Rock of Cashel & Kilkenny Castle

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Preparing for a long day of driving, the same four of us went for another 8am breakfast. I had attempted to find a new place for us to try but failed so we found ourselves at Deeley again. No worries as we knew what to expect and I was able to clarify scrambled eggs this time. Laura enjoyed another Chai Tea Latte while I tried out a different ginger tea.

We hit the road by 9am to maneuver our of the city as folks went to work to grab the highway to Cashel. Google told us there was a toll on the route, but I didn't know exactly where so I prepped Carl with €2.30 ahead of time. Turns out it wasn't needed until after the road I thought for a tunnel under a lake. I had the amount right which made for a fast pass through. Alex as the only person not to get breakfast got hungry nearing the end of the 2.5 hour drive, stopped quick at a gas station where we topped up and he purchased our first found Dr Pepper but no satisfactory snack.

In Cashel, we found our way to the Rock of Cashel. We bought tickets just in time for the guided tour. I am so glad we did as there was much more than met the eye with the ruinous cathedral there. The guide was phenomenal and we were able to go inside the 1130 AC chapel which had special regulations to get in due to the sandstone structure being sensitive to the elements. The Rock was the ultimate king of the hill game passing through many different hands through centuries and having multiple structures built on it with many more that the historians believe were one there. Totally worth the tour especially as little as posted around the site.

Then we headed into town for lunch. The first restaurant was too full to accommodate 5, so we moved into the next, which seemed to be lucky as the good was great and the desserts even better. Plenty full, we hopped into the car to had to a gas station nearby for caffeine for our driver and faced our first oops and scare as Alex almost went right around the roundabout instead of left. We all screamed and caught him in time to prevent any issues but it woke us up. A short ride later to a town called Clonmel, we dropped Kyle off at a hotel at the edge of town. He would be joining a Boston Scientific coworker for golf the next day.

Our car continued on to Kilkenny where we nabbed an ideal street parking spot just in front of the Kilkenny Castle. We opted on a self guided tour this time as it would have been a 20 minute wait. Good choice as it gave us empty rooms for pictures and they had all the info you needed in placards or from QR codes that we needed. Impressive rooms and garden we got to visit. There was even a wedding party walking around getting photos. As there was no gift shop, we crossed the street to find some local items in some design shops. Laura found a fun book for Dad.

Ready to call if a day, Alex drive us the remaining 1.5 hours to Dublin. That was a total of about 5.5-6 hours on the road for us, but it meant we caught all the items on our tour list created before I made our itinerary! We went to the shopping center that had the car rental return even though it was 25 minutes past there hours as Alex really wanted to limit his driving in Dublin. Turns out we had to spiral all the way to the top of the parking garage to find the return. There was still an attendant there so he kindly helped check us out so we didn't have to return on Saturday. Even better, there was an elevator nearby so we didn't have to go down seven floors by stair with our luggage. A taxi sat a block down, so we road the remainder of the way to our hotel reinforcing Alex's decision to avoid Dublin traffic.

We dropped our bags at the Hilton Garden Inn then walked a few blocks to a well reviewed Thai restaurant for dinner. It warmed and filled us up. Though Alex was surprised by a different Pad Kee Mow dish then he normally receives at home. All food and drinks are tasty nonetheless. A short walk back had us each heading to our rooms for the night.

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Photos

Rock of Cashel
Centuries of architecture ruined by the removal of a roof!

Rock of Cashel
Raining inside

Kilkenny Castle
Magically empty photo ballroom