Ireland/UK Trip: Day 4 - Kilkenny, Middleton, and Cork

On the morning of our fourth day in Ireland, we planned to leave Dublin. We had loved this city that is, all at once, an incredible example of Irish tradition and a hip, happening, modern-day place; but we had a lot more of the country (and three more countries, besides) to see. So we headed to the airport at the crack of dawn and were waiting patiently for our rental car the minute the Avis counter opened.

We got this cute little Nissan Micra, which, despite how small it looks from the outside, was pretty roomy on the inside. In fact all of our luggage fit in the trunk!

Brandon was our driver, as I don't know how to drive a manual (I know, I know - someday I will learn!), and he was obviously a bit nervous! That first day on the road was a challenging one for both of us, in fact; but we will get to that later in the post. Despite the nerves, we were really excited to have the freedom of our own car. If you have never seen another country by driving yourself through it, I recommend you add that to your bucket list immediately!

The neatest thing about having our own transportation was that anytime we were driving down the road and saw something that interested us, we could just pull on over to check it out! This happened almost right away on our first day in the car. We saw a sign for a castle and we just followed the arrows. This particular castle didn't turn out to be all that exciting, but being able to have a mini-adventure on a whim was!

Now, the hard part about having the car was that we were responsible for staying on a very strict schedule. And that didn't always happen, despite our best efforts. But again, I am getting ahead of myself.

Our first planned stop of the day was in a town called Killkenny, and, because we had picked up our car at the crack of dawn, we actually arrived in the city early - too early to tour anything. This was fine, though, because it gave us time to grab a scone, take a walk, and enjoy being in this clean, quaint, quiet little town. In fact, it was in those early-morning moments that I fell in love and stated that, if I ever move out of the country, it will be to Kilkenny, Ireland.

While we waited for the town to wake up and its sights to open their doors for the day, we found a place to walk along the river. From the river walk, we could see Kilkenny Castle, which was the first destination on our list.

This castle is set on the edge of a large park - just a huge expanse of grass, dotted with a few trees, and a small playground off to the side. We saw women running in pairs and small groups, people of all ages walking their dogs, and some teenage boys playing football (that means soccer!) in one of the fields.

And sitting proudly on the edge of this grassy expanse was Kilkenny Castle itself.

Kilkenny Castle has a long (and confusing) history. It changed family hands many times since it was built in the late 1100s and was finally sold to the city of Kilkenny in 1967 for just 50 pounds.

We found the inside of the castle to be not nearly as impressive as the outside. But it was still interesting to walk around and try to make sense of who owned it and who changed it at various times throughout its history.

From the castle, we walked through Kilkenny town to St. Canice's Cathedral, where people have been worshiping for over 800 years.

It goes without saying that the church was stunning, but we were actually there to go up the famous Round Tower, the oldest standing structure in the city of Kilkenny.

We paid three euro for the chance to climb a series of ladders, leading us to a look-out point at the top. This didn't necessarily seem safe or smart, but it was a pretty cool experience.

And, oh, the views from the top!

We could have stayed up there a lot longer, but we did have somewhere else to be. So, reluctantly, we climbed back down.

Our next stop was the reason we were in Kilkenny to begin with - the Smithwick's brewery. I've said before that I'm not a huge fan of Guinness; I am, however, quite a big fan of Smithwick's. We would learn on our tour of this brewery that these two beer brands are actually owned by the same parent company - Diageo. Look them up. You might be surprised to find what brands of beer, whiskey, and other spirits are actually not competitors at all.

We knew right where the brewery was because we'd passed it on our way from Kilkenny Castle to St. Canice's Cathedral (plus, we'd seen it from the top of the Round Tower). It was just a quick walk down the street and we were plenty early for the noon tour (the first of the day), but when we got there, the lady at the reception desk told us she had just sold the last two tickets. And, since Smithwick's is an actual working brewery, they are pretty strict on the policies for their tours; they only allow 14 people on each tour, which run four times per day, five days per week. (We had specifically planned to come here on a Tuesday, when we knew tours would be running. And we needed to get on the noon tour because we had a distillery tour planned for later in the day that was already booked and paid for.)

Now, what I'm about to say may seem like a bit of an overreaction. But you have to remember that the only reason we were in Kilkenny in the first place was to tour the Smithwick's Brewery. Also, we had passed by the brewery gates only an hour before, wanting to book ourselves onto the noon tour, but they hadn't been open at that moment; so we'd moved on to St. Canice's. It looked like the enjoyable time we'd had atop the Round Tower had lasted just a moment too long. And we were devastated. We didn't know how to react or what to do.

But the looks of utter disappointment on our faces must have warmed the heart of the Smithwick's Brewery receptionist. "There's no way you can stay for the 1:00 tour?" she asked us, hopeful because there were still several spots open on that one. "No," we told her. We had to be on the road by 1:30, 1:45 at the very latest. "Well, are you wearing flip-flops?" she asked, hesitantly. We looked at each other, confused, but said that no, we were wearing tennis shoes. I was about to add that if she wanted us to go buy flip-flops for ourselves and everyone else on the tour, we'd  be happy to do that in order to get on it (yes, seems desperate as I explain it now, but give me a break). But just then she said, "Ok. Just this once, I can make room for just two more. And thank goodness you have the right shoes on. Flip-flops are not allowed!"

And so, we toured Smithwick's.

This ended up being one of the neatest places we toured. So many of the breweries and distilleries we saw on this trip were old and no longer functional. But Smithwick's (at least for now) is.

And, although we had great guides almost everywhere, the Smithwick's guide was one of the best because he wasn't just a guide. He was a brewer, a taster, and now a tasting-trainer, who had been working at the Smithwick's brewery for nearly 30 years.

He was incredibly passionate about the product, and we enjoyed learning from him. He had a lot to say - about the beer, the company, and the experience working for them.

By the time the tour was over, we were starting to get nervous about our timing. Remember how we told the receptionist that we had to be back on the road by 1:30, 1:45 at the very latest? Well, we really did - 1:45 at the very latest. But, even as we watched the seconds tick by, we were unwilling to miss the tasting that was included in our Smithwick's Brewery ticket price.

It was about 1:15 when we entered the tasting room, and, since Brandon was the driver, I was going to be responsible for drinking two pints of Smithwick's in the next 15 minutes. "I can do it!" I said boldly, and tried to get to the front of the line.

But then the guide (who, let me remind you, we loved) began pouring...

...and pouring...

...and pouring.

I am not exaggerating when I say that he took 16 pint glasses and poured Smithwick's into each of them, layer, by layer, by layer, until it was actually 1:30 and I had about zero minutes to drink the two pints I'd said I would.

When he finally stopped pouring (eight layers later, I think), I smiled for the camera, and then I got to work!

Brandon drank a few sips and thought it was probably the best Smithwick's he had ever tasted.

I had to agree. It actually did seem to make a difference that the beer was poured layer by excruciating layer. It was gooooooood!!! But, as seconds turned into precious minutes, I couldn't pay much attention to the taste. I just had to get it all down and get us the heck out of there!

And I did! We got back on the road with what we thought was time to spare. And here comes the part of the story regarding the challenges of renting a car in a country where you don't live (even though you do speak the language).

THERE ARE NO SIGNS!

We had explicit directions to our next destination. In fact, we had spent hours Google-mapping where we would be and how we would get from place-to-place. But none of this matters when the streets do not have signs on them and the highways are nowhere to be found. We spent at least half an hour trying to figure out how to get out of Kilkenny town...and this is a city of, oh, about 8,700 people, give or take.

It is an understatement to say that our drive to Midleton was stressful. Remember, our tour there was booked and paid for. We had to make it by 4:00, or we were going to simply be out of luck.

On our minute-by-minute itinerary, I had provided us with about 30 minutes of cushion time for this drive. But we'd used that cushion time watching our Smithwick's guide (who we loved!) pour our beers ever so slowly, layer by layer, and we didn't have much left over to make wrong turns or stop for directions.

And there was definitely no time to pee.

I apologize for being crass. But I'd drunk nearly two pints of beer in less than 15 minutes. And, about 45 minutes into our two-hour drive, it hit me that I really had to go.

But that was not going to happen.

We finally made our way out of the 8,700-person (give or take), 0-sign (no exaggeration) town of Kilkenny and got on the road to Midleton. We got there 10 minutes late, and, by this point, I was in so much pain that I didn't care whether we toured the Jameson distillery or not. I just wanted to use their bathroom.

Somehow, though, things were running slightly behind schedule, and while I was in the bathroom at 4:10, Brandon got us onto the booked-and-paid-for 4:00 tour.

You may remember that we had already toured a Jameson distillery in Dublin. We were happy to find that the Midleton tour was a bit different. What we saw here was still not an actual working distillery. Jameson is a large enough company that they have had to move their production to a larger, more modern facility that is just behind the old one here in Midleton. But Jameson was more recently produced here than it was in Dublin, so what they showed us did seem to be a bit more real. One very neat thing is that this old distillery houses the largest pot still in the world. Who knew?

Some of the stories and jokes we heard were the same. But that was ok because after the stories and jokes, there was another thing that was the same - the tasting! Remember how in Dublin eight people from the tour got selected to taste Jameson versus Johnnie Walker and Jack Daniel's? Brandon got to do it that time. But this time, Brandon was driving, so I volunteered. And I got selected!

 

 

I took my job very seriously, thinking that I, like Brandon, would have to state my favorite once the tasting was over. I tried each whiskey several times, taking water in between, and was torn between my beloved homeland's Jack Daniel's (always a go-to) and the product of the distillery we were visiting.

In the end, I decided that Jameson is probably a superior whiskey, but it will never go quite as well with Coke! So which one a person prefers really depends on their mood!

Fortunately, I never did have to say any of this out loud. I got a certificate just for participating. And then, because he was driving, I got to drink Brandon's shot of Jameson. Fun times!

After Midleton, we made our way to Cork. At this point, we weren't in any big rush. We didn't have anything planned in Cork except a decent night's sleep. This was fortunate, as we found the city to be a bit dead (although pretty, as the sun set on it).

We had a pretty decent hotel room for the night, and, after we got settled, we roamed around just long enough to find a good, takeaway fish-and-chips place.

We definitely needed to rest. It had been a long day of driving on the wrong side of the road with no street signs to guide us, making brewery receptionists feel bad enough for our plight to let us onto booked-up tours, holding our pee in for longer than could possibly be healthy (sorry, had to!), and not knowing what the heck we were supposed to do about parking on the busy streets of Cork.

Does anybody know what any of this means??? (We actually took this picture into our hotel and asked the receptionist what to do about it. I mean, we didn't want our rental car to be towed!)

It had been an absolutely wonderful, exhausting day. And Day 5 was going to be much of the same. So we ate that fish and chips as we walked back to our hotel. And then it was lights out on Day 4 of our Ireland/UK adventure.