Day 13: Rock of Cashel and Kilkenny

We woke up this morning, enjoyed our last hotel breakfast, then hopped in the car and headed for the Rock of Cashel. The first leg of our drive put us on the motorway. It was nice to have the faster driving since we hadn’t had that since our first and second day however, we have gotten quite used to the smaller roads and actually enjoy the scenery more. So, we decided that once we arrived at the Rock, we would click “avoid highways” on maps for the rest of our journey to Kilkenny.

The Rock of Cashel did not disappoint! Such beauty and really engaging stories to hear from guides and read about on sign markings.

We had some fun with the walking man on the sidewalk. Someone working on the grounds saw us laughing and taking the photo and asked to see it which prompted the conversation of what is a Fund For Teachers fellow? We enjoyed telling our story for the over 50th time! It never gets old to us! And it always leads into recommendations of what we need to do while we are here from locals.

We walked down into the village and spend time exploring, and ended at a wonderful restaurant for lunch before getting back on the road for Kilkenny.

Once back in the car, we took the “road less traveled“ and boy did we get back roads. I thought that we had already done some very narrow road driving but the rest of our trip consisted of all basically one lane road. It was very lucky that we never had to pull over quickly for someone coming in the opposite direction on the truly narrow parts! We did see horses on the side of the road at one point with a safe place to pull off and get out, so we did!

Upon arriving into Kilkenny to our Pembroke hotel, we were more than pleasantly surprised with the location and beautiful room. We parked the car and explored the town by foot since everything is within walking distance of our location. 

Lost track of time as we were exploring, because we both enjoyed the center city so much, that when we went in to find dinner at a local pub they had already stopped serving. It was OK for us because we ended up having nachos at our hotel restaurant which were more than delicious!