Kilkenny, Clogheen (not Tipperary), & Cahir.

 Kilkenny was a nice little town.

When we got into town, we found a McDonald's (that was like no Mickey D's I've ever seen, it was really arty inside, and hip.. not the regular colors inside at all.) Our b & b was about 2 or 3 blocks away. Of course, we couldn't get in, cause the was this huge gate,and no buzzer or any thing. Or phone still didn't work so we couldn't call. T Mobile was lagging. We tried to see if there was another way in, around the back,or over the gate,but not really. Eventually,we went down to the corner pub, and the bartender called the number for us. The sleepy voice on the phone said, "the gate is closed, is it? Oh dear."
 So we got in,  to this gate..

then went back to that bar to show our thanks by buying a few pints..




Our B&B:

The next morning,we wandered around the shops and looked for the castle, but couldn't find it. We found a candy shop though.. and they had all kinds of special candies.. like a full set of upper teeth.. and these..

you may be thinking.. is it a rocket? a turd? a phallic shape for kids? But no, it's a toffee mouse, covered in chocolate.

There were a lot of Mice shaped candies, because the plague is awesome?
 haha.. no flea shapes though.

Eventually we found a road down to a scenic river. When we turned around,they over the trees, castle spires!
 

We made our way and soon found Kilkenny castle home to the Butlers. So named because they used to butle for the king! Haha.. actually they used to taste the wine for poison.and got paid a 10%tax on all wine, which was a sweet pay check. The place was huge, and easy to get turned around in.. you'd need to leave a trail of bread crumbs not to get lost.. maybe that was the servants job?

The Butler family was pretty well liked.  During the plague people were starving ,and the butlers helped to dress the poor, and in fact, Kilkenny was one of the least affected areas of Ireland. And right now, they are looking for an heir, the last one recently died, so if you know any Butlers, get to searching those family trees. Gerard, I'm looking at you. even If you are Scottish.


On the way out of town, we did the Smithwicks tour, which had a lot of info about the process of brewing, and the history of the family.. by the way, one of the Butlers from the castle eventually married in.. I think it was a Catherine or Cathleen.. also the Smithwick family joined up with a rival brewery during the famine, and created a soup kitchen. Again this area fared a lot better than other places in Ireland

After lunch (the subject of potato famine makes one hungry) and much tea and coffee, we went to Clogheen. Well, actually we went to Tipperary..then we turned around, and drove to county Tipperary,where Clogheen actually is.














Here is a pretty bridge along the way..that was covered in pitch that I got on my arm and sweater.. haha














Here is another bridge..



We stayed at the Hermitage inn, and had a breakfast consisting of hot tomatos,sausages, back and white puddings, ham and egg, and toast! Yes there was blood in the pudding, yes, it was tasty!







After that, we went to the best castle so far! Cahir!








We passed it at first and ended up at the swiss cottage,

 a sort of getaway from the castle, where they would dress as peasants and entertain their friends. They bought the best furniture and had it sanded down or painted to look more rustic because it was in style.

 It was very nature themed, so nothing was symmetrical, because nature isn't. No two Windows matched, there were unusual angles and points everywhere and I LOVED it.




sadly no pictures of the inside were allowed. But it was very neat. There was a very small daybed that apparently slept two, facing each other from either end of the bed because they slept sitting up. They found it easier to breathe that way because of consumption and whatnot. Though, I guess they never actually slept there.. just rested.. it was in the backyard of their castle after all.

After that, We found yet another scenic bridge that led around the back of said castle, plus ducks and swans!

Happily there was a whole bunch of bread crumbs left on the banks, so we got them to come in pretty close.

We wandered around the side, peeping in keyholes and climbing on stuff. It was so much fun, and there were lots of trees and a little lake. So pretty!

Peephole!

 

                                                            Climb that wall Eli!

All the doors around here are too small!

There was also a crooked little bench, that Morgan took my picture on, then he got down on one knee and proposed! I said yes. He proposed with my missing ring from back home in the box of the new ring he got me in Dublin. The actual engagement ring though, is still in LA waiting to be picked up!! There was a fair amount of kissing and crying. :D












The castle itself was super neat because you could climb on just about everything.

 We got to walk on the battlements with no rails, climb windy towers peek in cells, sit on cannons and squeeze into unlit passageways.

We had the best time..









                                           Thinking of Danielle!

Trap doors!

Though, it's possible being engaged made a difference..















Stair cases were built to give right handed swordsmen the advantage over invades trying to come up!

  

Morgan shooting a child with a cannon.







I told him not to.








Oh, also, the Butlers owned the castle and the Swiss cottage. 

Those Butlers got around!

Next stop Blarney Castle!

Take the trolley to Tralee?

We've decided that it's a better choice to arrive at our destinations early, check in, then see the sights than to see sights in the previous place, drive at night, and then try to see everything in the morning before we have to leave. I think this is working well so far, and we did a little of that in Killarney.

We did check out Killarney National Park on the way out of town today, though. It was lightly drizzling, pretty windy, slightly chilly, but still gorgeous out. A "typical irish fall day" as the flight attendants told us on the flight over. We got a perfect parking spot right in front of the gate AND a cathedral, and walked in, pretty well prepared, clothing wise; Eli with her gloves--a gift from her mother, and me with a hat my mother made for me after Eli convinced me to grab it, that did an excellent job of keeping my head warm. 

We walked like mimes into the wind, across an amazingly beautiful green meadow, toward Ross castle, 2.5 km away. While I'm okay at conversions from metric to imperial, the idea of how far 2.5 km is, seemed reasonable, but when you figure in that it could start pouring at any minute... that changes things. If it were a nice spring day with a light breeze, I'm sure it would have been an excellent distance as a nice walk. Once my pants got soggy and Eli's shoes got soaked through, the going got tough. Also, keep in mind that I didn't mention breakfast anywhere in here, yet since we hadn't eaten any, and we felt oppressed by the weather. 

When we got to Ross Castle, they informed us that it was guided tours only, and we were 10 minutes late, and the next one was in 40 minutes. We could sit in the waiting room for 40 minutes, or walk the 20 minutes back to the tea room we had passed earlier. We did stop off in the "recreation" room, which was less about recreation and more about re-creation of the medieval lifestyle in a "tower" style keep. We both found the room fascinating, and, since we wouldn't have been allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle anyway, seemed like an excellent place to visit, then leave, which we did. 

We got back to the tea room, which was completely serviced by people with Down Syndrome, a sort of halfway house, and we got sandwiches and coffee. Eli's sandwich was amazing, mine was decent, and the people were very nice and very helpful. We decided that since we were soaked, we should head to our next hotel early, try to get laundry done, which we needed to do anyway, and then we would be less moist and more comfortable. 

The trip to Tralee was pretty excellent. We drove well, the roads were a nice Monday mid-day calm, and once we got to Tralee, we found our hotel with no problem. If only they had informed us that the parking was labeled as "Night club parking only" before we had gotten here. The streets all went one way, and were partially blocked off by beer keg deliveries, poles, or stupid people, and it took us a good 15 minutes to finally find our way back to the garage, where we squeezed into the parking spot next to a sign telling us not to park here. 

The front desk said it was fine, so I hope we're okay, but if there's a clamp on our car in the morning, I'm buying a hacksaw from the hardware store down the street that has the same name as the people who run our hotel. Maybe this is how they get extra money from tourists. Come for the room, stay for the angle grinders. 

Laundromats (launderettes) in Ireland don't let you wash your own laundry, so we dropped off our undies with a nice old lady who ran a shop round the corner. She assured me that our precious clothing would be fine by tomorrow at 8:30 am, so we'll see, and I'm expecting to pay royal wages to the woman as she can pretty much charge me whatever she wants now, seeing as she has every pair of socks I own save one. 

After a much needed nap, we had a delicious italian dinner, Eli got penne, and I had lasagne, and we shared a bottle of wine. The town seems quaint and great for shopping, so I'm looking forward to seeing what's out there in the morning. For now, we're now relaxing in our nice hotel room, enjoying a nice end to what I feel was an awesome day. I may convince Eli to come downstairs with me for a nightcap, but we'll see if we have the energy. It's neat to think I'm a fiancee now, and not just a schmoe with an awesome girlfriend. 

Engage!

"And then I asked Elizabeth to marry me." Not many days have that tidbit among their myriad adventures, despite the excitement, travel, and variety of the world around us. 

The day began with a long, hot shower and the amazing traditional English breakfast previously described. I gave driving a try on the way to Cahir, and, after a small wrong turn, we ended up at the Swiss chalet, an extra residence built for the royalty of Castle Cahir to do their entertaining on nice summer days.

The place was pretty, and built to be fairly Victorian in style, from the sound of it, with a lot of the "Nature indoors" style of architecture and decoration. Apparently, the place was abandoned for a long time in the early 1900s and was practically destroyed due to neglect. Through donations in the last 30 years, the whole place was renovated and looks fantastic. 

After the Swiss Chalet, we got back on track and stopped off at Cahir castle. Soon realizing that you don't have to pay for parking on Sunday, we headed down over the creek that runs next to the castle, where Eli got to see her first real life swan.

Someone had left a bunch of bread on the bank, and she spent a while coaxing the enormous birds over, till they were almost within reach. 

We headed over the small footbridge to the green below the castle, and circled behind the main courtyard's outer walls. Eli climbed up the outside of the walls, I explored a door in the back of the wall, and we wandered to the various outer parts of the keep.

On the way back from the end of a path, she was frolicking and having so much fun, and I couldn't resist. I had her sit on a bench, I knelt before her, presented her with a ring, and asked her if she'd marry me. 

She said yes!

After a few tears of joy, we hugged, got our picture taken on a bench behind the castle, smooched a bit, then headed into our first real castle experience. 

Cahir Castle was a lot more open and available than the one in Kilkenny, and we explored as many nooks, crannies, towers, and dungeons as possible. Seeing the various sections, walking on parapets, being able to climb up into the lookouts and the dungeon cells was amazing.

Eli also got to sit on a cannon and pretend to shoot it and learned the term "Murder Hole," through which you could drop rocks or boiling oil on unsuspecting attackers.

After a leisurely lunch at an "American Pizza" place that tasted more like naan with cheese and toppings, we headed to the Blarney castle, probably the most famous of the places to which we'll be traveling. We snuck in with 20 minutes to spare before closing, and we had fear that it would be too touristy, but after crossing the main bridge to the castle, we were greeted with an extremely impressive wall, more than 100ft tall. 

Hiking up and around revealed what we felt was the best castle we've seen so far. The inside was run down, graffitied up, broken boarded, and fairly accessible. The tower was built to be easily defended, with dual staircases, arrow slits everywhere, huge halls, high ceilings, and of course at the very top, the Blarney Stone.

The castle was awesome in its height, having almost 5 stories, all on the top of a hill to begin with. The views from each part were amazing, and the views from the very top were even more spectacular.

Capping off the castle were the grounds and a "poison garden" housing some of the most dangerous plants in nature. They had a sign saying "do not smell, touch, or eat any of the plants." It was neat to see all of nature's wrath in one place, but I still felt a little spooked that a sniff in the wrong direction could mean death... Why would you build a place like that? You could tell which plants had the really bad stuff by the cages over them, but some of them were overgrown out of their cages--I can't blame them, who'd want to trim deadly wolfsbane?

After Blarney, we headed to the hotel at Darby O'Gills, got to our room, relaxed for a bit, then headed to the pub downstairs to look at pictures, get on the net, read up on the day, read all the well-wishes from everyone on our engagement, and then to listen to the locals. Apparently Darby O'Gills is a local hangout in Killarney, as there were people there till late in the night, all of whom didn't care about tourism one whit.

So, finally, we're sitting, having a glass of port, listening to men with Irish accents sing country music to a jukebox that seems to have more in common with Texas than Killarney.