Out of Dublin

We bid farewell to our our Dublin hotel with it's delicious breakfasts and went back to the airport to pick up our rental car.  After the requisite gouging on insurance, we programmed the GPS and set about learning how to drive on the left.

First let me say that I probably saved myself a stroke, heart attack and/or aneurysm by getting a GPS before this trip.  Irish roads are narrow, not well signed and confusing.  Just finding our way out of the rental car pick up area made the GPS worth it.  Our Garmin's soothing robotic voice guided us through many roundabouts, offset junctions, and back road shortcuts with ease.  This was much appreciated given that I was having to concentrate just to make sure I stayed on the correct side of the road.

Our target was Kilkenny with a stop at the 6th century monastic site of Glendalough.  St. Kevin founded the monastic settlement here just a couple centuries after St. Patty reportedly brought Christianity to the island. It later became something of a pilgrimage site.  The ruins here are very photogenic with a round tower and lots of graves complete with celtic crosses which have been pulled off plumb by centuries of gravity's work. We strolled the ruins and took a short hike around one of the valley's two lakes.

Our nights accommodations were booked in Kilkenny.  We arrived around 4 p.m. and immediately set out to see the town. This medieval town is dominated by the castle of the same name which was begun in the 12 century and owned by the Butler family for 500 years.  It's now more of a chateau complete with formal gardens on vast grounds and has been refurbished by the town council. We toured the place just before closing time and spent the rest of the evening walking the town.