Singapore to Kilkenny, Ireland

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Singapore to Ireland

Fri 14 - Sat 15th March 2008

It’s 10am Saturday morning, 15th March. I am starting today’s diary on the train from Dublin to Kilkenny.

It’s been a long journey getting here. We spent our last day in Singapore at the zoo then headed out to Changi airport later that day, around 21 hours ago. We flew from Singapore into Heathrow London , changed planes to Dublin then headed to Dublin Heuston station to catch the train down to Kilkenny. We have about an hour and a half on the train now to get down to Kilkenny. Pretty exhausted, especially Reagan, as she didn’t sleep well on the plane last night and was a little airsick when we arrived Heathrow. Still, she has come through like a little trouper and perked up nicely and was quite excited when we flew into Dublin. Her funny comment as we came in for landing and she spotted a fallow field was “I can see the desert!!” Um, not quite Reaggie . At 6oC outside, with miles of brilliant green farmland shrouded in mist and a light rain trickling down, the desert couldn’t be further away.

The cheerful and friendly nature of the Irish that we hear so much about was evident as soon as we got to the airport. Everyone was so friendly and their accents are just charming. Our tiredness made us indulge in a taxi to the train station instead of jumping on the bus, but it was a good move - our taxi driver was surely a tour guide in a previous life and he gave us a running commentary on the various attractions and areas as we passed through the city and told us a few good places to go. Its so very different from Australia. The history and age of the place is everywhere you look.

The train down to Kilkenny was easy and we managed to swing an earlier one so we didn’t have to wait around the chilly station. As we passed through the countryside Reagan was thrilled to spot heaps of newborn black faced lambs (so cute!!) as well as the usual lot of cows, horses etc. We have arrived here at the start of spring so many of the trees are still bare from winter but there are plenty of baby lambs and the roadsides are liberally dotted with clumps of bright yellow daffodils. We didn’t see any crops as such, although Reaggie did ask me if the dark green weeds in the paddocks were broccoli....

We went through about 5 or 6 villages and small towns along the way. We haven’t spotted too many “regular” houses like we would see in Perth - they are mostly either two storey country type homes, or blocks of row houses all the same, like the ones you see in the English movies. Many of these houses have quite startling front doors - bright reds, yellow, blue or green or else they are very ornate. Our taxi drivers reckons that the doors are coloured differently so the owners can tell which place is theirs after they’ve come home from having one too many pints! Lol. It might sound like a funny thing to catch someones interest, but the doors really are quite fascinating. Our hostess at the B&B we stayed in explained that because the houses are all built in rows upon rows, all exactly alike, that the door is one of the ways that people can express their individuality. And they certainly do that.

As we drove through Kilkenny, both of us woke up when we saw the main street and I definitely got my second wind. This is the Ireland I came to see. What a gorgeous town. The main street is simply bursting with character....tiny little shops and pubs....and just around the corner a “real life” castle as Reagan calls it. Kilkenny Castle is literally right in town. It’s amazing. For a pair of Australians whose exposure to “historical” is one of the old buildings in Fremantle, this is for sure a sight to see. We cannot wait to visit tomorrow.
We arrived at Newlands Country House in Danesfort at lunch time, a little earlier than planned, but we were very warmly welcomed by Nicola, one of the owners. The B&B is a little out of town, about 10 mins drive, set in the countryside. Our second storey blue & white bedroom was newly renovated and nothing had been overlooked - it was homey, comfortable and very welcoming, with big puffy white quilts and cushions and overlooking a paddock with a couple of dogs. There is a cosy lounge for us to use downstairs, acres for Reagan to run around in and a glass conservatory for breakfast. A full Irish breakfast is included, made to order anytime from 9am so we can sleep in... how good is that!

More tomorrow.... we’ve decided not to sleep just yet, but to get our body clocks into local time as quickly as we can, so we’re going to rest and read for an hour or two then we are going back into town to have a walk around and some dinner then back to the B&B, where I’m sure we will sleep like babies.

Ireland - Kilkenny

8:00pm Sunday 16th March

Jetlag caught up with us last night, and we slept on and off, despite our beds being so cosy and comfy. Both of us woke up a few times but luckily we ended up feeling quite refreshed when we got up about 6:30am. We snuggled in bed for a while then had a nice warm bath and down to breakfast. There was already a table of American women there, visiting from Hueston, Texas and we chatted to them for a while, and Reagan got the lowdown on Disneyworld for when we visit in July. Breakfast was lovely - fruit, cereal, bacon, eggs, toast. After breakfast we met Nicola’s sweet little boy Callum, who is 1, and Reagan played with him while I packed, then Nicola offered to drop us at the next B&B we were staying at, also in Kilkenny. We had to move around a bit in these few weeks with accommodation as we are staying over St Pat’s weekend and Easter. Even though it was a hike into town, I was sad to not be staying on longer at Newlands as it was truly lovely.

Yesterdays rain had disappeared overnight and we woke to a sunny day, albeit still only about 6OC so very crisp and cold but invigorating. I am really enjoying the change to a colder climate and Reagan is enjoying the excuse to rug up in her beanie, gloves, long johns and coat.

After we dropped our bags at Rosquil House we went to see Kilkenny Castle. It did not disappoint us. You can wander around the grounds of the castle but to see inside you can only do so on one of the guided tours, which lasts for about 50 mins. Anne, our guide, was a veritiable wealth of information and as we passed through huge ornately decorated rooms, she told us about the history of the castle and the familes who had lived there in the past few centuries. The castle itself dates back to around 1400, although many parts were added and rebuilt right through to the 1800’s. In the 1960’s the earl to whom it has passed over the generations donated the castle for £50 to a local restoration company, as it had been sitting vacant for over 30 years and had fallen into disrepair. The size of the castle is enourmous and its hard to imagine the cost of the upkeep of such a place. The walls in some places are over 3 metres thick and the furnishings are obviously costly. Many of the pieces on display are replicas however there are about 15% of the original pieces from centuries ago. Huge Italian marble tables, family paintings, a massive original staircase and several of the old four poster beds. The ceilings and floors have been restored in many places (beautiful done too) and even have cornices guilded with 24 carat gold leaf. The original Norwiegen oak vaulted ceiling in the long room (which took over 2 years to construct and hand paint), the old tapestry chairs, French silk wall coverings and bookcases of fragile old books - as you wander through you get a great sense of the people who lived there and what their lives must have been like. Reagan was completely enthralled which I didn’t expect - I thought she might be bored but she drank it in and couldn’t stop exclaiming with wonder at everything she saw. After the tour we wandered though the extensive gardens which have been beautifully landscaped and are filled with evergreens and daffodils and behaved like Japanese tourists with the amount of photos we took.

Wandering up John Street, we came across a little shop selling Irish souviners so we ducked in for a look. Most of thr shops are closed today as its a Bank Holiday long weekend in Ireland, for St Pat’s Day on the 17th. We hadn’t been inside for more than 2 minutes when Reagan decided to try on a silver ring and got it stuck on her finger. We ended up getting it off (she wanted to lick it!) - the look on her face when the shopkeeper asked her jokingly if we should get the scissors was quite funny and it came off in quite a hurry. We learnt how to say “kiss my arse” in Gaelic (Pog Ma Thone, pronounced Poh-g Mah Hone) from one of the signs in the shop and bought our St Pat’s Day badges to wear tomorrow. The owner was a great chatterbox. He gave us a map and marked a few places on it, and suggested some good decent and inexpensive places to eat. We took his advice for lunch and ended up in a typical Irish pub in High Road where we settled back and relaxed for a sandwich before we headed back to the B&B. There are no street signs (or none that we could decipher!) and also no street numbers for some reason, so finding our way back was quite funny, we did a lot of “yes I remember passing that” or “hmmm I don’t remember seeing that..” but luckily between us we remembered well!

Tired again tonight, jetlag still catching up with us, so we had dinner at The Brog Makers pub a few doors down and Reagan was fast asleep within about 5 minutes of her head hitting the pillow. Bed for me too.... we’re moving onto Cork at midday.

Ireland - Kilkenny to Cork

Monday 17th March

We awoke to another cold morning, but no rain. The sun was shining although it was still bitterly cold outside so we rugged up. Breakfast at Rosquil House was great - these Irish B&B’s certainly know how to do things.

Our train to Cork was at 2:00pm so we just wandered around town and watched them setup for the St Patricks Day Parade which was taking place at 3:30. We were sad to miss to it, but the next train after ours would have left us getting into Cork at about 9pm which was too late for Reag. It’s funny, but we seem to celebrate St Pats Day more in Australia than they do here. Everyone has told us that Dublin or Cork are the places to be but we didn’t see a lot of people dressed in green or anything, and you could tell that the ones who were wearing the silly hats andf leprechaun t-shirts were tourists. They obviously celebrated though as we heard them wlaking past our B&B later that night lol and they sounded merry as.

We had lunch at Langdons Pub which was wonderful, such a cosy place, very nicely done up inside and yet the meals were big and well priced. We decided to have a good lunch and skip dinner as we would be on the train. Reagan enjoyed hers and I had a typical Irish Sunday lunch of roast lamb which they served with potato, cabbage and mashed turnip & parsnip, and it was great, definatley recommend tghis place if you go to Kilkenny. Its on Castlecomber Road I think or at the end of John Street where Castlecomber meets it.
Someone told me that you cant get a pint of Kilkenny in Kilkenny, which seemed strange to me - and you definately can, its been on tap at every pub we’ve been to. Asking for a middy here gets you a questioning look, they call it a glass here. A pint a is pint though.

We hopped on the train to Cork at 2:00pm and settled in for a long trip. Even though Cork is not that far as the crow flies from Kilkenny, the trains don’t run straight to it from there and because it was a public holiday they ran less frequently so we ended up having to go via Kildare (which is back up near Dublin)change trains to Thurles then change again to Cork. We arrived in Cork about 6pm and checked straight into The Roselodge, got into our jammies and it the sack. We were both knackered. Neither of could even be bothered making a cup of soup for dinner. The room at the Roselodge was utilarian to say the best, certainly no frills there, and pretty small. When you sat on the loo, your knees are about 1 inch from touching the wall lol. However, the people who looked after us there was so friendly and helpful and the breakfast was top notch. They couldn’t have been more helpful, something we are finding sop far at every B&B we stay at. Its right next to Cork University and there is a coffee house around the corner where all the students hang out that has good priced sandwiches and hot drinks. The shower was tiny too but great water pressure and nice and hot which is always a number 1 priority.

Ireland - Cork

Tuesday 18th March

Reagan woke up during the night with a temperature so I gave her some panadol and sat up with her for a while, although she dropped back off to sleep pretty quickly and slept through the night with no problem. I woke up about 4:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep so mucked around uploading photos and writing my diary until about 6am, then Reagan woke up and climbed into bed with me for a snuggle and next thing I knew it was 8:30am. I woke feeling refreshed but Reag was very sleepy and grumpy until she got out of bed and came down to breaky then she perked right up. We headed out for a walk then went and checked out and to head off for some sightseeing.

It took us about 15mins to get to Blarney Castle from Cork and as trite as it may be, it was worth the visit as the grounds themselves are gorgeous and it was a bit of fun to kiss the Blarney Stone.

Ok, batterey nearly running on laptop, so will finish this one later. Enjoy the pics!

K

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