I woke up early while Sharon was still sleeping. I got a shower before quietly waking Sharon up. Our B&B host, Yvonne had given us soda bread the day before. I had some bread with strawberry jelly on it.

Sharon said that I should go to St. Canice Cathedral to get some good photos of the inside of the church top of the round tower. She said that she was not up to walking so far.

St. Canice Cathedral is farthest along the medieval mile. I got to the end of the street and went up some seeps and there it was. This was the same church we tried to visit yesterday but there was a wedding being held there.

The inside of the church was much like the other churches we visited It had stained glass and crypts. One of the crypts was of a man born with no legs and arms but was still able to thrive and become a member of Irish parliament.

The pulpit was of a golden eagle. The guide said that the eagle flies closest to God.

Next was the Round Tower. There were several ladders leading up to it. It could get very cramped in there had there been many tourists. Luckily there were only a few – a Canadian couple – I met at the top – and another couple I met going down. I chatted briefly with the Canadian couple before they headed down.

I had the top of the tower to myself and took photos and video very carefully before going down. I’m always afraid of dropping my phone or camera when I am on top of tall buildings.

Back at the room I found Sharon packed up. She suggested with visit the Medieval Mile Musuem and then on to the Kilkenny Castle before lunch and then onto Dublin. That being said we packed up our stuff, checked out of the B&B and stored our luggage.

The Medieval Mile Museum is part of an old church decommissioned in 1957. I began to feel sad while I walked through what was a gutted church wondering how much history was put away for these white washed walls. I wonder what state the church was in at the time of decommission. With all these thoughts in my head I walked through the exhibits looking at old tomb covers and documents about the city of Kilkenny. Throughout the museum there were Lego men. I had seen a promotion by the museum for kids to try to find the Lego men while learning about history and archeology. So there they were: Lego men next to a 500 year old document.

Outside was a graveyard and I couldn’t help but wonder what people of the 1500s would think having their relatives being buried at a museum.

Next was off to the Kilkenny Castle. I had wanted to visit this first to avoid the crowds but circumstances didn’t favor it. I saw several tour buses lined up on the street beside the castle – called “The Parade.” I figured it might have been a huge hassel to get in, but time would tell later on just how easy it was to get in.

Sharon and I visited the rose garden in front of the castle and was greeted by a hoard of Italian teenagers as part of a tour group. We managed to keep away from them as best we could and still get some decent photos of the exterior of the castle.

We went to the other side of the castle to inquire about tickets. Several tour groups were congregating in the green area of the park behind the castle. We inquired about how much stair walking there was. Surprisingly we were given complementary tickets.
Initially we walled in the basement of the castle and then up to the first floor. We saw the withdrawing room. Sharon said the room were for the ladies to have hen parties while the men smoked cigars elsewhere. We also saw the library before I headed upstairs to see a few bedrooms and a bathroom with a very large toilet.

Through another door Sharon and I went through the gallery with many paintings. Sharon tired to get some photos, but there were those people texting totally obvious to others taking photos. We had to do our best to subtly cut them out of the photo.

It was time for lunch so Sharon suggested we have a picnic outside of the fence to the castle. We had decided on Supermacs which had Papa John’s pizza. I walked up the street to find a very busy Supermacs with all those Italian teenagers. I managed to arrive at a time when there wasn’t too many in front of me but by the time I got done ordering there were loads of people behind me. The Supermacs employees did a good job getting the line moving – having 4 registers open at once. I tried ordering the pizza at the Papa John’s terminal, but was told to order at the regular terminals serving hamburgers. I got a 10″ pepperoni pizza and fries and 2 drinks. It took a few minutes to get my pizza (seemlingly shorter than my usual American Papa Johns orders. I was on my way to meet Sharon.

At our meeting point we broke out the pizza. I had forgotten napkins but did the best we could with the bag the fries came in. To me the pizza tested the same but to Sharon it tasted slightly different. Whatever the case I could survive off this pizza if needed. The dipping sauce was not the usual garlic butter. It was garlic mayo. I keep telling Sharon to try to find the recipe for this. They garlic mayo made for great dipping sauce for the fries.

It was getting close to 1:30PM and Sharon said we probably wouldn’t make the 1:40PM bus to Dublin. After some walking and getting our stuff at Butler Court we did make it to the bus stop. I guess it helped that our bus was late.

Our driver had a Russian accent. This has been a ongoing theme with long distant bus drivers – they seem to be Russian or eastern European. Ireland seems to be a melting pot for many nationalities.

Our bus stopped in Kilkenny itself and again on the outskirts of Dublin fore dropping us off in the heart of the city. While we were trying to find out bus stop I spotted a tourist information center. We got a 72 hour leap cards for unlimited transportation usage. Rather than pack all of our stuff in a crowded public bus we took a taxi to our hotel. Our taxi driver was quite chatty and told us stories of living in Australia and England for a while.

Our hotel is the Destiny Student housing – basically a dorm room with a private bathroom, and shared kitchen and television area. It was behind several locked doors. Each time we opened a door we weren’t sure what lied behind it, whether it was a hallway or someone’s room.

I went out for groceries (mainly breakfast items). The local Spar was more of a convenience store rather a full fledged grocery store. I spotted a Lidl on Google maps and walked the several blocks. While I walked to the Lidl it occurred to me that I might be in a bad part of town. Lots of rundown places. I saw a fight between two Asians and a older white guy. It was causing a scene with many people watching it. I’m pretty sure I smelled marijauna as I walked past a person on the street. Nearby a man had setup a impromptu shop on a street corner. He was selling mostly cleaning supplies but I saw Twix candy bars – 8 for 2 Euro which I really should have gotten.

We are trying to save money so we are going to be eating breakfast in our kitchen. I got some cereal, chocolate muffins, milk, OJ, Apple Juice, ham, cheese and bread. I headed back to the room where we made ourselves ham and cheese sandwiches before doing our laundry.

Tomorrow we take time off to worship with the Dublin Church of Christ before seeing some Dublin sites.