Ireland: Day 4 (Sept. 14, 2011)

Here is the Pembrooke Hotel in Kilkenney where we spent the night last night. It was a very nice hotel.

We overslept this morning... didn't wake up until 9:15 a.m. I guess we were tired! Still must be trying to overcome jetlag. After getting dressed, we at breakfast in the hotel. We got some recommendations from the front desk gal and then headed out on foot to explore Kilkenney. Our first stop was Kilkenney Castle. It was right in the middle of town and it was HUGE! After walking around outside, we took a self-quided tour. Unfortunately, they do not allow the taking of photographs inside the castle. Kilkenney Castle was built in 1195.

We then walked through the shopping district. There were a lot of people milling around!

Next, we stopped at St. Mary's Cathedral. It was quite the church. St. Mary's is an early English gothic church built between 1843 and 1857.

The Black Abbey was established in 1225.

St. Canice's Cathedral dates from the 13th century and is the second largest cathedral in Ireland.

We drove to Inistioge to view an arched bridge over the River Nore. It was built in 1763.

We just happened to find Grennan Castle on our drive from Inistioge. It was built in the 13th century.

Jerpoint Abbey was established in 1180. The present ruins are very extensive

Kells Priory is one of the largest and most impressive medieval monuments in Ireland. The walls enclose a site of just over 3 acres. It was founded in 1193 but was attacked and burned on 3 different occasions. There have been many additions to the original church. We had to walk through a sheep pasture to get to the priory. It was a very "careful" walk as you can imagine...

We then headed to the Rock of Cashel. I put Cashel in the GPS and off we went... We drove on some of the most narrow roads I have ever seen!! Some roads were so narrow, our car alone barely fit. We even got stuck behind some cows being herded home for dinner...

When we finally thought we were close to the Rock of Cashel, we still couldn't find it. There was an elderly man working on some stone fence posts so we decided to stop and ask for directions. He said we still had a "wee bit of a drive". Tracy asked how far a "wee bit" was and it turned out we were still 45 minutes away!! The GPS had taken us to the wrong area! It gave the man quite the chuckle and he said he couldn't wait to tell everyone at dinner that he gave Americans directions to the Rock of Cashel from where he was working today - he said it would be quite the story to tell!! He tried to give us directions but kept getting off the subject. We ended up chatting with him for quite a while - very, very nice man! We finally got general directions. Before we left, he gave us a piece of stone from his project and had me write his name and address on it so we could write him when we got home to let him know we made it to the Rock of Cashel. We finally left him and made our way to the Rock. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we got there. We were still able to take pictures of the outside. They are doing a lot of restoration so there was scafolding everywhere. The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion in 1169. Few remnants of the early structures survive; the majority of buildings on the current site date from the 12th and 13th centuries.

I managed to set my camera on a rock and get a picture of us in front of the Rock of Cashel. I will send a copy of this to Jim, the man who gave us directions, to prove we made it!

There was quite the ruins just down below the Rock of Cashel. I am not sure what it is or when it is from.

We then headed to Waterford City where we will spend the night. We checked in at the Tower Hotel. By then it was 8:15 p.m. so we just ate at the hotel dining room. Tracy had steak and I had penne pasta with smoked chicken. For dessert, Tracy had warm chocolate fondant and a small scoop of ice cream and I had creme brulee. We walked the boardwalk along the river after dinner for a bit and then called it a night.

Ireland: Day 3 (Sept. 13, 2011)

We got up around 8:00 a.m. Tracy slept 11 hours and said he could have slept even longer. We had a very nice breakfast in the hotel and got our first taste of a full Irish breakfast: eggs, bacon (like canadian), sausage, cooked tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, black and white pudding, toast and jam. Not real keen on some of that but mostly it was pretty good. After breakfast, we packed up, loaded up the car, and headed out of Dublin. We tried to find the Killruddery House but had no luck. So we went on to the Powerscourt Estate and Gardens near Enniskerry. It is from the middle 1700's. It was abandoned and gutted by a fire. It has taken them 30 years to restore it. The gardens are huge and we walked around for quite awhile dodging rain showers the entire time.

Then we drove to the Powerscourt waterfall - the highest waterfall in Ireland (397 ft).


Here is a sample of the roads in Ireland - this is a two way road!

Next, we went to the Wicklow Mountains National Park to see Glendalough. It is an abandoned 5th century monestary located near 2 lakes. We grabbed a quick lunch at a stand there (Tracy- burger, me- hot dog). We walked around the monestary and then to the 2 lakes. It was a 1.4 km walk to the lakes one way and 1.6 km walk back along a boardwalk. It was a great day for a walk. We also saw on the map that there was a waterfall here. We, of course, took the wrong path and it took us the long way to the waterfall! Near the farthest lake, there was a small store and we got chocolate/vanilla swirl ice cream cones for the walk back - they were so yummy!

Because it was almost 5 p.m. by the time we got done walking around Glendalough, we headed toward Kilkenney where we will spend the night. We got to drive a ways on a motorway - much nicer road to drive on. There was actually room between you and the other cars. It still seemed weird driving on the "wrong" side of the road...
We stopped in Carlow to see the Carlow Castle - it was right in the middle of town. It was built between 1207 and 1213! Not much left of it...
Our last stop before Kilkenney, was the Black Castle in Lehinbridge, which is one of Ireland's earliest Norman castles.
We stayed overnight in Kilkenney at the Pembrooke Hotel. Their car park was full so we had to park a block away and lug our suitcases all the way to the hotel. After checking in and putting our stuff in our room, we asked the front desk guy for a recommendation for dinner. He suggested Zuni which was across the street. We went there, sat down, looked at the menu, and walked out - it was just too "fancy" for us and pretty expensive. We tried to find someplace else to eat. We then discovered most places only serve food until 9 and it was 9:15. We actually had to settle on a Chinese restaurant - Swans. Hated to have traveled 4000 miles to Ireland and end up eating Chinese!! Tracy got BBQ ribs with chips (fries) and I got the Trio of Seafood Chow Mein. It was a good dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel to collapse for what little was left of the evening. Tracy promptly fell asleep! This is a picture of a street in Kilkenney.

Ireland: Day 2 (Sept. 12, 2011)

As the sun started to light up the sky, the flight attendants brought us breakfast. We landed in Dublin, Ireland around 8:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m. our time). It was kind of a bumpy landing due to Hurricane Katia going past Ireland. We collected our baggage, got some Euros at an ATM, bought a cheap cell phone, and waited for the Hertz shuttle to take us to get our rental car. The car we were slated to get was so small, we splurged and upgraded. Then the Hertz gal, upgraded us again at no additional cost. We had a very nice Peugot 3008 - it gets 43 mpg!! We headed off to our hotel. It should have been a 20 minute drive but it took us 2 hours - we were so lost. They don't believe in addresses in Ireland and there are very few street signs. I had a GPS but couldn't get it to work correctly - later figured out I was trying to find our hotel in Albania!! Didn't know I had to pick which country we were in... This was Tracy's first attempt at driving on the left side of the road, in a strange country, with teeny tiny roads, lots of traffic - it was completely nuts!! He got very stressed and I am sure I didn't help much. Driving in Ireland is absolutely ridiculous!!!
We finally made it to our hotel - the D4 Berkeley - right across the street from the US Embassy.

After checking into our hotel and taking our luggage to our room, we headed out to explore Dublin on foot. We walked around for over 6 hours and I am sure we walked at least 4 or 5 miles. There were people everywhere! Dublin is a very busy city!
Here is the Huband Bridge, quite picturesque; it was built in 1791.

This is a government building where you will find the Irish Prime Minister.

There was some beautiful ivy covering a lot of buildings.

We walked through St. Stephen's Green; it is a huge park in the middle of Dublin that has been there since 1663! There were a lot of people enjoying the park on this nice day.


This is the beginning of the Grafton Street Pedestrian mall - lots and lots and lots of restaurants and shopping. It seemed half of Dublin was there!

This was the South City Market, built in 1894. What a gorgeous building!

Here I am in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral. I don't think I have ever seen such a large church! It was built in 1192, can you believe that?

Christ's Church Cathedral, from 1030!! As you can see, we enjoyed some beautiful blue skies!

Dublin Castle, 1204 A.D.

Dublin City wall from 1240 and St. Audeon's Church from 1190. It was hard to fathom how old these buildings were!

The Four Courts from 1785- quite the large building.

Dublin along the River Liffey.

The Temple Bar district - where all the restaurants and pubs are located.

The Quay's Restaurant in the Temple Bar district where we ate our first meal in Dublin. I had Guiness Stew; Tracy had fish and chips. For dessert, I had a Bailey's coffee and Tracy had an Irish Coffee - yum!

This is the Ha'Penny Bridge from 1816. It is called that because they used to charge half a penny as a toll to cross the bridge.

The Spire was built in 2003. It is 398 feet tall.

Dublin has great public transportation. We saw these double decker buses everywhere. It seems most people either walk or use public transportation. I totally understand why they would not want to drive!!! Ha ha ha!!!

The Custom House from 1791.

You can see some of the modern touches that are in Dublin, Ireland from the building to the bridge. The River Liffey flows through Dublin.

We had a long a very long walk back to the hotel. By the time we got there, we were both so worn out. We had been up for about 30 hours! It was definitely time to crash. We got back to the hotel room around 8 p.m. Tracy really wanted to stay awake until 10 but he gave up around 9 and was snoring within seconds!

We are in Ireland!! How cool is that? It is so hard to believe we are really here. Can't wait for tomorrow - we head out of Dublin and into the countryside.