Hayfield Manor, Cork, Old Head of Kinsale

We were down in Cork over the last few days, and stayed in Hayfield Manor in Cork City, courtesy of American Express Membership Rewards. The current membership rewards program is ending in the next few months, so we're making the most of the points accumulated by Brendan over the years.

We had heard that Hayfield Manor was nice, and we were not disappointed. Lovely room, nice bar and restaurants, peaceful location (despite the fact that it's very close to the city centre - it's just across from Cork University on College Road), and excellent service, from Bart the concierge, who jumped out of a car he was moving to pick up our suitcase, to Anna the Polish waitress in the Perrotts restaurant.

The only black mark was the pool - it was freezing! My fingers went yellow with the cold and I was wheezing by the time I got out of the pool. They are currently refurbishing the leasure centre, so maybe that's why ....

The food was to die for, including the breakfast, with a chocolate muffin that Brendan has declared to be the best muffin he's ever had!

The weather wasn't great - it was dry most of the way down from Dublin (3 hours and 15 minutes, leaving Dublin around 9 on Sunday morning). It started to rain as we got near to Mitchelstown, and it didn't stop raining all day Sunday. So, we got the Sunday papers and spent the afternoon reading them, which is something we don't do very often.

Monday was a bit drier, in that it wasn't pouring rain, only drizzling the whole day. We walked down to the city centre for a little look around the town, then we took the car to drive down to Kinsale, and the Old Head (at that stage, it was raining quite heavily again). We drove on to a beach close by and watched the big waves crashing on to the shore. A few surfers attempted to get to the big waves, but gave up after a few minutes - it looked like hard work.

We got back to Dublin yesterday. And today is glorious in Dublin - there was frost on the windscreen of the car this morning, but the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and the temperature is getting closer to 10 than it's been in a long time.