here's another picture in my ongoing series on How Pretty New Jersey Is. Doesn't this remind you of Spirited Away? Or have I lost the plot?

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Enniscorthy

Do you like bloody big hills? Do you like scruffy old pubs? Then Enniscorthy is the place for you fellow traveller. Visit the Antique Tavern, its pokey and old and run down. It's 'effin fantastic. It's one of my top ten scruffy little pubs.

There's Vinegar Hill in the background. Look it up, it has a bloody history.

Also, the Nosh+Coffee down the hill by the river makes very good coffee if you dont mind waiting AGES for it, mine was so hot I was in Gorey before i could drink it, but it was really good. Go to Enniscorthy, you'll like it, I promise.

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As is always the case with The Road, I'm not sure where this is, it might be Connecticut. It reminds me of GTA V.