Footsteps of Steele - Tuesday

After heavy rains overnight we awoke to a beautifully sunny, though quite cool, morning. After enjoying a lovely breakfast with the obligatory pot of tea we packed up and drove the few miles back into Kilkenny. 

The first stop was Kilkenny Castle. Though the main gates were open, the castle itself wasn’t open quite yet so we took photos from just about every conceivable angle.  With the gates closed yesterday we hadn’t realized the extent of the grounds and the massive park that was part of the castle grounds.  Once we had our tickets we watched a brief film on the history of the castle and saw parts of the foundation that date back to the 12th century. Apparently the 12th century was a booming for castle builders, something about low interest rates and 125% equity on your invading army weaponry. Then we were able to take a tour and due to the early hour and time of year there was hardly anyone else touring so there was always a docent handy to answer any questions we had.

Just outside the castle were a couple of “trains” – trams for sightseeing that had been made over to look like trains though they actually drove through the streets.  The tour was narrated and gave us a good history of the town and drove us through the city center and told us about the various churches we passed.  It was in between two of these churches that we saw a sign.  No, not “a sign” but literally A SIGN!  We yelled for the driver to stop (as we were the only two people on the tram) but he didn’t hear us so we made note of THE SIGN’s location to be sure to revisit it later.  What was THE SIGN you may ask?  One that is appropriate for all good Remington Steele fans to remember:

Paging The Kilkenny Kid....

After finishing the tour we basically followed its path on foot (Kilkenny is not very large, but more hilly than Dublin) and stopped by St. Mary’s for some photos before retracing our steps to the Boxing Academy sign.  Mr. Steele, you are well remembered here. Then it was on to the Black Abbey and up the hill to St. Canice’s.  We would have loved to have climbed the tower at St. Canice’s to get a good overview of the city but we just did not have time (and there was an extra charge).

One of the town’s most famous residents was Alice Kyteler who live in the late 13th-early 14th century. She was a businesswoman who ran a roadside inn & pub, as well as doing some money lending.  As he lay dying, her fourth husband mentioned his suspicion that he was being poisoned. Once he died, his children and those of her three previous husbands accused her of using poison and sorcery against their fathers. She was also accused of various other heresies such as denying the faith, sacrificing animals to demons and blasphemy.  The local bishop tried to have her arrested but her first brother-in-law was the Chancellor of Ireland and it is believed he helped her escape.  Her servant Petronella was not so fortunate and she was tortured and burned at the stake.  The bishop was eventually buried in St. Canice’s Cathedral.  Alice was never heard from again but her inn remains in the center of town and we had lunch there. We avoided the stew just in case some parts of her husbands were still in the larder.  Much of the original structure is still visible, with low ceilings, fireplaces and charred beams verifying an intriguing history.  As the menu notes: many of the exposed brick arches and wooden beams were old when Columbus discovered America.   Quite a lot of history in a lunch spot!

Then it was time to get on the road for our next location.  We’d been rather fortunate to this point with our driving in Dublin, on motorways and just a little bit on the side roads but that was about to change.  There is no motorway that runs from Kilkenny to Killarney so we were stuck with N-roads, or National Highways.  While we certainly have 2-lane portions of national highways here in the US, it’s also not uncommon to find 4-lane divided highways.  From our sample survey of one week, a 4-lane highway is a great rarity in Ireland.  The vast majority are 2-lane, two very NARROW lanes with a shoulder about 6 inches wide with either a giant hedgerow or a stacked stone wall by the shoulder. Apparently all roads were initially planned on the way home from a long night in the pubs as a straight stretch of road is extremely rare. Blind curves, pedestrians and curious farm animals of all sizes do not mix!   Here’s a short video illustrating what it’s like to drive on an Irish national highway:

The soft Ireland  weather is never stable for too long. For the months prior to leaving, we tracked the weather daily and everyday there was rain. No wonder the place is so richly colored emerald green. It rained off and on during the whole 2-hour drive from Kilkenny to Killarney. While Auburn certainly doesn’t mind driving fast, even she thought it would be insane to drive as fast as some of the posted speed limits.

We did finally reach our second B&B where, once again, we were the only guests.  This was also where we discovered Auburn had left her super-duper power converter at the first B&B. It not only converted electricity, but also turned Miller Lite Beer into Guinness. A tremendous loss that Auburn very nearly didn’t recover from, sigh, but it turned out fine. All our electronics (except the curling iron) could handle the European current and all we needed was a plug converter so we were able to get by without it.

Dinner that night was in a quaint restaurant in the middle of Killarney.  We’d have liked to have had a few more hours in town but they roll the sidewalks up pretty early in some of the smaller towns and the drive had really sapped our energy so back to the B&B we went, hoping the off-and-on rain would cooperate with us the next day and allow us to settle the question of the day: What is a jaunting cart?

Footsteps of Steele - Monday

It’s amazing how much better we felt after a good night’s sleep – even on twin beds. We sampled the hotel restaurant for breakfast, delighting in the mix of languages as we dined Russian, Italian, French, and German all providing a soft harmonic backdrop for our plans for the day.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

It was a little cooler than the previous day but the sun was out so that was fine with us. In the spirit of inclusion, we actually got lost while walking our way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the national Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. It is said that St. Patrick baptized converts at a well that existed in the park adjacent to the church. A church has stood on the site since the 5th Century and the current building itself dates from 1220, something that’s just hard for us to comprehend. So many structures that we saw were several centuries older than when Columbus ever set foot in North America! Like many European churches, many graves/tombs are inside the church itself, so it only took one stumble to remind us to watch our steps, then stop and gaze up at the flying buttressed roof and sunlit stain glassed windows.

Dublin Castle

Our next stop was Dublin Castle. We stopped for a snack in the café that overlooked the park. The streaming sun and elevated balcony view made the gardens beautiful. The Castle was built on the site of a Viking fortress from the 930s and upgraded to a stone & wood structure when the Normans took over in the 1170s. Changes made on the orders of King John I of England in the early 1200s resulted in the basic layout we see today. There was a section under one of the round corner towers where the tour took us below ground and the remains of some of these earlier structures could be seen. Again, just hard for us to comprehend how old this place is!

Above ground the castle is in excellent shape and has been used in films including Barry Lyndon and Michael Collins as well as in the cable series The Tudors. One unusual thing about this tour was that we were allowed to take photos inside the castle. All the other castles we toured did not allow this, demonstrating their superior gift shop business marketing skills. The throne room held a massive throne that was specially installed for King George IV, a man over six feet tall who was said to be nearly six feet around as well. Years later when his granddaughter Queen Victoria visited the castle, a footstool had to be created to match the throne so that the petite monarch could sit in the chair. No doubt her feet would have dangled off even then!

Since Ireland has really only had its independence from British rule since 1921, it’s lovely to see all the efforts in to preserving all elements of their history. The economic decline in 2008 would have been a great reason to halt this effort, but work continues to restore and preserve across Ireland.

We’d seen as much as we could in just over 24 hours in Dublin so we headed back to the hotel, collected our luggage, and loaded up the car for our next destination. Or tried to because, you guessed it, we got lost again, even with the GPS. Part of our confusion centered on the fact that the street running alongside the river changes names every few blocks. Add to that the fact that if there are any street signs at all, they’re metal plates attached up high to buildings and it makes for a lot of missed turns. But finally we were on our way to Kilkenny.

Once again we lucked out with our planning in that a good portion of the drive to Kilkenny is on a Motorway, which is the equivalent of our interstate. It was actually easy to determine what type of road you were driving on. Motorways had designations like M1, M6, etc., typically 1-digit numbers. Nice multi-lane divided highways. The next step down was Regional roads. Regional roads were typically 2-digit numbers and started with an R (e.g. R25, R92, etc.). After that there were local roads with 3 digits, e.g. L229, L402, etc. We did see another designator for smaller roads but fortunately didn’t have to drive on any of them. One thing that is different on the motorways from our interstates is the lack of food and facilities right on the exits. When we reached a point where we were ready for lunch we got off at an exit whose signs showed a fork & knife off to the right and a cup of coffee off to the left. Assuming that the fork & knife promised a restaurant we headed right. And drove and drove and drove. Perhaps we were supposed to turn on a side road but we never saw a sign indicating that. When we got into sheep country we gave up and drove back the other way.

That led us into Kilcullen, a delightful little town with very little marked public parking (that we could find). We did find a spot near a school. Fortunately we parked before school let out because there were very few spots available when we returned. We tried a pub but they were more liquid than food, but the barman pointed us to a very nice café across the street with a wonderful owner named Carolyn who was a lot of fun to talk with. Tummies full we made our way back to the motorway and eventually to Kilkenny.

After checking into the first of our four B&Bs we drove the couple of miles to the city center in the typical Irish mist – a condition we’d grow very used to over the next week. We stopped in at one of the many bookies we found right on the main street and placed six bets on the Kilkenny Kid, all to win. The odds looked long, but we knew him to be a scrapper who didn’t disappoint.

Kilkenny Castle Exterior

As with all larger towns we found the old center, including Kilkenny Castle. We took the first 50 of our 100 photos of the castle itself, trying to get just the right light. She was a shy grand dame that only recently regained her luster through extensive restoration by the Office of Public Works. We stretched our legs, getting a feel for the layout of the town and then settled in at Matt the Millers restaurant for dinner and traditional Irish music. After a few good beverages, Auburn could have sworn the bartender and guitar player looked more and more like Pierce Brosnan after each glass was emptied. Dinner was more authentic Irish fare, full of warmth and love. We both had room for dessert so we left in search of matching handcuffs and convenient adjoining haylofts, pocket watches optional.

Kilkenny Castle Interior