It was a sad morning today when I realized it was our last day in Ireland. This country has become my favorite of the four we’ve visited so far. It’s absolutely beautiful here! Today’s trip will take us to the countryside south of Ireland and it’s a sunny day! Our first stop today was Kilkenney and the castle there. KIlkenney is a small town located inland from the Irish Sea. It’s a quaint Irish village with lots of older shops and restaurants along with some more modern areas as well. We parked by the castle and took a stroll around to check out the rose garden at the front. It’s a little too early for the roses to be blooming, but everything was so serene and relaxing with the fountain and the beautiful green grass.  

We decided to walk to the bridge below the castle to get what John (our tour guide) says is the best photo op of the castle. And he was right. We got some great shots of the castle and the river. Located next to the bridge was our lunch stop…..the Blaa Blaa Blaa Sandwich shop! This shop is big enough for two people to be in at one time…..this is NOT an exaggeration! I don’t really know if it’s much bigger than my bedroom at home and two thirds of it is the kitchen prep area. However, as they say, great things come in small packages. We ordered sandwiches to go and headed back to the castle to sit in the park area for lunch. Lots of people were out walking and a few had their dogs with too. It was fun to watch them running around and having a good time stretching their legs. However, not good for the homesickiness for my Bailey Dog :( She would have had a blast chasing all the other dogs and playing, that’s for sure.
 
Our next stop was our final stop for the day….Waterford. This is the city best known for the crystal factory. However, this city also has the distinction of being the oldest city in Ireland….it’s 1164 years old! This city was first settled by the Vikings, which makes this the first Viking city even before Oslo and all the others! Very interesting history here. The guide we had today is giving Allen from London a run for his money in the humor department! Jack started us off on our walking tour with a little story about the early history of Waterford by using some volunteer participation to play the characters in his story. Talk about bringing a story to life! Once we finished our history lesson, we were off for a little afternoon walk. Our first stop was the oldest building in Waterford which was built in 1003 and has been in constant use since. Today it’s a museum that is open 7 days per week. We visited two cathedrals, an Anglican and Catholic, both designed by the same person, which is a first as well. Most architects will design for one or the other, but had never done both. We got to visit inside just the Catholic cathedral and it was gorgeous. It contains 10 one of a kind Waterford crystal chandeliers that have never been reproduced. The church itself looks like a lot of the cathedrals you’ll find in Germany with the beautiful stained glass, the large pipe organ and the ornate ceilings. Very breathtaking. We ended our walk with a trip to the pub (not surprising, right??). Because of the size of our group, we took up almost half the pub, but it was a nice end to the afternoon. After a walk back to our hotel along the river, we had some time to freshen up before our last dinner together in Ireland.  
The group met at Timber Toes Pub in the hotel to have drinks before dinner and it was nice to visit with other travelers on this trip and find out more about them. Our dinner tonight was one of the best so far. The hotel we stayed in is family owned and lots of the family works at the hotel too, so it was definitely more of a mom and pop place than the chain hotels we’ve been staying at.   The hotel itself is definitely “vintage” as there have not been a lot of updated since this place opened. The floors creak and aren’t always completely even, the doors to the rooms are all original except for the modern locks and the rooms are anything but a typical hotel room! The room we had contained two twin beds side by side, a double bed and another twin bed in a little alcove right behind the door into the room. The size of the room itself is considered huge by most European standards, which is nice when you’ve got three women in a room! Tonight was an early night as tomorrow starts at the crack of dawn and we’re off to Wales.