Lots of kisses, even more Guiness, a crazy sheep farmer, an unfortunate souvenir, and only one lost hubcap.....tcreaths "craic" filled trip to beautiful Ireland
Feb 27th, 2007, 03:14 PM
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Lots of kisses, even more Guiness, a crazy sheep farmer, an unfortunate souvenir, and only one lost hubcap.....tcreaths "craic" filled trip to beautiful Ireland
I will start out by saying that in reference to my title we met two older men outside of a pub on our first night in Ireland, in Kilkenny, who told us that in Ireland "craic" means fun so we spent most of our trip joking about how much "crack" (which is how it sounded like when they told us) we were having!
Anyways, this was my very first trip to Ireland, although I have traveled fairly extensively around Europe. DH and I bought the airline tickets early last year (I found a great sale) and decided to take my mom along so we bought her a ticket as a mothers day gift. She has never been out of the country, and hasn't really traveled too much in the US either, so she was delighted by the opportunity to visit. Long story short, DH and I moved to Charlotte from St. Louis in October because he accepted a new job. We were in Croatia in November so DH decided that he really shouldn't take the time off to go to Ireland since the job is still new. So DH decided not to go...but my mom told my aunt about it and we decided that it would be fun to have her along as well. She had a really tough year last year with the death of her son at age 20, so we really wanted her to have a good time. She has never travled outside of the country either, and has always been so interested in hearing about our travels, so she was beyond excited. It was a women's only trip and we had a blast.
The itinerary was left wide open, with the exception of the first night. This was completely new to me, and I was quite nervous about it (its the obsessive travel planner in me) but quickly realized that the nervousness wasn't necessary. This is so easy to do in Ireland! So here is how our itinerary ended up turning out:
Day 1 - Fly into Dublin; rent car; spend night in Kilkenny
Day 2 - Kilkenny
Day 3 - Kenmare
Day 4 - Kenmare
Day 5 - Tralee
Day 6 - Galway
Day 7 - Fly home from Shannon
We based a lot of our itinerary around the advice of the locals. One big benefit of traveling to Ireland in February is that the pubs are filled with locals instead of tourists. Most were surprised to meet us and wondered why we were there in February (once I explained the concept of cheaper tickets they got it). We spend every night in a pub and had tons of fun talking to the bartender and some of the locals and often stumbled to our rooms after midnight, something I don't do too often. I have never met such a fun-loving, nice group of people in all of my travels. Many, like the "crazy sheep farmer" (I'll explain later) actually pulled over off the side of the road to chat with us! It made the trip all the better and I have such wonderful memories that I'll carry with me forever.
I have a crazy busy job so I don't know how fast I'll be able to finish this, but I'll try! Also, I seem to lack the ability to come up with a really entertaining trip report, especially when so many fodorites are such great writers, but I hope its interesting nevertheless, and hopefully I can offer some good information for anyone interested or planning a trip to Ireland.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Tracy
Anyways, this was my very first trip to Ireland, although I have traveled fairly extensively around Europe. DH and I bought the airline tickets early last year (I found a great sale) and decided to take my mom along so we bought her a ticket as a mothers day gift. She has never been out of the country, and hasn't really traveled too much in the US either, so she was delighted by the opportunity to visit. Long story short, DH and I moved to Charlotte from St. Louis in October because he accepted a new job. We were in Croatia in November so DH decided that he really shouldn't take the time off to go to Ireland since the job is still new. So DH decided not to go...but my mom told my aunt about it and we decided that it would be fun to have her along as well. She had a really tough year last year with the death of her son at age 20, so we really wanted her to have a good time. She has never travled outside of the country either, and has always been so interested in hearing about our travels, so she was beyond excited. It was a women's only trip and we had a blast.
The itinerary was left wide open, with the exception of the first night. This was completely new to me, and I was quite nervous about it (its the obsessive travel planner in me) but quickly realized that the nervousness wasn't necessary. This is so easy to do in Ireland! So here is how our itinerary ended up turning out:
Day 1 - Fly into Dublin; rent car; spend night in Kilkenny
Day 2 - Kilkenny
Day 3 - Kenmare
Day 4 - Kenmare
Day 5 - Tralee
Day 6 - Galway
Day 7 - Fly home from Shannon
We based a lot of our itinerary around the advice of the locals. One big benefit of traveling to Ireland in February is that the pubs are filled with locals instead of tourists. Most were surprised to meet us and wondered why we were there in February (once I explained the concept of cheaper tickets they got it). We spend every night in a pub and had tons of fun talking to the bartender and some of the locals and often stumbled to our rooms after midnight, something I don't do too often. I have never met such a fun-loving, nice group of people in all of my travels. Many, like the "crazy sheep farmer" (I'll explain later) actually pulled over off the side of the road to chat with us! It made the trip all the better and I have such wonderful memories that I'll carry with me forever.
I have a crazy busy job so I don't know how fast I'll be able to finish this, but I'll try! Also, I seem to lack the ability to come up with a really entertaining trip report, especially when so many fodorites are such great writers, but I hope its interesting nevertheless, and hopefully I can offer some good information for anyone interested or planning a trip to Ireland.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Tracy
Feb 27th, 2007, 03:42 PM
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Day 1
We arrived in Dublin promptly at 8:30 a.m. I had to fly back to Chicago, where I originally bought my tickets for, and met my mom and aunt at the airport. Luckily American was super nice about combining my tickets so that I wouldn't have to deal with rechecking in and going through the security lines again in Chicago. The flight itself was fairly uneventful (where would I be without my beloved Ambien?) and we woke up well rested and excited to begin our journey.
Once we got to Dublin's airport we spent the first 20 minutes waiting for our bags, picked up our rental car (Avis) and tried, unsuccessfully, to find an ATM in the airport that was working. Dublins airport is under some construction and neither of the ATMs that we found were working, although it wasn't too big of a deal.
So we get our car and my aunt takes the wheel. I can't believe how great of a job she did! DH and I rented a car in England a few years ago and he just wasn't getting it. He would freak out every time we got into a town with more than 500 people in it! But my aunt picked it up right away. I will say that the road system in Ireland isn't the greatest. The roads themselves were fine but signs aren't very well marked so we always ended up taking alternative routes.
Our first stop was Trim. We debated about this, and several people here suggested we drop it from our itinerary, but both my mom and aunt really wanted to see a castle and were impressed with the fact that its the largest castle in Ireland so we decided to go for it. After a few wrong turns trying to get out of Dublin we were quickly on our way. Trim itself is a neat little town and the castle was really great. I'm glad we decided to do it. Not only did it help combat the jet lag (it only took about an hour or so to get there from the airport) but it was just a really cool castle. We spent about an hour there, where we encountered our first friendly locals. It was a couple who were daytripping from Dublin and they joked that the Irish are a very unfriendly bunch. They were the first, of many, to suggest we visit Galway at the end of our trip.
We walked into town, found an ATM, and then grabbed a bit to eat at a small restaurant. Unfortunately I don't have the name of it, but the food was great. It was a chilly day (although certainly warmer than what I'm used to in St. Louis!) and we each had the vegetable soup and the brown bread. Now about that brown bread...I became addicted pretty quickly! I love bread anyways, and the brown bread was delicious. I had it with just about every meal!
After we visited Trim we made our way down to Kilkenny. I reserved the first night of our trip at the Park Villa B&B. Unfortunately Kilkenny's road system is like a maze and after about a half an hour of trying to find it, we pulled into a grocery store parking lot and asked a woman for help. Not only did she give us directions, but she actually got into the car with us and told us exactly where to go while we were driving and then we dropped her off at the bus stop. I couldn't believe how nice she was and that she would be willing to go out of her way to help us out! Anyways, we finally found it.
I chose the Park Villa because of its proximitely to the downtown area of Kilkenny, which is about a 15 minute walk. The B&B was nice, although our room, with three single beds, was on the cramped side. Vicky, the owner, was super friendly and soon we were chatted like longtime friends. Because it was after 4:00 when we finally got to the B&B, we asked about staying another night, which she was more than happy to accomodate for us.
After we rested for a bit and cleaned up, we headed into town for calling cards and to eat. Unfortunately most restaurants quite serving food at 8:00 so we spent our first night in Ireland eating...Italian food. We ate at the Italian Connection and the food was pretty good. I had the gnocci, mom had canneloni, and my aunt had the fettucini. After we ate we headed to our first pub, which again the name escapes me but was pretty much across the street from the restaurant.
We grabbed three seats at the bar and started chatting with the bartender. We asked for the Kilkenny beer but he told us that only tourists drink Kilkenny beer and that we should go with Smithwicks instead. Ignoring the fact that we were indeed tourists, we went with his suggestion and were quite pleased. However, I still preferred my Guiness! We chatted with a few locals around the bar, got some more advice on where to go (don't go to Kinsale, go to Kinsale but not Kenmare, do the ring of Kerry,don't do the ring of Kerry...it started to get dizzying trying to figure out what we should do as everyone had their own opinions!) We ended the night by asking the bartender to take a picture of us. Not only did he accept, but he let us go behind the bar to where the beer is served and took a picture of us there!
As we were walking out the door we ran into two brothers smoking. They were great fun, and the ones that told us about "craic" and that its quite different from our "crack". They were a riot and as we departed they both gave us hugs and kisses on our cheeks!
We finally got back to the B&B and quickly fell into a very well-deserved sleep, happy to be in Ireland and excited about what the next few days would hold for us.
Next: Kilkenny Castle, the Rock of Cashel and a meanding walk in Cahir...
Tracy
We arrived in Dublin promptly at 8:30 a.m. I had to fly back to Chicago, where I originally bought my tickets for, and met my mom and aunt at the airport. Luckily American was super nice about combining my tickets so that I wouldn't have to deal with rechecking in and going through the security lines again in Chicago. The flight itself was fairly uneventful (where would I be without my beloved Ambien?) and we woke up well rested and excited to begin our journey.
Once we got to Dublin's airport we spent the first 20 minutes waiting for our bags, picked up our rental car (Avis) and tried, unsuccessfully, to find an ATM in the airport that was working. Dublins airport is under some construction and neither of the ATMs that we found were working, although it wasn't too big of a deal.
So we get our car and my aunt takes the wheel. I can't believe how great of a job she did! DH and I rented a car in England a few years ago and he just wasn't getting it. He would freak out every time we got into a town with more than 500 people in it! But my aunt picked it up right away. I will say that the road system in Ireland isn't the greatest. The roads themselves were fine but signs aren't very well marked so we always ended up taking alternative routes.
Our first stop was Trim. We debated about this, and several people here suggested we drop it from our itinerary, but both my mom and aunt really wanted to see a castle and were impressed with the fact that its the largest castle in Ireland so we decided to go for it. After a few wrong turns trying to get out of Dublin we were quickly on our way. Trim itself is a neat little town and the castle was really great. I'm glad we decided to do it. Not only did it help combat the jet lag (it only took about an hour or so to get there from the airport) but it was just a really cool castle. We spent about an hour there, where we encountered our first friendly locals. It was a couple who were daytripping from Dublin and they joked that the Irish are a very unfriendly bunch. They were the first, of many, to suggest we visit Galway at the end of our trip.
We walked into town, found an ATM, and then grabbed a bit to eat at a small restaurant. Unfortunately I don't have the name of it, but the food was great. It was a chilly day (although certainly warmer than what I'm used to in St. Louis!) and we each had the vegetable soup and the brown bread. Now about that brown bread...I became addicted pretty quickly! I love bread anyways, and the brown bread was delicious. I had it with just about every meal!
After we visited Trim we made our way down to Kilkenny. I reserved the first night of our trip at the Park Villa B&B. Unfortunately Kilkenny's road system is like a maze and after about a half an hour of trying to find it, we pulled into a grocery store parking lot and asked a woman for help. Not only did she give us directions, but she actually got into the car with us and told us exactly where to go while we were driving and then we dropped her off at the bus stop. I couldn't believe how nice she was and that she would be willing to go out of her way to help us out! Anyways, we finally found it.
I chose the Park Villa because of its proximitely to the downtown area of Kilkenny, which is about a 15 minute walk. The B&B was nice, although our room, with three single beds, was on the cramped side. Vicky, the owner, was super friendly and soon we were chatted like longtime friends. Because it was after 4:00 when we finally got to the B&B, we asked about staying another night, which she was more than happy to accomodate for us.
After we rested for a bit and cleaned up, we headed into town for calling cards and to eat. Unfortunately most restaurants quite serving food at 8:00 so we spent our first night in Ireland eating...Italian food. We ate at the Italian Connection and the food was pretty good. I had the gnocci, mom had canneloni, and my aunt had the fettucini. After we ate we headed to our first pub, which again the name escapes me but was pretty much across the street from the restaurant.
We grabbed three seats at the bar and started chatting with the bartender. We asked for the Kilkenny beer but he told us that only tourists drink Kilkenny beer and that we should go with Smithwicks instead. Ignoring the fact that we were indeed tourists, we went with his suggestion and were quite pleased. However, I still preferred my Guiness! We chatted with a few locals around the bar, got some more advice on where to go (don't go to Kinsale, go to Kinsale but not Kenmare, do the ring of Kerry,don't do the ring of Kerry...it started to get dizzying trying to figure out what we should do as everyone had their own opinions!) We ended the night by asking the bartender to take a picture of us. Not only did he accept, but he let us go behind the bar to where the beer is served and took a picture of us there!
As we were walking out the door we ran into two brothers smoking. They were great fun, and the ones that told us about "craic" and that its quite different from our "crack". They were a riot and as we departed they both gave us hugs and kisses on our cheeks!
We finally got back to the B&B and quickly fell into a very well-deserved sleep, happy to be in Ireland and excited about what the next few days would hold for us.
Next: Kilkenny Castle, the Rock of Cashel and a meanding walk in Cahir...
Tracy
Feb 27th, 2007, 05:27 PM
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Tracy,
Looking forward for more. It’s so funny, last year we crossed posts about Croatia (we were there in Sept)….we’ll be in Ireland in August this year, visiting some of the same places you did
Where are you going next year?
Looking forward for more. It’s so funny, last year we crossed posts about Croatia (we were there in Sept)….we’ll be in Ireland in August this year, visiting some of the same places you did
Where are you going next year?
Feb 27th, 2007, 05:56 PM
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Great trip report, Tracy! I leave three weeks from tomorrow. (Mine will also be a mother/daughter trip, but I'm the mother!) You're making me very anxious to go! Sounds like the three of you had a fantastic time. I'm sure you'll all treasure these memories the rest of your life.
Very much looking forward to reading the rest of your report!
Very much looking forward to reading the rest of your report!
Feb 27th, 2007, 06:12 PM
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Wow tcreath although I have never visited Ireland I am so enjoying your trip report. And your aunt sounds awesome in that she dealt with driving on the "wrong side of the road" after crossing the pond. A fun report..I certainly look forward to the next installment. I love hearing about the friendly Irish, something everyone I know who has ever been to Ireland has commented about.
Feb 28th, 2007, 07:42 AM
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Thank you all so much for your kind words and for reading my report! I'm still getting over my ear infection (which happens to be...my "unfortunate souvenir, as mentioned in my title) so I hope its not too dull!
Tracy
Tracy
Feb 28th, 2007, 08:43 AM
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Tracy,
Welcome home! From the sounds of the first installments, you had an excellent adventure! I look forward to the rest of the report, after you get healed up. Ear infections are absolutely no fun.
Slan go Foill,
Bit Devine
Welcome home! From the sounds of the first installments, you had an excellent adventure! I look forward to the rest of the report, after you get healed up. Ear infections are absolutely no fun.
Slan go Foill,
Bit Devine
Mar 5th, 2007, 12:57 AM
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Tracy-
Enjoying the report very much! Looking forward to the rest. One of my favorite things on vacation and most especially in Ireland is the unexpected little things that happen along the way that make the memories even more meaningful!
Dawn
Enjoying the report very much! Looking forward to the rest. One of my favorite things on vacation and most especially in Ireland is the unexpected little things that happen along the way that make the memories even more meaningful!
Dawn
Mar 5th, 2007, 02:45 AM
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Tracy, I'll be heading to Ireland in 9 days and loved reading about your trip and the locals. I'm so excited. It's my first trip out of the US. Your story has made me even more excited! Thanks for sharing!
Tonya
Tonya
Mar 7th, 2007, 09:46 AM
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Day 2
I will start out by saying that we did too much this day. Its so easy to check out mileage on viamichelin.com and think to yourself how easy it would be to do this, this and this on this day. I should have learned my lesson after our little “daytrip” to Cesky Krumlov from Berchtesgaden a few years ago (where a 90 mile daytrip turned into a three hour plus drive each way) but oh no…not me! Still, it was a nice day. Live and learn!
Okay, so we all slept wonderfully and woke up ready to try this famous Irish breakfast that we had read and heard about. We quickly get ready. Well, as quickly as three women sharing a small room and one bathroom can get ready, meaning about an hour and a half later we were finally downstairs. Vicky, the b&b owner, is so super sweet and chatted with us while we ate. On the table when we arrived was cereal, fruit and that yummy brown bread, along with tea, coffee and orange juice. Then came the bacon, sausage, eggs, tomatoes and toast. The food was delicious but none of us are real big breakfast eaters (my typical breakfast at home is to grab a granola bar or banana as I walk out the door on my way out the door to work!) so a lot went to waste. Vicky told us that most Irish never eat all of that food in the morning with the exception of holidays like Easter, and we told her that to make it easier on her the next morning the cereal, fruit and bread would be perfect. We chatted about how her husband is a landscape architect who works for the city of Kilkenny and has his office in Kilkenny castle, which was pretty cool! For anybody who has been to the castle, he helped design the flower garden in the shape of the Celtic cross in the park on the castle grounds.
We walked outside to a chilly day with heavy haze floating in the air. We drove to the castle, parked in front, and walked around and took pictures before the castle opened at 10:30. The castle was sitting majestically in the haze, creating the perfect silhouette for an evocative picture. DH and I blow up and frame pictures from our vacations to hang around our house, and one of my Kilkenny castle pictures made the cut. As we were taking pictures from the garden we noticed a man climbing into one of the windows in the front of the castle. We had a lot of fun with this and took pictures of the guilty party to exchange for some reward money! This story gets even better so stay tuned to tomorrow!
The castle itself is gorgeous and fascinating. It’s much what one would expect when envisioning a castle. It sits on the edge of a beautiful meandering river and was quite a site. As we walked to the entrance to the castle we spotted one of my very favorite words….gift shop! We entered promptly at 10:30, paid for our 11:00 tour, and hit the gift shop. Because DH didn’t get to come with us, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the castle, I bought a small guidebook on Kilkenny Castle that is filled with interesting information and great pictures. We browsed around for a little while, checked our cameras in with security, and headed for our tour. The tour is nice, although we didn’t get to see much of the castle in the 45-minute tour. It starts with a short 10-minute video on the history of the castle and its occupants. From here we visited some of the rooms, including a dining room, library, bedroom and the finale, a beautiful gallery filled with lovely art that the owners had collected. All in all the tour was definitely worth the five Euro or so that we paid.
Our plan was to hit the Kilkenny Design Center, located across the street from the castle and filled with handmade products from Ireland, but unfortunately during this time of year its closed on Sundays, as was much of the sights around Kilkenny. We jumped in the car to head to the Rock of Cashel. Of course we got lost, again, getting out of Kilkenny but after about 10 minutes we found the road we needed and were on our way. By this time the haze had burned off but it was still quite overcast. We arrived in Cashel around around 1:00. I tell you, the Rock of Cashel is quite an impressive site as you approach it from Kilkenny! We were oohing and aahing about how cool it looked. We parked and got out, only to find out that we missed the tour and the next tour wasn’t for another few hours. We decided to skip the tour and walked around by ourselves. The Rock of Cashel is really neat, although to be honest I thought that the views of the castle were more impressive than the castle itself. Still, there is a beautiful small chapel filled with rich wood walls inside, and a charming cemetery located on the grounds outside. The grounds also offered beautiful views of the town of Cashel, a very charming, colorful small town.
By this time we were quite hungry for lunch. There wasn’t much open in town for lunch so we ended up at Apokolypse, which we found out later is a chain that has many locations in Ireland. It’s a small fast-food type place that sells, salads, gyros, kebabs, and french fries. Mom and I had french fries; she had the taco french fries and I had the garlic cheese french fries, which basically were fries smothered in cheese and a garlicy sauce not unlike a veggie dip that you can find in the US. Both were delicious. My aunt had a gyro which was also quite good.
Now, our next plan was to go to Cahir to visit Cahir castle. By the time we finally get to Cahir its after 4:00 and the castle is closed. We took some pictures and decided to take a walk along the path marked “Swiss Cottage this way”. Well, we never did find the Swiss cottage but there was something magical about walking this path through lush green forests with the small creek rushing adjacent to us. It felt a little bit like being in our own fairy tale. After our walk we were a little chilled so we went to the Tipperary Café, located across the street from the castle, for some delicious hot chocolates.
We hop in the car and headed back to Kilkenny. So here we are, driving along, chatting away when suddenly the car behind us starts flashing us with her headlights. We are wondering what the heck is going on, pull over, and this sweet young girl comes over to tell us that we just lost our hubcap. I don’t know why, but for some reason we found this utterly hilarious. I was doubled over in pain from all the laughter! So my mom starts walking down the street looking for the hubcap, while aunt and I turn around and head that direction ourselves. We drive for a few minutes, can’t find the hubcap, turn around and are calling for my mom through the rolled down windows when all the sudden my aunt says “I heard something!” So we look over and realize the car that just went by ran over our hubcap! So I run into the street to retrieve it, almost rolling with laughter. The hubcap is made of plastic, as I’m sure because stupid American tourists do this kind of thing all the time, and a small piece of it was broken off. As we drove back towards Kilkenny we got a kick out of discussing how our men would have handled this situation. Somehow I don’t think my hubby would have found the event quite as humorous as we did!
Of course we get lost AGAIN. For a small town, Kilkenny just blows my mind. Now I admit I don’t have the best sense of direction but I could not get a grasp on the layout of this town for the life of me. So we had to ask someone else, again super friendly, to point out the right direction for us. I think it took us about a half an hour to find our hotel and we didn’t know whether to laugh because it was so ridiculous or cry because we just wanted to get back!
We finally arrive, rest up for a bit, freshen up, and head to town. Vicky gave us some recommendations for some good places to eat and she told us to park in the Dunnes Store parking lot because there is a way to get out free by going through a small exit that isn’t marked and only locals know about it. Since we are all about anything free we take her advice. We walk into Dunnes, find a place to purchase calling cards, and we each called our respective families to let them know that we were in fact in Ireland and yes, we were still alive, and then headed to town to look for a place to eat. We ended up at a great place and again I don’t have it written down. It was a pub on one of the main streets that had a restaurant in back. I want to say it had Oak or Owl or something like that in the name. If someone has any ideas, I would love to hear them! Anyways, the restaurant itself was gorgeous. The chairs were made out of wooded branches and were very high backed. The food itself was quite good. I had stew made with Guinness and a small Caesar salad and of course some brown bread.
Afterwards we went to another pub that was small and delightful. We sat in a small table near a cozy fireplace and had a few beers before calling it a night.
Next: Tipparary, Adare and a very scary drive through Kilarney National Park on the way to Kenmare…
I will start out by saying that we did too much this day. Its so easy to check out mileage on viamichelin.com and think to yourself how easy it would be to do this, this and this on this day. I should have learned my lesson after our little “daytrip” to Cesky Krumlov from Berchtesgaden a few years ago (where a 90 mile daytrip turned into a three hour plus drive each way) but oh no…not me! Still, it was a nice day. Live and learn!
Okay, so we all slept wonderfully and woke up ready to try this famous Irish breakfast that we had read and heard about. We quickly get ready. Well, as quickly as three women sharing a small room and one bathroom can get ready, meaning about an hour and a half later we were finally downstairs. Vicky, the b&b owner, is so super sweet and chatted with us while we ate. On the table when we arrived was cereal, fruit and that yummy brown bread, along with tea, coffee and orange juice. Then came the bacon, sausage, eggs, tomatoes and toast. The food was delicious but none of us are real big breakfast eaters (my typical breakfast at home is to grab a granola bar or banana as I walk out the door on my way out the door to work!) so a lot went to waste. Vicky told us that most Irish never eat all of that food in the morning with the exception of holidays like Easter, and we told her that to make it easier on her the next morning the cereal, fruit and bread would be perfect. We chatted about how her husband is a landscape architect who works for the city of Kilkenny and has his office in Kilkenny castle, which was pretty cool! For anybody who has been to the castle, he helped design the flower garden in the shape of the Celtic cross in the park on the castle grounds.
We walked outside to a chilly day with heavy haze floating in the air. We drove to the castle, parked in front, and walked around and took pictures before the castle opened at 10:30. The castle was sitting majestically in the haze, creating the perfect silhouette for an evocative picture. DH and I blow up and frame pictures from our vacations to hang around our house, and one of my Kilkenny castle pictures made the cut. As we were taking pictures from the garden we noticed a man climbing into one of the windows in the front of the castle. We had a lot of fun with this and took pictures of the guilty party to exchange for some reward money!
This story gets even better so stay tuned to tomorrow! The castle itself is gorgeous and fascinating. It’s much what one would expect when envisioning a castle. It sits on the edge of a beautiful meandering river and was quite a site. As we walked to the entrance to the castle we spotted one of my very favorite words….gift shop! We entered promptly at 10:30, paid for our 11:00 tour, and hit the gift shop. Because DH didn’t get to come with us, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the castle, I bought a small guidebook on Kilkenny Castle that is filled with interesting information and great pictures. We browsed around for a little while, checked our cameras in with security, and headed for our tour. The tour is nice, although we didn’t get to see much of the castle in the 45-minute tour. It starts with a short 10-minute video on the history of the castle and its occupants. From here we visited some of the rooms, including a dining room, library, bedroom and the finale, a beautiful gallery filled with lovely art that the owners had collected. All in all the tour was definitely worth the five Euro or so that we paid.
Our plan was to hit the Kilkenny Design Center, located across the street from the castle and filled with handmade products from Ireland, but unfortunately during this time of year its closed on Sundays, as was much of the sights around Kilkenny. We jumped in the car to head to the Rock of Cashel. Of course we got lost, again, getting out of Kilkenny but after about 10 minutes we found the road we needed and were on our way. By this time the haze had burned off but it was still quite overcast. We arrived in Cashel around around 1:00. I tell you, the Rock of Cashel is quite an impressive site as you approach it from Kilkenny! We were oohing and aahing about how cool it looked. We parked and got out, only to find out that we missed the tour and the next tour wasn’t for another few hours. We decided to skip the tour and walked around by ourselves. The Rock of Cashel is really neat, although to be honest I thought that the views of the castle were more impressive than the castle itself. Still, there is a beautiful small chapel filled with rich wood walls inside, and a charming cemetery located on the grounds outside. The grounds also offered beautiful views of the town of Cashel, a very charming, colorful small town.
By this time we were quite hungry for lunch. There wasn’t much open in town for lunch so we ended up at Apokolypse, which we found out later is a chain that has many locations in Ireland. It’s a small fast-food type place that sells, salads, gyros, kebabs, and french fries. Mom and I had french fries; she had the taco french fries and I had the garlic cheese french fries, which basically were fries smothered in cheese and a garlicy sauce not unlike a veggie dip that you can find in the US. Both were delicious. My aunt had a gyro which was also quite good.
Now, our next plan was to go to Cahir to visit Cahir castle. By the time we finally get to Cahir its after 4:00 and the castle is closed. We took some pictures and decided to take a walk along the path marked “Swiss Cottage this way”. Well, we never did find the Swiss cottage but there was something magical about walking this path through lush green forests with the small creek rushing adjacent to us. It felt a little bit like being in our own fairy tale. After our walk we were a little chilled so we went to the Tipperary Café, located across the street from the castle, for some delicious hot chocolates.
We hop in the car and headed back to Kilkenny. So here we are, driving along, chatting away when suddenly the car behind us starts flashing us with her headlights. We are wondering what the heck is going on, pull over, and this sweet young girl comes over to tell us that we just lost our hubcap. I don’t know why, but for some reason we found this utterly hilarious. I was doubled over in pain from all the laughter! So my mom starts walking down the street looking for the hubcap, while aunt and I turn around and head that direction ourselves. We drive for a few minutes, can’t find the hubcap, turn around and are calling for my mom through the rolled down windows when all the sudden my aunt says “I heard something!” So we look over and realize the car that just went by ran over our hubcap! So I run into the street to retrieve it, almost rolling with laughter. The hubcap is made of plastic, as I’m sure because stupid American tourists do this kind of thing all the time, and a small piece of it was broken off. As we drove back towards Kilkenny we got a kick out of discussing how our men would have handled this situation. Somehow I don’t think my hubby would have found the event quite as humorous as we did!
Of course we get lost AGAIN. For a small town, Kilkenny just blows my mind. Now I admit I don’t have the best sense of direction but I could not get a grasp on the layout of this town for the life of me. So we had to ask someone else, again super friendly, to point out the right direction for us. I think it took us about a half an hour to find our hotel and we didn’t know whether to laugh because it was so ridiculous or cry because we just wanted to get back!
We finally arrive, rest up for a bit, freshen up, and head to town. Vicky gave us some recommendations for some good places to eat and she told us to park in the Dunnes Store parking lot because there is a way to get out free by going through a small exit that isn’t marked and only locals know about it. Since we are all about anything free we take her advice. We walk into Dunnes, find a place to purchase calling cards, and we each called our respective families to let them know that we were in fact in Ireland and yes, we were still alive, and then headed to town to look for a place to eat. We ended up at a great place and again I don’t have it written down. It was a pub on one of the main streets that had a restaurant in back. I want to say it had Oak or Owl or something like that in the name. If someone has any ideas, I would love to hear them! Anyways, the restaurant itself was gorgeous. The chairs were made out of wooded branches and were very high backed. The food itself was quite good. I had stew made with Guinness and a small Caesar salad and of course some brown bread.
Afterwards we went to another pub that was small and delightful. We sat in a small table near a cozy fireplace and had a few beers before calling it a night.
Next: Tipparary, Adare and a very scary drive through Kilarney National Park on the way to Kenmare…
