I had trouble sleeping in the night. Our bed is probably a bit wider than a twin bed but not as wide as a full. Normally I’d guess it is made for 1 college student, not a married couple. Also initially our room was too hot and there was no air conditioning. Our only solace is opening up a window to let the cool air in.

There is a green night light which shines directly in my face during the night. So I got out my eyemask which I normally use on planes. i felt somewhat of a diva needing my beauty sleep, but in reality it was blocking an annoying light.

After getting ready we had breakfast – 2 chocolate muffins for me and some type of generic multigrain Cherrios for Sharon….which she said tasted nothing like Cheerios.

We were running a bit late for the bus to church so we had to book it. Fortunately the bus was late and empty. We officially started our 72 hour tourist Leap card, which should expire by the time we make it to the airport on Wednesday.

We rode a enormous amount of stops to get to our stop. The bus didn’t even stop most of the time because there was no one waiting. I guess people were still sleeping in from being up late on Saturday night.

After getting off the bus we walked a few blocks to Knocklyon Church of Christ. The church building was in the suburbs and had its own parking lot. A taxi pulled up while we were walking inside. It was two British tourists who came to worship too.

We were greeted by Angela who asked where we were from and got our names and addresses. We were greeted a few more times by members and their preacher, Steve. Knocklyon Church of Christ, like the rest of Ireland is a melting pot. We saw native Irish and emigrants from Africa and India. Worship started promptly at 10:00AM. Sharon and I knew most of the songs and the congregation singing was full for around 50 people; much fuller singing than my home congregation of 1000.

The congregation stood up to pray and there was a loud “Amen” said by the entire congregation at the conclusion of the prayer. Steve’s lesson was on Acts 3 about the lame man being healed at the gate beautiful. Alot of scripture references were given. Steve even made comment that he was a former Catholic but was able to study to find a much truer way. The congregation was led in worship by capable men. Sharon pointed out to me that the congregation was established around 30 years ago so it has had time to grow and mature.

In front of me was a young boy playing with his dinosaurs and army men (G.I. Joes?). I thought to myself, this is what I did 40 years ago, and in a few hours more children will be playing with their toys in church in America as well. Seems to me that no matter where you go some things always stay the same.

After the message we partook in the Lord’s Supper. Sharon and I wondered if they used real wine but I guess we’ll never know.

Angela who we met early walked us to the bus stop and rode the bus to the tramp stop so we could go to the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History. It was very kind of her to do this as she lived in the other direction away from the city.

After riding the bus we decided to stop and eat at O’Briens a sandwich shop. I got a ham and cheese while Sharon got a chicken sandwich.

We then rode the tram to the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History. The tram stop was easy to figure out as it was named “Museum.” These National Museums are somewhat like the Smithsonian in that it is free and houses alot of Ireland’s historic artifacts. We saw several different things from other countries. We learned about Irish soldiers involvement in World War I, British Wars with other countries and the American Civil War. There was even an exhibit on an Irish American named “McGavock” which is who the school and road was named after.

We could have spent hours in the museum, but decided to move on to the other churches. We rode the tram back to Four Points and walked up the Christ Church. It was 7 EURO each to get in. The interior is not as impressive as other Cathedrals, but impressive in its own right nonetheless. The positioning of the roped off areas and non roped off areas allowed us to get up close and personal with almost all areas of the cathedral.

By the time we got out it had started to rain softly. We decided we didn’t have time to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We briefly looked for something to eat before deciding to head back to the dormitory but not before stopping at the local Spar for a pizza and other snacks and drinks.

Tomorrow we visit the book of Kells and Trinity college. Looking forward to it!

Sharon and I had mutually decided to take the 9:05AM bus to Kilkenny. There was a 7:05AM bus but we were much too exhausted to take it. So we headed out at 8AM. We checked out of Lancaster Lodge and went to the Mardyke bus stop. I had routed our journey through Google with the least amount of walking. We caught the 208 bus and asked the driver to take us to St. Patrick Quay (pronounced Key). I was following the route on my phone and after about 3 stops the driver said we should get out as this was our stop.

We walked across the bridge and several blocks later we spotted the unmistakeable green Dublin Coach bus. It was parked on a street away from its usual spot on St. Patrick’s Quay due to water pipe installations. Our driver was onboard but taking his time opening the doors. He did finally open his doors and we showed him our ticket on the phone. We had a slight panic moments before because I could not find the ticket PDF on my phone. But we were able to connect to the internet using one of the other bus’s wifi network, so no interruption of our trip.

We stopped at a couple of cities along the way, most notably Waterford which had a great seaside shopping area.

We arrived in Kilkenny at around 11AM. Thankfully our B&B was just a few 100 meters from the bus stop. We went into Butler Court and didn’t find anyone at the reception. Following the directions we buzzed the front gate and was greeted by Yvonne, our host. She showed us to our room which we remarked how grateful we were to have a refrigerator in our room….the first we’ve had since we arrived. She gave us a map and marked the places of interest. Our breakfast was already in the room ready to make. She said she would bring by soda bread later on.

We decided to eat lunch at The Fig Tree. I had a grilled ham and cheese while Sharon had a chicken and bacon panini. We both enjoyed our meals with bottled Sprite.

Next we went to St. Mary’s Cathedral. Surprisingly there was no entry fee. Inside the church were paintings of Jesus’ stations of the cross. There were stained glasses aplenty. I was apprehensive about taking photos with my digital camera because I felt it might make too much sound (I had noticed others there who were silently sitting…maybe praying.

Next we visited the Black Abbey – slightly smaller church but with stained glass (some more contemporary). I too saw a lady in there praying so I tried not to make too much noise.

Next was St. Canice, an Anglican cathedral. We couldn’t get very close because a wedding was going on there. So we headed down and found the Roth House, and sure enough a wedding was being held there too! But we were told that our tour would not be effected. Sharon decided to stay behind while I climbed the stairs to view costumes and the making of tapestry and a skeleton of a long extinct giant Irish deer.

We hung around thinking the walled garden was around somewhere and a employed said she would take us there. Unfortunately it was through the wedding reception making for some awkward moments.

The garden was beautiful with vegetables and flowers. Sharon took several pictures.

We decided we should go back to the room to rest. We made it back to the room and I went out to the Supervalue supermarket to get some drinks. While I was on my way it started raining a bit, but not too hard. At the market I got some apple juice and water and a lemon Fanta for myself.

We took a nap before heading out to Kyteler’s Inn, a restaurant and bar operating since medieval times. I had fish and chips while Sharon had Irish stew. They had a trio of musicians playing Irish music while we ate.

We returned back to Butler Court and saw “Bo” the B&B’s rescue dog. I made a new friend with Bo. At the room Sharon worked on her blog while I went out again to take photos of the castle.

Tomorrow we will finish up Kilkenny by visiting the castle and the museum and St. Canice before catching a bus to Dublin.

We had decided to visit the enormous Rock of Cashel today. This involved a 90 minute bus ride from Cork Bus station to Cashel on Bus Erieann’s X8 service. It was an express bus meaning it made less stops and got there faster.

This involved catching the earliest bus departing at 8AM. So we got up and left at around 7AM to make it from our hotel room in time. We caught a 220 bus from our Mandyke bus stop and got off with a bit further walk to the bus station. (Shouldn’t all buses eventually go to the bus station? Not this one!)

While we were walking I spotted a bakery and suggested we get breakfast there. We had not had breakfast at the hotel because we had left so early. I got a chocolate muffin and OJ while sharon got a croissant with chocolate and a citrus drink. The attendant offered to give us ice in cups. This is somewhat of a novelty as ice is difficult to find.

We made it to the bus station. We ate our breakfast while we waited for us bus. Afterwards I decided to try to find a restroom. I was disappointed to find that the restrooms were pay only with a turnstile. I could have jumped it, but I decided not to for fear of getting caught with close circuit cameras.

Our bus arrived 20 minutes late. We gave our online booking numbers to the driver and he gave us our onward journey and return ticket on the same printout. Others who got on did not have their return ticket to Dublin. They did get a lecture from the driver about hanging on to their ticket, but he eventually let them on.

I slept part of the time as best I could. Other times I found myself listening to Tom Petty on my iPod. The bus stopped at 3 towns along the way – all of which I had not heard of. I’d assuming that those getting on and off at those towns were locals.

Meanwhile at Cahir there was a castle in the heart of the town which might have made for a great stopover coming back if we had planned better. Maybe it will be a stop for a future journey.

We arrived into Cashel about 20 minutes late, but no worries as we had until 2PM to catch our bus back. We inquired from a local where “The Rock” was. She pointed us in the right direction. As we walked we remarked how there are houses which are at the bottom of the hill which are in the shadow of the Rock of Cashel. How unique. But it would be aggravating about how many tourists walk past their house everyday.

The Rock is at the top of steep hill. Midway up the hill was the parking lot and restrooms. Nearby young people played traditional Irish music.

While we were buying our tickets we were talked into getting the free tour beginning in 5 minutes at 10:30AM. Our tour guide gave a very informative. Seems the Rock started out as a royal residence, but later turned into a religious seat. Seems those in power gave up the rock to the religious leaders so that his rival didn’t get it.

Inside the rock we saw roofless shells of buildings. There was one particular religious leader who started off Catholic but switched to Protestant once England took over to the ire of his laymen.

Around the rock was a graveyard. Seems in 1930 the town of Cashel opened up the registers that allowed some residents to opt for burial at the Rock. Only a few of these residents survive and after they pass no one else will be buried at the Rock.

The rock had a chapel nearby. About 10 years ago restoration work began to make it less porous to keep it from having so much mold around. Each brick from the room was removed and catalogued while a membrane was installed to keep it from being so pourous.

Down the back hill from the chapel was the Hore Abbey ruin, which looked interesting the photograph, but unfortunately we did not have time to get to it.

After the tour we walked through the museum and saw the original sandstone cross which had been replaced by the limestone cross at the entrance to the Rock.

After we left the rock we attempted to find the bus stop to return to Cork. After much time we found it and then attempted to find a place to eat. I left Sharon in the town’s commons area while I tried to get Apache Pizza. Unfortunately it was closed. After some debate we decided on The Brian Boru. Both Sharon and myself got a Beef Burger with fries. The burgers were huge! It was served with some type of chili mayo (meant for the fries but just as good on the burger).

Nearby Sharon saw a Guiness which touted “Guinness in Baby Bottles,” which she requested I take a photo of. With advertisements like this it is no wonder why we have rampant alcoholism.

We made our way back to the bus stop and found our bus to be late. While we were waiting there was a man pacing and talking to himself. I thought he was crazy.

Our bus was about 20 minutes late which is much better than expected. I thought it was 2 hours late based on the Bus Eireann real time tracking. During our bus ride I could tell Sharon was not enjoying it as the seating area for knees were cramped.

As we made it back to Cork, we decided to visit St. Fin’s Cathedral. We found the bus that went there and we walked about 500 meters to it. It was very ornate. Sharon took several pictures while I did some videoing.

Afterwards we came back to the hotel room where I took a nap and Sharon tried to post to the blog. The hotel’s internet service provider, Virgin Mobile, is not kind to WordPress.

For supper I went out and got Apache pizza. Our hotel provided us with a bucket of ice so we enjoyed an evening meal in our room.

Tomorrow we visit Kilkenny.

Out of habit I woke up early – at 5AM. I snoozed for a little bit, but eventually got up and wrote yesterday’s blog post. It got to be about 8AM and Sharon was stirring so I told her it was 8AM and it’ll be a good idea to get ready.

I had my cameras charged and my GoPro’s suction cup for the car window ready. Sharon and I went downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. As with many hotel dining rooms in Europe, it was small and seating was limited. We grabbed a table near the breakfast bar which helped with refills of OJ and Apple Juice. The cups were one pint, about one step up from a shot glass – or about equal in size to the cups served on airplanes. I’ve never really understood European drink serving sizes. Obviously they have bigger cups for beer. Why not have these sizes available for other non alcoholic drinks?

We had two breakfast options – Irish Breakfast for 10 EURO or continental breakfast for 6 EURO. We didn’t really want to go all out with an Irish breakfast, but couldn’t find anything on the continential breakfast. So we compromised. Sharon had scrambled eggs on toast and Irish bacon (ham) while I had a cheese omelette and Irish Bacon (ham) and sausages.

Having completed our breakfast, Sharon headed to the room to pack the essentials and I headed to Centra convenience store to see if deli sandwiches were available. Sure enough they were so I got a roast beef and cheese for Sharon and a ham and cheese for myself…and water. I got back to the room and packed our lunch in my insulated bag.

We headed to the hotel’s parking lot and attempted to head out. The only problem was that one car beside us sat forever and we weren’t sure what they were doing. Eventually they did leave so we could leave (small parking lot)

The first village we went to was Ventry – a small village with some B&Bs and shops and a beach and mobile home park. Later we took a wrong turn and instead of driving the coastal highway we went inland past a castle ruin and made our way to Ballyferrier which had a small business district with a few restaurants – most notably a shop dedicated to Star Wars.

I mentioned to Sharon that we were way off course and we should go back to where we came to start the tour clockwise. We continued on our way with great views of the ocean and a few pull of spots. One just happened to be the Irish famine houses. There wasn’t anywhere to pull over so we passed it by. I did get to see the beehive prehistoric houses which was up a steep hill. The ticket counter was a small trailer – obviously the bee hive houses were on private land and the landowner wanted some money from tourists. The beehive houses were just as it sounded, shaped like beehives, but put together with stone and no concrete.

Next we stopped at a prehistoric mound and petting zoo. The ticket counter provided visitors with food for the goats and sheep. The animals are not shy. They came up to me looking for food, which I didn’t have. The mound was somewhat of a anticlimax. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought it was a a big ditch.

Then there were drives around narrow mountain lanes. Once we got behind a tour bus who met a car going counter clockwise. Because the bus was so big and couldn’t go anywhere, the car had to back down the hill in reverse so the bus and all the cars could go by.

Next was the Blasket Vistor’s Center. It was getting to about lunchtime so we decided to have a picnic lunch at tables near their cafe. After a few minutes we were asked to leave and given the excuse that the person’s boss would be upset. I guess the tables were meant for cafe guests. I was pretty upset but complied. We finished our lunch on the steps outside which smokers congregate.

Next we were on our way to Ballyferrier for a second time. This time we did not get out and look.

We then found our way to the Gallarus Oratory – a 1300 year old primitive church. We had trouble finding the free parking area. Had we parked at the more accessible parking lot it would have been 3 EURO. Apparently the property owner next to the church found a way to charge admission for parking, but could not control access from the free parking list. The actual exhibit is free.

The church was similar to the beehive houses with stones stacked with no concrete. There may have been mud but I didn’t see any residue of it. Sharon and I hung around until some of the visitors had left so we could get some good photos.

Next was on to the Kilmalkedar Church – a church ruin, ironically in worse shape than the Gallarus Oratory. There was a cemetery around it with very old and very new graves. We took several pictures of the church, tombstones and flowers around it.

We then drove back to our hotel in Dingle. Sharon took a nap, while I went out and took photos of the colorful buildings of Dingle. I visited St. Mary’s church. It was fairly a modern church inside, but on the outside it looked quite old.

I came back to find Sharon rested and writing on her blog. After a while we went out to the Dingle Diner for pizza and then on to Kool Scoops for ice cream.

Tomorrow we drive to Cork while visiting Killarney and Blarney castle along the way.