We left our hotel in Cork at 8:00 this morning and walked to the bus stop to catch a ride to the place we were to meet the bus to Kilkenny. The city bus was incredibly full, so we had to stand. My foot slipped and I nearly fell on the wet floor, but somehow stayed up. I finally was able to sit for a few moments when another lady left, but that was only until the next stop, which our driver said was ours. From there, we had quite a walk to the spot where Dublin Coach was to take us to Kilkenny. Luckily, it didn’t rain too much as we were walking. The Dublin Coach bus was the most spacious one we’ve been on. I actually had room for my knees. Jeff and I made a breakfast of some leftover Irish off-brand Doritos, Irish off-brand Kit-Kat, and bottled water. I slept through most of the ride because I was already tired. On the way, we passed a sign for the exit to Mt. Juliet, but I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture.

When we got to Kilkenny, the bus put us out just a short walk from our B&B, Butler Court. I loved it already just for that fact. Yvonne is the owner, and she was very efficient and personable getting us checked in. Jeff told her we were from Mt. Juliet in the States, and she said we must be very posh people, since the Mt. Juliet here is like a $500 a night luxury estate hotel. We let her know we are about as far from posh as it gets.

After we got settled, and finished celebrating the mini-fridge in our room, we went walking the town to find the historical sites we had heard about. First was St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, and of course it was beautiful. We were sure to stay very quiet, because unlike some other cathedrals we’ve visited, people were here praying. It’s hard to say which church has been the prettiest, but I was very impressed by the altar section at this one, with stained glass all around, and gold leaf on the walls. On the way out, I noticed some places on the kneeling cushions had worn through from years of people praying in those same spots.

Next, we walked to the Dominican Black Abbey. I’m not sure why it was called the Black Abbey because the stone was no darker than any other old churches in Ireland. It was noticeably darker in this church, and it was much smaller.

The most interesting thing here was an alabaster statue behind glass, which I looked up online to learn that it’s from the 1400s and is a representation of the Holy Trinity.

From there, we walked up to St. Canice’s Anglican Cathedral, where we crashed the first of two weddings. Well, we really didn’t crash this one, just hovered on the edges to take a couple of pictures. Jeff had wanted to climb the tower for some panoramas, but it was right in the middle of where the people were. So we had to go on to the next place.

Rothe House is an old home of a wealthy businessman from medieval Kilkenny. When we went in, we were told there was a wedding in progress, but that shouldn’t interfere with our tour. The first thing we came to was some very old wooden stairs that I would be able to see through, which meant I stayed downstairs while Jeff went up and took pictures. That only took him a few minutes, and we moved into a courtyard to see the wedding going on in the next room, which we would have to pass through to get to the garden, which is really the main attraction of this place. We thought we would just have to forego it and chalk this spot up as a waste of time and money, when a staff member said she’d get us through to the garden. She took us back where the musician was playing, and we had to step around him and his keyboard and stuff to get out the next door. I knocked some of his stuff down trying to squeeze through and thoroughly embarrassed myself. Jeff said not to worry about it, but I have been all day. We finally got to the garden, which was full of vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers, and trees that are varieties found during the Middle Ages. The strawberries were actually the size of a pea, not the huge monstrosities we have today, and the apples were just a little bigger than golf balls. There were signs in the garden not to take any seed heads from these heirloom plants, not that I ever thought about doing that.

After Rothe House, I really just wanted to go back to our room and rest after walking to all these places. Jeff let me take a nap while he went out to a store for some drinks to put in our fridge. We really were excited to have a fridge!

I slept hard, and when Jeff came back to the room, he took a little nap before we got ready for supper at Kyteler’s Inn (pronounced “Kit-ler”). This pub was established in the 13th century by Ireland’s first convicted witch (read successful businesswoman who outlived four husbands and made a lot of people jealous). She escaped to England before her execution could be carried out. Today, it’s a tourist attraction for traditional Irish food and music. Jeff had the fish and chips and I tried the Irish stew, which was my first time eating lamb. It tasted like beef stew, but more tender. There was a trad trio there playing already when we arrived, and the whole setting was what I had hoped and expected Ireland to be like.

After supper, we came back to our room, and the owner’s dog, Bo, was lying in the courtyard waiting for a belly rub. Jeff gave her one, and when we moved on to get to our room, she followed.

She wanted all Jeff’s lovin’, and gave him lots of kisses. Then she wanted to give me kisses. We opened the door to our room, and in she came, still wanting to lick us. Her owner called her out, and it was just a funny end to the day.

I decided to stay in for the night, and Jeff went out for a few pictures before joining me. Tomorrow, we will see some more of Kilkenny and then start the last leg of our trip by catching a bus to Dublin.