Kilkenny via Enniscorthy

Sunday, 18 August 2019

Without an alarm set we all woke up around 8 AM, although Barbra thought that she was up since 4 AM.  We all got ready, packed, and made scrambled eggs at the AirBnB before leaving for our 1.5 mile walk to the rental car office.  Today we get a rental car and start our drive around Ireland.

The office, being off-airport, was much busier than I had thought it would be.  It took at least 45 minutes to get the car, by around 10:45 AM we were finally off and driving south out of Dublin.  Here is the obligatory photo of me driving a right-hand drive car:

Driving wasn't that easy.  The cars passing me head-on to my right was freaking me out and I kept crossing the line on the left side of the car.  This is fine when there is a shoulder, but we drove on some narrow roads with the left line right along trees with no shoulder, plus it was raining.  I managed to only drive over one curb and make it to our first stop, the town of Enniscorthy, a town 125 km (78 miles) south of Dublin.

Enniscorthy is this town that Tim's father's, father's, mother's, mother, Jane Grinnell was born.  She was born around 1837 and moved to the US at the age of 16 in 1853. 

After learning about this relative last week, we drove to Enniscorthy.  It was only 1 hour out of the way of our planned route.  It was a really cute town with a castle, a Protestant church, and a Catholic church.  It was even the starting point of stage 2 of the 1998 Tour de France.  We were hungry so we went to a sandwich shop and asked the young clerks if they heard of the family name Grinnell.  They said that they never heard it and it doesn't even sound Irish. Oh well.

Protestant church

Catholic Church

There was a large store in town that had a grocery store below and a department store above.  We checked it out and upon leaving it was raining pretty hard, so we talked to a local woman while waiting for the rain to stop.  We asked her if she knew of the family name Grinnell.  She said no, but there is a family called Grannell nearby. We are guessing that this is probably the family name.  Grannell with an "a," not Grinnell with an "i."  

She told us there was a memorial garden at the top of a hill and we can walk to the Catholic church from there, so we strolled up the hill and saw a military ceremony in process with bag pipes and bugles.  Notice all the light blue hats signifying serving for the United Nations.

After the ceremony we walked to the Catholic church and thought that Jane Grannell was probably confirmed here.  That's pretty cool.

We then got back on the road (on the left side of the road) and drove the one hour south to Kilkenny.  We are only spending 1 night in this town, so we had just the rest of the day to check it out.  We checked into our B&B and headed out.  Tim really liked this house with colorful ivy growing on it.

Like every good town, there was a castle called Kilkenny Castle.  It was close to closing so we just walked around the grounds.

Here is another cool building in town.

The Irish sport of hurling is huge in Kilkenny. As a matter of fact, half the town were walking around with their Kilkenny hurling club jerseys (by the way, they lost today).  This hurling sculpture is in the middle of town.

We walked around town a little bit and then headed to the local brewery, Sullivan's Brewery.  They only had three beers, so I ordered a half pint of each.

Also in town is a brewery called Smithwicks...yes, that Smithwicks.

Like Guinness, the actually brewery is closed, so the tour is just a giant corporate experience, but the local pubs have it on tap.  They don't just have the Irish Red, but they also have the blonde ale and a pale ale that I haven't seen in the United States.  Again, we got a half pint sample of each.

Pub food tonight, and my first fish and chips.  It was pretty good.

After dinner we walked around a bit more and decided to head back to the B and B.  We got back just after 10 PM, watched the movie "Somethings Gotta Give," and went to bed around 12:30 AM.  I only made it half way though this blog last night, so it is now the next day and I am finishing this one up.  I am not feeling well and it is now 10:50 PM, so I will probably be behind one more night, because there is no way I will be able to do today's blog now.  OY...this blogging thing is hard work, but it is worth it.  In a few years when I look back at this I will be so happy I kept this blog.