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Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Sneem to Kilkenny. Hic!

I have finally found a place with fast internet so have been able to load all the photos from Egypt to yesterday. If you haven't got a facebook account you will be able to scroll back and check out the pics. Yesterday's pics have also been loaded but I haven't written the blog yet. I will get to it. Hope you are well. We are having a blast.

Tuesday 22 May 2012  -  The gift of the gab and gas
Day 40 and 119 to go
Another night spent in a B&B and another Irish breakfast consumed. Oh my God I am going to explode I am sure. Need to do more walking.
Today was cloudy with a misty rain but it was quite pretty.
We returned to the ring of Kerry route finishing off the 40km section we were yet to do. Unfortunately the low cloud prevented us from seeing the view, only gaining glimpses every now and then. We stopped in Muckross to climb to the Torc Waterfall. The plant life was so green and the waterfall was flowing freely. It was really pretty.
We bypassed the main town of Kilarney and drove on to Blarney, home of the castle and the famous stone. The Blarney Castle is set on a large amount of land with many gardens. On a sunny day it would make a great picnic spot where you could hang out for a few hours, but the weather today wasn’t so inviting.
We walked through the front garden and on to the castle, following the many American tourists. Despite the weather it was still busy. The large stone castle was impressive and walking the tiny stone, spiral staircase up and up certainly left you with the impression they were a lot smaller back then. I only just made it through the narrow openings with my foot just fitting on the stairs. I don’t know how Paul fit through and some of the Fat Americans really struggled.
We reached the top after ascending a few flights and joined the queue for kissing the Blarney Stone. This required us to lay on our back on a piece of plastic, slide head first into a hole over the top edge of the castle hang on to some bars and pucker up. This was all done with the help of an attendant that is just as well because I did not want to slip, heading head first for the ground 20m below!
With the stone kissed and the gift of gab granted upon us we wandered the gardens and watched the trout swim in the riverlet before getting back in the car and driving on to Cork 15m away. We were going to stop but had trouble with traffic and finding a park so we did a loop and hightailed it out of there heading on to Kilkenny.
We found The Fir Inn pub to stop at and have a drink and some soup for lunch. We chatted to the friendly publican and then continued on our drive to Kilkenny.
I found a B&B to head to and after a quick drive through the centre of Kilkenny we headed out of the city to the Mena House B&B. With a room to spare we were able to settle in, have a tea and brief break.
With a map and directions from Katherine, the owner, we walked back into town. We followed the riverbank with views to Kilkenny Castle, stopping in at our first pub “Matt the Miller’s” for a pint.
This gave Paul enough lubrication to continue on to the castle where we wandered the outside taking in the views of the grounds. From here we could see many historic buildings that we wandered to.
The best was the Black Abbey. This building had some amazing stained glass windows adorning the walls. We were both very impressed.
With the old stuff out of the way we went in search of another pub, choosing John Cleere. Paul had another pint while I had a WKD, like a cruiser. Dangerous if you too many I am sure. Apparently the rage is to mix this with a Bacardi breezer and a Smirnoff ice in one glass. It turns green and is called a Fat Frog. 
We noticed a postcard for sale advertising the “Historic Pub Crawl” through Kilkenny that we bought. The first pub we visited was listed along with this one, so with two of the eleven frequented we decided to give it a good go.
Our next bar was only a few doors down. This was a ratty old pub called O’Riada. Paul had a pint while I abstained. Paul wasn’t impressed with the loos that flowed into an open drain, so we left quick, walking past the Smithwicks Brewery, unfortunately closed to tours. WE also passed the Tholsel, another old building.
The next pub “Kytlers Inn” also on the list and recommended by Katherine for good music and it was. At 6.30pm Damien Walsh an Irish drummer began. He was a get ‘em involved bloke and I joined 8 others with my own drum playing along to Irish music. It was so much fun. Paul took video before he filled the card and couldn’t take anymore. With his enthusiasm to clap along he didn’t realise that my camera strap was resting in the tea light candle and was creating quite a flame. Another patron jumped to it and Paul patted it out before he burnt down the pub! Seeing the Hightest Pub in Ireland went up in smoke yesterday (on the Kerry Cork border) I am sure they wouldn’t want two in two days.
With my drumming over we left the Kytlers and crossed the road to the next historic pub “Marble City”. This was has been considerably modernised. We had dinner with our drinks this time. My stuffed chicken and cheesy vege was so delicious and filling, but Paul was disappointed his scampi wasn’t a bigger serve.
With dinner soaking up the pints we walked on to the 6th pub on the list the “Andrew Ryan”. This pub had hundreds of photos stuck on the roof mainly of women’s cleavage. It was quiet inside but the barmaid was great to talk to. A Scottish bloke came in and we talked to him about places to visit here and in Scotland. I had opted not to have a drink in this one so the barmaid made me the largest cup of tea I have ever seen. She told us about pubs to visit and the ones to avoid, with that information in hand we continued on to the 7th bar “Syd Harkin’s”. This place was dead so we only stayed for a ½ pint, watching the end of the Eurovision semi-final in which the Irish group Jedward were competing. Oh my what a laugh that was!
The “left Bank” bar was on the list and we wandered passed, but Paul decided it looked to yuppie so we didn’t stop in.
The last of the bars we visited was “Tynann’s Bridge House Bar”. This was the place to be. It was packed with locals still coming in the door after 10pm. The band playing was the Rob Strong band. He is the father of Andrew Strong who starred in the movie “The Commitments”. They were fantastic to listen to, though we stayed only long enough to finish our drinks before making our way back to our B&B.
Our room was toasty warm with the radiator blowing, but after the long walk we were both melting. Paul was ready to call it a night while I loaded pictures onto the net. With fast Internet finally I was able to catch up on the past week. Finally getting to bed by 11.30pm.
 









































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