We woke up to a delicious breakfast at the farmhouse from Mark and Mary Ann. I opted for an enormous omelet with spinach and goat cheese (all fresh) which was delicious. Of course I had bacon on the side. After we packed up, we headed off to the abbey which was amazing. It had a huge area within its walls and they were doing renovation on the building sections. We wandered around and MEGAN FINALLY GOT TO TOUCH A SHEEP! Afterwards, we headed over to a old building that had been a mill which we briefly discussed buying and snacked on a giant slug.
Next we decided to swing by Moss Pottery. We got to see them throw the pottery (they are ridiculously good at it) and paint the pottery (also ridiculous). Afterwards, Megan headed upstairs and spent a fortune.
Then it was time to go into town. We headed up to Kilkenney Castle which was awesome (i don’t remember much - i am confusing Dublin castle with Kilkenney castle in my head - MEGAN!) Megan’s Add: Kilkenny Castle is a non working building preserved for touring (where Dublin Castle is a working government building). Kilkenny was owned by a rich family for 800 years until one of the bad sons gambled away all the fortune and lost it. Now it is a historic monument and captures how is looked before they lost all their money. There is still one person left in the world who can claim the title (Duke maybe?) but he won’t because he doesn’t want to also claim any legal issues (namely debt) associated with the title. The family was of good breeding though, as many lived to their 60s, 70s and even 80s in a time of no antibiotics and wide spread plague. The last family member with the title died in his 90’s a decade or so ago.
Afterwards we headed across the street to the design gallery which was supposed to have tons of arts and crafts. It actually was pretty small and the ceramic wine holder we wanted had a chip in it. As such we didn’t get anything and headed over to Smithwicks for a brewery tour.
The brewery tour of Smithwicks was one of the best tours we had in Ireland. Jane, the tour guide was super awesome and we got to go inside the functional factory and watch as they brewed the beer. The factory is built around a heritage site of an old abbey and it is neat to see the contrast between the abbey and the new fancy brewery. The best part of any brewery tour, of course, is the end when you get to taste and we hung out in their cool underground bar and had a few pints of Smithwicks before heading out back towards Dublin. Oh, we also went to see Kyteler’s Inn, which is a bar build in Kyteler’s old house, and it still looks like it did in medieval days. It is a really neat building and it would have been a cool place to hang out some if we had more time. Kyteler was accused of witchcraft after her 4 husbands all died mysteriously and she gained a lot of local power - her maid got burnt but she escaped never to be found. Logic lends itself that she probably poisoned her husbands rather than bewitched them to death, but one never knows. Kilkenny was a really neat town and still has a lot of the medieval feel too it - a must see on any Ireland trip.
Megan’s father had watched a BBC show that was based in the small town of Avoca called Ballykissangle and was really excited to see the town, so we headed east towards the coast to get a chance to see that on the way back to Dublin. When we stopped in Avoca, he jumped out to take some pictures and ended up chatting up a woman who was actually an extra in the show. When I got out to take a picture of him with the Avoca sign, Megan decided it was time to speed away in the car to find a bathroom but elected to not tell us that (Megan’s note - I said, don’t get out of the car or I’m leaving you because I have to go to the bathroom now). We walked down into town and watched as she sped away again without noticing us. We finally find her back at our original parking spot and headed into Dublin.
We were renting an apartment that we had found on vrbo. It worked out really well - it was a 3 bedroom/ 3 bath apartment a little north of the city. We walked to 101 Talbot (about a 30 minute walk) for dinner. It was good Mediterranean and then walked back to our apartment. We noticed trains running along that route and decided in the future we would take the train (called Luas). Once again, we were all exhausted, but Megan’s mom decided to do laundry. Little did we know, the washer/dryer (one machine to do both) were impossible to figure out how to use and it took all night for her to do 3 loads of laundry resulting in wet jeans for Mark, since all of his clothes got washed....ooopps. I think we finally figured out how to work it, but after one load of laundry got washed about 4 times since we couldn’t open the door once it started the cycle.
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