We said goodbye to our lovely Algret House with one more breakfast of coffee, fried eggs, toast, and scones.
Our destination for the final two days of our trip was the medieval city of Kilkenny. This was about a three hour drive from Killarney. In our original plan we were going to stop at Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone, but I chickened out. Plus, Zach was a bit castled-out at this point.
Even though we weren't going to Blarney Castle I still wanted to see Cork where my relatives are rumored to be from, so we drove that direction to Kilkenny with the plan to stop at a cafe for lunch.
Cork is a port town and semi-industrial, but it still had Irish charm with...
...colorful row houses.
...hundreds of houses on a hill.
...and hauntingly beautiful Gothic churches.
Then, we arrived at Cafe Serendipity. How serendipitous.
Such a cute place with excellent coffee.
"Serendipity - The lucky tendency to find interesting things by chance in a happy or beneficial way." The perfect way to explain out trip.
As we were driving around Cork City in a sea of one way streets and crazy drivers I realized I never took a picture of a County Kerry license plate.
We got slightly lost in Cork and came disturbingly close to a car accident, but we made it out only to be stuck behind a hay truck. We'd been warned this may happen.
Slowly, but surely and not without getting lost again, we finally made it to the beautiful city of Kilkenny. We were welcomed by some lovely Georgian doors and blossoming flowers.
We found our little boutique hotel and rested for a spell before going out on the town.
It was time for dinner so we headed to our reservation at Kyteler's Inn. The Inn dates back to 1263 when Kilkenney was a sprawling medieval town. The original owner was Dame Alice de Kyteler. Legend has it that she married four times and three of her husbands died mysteriously leaving her a large fortune. The townspeople claimed she had supernatural powers, called her a witch, and sentenced her to be burned. She fled the town and was never heard form again. Here is Zach having a nice chat with Dame Alice.
We were given a small table by the window and when I say by the window I mean actually in the window. My stool was in the window and Zach's was on the floor.
We enjoyed some Kilkenny beer and and listened to live music as we do.
Before going back to the hotel we hit up an Irish grocery store for some snacks. We thought the sign for this aisle was hilarious, you know, for when you need mineral water and squash.
We walked back to the hotel through the medieval streets.
And we enjoyed the beer that we bought at the grocery store. Of course we had to buy "Chalky's Bark" beer with a picture of Scooter on the label.
As we drifted off to sleep we couldn't chase away the melancholy feelings. The next day would be our last in Ireland.
"May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten." - Irish Saying
