Ah, it has finally come: our last full day in Ireland. Well, it came two weeks ago, but I’m just getting around to writing about it because I’m a naughty sausage.
We had a decision to make: do we stop somewhere and spend a few hours sightseeing or do we head directly to Dublin and do some sightseeing and some shopping (Marisa was jonesing for some more Orla KIley gear).
We decided to get up early-ish and stop in Kilkenny which is halfway between where we were staying and Dublin.
Kilkenny bills itself as Ireland’s most intact Medieval town and, I gotta tell you, it is pretty darned delightful.
We started off visiting Kilkenny Castle.
Which is fun to visit, but for some reason they offer guided tours once a day and we missed the tour for the day. We did walk through the castle though.
And I found my spirit head wearing a sheep:
And saw a very large room:
We even had lunch in the lovely tea room in the castle. I will give Ireland (and Northern Ireland) props for the very good food they serve in tourist spots. American could learn a thing or two about this… not a crappy foiled wrapped hamburger in sight!
The castle property has been turned into a lovely park which many of the folks of Kilkenny were taking advantage of. We took a stroll and came upon this pond with these mysterious structures sinking (floating?) amongst the muck.
Hands! Reaching out!
Once we were done with the castle we walked through the town. Marisa spotted a little bakery and suggested we look in the window. I looked at her and said, “Why don’t we go in and buy some treats.” And we did. This was marketed as brownie, but it was really a piece of chocolate cake. A very tasty piece of chocolate cake.
Once we were done with our cake we stopped at the Medieval Mile Museum. We walked in and the place was empty except for two people working there. We went up to the register and the woman said, “Would you like a ticket or would you like the tour?” We asked when the next tour was, and found out that it was in 5 minutes. Which was odd since we got there around 2:40pm or so. I think they just wanted us to take the tour, and we did!
And I am very glad we did. The tourguide gave just his full attention and spent almost an hour telling us the history of the museum and Kilkenny in a most entertaining, and enlighting manner.
After that lovely experience we visited the Rothe House.
It is three townhouses that a fancypants merchant lived in 400 years ago. Seen in that light it is an impressive building but the museum is rather underwhelming. In fact, we sort of felt like we had wasted our money until we came upon the gardens in the back:
After that we had spent most of the day in Kilkenny and it was time to head to our hotel in Dublin. Off we went, and when we got there and all checked in we realized something interesting: the airport terminal was a 5 minute walk from the hotel. We had planned on returning the rental car in the morning, but after having walked to the terminal (to make sure it was a 5 minute walk) and finding out we could return the car that night… we did! So all we had to do in the morning was wake up, pack up, eat breakfast, and walk to the airport.
How civilized.
On our walk we saw a billboard that made our next travel plans make sense:
I can see my house in this advertisement outside our Dublin airport hotel. pic.twitter.com/mSa3g0bM8m
— Scott McNulty (@blankbaby) April 20, 2018
Thanks to that billboard the very next morning we boarded a flight to Philadelphia and I am typing this very sentence in one of the buildings pictured.
Check out the rest of my pictures of Day 12.