Irish Road Trip ... Part 1
Trip Start
Mar 05, 2008
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103
107
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Kilkenny,
County Kilkenny,
Ireland
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The next day we went and picked up our hire car to begin our road trip. Then Jayde rang and asked if we wanted a refugee. So she threw a bag together, then met us down the hire place. We decided to get to Kilkenny by that night, so that Nathan could catch the bus down and meet us there.
On the way we stopped at the Powerscourt Waterfall in County Wicklow - certainly no Niagara, but we did have a good giggle at the clothes some people were wearing to hike around the place!
Our next stop was Kilkenny Castle - only to find that all the tours were booked out for the afternoon! There was not enough time to get to Jerpoint Abbey (our other possible stop for the area) before it shut, so we went and had a snack, then set about finding some accommodation for the evening. We were blown away by the prices being asked by the B&Bs in the area (considering it's not exactly high season or in Dublin!), so we decided to settle on a night in a hostel.
Saturday morning we headed to Kilkenny Castle for the tour - it was pretty good, the castle has been done up just as it would have been in the 1800s. After a quick look round the grounds, we headed towards Jerpoint Abbey and were very disappointed to find that it wasn't open (when it actually should have been!) So we gave up and headed towards Cashel, to see the Rock of Cashel. Nate & Jayde had done it before, so only Ian & I went in. It was another ruins similar to some of the ones we'd seen in Wales and Scotland. Our final stop for the night was Cahir. We found ourselves a semi-reasonably priced B&B, then headed into town for some dinner. It was nice to have a warm bed & a hot shower too!
Sunday morning we drove out to the Swiss House near Cahir. We knew that it was shut for winter, but decided to go out & have a look anyway. From there we stopped at Mitchelstown Cave. Whilst the cave itself had some pretty cool natural features, it wasn't that big, and really didn't warrant the 7 euro tickets for a simple half hour tour.
Next stop - Blarney Castle. We'd been looking forward to this one & it didn't disappoint. The day 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.
