Bob (the dog) stopped by again in the morning to enjoy Joe.  We spent the day walking around Kilkenny.  We headed out first to the Round tower of St. Canice’s Cathedral.  We climbed the tower and took some pictures from up high.  Very tall.  We could see the Smithwick’s Brewery (pronounced “Smitticks”).  We saw a Guinness tanker pull into it.  Hmmmm.

Then we toured the Butler House – a castle from like 1100 AD and then one wall was knocked down and a new guy made it into an estate after he saw some in France.  Pretty neat tour and nice garden and lawn.

We had a wonderful lunch in a little cafe on main street in Kilkenny before heading to Dublin.  We stayed on mostly M-class roads into Dublin.  Joe & Bill dropped Patti Sue at the O'Callahan Alexander Hotel to check in then dropped the car at the Hertz in-town return.  When we were reserving the rental car before the trip, Bill decided that he would have enough challenges with sitting on the "wrong" side of the car and driving on the "wrong" side of the road without also having to shift with the "wrong" hand.  So we booked an automatic.  The guy at the Hertz counter in Dublin said automatics are very rare.  “I got about 90 cars back today and 6 are automatics.  When I started working here I took one home and my uncle said he hadn’t seen one before.  I told him if he ever drove one he’d always want one.  So much easier.”

Video: Kilkenny Castle

The walk to the hotel was a bit tense as Nuvi doesn’t have much stand alone battery life.  We had been relying on car power up until then.  It was about a 1 ½ mile walk from Hertz to the hotel.  Joe made bold, rash assessments of Ireland and the world along the way.  A real chip off the old block.

The Hotel is a for-real Hotel (although breakfasts are included for us).  Business-y.  There was an un-official balcony identified on the emergency route map as "terrace".  So Joe had to check it out - he climbed out the window.

One of the guidebooks had mentioned the iWalks in Dublin.  They are MP3s of guided tours in Dublin narrated by Pat Liddy - a guy with a great Irish accent.  There is also a map for each iWalk that you can use to follow along.  We had the files on Patti Sue's phone & and an MP3 player.  So we started with the Georgian Dublin iWalk.   It talked us through 16 different sites through Trinity College and then south a short ways.  Talking about the architecture during the Georgian era.  The sun had finally come out and the temperature had warmed up.  So it was a nice afternoon for a walk.  Joe wandered with us for a while (without listening to the iWalk) and then went to the Temple Bar area.   The difference in how much the trees and flowers were open in Dublin was significant compared to what we had experinced in the west and south areas of Ireland. 

Video: Trinity College
For more information on the iWalks: Dublin iWalks