Renting a car in Europe is not much different than renting one in North America. You will still face the hard sell on insurance at the counter, the quandary of whether to pre-pay for the fuel or spend your own time hunting down a fuel station to bring it back full, and of course the fact that the vehicle you get is almost never the one you selected. Rather, it seems it is always one of the “Or Similar” members of the same class.
There are, however, a fewcomplicating factors that make renting a car in Europe more of a Pangean adventure. For one, you are almost invariably exhausted from a long flight, often through the night. You are then faced with unfamiliar accents, signage, and foreign languages. For another, most European rental agencies that this Pangean has dealt with also have a fixation with insurance and deposits. I suppose it is understandable since they are handing out keys to vehicles worth thousands of Euros to complete strangers. The other complication is that the options and rental policies can vary from country to country, even when you are using the same agency or outlet. Continue reading “European Car Rental Issues – Part 1 – Insurance”
In Part 1 (see: http://pangean.org/european-car-rental-issues/ ) we went through some of the insurance considerations that apply to car rentals in Europe. As mentioned in that post, there are some differences between renting a car in Europe and renting one in North America. Foremost among those is the issue of holds and deposits.
This Pangean has never been asked for a deposit or a hold while renting a car in North America. It could just be luck or the location or the timing, but we’ve never been asked for an extra-ordinary payment to secure a deductible or the cost of the vehicle. We’ve rented cars in Hawaii, Nevada, California, and Arizona and in none of those instances has the rental agency imposed a hold or deposit requirement for anything more than an amount to cover incidentals. However, the experience in Europe, especially during the several rentals we had booked for our October 2016 trip, was very different. Although the policies varied from country to country and even from agency to agency, all required some form of security. Continue reading “European Car Rental Issues – Part 2 – Holds and Deposits”
Impressions: The Hotel Isaacs Cork City is not a fancy hotel, but it does all the little things right. Staff is extremely friendly and helpful (especially Dan at the front desk), the beds are comfortable, the rooms are clean, and the breakfast is excellent. The rooms have recently been renovated and the street side rooms even have extra glass panes for soundproofing. Parking is available offsite in secured church yard about a block from the hotel and the area appears safe to walk in with restaurants, pubs, and shops aplenty. The hotel’s own restaurant Greenes (its executive chef Bryan McCarthy was voted best chef in Cork in 2015 over 960 other chefs), is excellent. Dan at the front desk provided a wealth of information and dining suggestions. His recommendation of the Shelbourne Pub, which is located directly across the street from the hotel and boasts up to 150 whiskeys on offer, was spot on.
Details: Hotel Isaacs Cork City, 48 MacCurtain Street, Cork City, Ireland (Latitude 53.350577 Longitude -8.4681332). Tel: 0035321 4500011 Email: info@hotelisaacscork.com Website: www.hotelisaacscork.com Directions: http://isaacshotelcork.com/directions
Rating: P P P P P – The Hotel Isaacs Cork City is awarded 5 P’s or “Very Good” on the Pangean.org scale. We would definitely stay here again and would highly recommend it to other Pangeans.
We’re excited to add our first full review on the Pangean.org website. And the distinction of being the first goes to the Walsh Whiskey Distillery Tour. Check it out here: http://pangean.org/reviews/walsh-whiskey-distillery-tour/
Walsh Whiskey Distillery BuildingThe Stillhouse – Three Pot Stills and a Column Still
Impressions: Pangeans love whiskey (or whisky as it is known in those jurisdictions that have something against an extra vowel) and this particular Pangean has a fondness for Irish single pot still whiskey. Of late, Writer’s Tears – Copper Pot by Walsh Whiskey Distillery has been this Pangean’s ‘go to’ bottle on the shelf. Therefore when a stop on the emerald isle was added to a recent tour the prospect of seeking out the ancestral home of my favourite dram was a powerful draw. Other Pangeans on the team were also interested, more by the process than by the ultimate product. On both bases we were not disappointed.
Although Walsh Whiskey has been around since about 1999, up until this year actual distillation took place at an undisclosed — wink wink — Midleton Distilleries Complex — wink wink — location. However, earlier in 2016 and with the help of a 25 Million Euro outside investment, the reality of a stand-alone, state of the art, craft distillery came to fruition. The Distillery and Tour officially opened in June 2016. The location and grounds in County Carlow Ireland are beautiful and many of the facilities are obviously new. From the entrance gate (with each of its stones reputedly disassembled and reconstructed with a wide enough stance to allow access by buses) to the driveway that gently curves through the pastures and mature oak, to the views of Holloden House (built circa 1755), to the ruins of the old barns and stable yard, to the shiny new distillery building, the grounds are a visual treat. Maybe it was the fact that this particular group of Pangeans arrived on a splendid autumn day, but the colours and views were beautiful.
View of Holloden House from the Boardroom
The website and promotional literature suggest that the ultimate plan is for Holloden House to be restored so that it can house a visitor centre with tasting room, gift shop, tea room and other facilities. However, for now all of the visitor services are run from the distillery building itself. The tour, the cost of which includes a sample of The Irishman Single Malt Founders Reserve, takes approximately one hour. The current tour takes you first to the main boardroom, then to the lobby for a discussion of grains, the malting process, and the joys of the water from the Barrow Valley Aquifer (sitting immediately below the distillery). From there you are led through the facility to the fermentation tanks and are invited to breathe in the smells of the grains and wort as they become ready for the distillation process. You can even poke your head into some of the tanks that have been recently emptied. It is all a very sensory experience as you can feel the heat from the tanks, smell the heady aromas, hear the hum of the machinery, and see the gleaming copper and stainless steel. After dropping off phones, cameras and other electronic equipment that would pose an explosive hazard due to the high alcohol content in the air within, you then are taken into the stillhouse itself. The staff are obviously proud of the fact that the facility is the only independent distillery in the world to make all three types of whiskey: pot still, malt, and grain. In the single stillhouse there are both three 15,000 Litre copper pot stills and an approximately 12 metre high column still that together provide a capacity of 650,000 cases annually. The procedures and benefits of each process were explained and you can smell the output from various levels as well as the final clear, sweet-smelling product. The facility is state-of-the-art, with the emphasis on distilling as an “art”. The process is almost entirely manual, with the still masters making decisions by eye, nose, and hydrometer reading. The tour then concludes with a return to the bar in the lobby area for a taste of one of the Walsh Whiskey offerings. Usually this is the aforementioned The Irishman Single Malt Founders Reserve, but on the day we visited the guide was pouring Writer’s Tears (apparently a combination of 8, 9, and 10 year old “single pot still” and “single malt” whiskeys).
If you are in the area near mealtime you should also check out The Pint Depot, a small, authentic pub in Royal Oak. Great service, incredibly friendly staff, good food, and Irish horse racing on the televisions – what more could a hungry traveler want?
I suspect that the people of Royal Oak, the nearby town of Muine Bheag, The Pint Depot, and Walsh Whiskey Distillery do not yet understand how many people will be attracted to the area. The “Second Golden Age” of Irish Whiskey is upon us and the Walsh Whiskey Distillery will be an important stop on any tour.
Details: The Walsh Whiskey Distillery is located at Royal Oak, Clorusk Lower, Carlow, Ireland. The cost of the approximately one hour tour (with tasting) is 15 Euros per person. As of November 2016 they run Tuesdays through Fridays at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, and 16:00. Tel: +353 59 918 6653 Email: booking@walshwhiskey.com Website: walshwhiskey.com
Rating:P P P P P P The Walsh Whiskey Distillery tour is awarded 6 out of possible 7 P’s, or “Excellent” on the Pangean scale from “Avoid” to “Phenomenal”. This is as close as you can get to the almost unattainable 7 P’s.
Beyond the obvious issue of the Irish insisting on driving on the wrong side of the road, the process of renting (aka “hiring”) a car in Ireland poses some extra challenges. For one, the majority of vehicles on offer are equipped with manual transmissions, especially those that are affordable. Even for those who are accustomed to using a manual transmission, the experience of using one’s left hand to shift is just a little Continue reading “Rental Cars in Ireland”
Beyond the obvious issue of the Irish insisting on driving on the wrong side of the road, the process of renting (aka “hiring”) a car in Ireland poses some extra challenges. For one, the majority of vehicles on offer are equipped with manual transmissions, especially those that are affordable. Even for those who are accustomed to using a manual transmission, the experience of using one’s left hand to shift is just a little