Category: Kilkenny

More Kilkenny and also Waterford

So, I didn’t post anything on the blog yesterday, and it’s these guys’ fault:

They were three generations of the same family, grandfather, father, and son, and they were playing music in the Hibernian last night. Penny and I lingered over dinner and dessert and drinks to listen to them. Also chatted with a friendly couple from Dublin. It wound up being a later night than we had planned, and I was too tired to blog.

Earlier in the day, we took a walking tour with this fine gentleman dressed as William Marshall, one of the key figures in medieval Kilkenny.

He was fantastic. Knowledgeable, fun, and actively excited about the information he was sharing. It was one of the best tours I’ve been on.

After that, we went wandering on our own, mainly visiting the various churches and cathedrals in Kilkenny. Here are some pictures:

After that, of course, was dinner and music and a late night.

We were up fairly early this morning and took the train to Waterford for the day. We took a walking tour around the city, then wandered and shopped and ate and generally killed time until it was time to take the train back.

And again, here are some pictures:

We also went to the Irish Wake Museum, which was kinda cool, but it was mainly multimedia presentations about the changing rituals of death in Ireland over the years, so not a lot of good picture opportunities.

Then, in the end, it was back on the train to Kilkenny.

We’ve got an early train out of the city tomorrow, moving on to Belfast for the next leg of our vacation.

So, oiche mhaith agaibh!

Wandering Kilkenny

Got off to a bit of a slow start today. I’m fighting the start of a cold – thanks, rainy Gap of Dunloe and Lakes of Killarney – so it took me a while to get mobile. Once I did, I went for a bit of a walk to loosen the joints up, and then Penny and I did something that I hadn’t done in Kilkenny on my previous visits.

We took a boat tour.

It went u0 and down the River Nore, past the castle and under some bridges. The boatman was a nice Portuguese gentleman who had just started working on the boats after a winter off, and hadn’t quite got the history spiel down again. But he was friendly and fun and it was a great tour. Some sights:

After that, we went for lunch, and then went on a tour of the castle.

On my last visit, they didn’t allow any photographs inside the castle, but this time, photos were okay, as long as there was no flash. So… photos!

I took many more pictures in the castle, but these are the most interesting, in my opinion. And it’s my blog, so that’s the only opinion that counts.

After that, I was kind of dragging, so I went back to the hotel room to lie down for a bit, while Penny went off exploring. Later that evening, we decided to try for dinner at Kyteler’s Inn, because witches and live music.

Along the way, we noticed that the sign was out showing that the Hole in the Wall was open. This is a pub established in 1582. It was also a brothel. I’ve been told that the Duke of Wellington drank there. I visited it on my first trip to Kilkenny, when it was a little coffee shop. But tonight, it was a full-on (if tiny) pub.

The friendly barman even took a picture of Penny and I, proving we were there.

We didn’t manage to get a table at Kyteler’s Inn, so we went across the street and had a nice meal, and then took a bit of a walk down to see the way to St. Cannice’s Cathedral. We’ve got a walking tour tomorrow morning, so we should get a closer look, but it was a nice night for a walk.

And that’s it for today.