Day 3
Rain and wind is expected by midday so we’re staying flexible with our schedule. However, some things are fixed.
We are leaving Dublin.
We are renting a car and have to pick it up between 09:00 and 10:00.
We have a hotel reservation in Kilkenny.
Anything in between is technically optional.
We arrived at Enterprise Rental at about 09:30 after catching an Uber ride from our hotel. Crazy traffic again. Makes me very nervous to start driving these roads on the left for the first time.
Took about 30 minutes at Enterprise. The guy helping us was very kind and gave me a little extra for having to wait.
Our car is a blue SEAT Arona. It is nearly new and allows me to sync my phone with navigation and all of that. Unfortunately the link sometimes drops which is a bit unnerving.
No serious problems with driving, but my heart rate seems to go up every time I take a traffic circle. I also have this weird thing where the navigation says go left and I turn right. I don’t know. I’m trying to drive and think about driving completely differently and my brain hasn’t quite made the transition.
Our first stop was LIDL south of Dublin for food, snacks, water, etc. We tend to have lunch in the car on vacation and eat well at night.
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| St. Kevin's Church |
From there we headed to the Glendalough monastic site in the Wicklow Mountains. Founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century, most of the structures we saw are from the 10th and 12th centuries, not very old at all! (That's a joke, people) The drive to Glendalough (lough is pronounced "lok") was my first real experience on the smaller Irish roads, nothing really narrow but still the hedges are really close to the road and Kim freaked out once or twice.
About 5 minutes after arriving the rain started. And the wind started. It wasn’t good but it was expected. It was a beautiful place and sad to not fully enjoy it.
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| View of St. Kevin's Church and the Round Tower |
Next stop Enniscorthy Castle. Another town on a river, Enniscorthy traffic circles and narrow roads were intense. Yes, I had “issues” here. In fact I think Kim quoted something from the movie European Vacation related to seeing Big Ben and Parliament over and over again. Well, we saw the same part of Enniscorthy several times before I figured out how to exit the circle of death. We both had a good laugh.
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| Enniscorthy Castle |
The castle was surprisingly small and a little disappointing, to be honest. Still, the people were extremely friendly and we had a good chat. Kim also found some information on her Cotter surname and purchased a map of Ireland that shows general locations for surnames on the island. Very interesting. Not many photos here as the weather was really bad at the time.
Our next place of interest was Jerpoint Abbey, a Cistercian abbey founded in the mid-12th century. This is another ancient site.
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| Jerpoint Abbey |
More smaller roads and good scenery. We arrived a little after 17:00 with an understanding that the site closes at 17:30. However, it was dark and locked up. No way to see the inside of the abbey, we walked around the outside, took a few photos (rain had stopped) and hopped back in the car for Kilkenny Hibernian Hotel.
After check-in we walked around the corner to take a look at the local castle, you guessed it, Kilkenny Castle. The grounds were closed but the castle itself was quite impressive and we’re eager to check it out tomorrow.
Our hotel had a nice restaurant so we grabbed some good food (fish and chips #2 for me, and the best so far) and retired for the night.
A few more photos of the day are below.
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