Springhill Court Hotel Spa & Leisure Club Kilkenny

Well as it turns out, I chose a good week to visit Michelle and George, as they had already planned a weekend of surfing on the West Coast.<br><br>The day started off right, with a proper Irish breakfast. As Michelle puttered away with breakfast prep, George rolled in, busy getting his gear ready for the weekend.<br>'Do you have any pudding?' he inquires<br>'no' is the sheepish reply<br>'well it's not exactly breakfast without pudding now is it?'<br><br>Michelle can ...

... low enough, you will never be disappointed" certainly does not apply to airline food. They really can't get anything right. Even the bread is sub-standard. I would be curious to know how it compares to prison food.<br><br>Michelle was a star and drove all the way to Dublin to pick me up. It was a 5 hour return trip for her, but I was greeted with genuine enthusiasm. The drive back was ...

... man in the room has to come give you a birthday kiss on the cheek! It was so embarassing, but I have the interesting tale of being kissed my about 15-20 men old enough to be my grandfather. ha Anyways on my birthday I went to classes and David gave me a pretty gold chain because I had broken one my necklaces when I was over here. Then after class the girls helped me get ready and David took me out for a nice supper. It was good to eat ...

... now there is a car up my ****... sorry Dad!! <br><br>We then continued onto Waterford.. the oldest city in Ireland. Lovely mixture of new and old and a very unusual piece of art hanging from the storage sheds over the river. See pics of girls face! We spent some time in our favourite place, the tourist centre and booked accomodation for tonight and our stay in Kilanery. Our guest house was called Portree.. very appropriate as we just came from that city in ...

... before going down to the shop at the bottom of the hill to get out of the wind.<br><br>We saw a sign for St. Patrick&#8217;s well just beyond the car park, so we walked up to it. It was dry, but we gave it a little time before getting back in the car and driving to the town of Trim.<br><br>Trim Castle dominates the landscape as one enters the town. We entered and rather than wait half an hour for a tour, we chose to explore just the grounds. The grounds were quite extensive, and the ...

... was perfect, nice blue sky, and the castle wasn't crowded, so we didn't have to wait long to kiss the Blarney Stone. So now we have 'the gift of the gab'! After Blarney we drove on to Cork, had a spot of late lunch, then Jayde & Nathan headed to the train. Unfortunately they had to work on Monday, so had to cut the road trip short. We continued on to Killarney where we found a B&B and settled in for the night - ready to continue the road trip the next morning.

... managed to find it, ran a muck in the place, and came back to the hostel with multiple bags of potato chips. We even managed to recruit an other american to hang out with us while we in the store. Needless to say it was quite an enjoyable night that broke up the monotony of going to bed early. Unfortunately our new friends were heading south to Cork the next day while we headed north to Belfast, but we parted with promises of being facebook friends.

... brains on the courtyard below? Bet you didn't know that. It was great (really)! Some people didn't kiss the old stone, and they missed out! After our adventure at the castle we walked the grounds and saw some strange sights, such as giant rhubarb and druid's caves. There are also the wishing stairs at the castle grounds. These are narrow, uneven rock stairs with an overhanging roof which you are supposed to walk up ...

... and then stopped at the small seaside town of Dunmore East. The sun was now shining, the skies were blue and the water was clear with a shallow sandy bottom that stretched out for ages. Pale-skinned and sunburnt kids splashed around while the other members of their pale-skinned and sunburnt families lazed along a crowded sliver of dry sand with their backs against a stone retaining wall with white, yellow and light-blue painted cottages ...

... while looking out across the fields gave me a sense of isolation that people who resided in the castle must have felt.<br><br>There's no charge to visit the ruins and they appear to be open at all times. They are also very few people there, probably because it's a difficult site to find. So, if you can find the way to it, you will be rewarded with interesting ruins and spectacular views. <br><br>After touring those ruins, we continued on to Portlaoise ...