Fish & Chips in Kilkenny

Here's a shot of Peter digging to the bottom of the bag for his last chips. We found this F&C spot and had to try it out. Apparently they serve it in a special bag now rather than just wrapping it in old newspapers. No shortage of salt and vinegar dropped in the bag when requested either.

Enjoying Kilkenny

One thing is for sure, we managed to slow our pace dramatically while in Kilkenny. I think we stopped at least once every 5 minutes to do whatever the heck we wanted. In this picture Aidan is standing against the railing for Kilkenny River with the bridge across the river in the background. 2 minutes earlier we were sitting outside Kilkenny Castle and very soon we would find yet another pub to relax in. We sat around here for awhile and enjoyed the sunshine of an absolutely gorgeous day. There is a hotel on the other side of the river with outdoor eating area on the river banks. Looks like an excellent place to spend a couple of vacation days!

Kilkenny Castle

This is a shot of Dad and Aidan after the tour of the Castle. The Castle had a lot of walking and a a lot of stairs. It was interesting has been restored significantly over the years. I think we got through the whole thing in less than an hour. It is a self guided tour and there are staff throughout the place who are available to answer questions.

Aidan needed a rest after the tour so Dad sat with him to help ease his mind with calming stories from his childhood. They didn't sit for long and soon wanted to get up and get going again. We were not on a schedule except that if we missed the last train to Dublin we would have to find accommodations for the night. I don't recall being concerned or rushing through anything.

Kilkenny Day

Our train ride to Kilkenny was great it was a short ride (1:45) and the perfect amount of time to relax chat and enjoy the country side. You can see a bit of the country side in the background of this picture. When we arrived in Kilkenny we had 2 immediate goals. Get some money and get to a pub .... in that order. Both were satisfied very quickly and we found ourselves in Langton's. Lunch and a pint is a very civilized way to start an afternoon. After relaxing for awhile we headed to Kilkenny Castle to look around.

Catching Up

We have been busy vacationing and have neglected posting. Since then we have visited O'Neills, Doyle's and Darkey Kelly's. (I could not find a good web site for Darkey Kelly's.) It is an great little pub that is attached to the hotel we are staying in. We have only visited once and that is only because it was so close and we wanted to visit as wide a variety of pubs that we could. We found an older crowd with an interest in conversation. This place shares the kitchen with the Harding Hotel and Copper Alley Bistro. Food is generally good.

O'Neills was great. Thanks, Tommy for the recommendation! We walked in at lunch time and had no trouble getting a pint and getting a place to sit. Even though it was busy, it was a very easy place to have a relaxing conversation. We found O'Neills on our return from visiting Trinity College. Definitely a great place to sit and enjoy a beer and/or have a meal.

We found Doyle's on our way back to the hotel after leaving O'Neills. Doyle's is another great place to grab a beer. The service was excellent and like many of the pubs we visited, has a diverse crowd. It is an older pub (I think they all are!) in a very interesting location in the middle of everything.

We did all this after visiting Dublin Castle and giving Dad a break while we checked things out. We picked Dad up on the way to Darkey Kelley's. Once we arrived we found out that he spent a couple of hours there while we were visting pubs in the Trinity College area. Glad he managed to get some rest!!!

Dublin Pub Crawl - The Foggy Dew

This is an excellent picture of Aidan and Dad. This picture captures very nicely how much fun the guys were having. This was our ( I won't say) pub of the day. This was the day that we parked Dad after his workout at Dublin Castle and then went back and picked him up in the afternoon for some pub crawling. We had lunch at the Vat House and then went on to the Foggy Dew. This place is great! It has a lot of character and the old all wooden decor made it look like the perfect ale house. Unfortunately, we were very ambitious about visiting lots of pubs and moved on so we could keep our pub count up. This one definitely warrants a redo before we head home. This picture is definitely a keeper. Take notice of the rum and coke in Aidan's hand.

Over the bar are two guitars in cases....one was Keith Richards and the other belonged to David Bowie....very cool. A lot of music items in this pub and you could spend a couple of hours just looking at it all.

Almost Half Way Point - How are we doing?

OK! Time for a run down of the pubs since we have hit the half way point.

1. The Temple Bar
2. The Quays
3. Fitzsimmons
4. Gogarty's
5. The Vat House
6. Messrrs Maguire
7. Ha'Penny Comedy Club
8. The Brazen Head
9. O'Shea's
10. Turks Head
11. Thomas Read
12. Auld Dubliner
13. Thunder Road Cafe (Not Irish but very cool.)
14. The Foggy Dew
15. The Gravity Bar (On top of the Guiness Storehouse)

We have done other things also. Guinness Storehouse is an excellent visit as was the tour of Dublin Castle. Today we have several options and our choices will be driven by the weather and perhaps the bus driver.

Stay tuned. This is a lot of fun!

The Show at the Ha' Penney Comedy Club

Here is a pic of the headliner at the Ha' Penney Comedy Club. We went in for a few laughs and it was a bunch of amateur amateurs trying to be funny on stage. The real laughter came from the Texan in the audience and his comments on their performances.... if you want a laugh, don't go to this place.

The Temple Bar

Here's us at the Temple Bar just a few minutes before Dad drunk called Lindsay. This was our second visit to this pub and, although we were not supposed to do any repeats, this pub was worth the go through again.

At this point, I had given up on Guiness and switched to the old faithful Rum and Coke....it was givin' me the gas you know.

Peter couldn't drink a full pint and had to pass some over to Dad and get him to finish it off. Dad was more than willing to do so, but was very disappointed in his son's performance (or lack of). Of course. Peter's story will be that Dad was begging him for more beer (we had him on a small quota, he's old you know) and he finally gave in to the whining. If you notice, Dad is only allowed to order half-pints but he drinks twice as many as we do.