Home time

Had a little sleep in, no fire alarms in the middle of the night thank goodness!

Over to the hotel for breakfast then a final pack and load the van to head for Dublin.

We did have one stopover in Tipperary so that Julie & I could sing the song........😉

We found a nice cafe for a cuppa and scone then headed back up the highway.

Arrived at the car rental place about 3pm - a total of 2,269 km’s travelled in 16 days. Got the shuttle to the terminal, checked in then went to the lounge for a while.

Last views of Ireland 

The board said “Go to gate” but when we got there the incoming aircraft had not even arrived. We eventually left about 45 mins late - but we only had a 40 min turnaround in Helsinki!!!  The hostess assured us that we will make the next flight, that they have already had a message through confirming that they would wait for us.

Landed at gate 54, next flight from gate 55 - video on plane when landing said we had to go through security again and possibly passport control. We turned left looking for all that and ran around for 10 mins or so before turning back to gate 55 where they were politely waiting for us!!

Good flight, got some sleep

Landed safely in Hong Kong

7 hours to fill so got the train to a Central and the bus out to Stanley. Unfortunately it was raining heavily so the views were not as good as the trip on a nice sunny day, but it filled in the time with a good walk and some fresh air.

Back to the airport, nice shower in Q Club lounge, boarding in an hour.

Last blog for this trip, AMAZING holiday, laughed soooo much, great golf, great fun.... bring on the next one 😀⛳️

Old Head Golf Course

We were woken at 1:30am by the fire alarm going off in our villa!!!! No fire was found so we all went back to bed - Grrr!

Had breakfast over in the hotel then headed off to play Old Head Golf Course.

Even driving in there was an experience and the views were just spectacular ⛳️

We teed off with our caddy John, he was terrific and very valuable

Very very scenic golf course, and yet again we had a warm and sunny day with a very mild wind

We all hit the ball quite well but found the greens to be very difficult to read, they were immaculate and very true, but with the water being close there was lots of break

Beautifully manicured golf course, lots of plants that are not native to Ireland 🇮🇪, apparently chosen to survive in Ireland but to be different from all the rest.

A great day was had by all. Brian won the day with 33 points. Julie still thinks we played “Hat Head” Golf Club!

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at the club then headed back to our lodge to clean clubs and pack ready to head home tomorrow.

We had our awards ceremony as follows:

Competition rules & results:

4BBB by 4 rounds with each partner = 12 games. 2 points each to winners of each round. 1 Point each for tied match. Winner - Julie with 16 points

Concurrently - each individual stableford score was recorded over all 14 rounds. The worst 2 rounds were dropped off. 

Winner - Sean with 367 points

Finally, the last 36 holes (rounds 13 & 14) were a separate competition, winner best score over 36 holes. Winner - Brian with 63 points.

Wooden spoon goes to Jane

Old head GC was definitely worth playing. We have had a WONDERFUL holiday and have some amazing memories to bring home.

Today we walked 13.2km, took 21,645 steps and climbed 21 floors

Tomorrow we drive to Dublin, fly to Helsinki then to Hong Kong - we have 7 hours in HK and have a few plans for that time, then home from there (via Cairns!).

Day off - drive to Kinsale

Quiet start today, breakfast then packing up the house ready to move on. Decided to drive around the Ring of Kerry towards Cork - very beautiful scenery 😀

Cork city was very busy, we couldn’t find easy parking so we carried on up the road to a shopping centre and found a cafe for lunch.

Drove on to our hotel where we were informed there had been a “Glitch” in their booking system, that there was only 1 hotel room or we could have a 3 bedroom lodge with lounge, kitchen and dining room, plus they included breakfast- a no brainer really. It also meant we could park out the front of the lodge which made it much easier with clubs and cases - winner, winner 😀

We got settled and had a few afternoon drinks whilst watching the golf on TV - nice and restful 🍺🍺🍺⛳️⛳️⛳️

Headed into Kinsale for dinner, found a great pub with live Irish music, awesome atmosphere, great meal

Home to watch the end of the golf in our Villa.

Today we only walked 2.7km, 4,556 steps and 3 flights climbed - lazy really 😉

Tomorrow we are playing Old Head, the icing on the cake 🎂