We woke up this morning in a tiny cottage, with a tiny bed, and a tiny shower.
I haven't had to stoop like that to pick up the soap since I lived in the dorms. Despite the size constraints, We slept peacefully, showered successfully, and began our wanderings around Kilkenny.
Kilkenny is known as the "Medieval City" of Ireland, supposedly because there's lots of fun things to see and do that have dark ages written all over them.
We wandered down a street, and through a number of narrow, Harry Potter-style alleys, bought some Irish sweets from a little sweet shop, some new shoelaces, and wandered a bit.
Despite all the wandering, we didn't really notice anything too medieval about anything there except maybe the streets and the subtle marbling of the fossils in the limestone blocks.
That was, until we found the river.
Look left, you see an ancient cathedral, to the right, an enormous castle on a hill, and behind us, a really really old cathedral. Now that you mention it, there were stone structures that could have been built 1000 years ago all around us.
We wandered down the river road toward the castle, then up a secret passage into a stairway leading into Kilkenny Castle Park. The little forest through which we passed led us onto a huge green preceding a decent-sized castle shaped something like an anemic c.
We took the castle tour, and I was surprised, though looking back, I guess I shouldn't have been, that though the castle was built in 1100, people had been living in the castle up until the 1960s. Sadly, they didn't allow pictures. The decor inside was a weird mishmash of 1800s relics, 1100-style ceilings, and 1960s kitchenware. This could have made it charming, but as the family fell on hard times in the 1950s, most of the interesting paraphernalia had been auctioned or sold to cover the family's debts and so the items that were actually there were something someone had purchased on a budget and seemed to miss the finery of actual royalty.
On the other had, the whole place was a friggin castle! The people had lived here and been royalty. There had been dukes and duchesses, horses, knights, squires, and all the rest, living here every day for a thousand years. They had survived plagues, famines, revolutions, and rebellions. The upgrades did make for a much more interesting amalgamation of old and new. It seemed like it would have been a very livable castle, probably very unlike the 1100s.
After the castle, we started toward Canice's Cathedral near the center of town, for which the city is named—Cill Chainnigh means Canice's Cathedral in gaelic. On our way, we stopped by the Smithwick's brewery, which had one more tour running that day, so we grabbed it, took the tour, learned a lot about the history of Kilkenny, which has apparently subsisted partially on beer since 1700 and allegedly before that, with the oldest Irish relics argued to be brewing vessels.
After the tour, we grabbed a pressed sandwich from a local shop where two rude kids came in, maybe 5 and 7 years old and began to harass the shopkeeper. They pushed past him to beg us for money for halloween, then tried to take his tip jar, tried to steal food and drink out of the cases, and eventually were shooed out, though extremely politely. When he tried to physically push the little girl out of the store, she cried "Don't grab me like that!" and he immediately let go, like you do, but he had done nothing I wouldn't have done, had it been my store. It was amazing, I have never seen something like that in my life, and if my kids ever tried anything like that, I'd smack them. If I hadn't been so dumbfounded, I would have gotten pictures of them.
After our sandwich, we began the trek to Tipperary and our next city stop. I had misread the directions, though I'm getting better at reading maps, and we ended up in the wrong city.
Turns out we had to go to tipperary county, but to the town of Clogheen, instead. Once we enjoyed our detour a little more, we ended up on the right path, arriving in mid-evening at the Hermitage House. We had a delicious dinner, Eli got to say hi to a sad-faced dog, and we passed out watching bad lifetime movies about murderous cheerleaders.
This morning, we got a traditional English breakfast, including a black and white pudding (has nothing to do with chocolate or vanilla), an egg, toast, tomatoes, bacon, and sausage. We're just about to leave for Cahir Castle, the Swiss Cottage, then to Cork Castle and Gardens. Finally, we'll catch some sleep in Killarney, and hopefully post again with more pictures.
I haven't had to stoop like that to pick up the soap since I lived in the dorms. Despite the size constraints, We slept peacefully, showered successfully, and began our wanderings around Kilkenny.
Kilkenny is known as the "Medieval City" of Ireland, supposedly because there's lots of fun things to see and do that have dark ages written all over them.
We wandered down a street, and through a number of narrow, Harry Potter-style alleys, bought some Irish sweets from a little sweet shop, some new shoelaces, and wandered a bit.
Despite all the wandering, we didn't really notice anything too medieval about anything there except maybe the streets and the subtle marbling of the fossils in the limestone blocks.
That was, until we found the river.
Look left, you see an ancient cathedral, to the right, an enormous castle on a hill, and behind us, a really really old cathedral. Now that you mention it, there were stone structures that could have been built 1000 years ago all around us.
We wandered down the river road toward the castle, then up a secret passage into a stairway leading into Kilkenny Castle Park. The little forest through which we passed led us onto a huge green preceding a decent-sized castle shaped something like an anemic c.
On the other had, the whole place was a friggin castle! The people had lived here and been royalty. There had been dukes and duchesses, horses, knights, squires, and all the rest, living here every day for a thousand years. They had survived plagues, famines, revolutions, and rebellions. The upgrades did make for a much more interesting amalgamation of old and new. It seemed like it would have been a very livable castle, probably very unlike the 1100s.
After the castle, we started toward Canice's Cathedral near the center of town, for which the city is named—Cill Chainnigh means Canice's Cathedral in gaelic. On our way, we stopped by the Smithwick's brewery, which had one more tour running that day, so we grabbed it, took the tour, learned a lot about the history of Kilkenny, which has apparently subsisted partially on beer since 1700 and allegedly before that, with the oldest Irish relics argued to be brewing vessels.
After our sandwich, we began the trek to Tipperary and our next city stop. I had misread the directions, though I'm getting better at reading maps, and we ended up in the wrong city.
This morning, we got a traditional English breakfast, including a black and white pudding (has nothing to do with chocolate or vanilla), an egg, toast, tomatoes, bacon, and sausage. We're just about to leave for Cahir Castle, the Swiss Cottage, then to Cork Castle and Gardens. Finally, we'll catch some sleep in Killarney, and hopefully post again with more pictures.
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