Kilkenny

While I could have been happy and content to lay around that cottage with a nice fire, I also wanted to see a bit of Kilkenny and the surrounding area.  Here is Kilkenny Castle - I don't have any commentary about it because we only walked the outside and didn't make a proper visit.

Charming book shop!

We did visit the original Smithwick's factory in Kilkenny.  Ireland has some very famous drinks (more to come in Dublin) but Smithwick's is an ale made in this particular region of Ireland.

The factory tour here was great!!  Dare I say - better than Guinness in Dublin?!  Maybe just different.  It was quite small but we had a tour guide which was nice.  The tour told some of the history of monks making ales in the region and how the Smithwick's family came to be prominent in the business.  She also explained the process of making the ale.  Finally, we ended at the bar and got to pour a sample pint each!

The other sight we visited near Kilkenny was the Rock of Cashel.  The tour book said that the Rock of Cashel was the "acropolis of Ireland."  That's a bold statement and we wanted to see if it was true.  Not far off!

 

The Rock is literally a small mountain (maybe a hill, but it was prominent in the landscape) that is rock.  It has a fortress on top that has been used as a castle and church for over 900 years.  The site has largely been in ruins since the 1700s. 

This is the remains of the cathedral.

We didn't stay terribly long because the weather was very cold and windy, with a small amount of rain.  But it was a really interesting visit and very scenic in spite of the wind and gray skies. 

Oh yeah, in case you can't get the full effect of the wind in my fair, here it is up close.  Lookin good.  If I photoshopped this with a nice picture of me (as opposed to this disaster), it could be my Christmas card.

At the Rock we encountered the first large groups of American football tourists.  The original reason for the entire trip to Ireland was the Croke Park Classic, a matchup of American college football teams that takes place on the first Saturday of football season at the Croke Park stadium in Dublin.  One of the teams this year was Penn State and my friend Tom is a Penn State alum.  So early in the year he bought tickets and arranged the entire trip, ending the week in Dublin...our next and final stop!

Merry Christmas

From London. Just me and the Queen spreading peace and love. 

Our cottage in Kells

For the most part I am not one to blog about places I stay.  Usually they are hotels (a bit boring) or if I'm with a group of friends, we will rent an apartment.  I stayed at an amazing farmhouse in the Champagne region of France back in February (I know, I never blogged about it - sorry).  But this place was the best ever. 

This was the cottage we rented in the village of Kells, about 10k outside of Kilkenny.  Thatched roof!!  The living room had a huge and beautiful fireplace.

Our host was a very nice Irish couple, but we had most contact with the husband, Dave.  There are almost no words to describe this man and how nice he was!  It was as though we were his long-lost friends the moment we pulled into the drive and he wanted to get to know us and tell us all about the cottage and the village and Kilkenny and Ireland.  Seriously, the guy could have talked all day long and he was lovely to listen to! 

 

He maintains the cottage, which sits just next door to their home.  There is a large shared garden space in the back.  Dave left us fresh eggs from their chickens and some local bread for our breakfast. 

Chickens in the back yard!

Here is a little view of part of the yard. 

Dave told us there were apple trees and to help ourselves to picking them if they looked ripe.  Yes, thank you, we will!

Dave is a musician and he invited us to come hear him play at a pub that evening.  One of the cool things they do at their home is a music festival every summer and they will have several traditional Irish bands come to play and they house them all in their home and in the cottage.  We definitely wanted to hear Dave, so we found the pub in town.  It was just Dave playing the bodhran and another guy on a violin.  But then Dave also switched to a guitar and even some singing.  He was very talented!  That's Dave in the hat, holding the drum. 

The best part of this was that Dave was SO happy we came to listen!  The next morning while we were having breakfast at the cottage (the eggs and bread of course), he stopped by and brought us CD's he had burned of his music and his band.  How nice is that?!

 

The Village of Kells was really tiny, just a little bunching of houses.  But they did have one tiny craft shop.  And nearby is the Kells Priory, which is the ruins of a medieval priory.  We visited but didn't get any photos as it was once again raining!

Check out their adorable little "library" outside the craft shop!

I cannot overstate how much we enjoyed our time at the cottage in Kells - the location was wonderful, the cottage was wonderful and the hosts were wonderful.  Several of the places we went in Kilkenny were at Dave's recommendations.  A lovely tapas place for dinner, the local cheese shop in the next village and the pub in Kilkenny.  Win win win!!

Connemara

The second day of our Ireland trip we drove around Connemara and it was my favorite of the entire trip!  Even a little (or buckets of torrential) rain couldn't ruin the beauty of the countryside.  Our first stop was completely unplanned, but I saw a sign on the side of the road for the "Quiet Man Bridge." You know the movie with John Wayne?  It was filmed in Ireland and this was the bridge featured prominently!  I flipped a U-turn in the middle of the two-lane road to stop and take a look.

We made another scenic stop to take photos of sheep, but the rain was too much and none of my pics really capture how beautiful it was!  Also, there were some large trucks passing us where we parked on the shoulder, so didn't stay too long there.  At a rest-stop kind of area we took a longer stop for lunch.  This monument was there...

Oh the Irish are funny people!  We had lunch at Joyce's and it was delicious. 

After lunch we powered on to Kylemore Abbey.  It was still raining pretty hard upon our arrival but we were determined to visit anyway.  Emily and Tom braving the weather...

Kylemore is amazingly beautiful - both the castle and the setting!  It was the country home for the Henry's, a wealthy British family.  Mitchell Henry built the castle and reclaimed bog land that became the estate.  Henry sold the property to the Duke of Manchester around the turn of the century.  They made some renovations but were poor managers of the finances of the estate and it was again sold less than 20 years later.  The new owners were Benedictine nuns, who used the castle as an Abbey and a school.  The Kylemore School was in operation as late as 2010 and is still a working Abbey today.   

Unfortunately because it is a working Abbey, we saw very little of the inside of the house.  Only about 6 rooms were open for visitors.  We were inside for about 20 minutes but came back out to blue skies and sunshine!

After Kylemore, we drove on to visit the village of Clifden, where we did a little shopping and had an afternoon pint.  Finally we drove back the two hours into Galway. 

I wish my pictures could really convey how spectacular the Connemara landscape was.  Google it and I'm sure you will see some amazing things!

The Cliffs of Moher

We flew into Shannon, Ireland.  Tom and I arrived from London and Emily flew over from the East Coast of the US.  Our first stop (after a delicious lunch) was the Cliffs of Moher, or as they are sometimes called, the Cliffs of Insanity.

You can walk for miles along the tops, but unfortunately the weather was rough when we arrived, so we only covered a small distance.

Just take this as a warning about how I will look in most of the Ireland pictures - terrible.  My hair looks good here compared to what is coming.  Just wait. 

Life is a highway...

But on this highway, we drove on the left.  My second fabulous trip of late summer/early fall was to Ireland!!  Helpful sign on the front of my rental car, no?

So yeah, I drove on the left.  Like the sign said.  I ended up driving for my little group the entire week because renting an automatic was WAY more expensive in Ireland than it was in France.  And since I'm the only one who can drive a standard (Thanks Mom and Dad!), I was the driver.   

Emily took this pic of me driving, right before she took this selfie in the back seat...

Whatever, she was fine!!  It actually wasn't as hard as I'd thought.  I mean, the first five minutes out of the Avis parking lot was terrifying.  And driving on a two-lane road with a bus coming towards me and only stone walls on either side - that was terrifying too.  But aside from that, it was fine! 

The only time I ended up on the right side (and by right, I mean right but incorrect) was in a parking lot.  There was a tiny incident where I hit a parked bus with the side mirror on the passenger side. But we were moving slow and those mirrors pop in and out!  Even the shifting with my left hand was ok, as long as I remember to USE my left hand and didn't try to shift with my right.  Yeah, I hit the door with my right hand a few times reaching for the gears.  But that all settled away in a couple of hours and most of the week looked like this...

No problem-o.

Guinness Factory!

The Guinness Factory tour is a critical part of any visit to Dublin - one of Ireland's most famous products and exports!

From early advertising - all the health benefits of drinking Guinness!

The top floor of the tour has a bar with 360 degree views over Dublin.

Where we had a chance to sample a pint!

Yep, I drank the whole thing - when in Dublin!

Dublin

In the interest of ever getting these posted, gonna give some one-liner descriptions for our visit to Dublin.  The River Liffey on a beautiful morning!

Christ Church Cathedral

Some generally beautiful town houses in central Dublin

Trinity Library (ties with Bizzell Library at OU for the grandest room in a library)

Wrought-iron staircase in Trinity Library

Enjoying the music scene and nightlife in Dublin with good friends!

The Croke Park Classic

The last day of our visit to Ireland we finally came to the reason for the entire trip - the Croke Park Classic!  It's an American college football game played at Croke Park in Dublin. This year the teams were Penn State and Central Florida. My friend Tom is a Penn State alum, so he bought 4 tickets. Knowing my enthusiasm for college football (obviously - Tom knows I'm a Sooner!), I was invited as one of the four!

There was thoroughly American pep rally on Friday afternoon in the Temple Bar neighborhood...we learned the appropriate Penn State cheers.

And they played the Star-Spangled Banner!! Of course they did, but we Americans overseas don't hear it so often anymore! 

You can see the stadium wasn't full, but I was still impressed with how many fans had travelled so far! Definitely more from Penn State but I think that is expected with such a long tradition and alumni support there. 

There was good attendance by non-Americans as well. I heard lots of Irish and British accents all day! I think it must be a great opportunity to see a sport that isn't played so often here. 

During halftime they did an exhibition match of an Irish football type of sport - it's been too long for me to remember the details but it was fast and violent - looked fun!!

A final comment about my day at the game - while I loved seeing American football and completely embraced being part of the crowd, it was a little sad to not be at MY game. I missed my Sooners.  Boomer Sooner!!