An Irish Travelogue

Day 3 in Ireland found us in Kilkenney. The town of Kilkenney is a touristy area and there were many people walking about town. The town is full of narrow stone streets and beautiful architecture. We arrived at 11:30 am and had plenty of time to walk around the town and have lunch before our tour of Kilkenney Castle at 2 pm.
Our first stop was at the pharmacists to get contact solution for Casey. I had a blister so I got some bandaids as well. The bandaids are called elastoblasts and are so different from what we consider bandaids. Once our purchases were made we climbed a hill to a church at the top. This was St. Canice's cathedral and it was beautiful. It sat on the edge of town and even had a watch tower. That is my family looking down from the tower. My knee and my fear of heights prevented me from doing this. I sat in the church yard and looked at very old graves and Celtic crosses.
After this we walked back towards town stopping at the most beautiful church along the way. The stained glass windows were beautiful and we were able to go in and observe Mass there. Lunch was at Subway (don't laugh - it was quick and easy) and we were quickly on our way for more time around the town. There were street performers and a beautiful walkway along the canal. Around 2 we headed to the Kilkenney castle for our tour.
The Castle was over 800 years old and had been in one family for many years. The tour lasted about an hour and was pretty nice - couldn't take pictures though. Afterwards, we were all back on the tour bus and headed to our Irish farms for the evening. Before getting on the bus, we stopped and got ice cream from an ice cream truck outside the castle. The main type they sell is a vanilla soft serve ice cream cone with a "flake" in it. The "flake" is a rolled Cadbury chocolate bar that consists of flakes of chocolate. The "flake is about 2 inches long and stuck into the side of the ice cream. It was fantastic. Of course, we love Cadbury chocolate and that is the only chocolate sold in Ireland so we had it often.

Our drive through the countryside to our farm - Moate Farm - was beautiful. I have to say this over and over, I can't believe how our bus driver, Jim Lynch, made it through some of the narrowest roads I have ever seen. We were constantly amazed at his driving. Of course, he has been doing this for 31 years, so it was no big deal to him. His skill at backing up the tour bus was even more amazing! More to come later!!!

In other news, I am enjoying my job tremendously. I am still working out the kinks with combining home life and working. I am pretty tired at night and don't feel like cooking or doing much of anything. I know it will get better as things go on. I have to start doing more meal planning and home organization in order not to be stressed about things. Everyone is helping out with fixing meals, walking Kitty, and being supportive. Greg and Casey even had breakfast for me this morning after I came in from my morning walk. For them to be up at 9 am on a Saturday stunned me. It was such a nice treat and I just love these kids.

Tour of Ireland Continues

Love this picture of the doorman at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. Loved this hotel and hated that we only spent one day there. The rooms were very elegant and the service outstanding. There was even afternoon tea in the lobby area. One thing that amazed me about Ireland was the toilets. Our toilets are oval shaped and rather long. In Ireland (everywhere), the toilets are round. Completely round and not very large. You really notice it the first time you see one because all of a sudden you have all of this room in the bathroom. Usually stalls in airports are tight squeezes - not in Ireland where the toilets are round and you don't have to move around it to close the door. COOL!!!

Casey is giving a funny look because as we were walking back to the hotel from Trinity College and the Book of Kells, we saw Dartmouth Road. It took us about 5 minutes to convince her to stand in front of the street sign. I have to include this picture because she couldn't believe we made such a big deal of it.
This is a picture of Ireland President Mary Macalease's (sp?)home. It is located in Phoenix Park in Dublin. It's hard to tell from this picture, but a light is always left on in the front window to guide Irish immigrants back home. Mary is the second female president they have had in row. She is well liked. I think the prior president was a Mary as well.

This is a picture taken from our tour bus on the way to Kilkenney on our 2nd day in Ireland. Everything was so green and uninhabited. All of us kept saying throughout the trip, that if this beauty was in America it would be surrounded by condos and expensive summer homes. We like to spoil beauty so that we can look at it. Here everything was so unspoiled and beautiful.

More Irish pics

Here are more pictures from our Ireland trip. After arriving in Dublin after a night flight from Philly, we napped at our hotel briefly before a tour of Dublin. Our first stop was a castle in Dublin. Mave, our tour guide at the castle, was great. This picture is the throne that was made for Queen Victoria. The legs were cut down to be very short to accommodate her short stature.

This next picture is the Pope's cross that was erected in 1979 for Pope John Paul's visit. A mass was held at this spot (Phoenix Park) and was attended by most of Dublin. The picture is slightly blurry because this is the only time we saw rain during the 10 days in Ireland. We had the best weather.

I took many pictures of the doors of Dublin as their colors were wonderful. Our tour driver told us that the doors were painted bright colors originally in defiance of the edict that doors be painted black in mourning for the passing of an English monarch (can't remember which one). The Irish, who didn't like being under English rule at the time, decided to paint the doors bright colors. The tradition continues today and everywhere we looked we saw brightly colored doors (all over Ireland).

This next picture is of Kilkenney Castle in Kilkenney. We had a nice bus ride their and explored the town and castle. The castle was over 800 years old and incredibly beautiful. The gardens and landscaping around the castle provided lots of places to sit and view the scenery.


This last picture was taken at the Choate farm in Kilkenney. We stayed at the farm with our host family for two nights. We were paired up with a couple from Massachusetts, Kristen and Chris. We hit it off immediately, and the proprietor, Kathleen, just assumed that we were all traveling together. Greg pulled out a wiffle ball and bat from his suitcase and we all headed to the cow pasture to play. Chris loved it and Kristen and I joined in as well. Brian, Kathleen's son, joined us as well and loved having the chance to play ball with us. He is a hurler and played competitively in Kilkenney.

More to come.