Ireland - travel to Kilkenny

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4th August

Day one of travelling around Ireland - what a great start - the boys went to pick up the car but on arrival found it was not up to scratch and had to hunt around for another car - we ended up with a great one which was almost new - they parked the car in a spot so we could load it up and get moving..... however, we didn't know that we had parked in a police car spot...... until Mr Plod strolled over to us but all went well...

Took us ages to get out of Dublin and a few times going in circles but eventually we found the outskirts... hmm seems while doing the circles we missed a few decent looking shops... bugger!

On our travels we stopped at a jail - in Wicklow - it was fantastic - they had people bring us to a room to sit us down and ask us about our ancestry - interesting - apparently I'm Welsh.. and then he was sending us to Australia on the ship for our crimes and we had to tell him what our crime was - mine was prostitution and John's was Rape and Pillage. Then we were all sent to see the Matron who told us what was going to happen to us. Then she sent us to the individual cells where each one was set up differently or speakers would come on automatically to tell you a story. There was one cell that had all about the Eureka Stockade - how about that? For those that don't know - I was born and grew up in Ballarat and half my family still live there - my dad lives just up the road from the Eureka Stockage.

Loved Wicklow - beautiful and quaint looking town - would have loved to stay there a few days.

We had lunch at a place called Ashford House which was a former manor house converted into a pub - great food... as is the norm apparently across Ireland.

After this adventure we travelled on to a place called Glendalough - another lovely township - most of these small towns have very, very narrow streets and sometimes you wonder how you are going to pass another car - same with most of their highways!!

At Glendalough we stopped at some garden and tourist spot - an old church and grave site. Lots of Murphys, Farrells, Byrnes etc in there. Also had a market and lovely restaurant and cafe as well as ice cream spot.

We went from there to Kilkenny - must've slept a bit on the way and of course on our arrival we went to the local pub for dinner... think we're doing a pub crawl across Ireland!!! Visited Kilkenny Castle which is the provincial city of the area - brilliant castle - former seat of government and power base during the uprising.

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Photos

John
Ah finally got him under control

Travelling Aussies
Peugot 12 seater which we needed to get our gear in!

Matron & Jailer
Giving us a hard time

John on Treadmill
Prisoners had to tread this mill as a form of punishment although not used to draw water etc

At Glendalough
Celtic Church & gravesite - a Farrell grave

Kilkenny
Another Irish pub - The Kiteley with a history of ghosts

Kilkenny Castle
Provincial seat of power and government in earlier days

Ashford House
Old manor house converted to hotel

Comments

[Noveen]

Ireland travels
Hi all - Ireland looks lovely and just as you would imagine it to be. Also, what's wrong with a pub crawl over Ireland - would have thought that was a given!!!