Lost Luggage, Irish Whiskey and London Love... Part Something... I've Lost Track.

We woke up early to catch the train from Dublin to Kilkenny. I LOVE train travel, and wish we had a better rail system in the US. We got to Heuston Station about 20 minutes before our departure time, which gave us plenty of time to grab coffee, have a seat, and watch the boards for our platform announcement.

The train ride was nice and quiet, and gave me the opportunity to get a little more sleep. When we arrived in Kilkenny, we discovered that from the station, it was only about a 10 minute walk to our hotel, The Club House Hotel, so we decided against calling a cab. The walk through Kilkenny was easy, and it is an absolutely adorable town. We dropped our bags off at the hotel, found some breakfast and headed to Kilkenny Castle. 

Just before the main entrance to the castle, we noticed a set of stairs that lead to the castle grounds and a beautiful small garden. We decided to take a seat and take in the view before heading inside. 

It was a busy day at the castle, with a lot of tour groups, so I didn't take many pictures, but I did get the courtyard and the gallery. When we left the castle, we noticed a number of people in costume with numbers pinned to their chests. We learned that the Medieval Marathon was happening that day, and that a number of runners would dress up in period costume. It was amazing! 

Courtyard

I thought the castle's gallery was beautiful.

The Castle's Dower House... Had to get a pic for Cousin Violet.

We wandered around Kilkenny a bit more, and had a great lunch at a little cafe called The Fig Leaf. GREAT gluten free options, and the ability to substitute GF bread on sandwiches. After lunch, we decided to go back to the hotel, take a nap, and get cleaned up for dinner. On our cab ride from the Airport to the City Center in Dublin, our driver told us about a fantastic restaurant in Kilkenny called Langtons, so we decided to give that a go.

Langtons was only about a 5 minute walk from our hotel, which was nice, because it was raining, of course. We bellied up to the bar to grab a drink before dinner. We saw tables next to the bar, and figured that was the restaurant. Oh how we were mistaken. We were directed to a hallway behind the bar, which lead to the restaurant.

The place was beautiful. It almost felt like we were dining in an atrium. and the food... the food was incredible. I ordered the lamb stew, which was simple and delicious. I'm not usually a lamb fan, but this could turn me. 

After our leisurely dinner, we headed back toward our hotel to find a bar to finish the night. We passed by a statue of Hurling players, so I had to take a pic. Hurling is a really popular sport in Ireland, and one that we started to follow after our last trip. I was shocked that rico said that he wanted to go to Kilkenny, as our team is Tipperary (Up Tipp!) and Kilkenny is their biggest rival. 

We headed up to a bar called The Left Bank, which turns into more of a club in the evening. We grabbed a drink, and found a seat. What I thought was cool was that it looked like patrons ranged in age from 18-75. The bar was illuminated with red light, the music was loud and thumping, and everyone looked like they were having the best time. We finished our drinks and headed back to the hotel, because we were once again going to have an early day.

We woke early the next morning to catch the bus to Cork. The stop was about a 2 minute walk from our hotel, so we grabbed some coffee, and hung out at the stop for a bit before the bus came. An older couple joined us after a while and told us that they were from Newfoundland, and were traveling around Europe for an undetermined amount of time. Talk about goals! Our bus arrived, and we settled in for our beautiful 2.5 hour ride to the city.

When we got to Cork, the sun was shining, the weather was warm, and we were excited to see another city. Our hotel, Hotel Isaacs, was a very short walk from the bus stop. We checked in, dropped our bags, and headed out.

Hotel entrance, complete with waterfall.

Rico and I with the waterfall.

 Cork was stunning. We walked around for hours, looking at monuments, stopping for tea, and hunting for Irish chocolate. There was an football match between Mayo and Dublin that afternoon, so we found a pub where we could watch. Mayo lost (boo), but it was dinner time, so we ate at our hotel restaurant, and headed to bed, because of yet another early morning. I wasn't mad about it though, because in the morning we would be headed to my favorite place in the world... London.

Up Next: Some London Fanciness and Anne Boleyn.