We started our day with a hurling demonstration. And, no, I don't mean a hang over tossing your cookies kinda of hurling. Instead hurling the sport. It's the national sport of Kilkenny and Ireland-ish. But the Kilkenny folk are VERY in to it.
We hopped on the coach and went out to a local man who makes hurling sticks, aka "the hurl" as we were informed. We had one guy telling us all about the game (I learned a lot today) and the other lad who makes the hurls showing us how they're made. Talk about manual labor. Making them by hand is a dying trade apparently and his children aren't interested in making them so once he's done, it'll be it for his family business (he was like 3 rd generation hurl maker).
From there we came back to the hotel for a pit stop before our walk about of this medieval city. Our Program guide took us all through the Medieval Mile as they call it. In the hour and 15 minutes it took to walk it we had sun, rain, torrential downpour, rain, wind, sun, rain, downpour, sun, wind, rain, etc. My goodness the weather changes fast here.
Highlights of what we saw:
1. St. Canice's Cathedral and Round Tower. Built in the 13th century. One of only two medieval roundtowers in Ireland that can be climbed - which we did not do. 128 stairs up...no thanks. Plus the tower was relatively narrow and I'm not a fan of confined places. I tried to talk Janet into it and she declined.
2. The Black Abbey - Founded in 1225 by the Earl of Pembroke for the Dominican Friars. The Abbey had some fantastic stained glass windows in it. The cool thing, or a bit creepy, depending on how you view it, is there was this row of monumental slabs and stone coffins dating back to the middle ages. It's called the Black Abbey because the Friars word black robes.
3. St. Mary's Cathedral - It's tower is HUGE...it's 186 feet tall and cut from limestone. It was built between 1843 and 1857.
4. Kilkenny Castle - The castle is from the 12th century and is extensive. This is where the Butler Family lived - they're one of Ireland's famous families who were ... they were Marquesses and Dukes of Ormonde.
5. Whiskey & Beer. I'm a big fan of tasting beer of the region you're visiting. Here is no different. Smithwick's (pronounced Smith-icks no W pronunciation) and Kilkenny are the two popular ones here and brewed here too. Go figure. We also partook in a new whisky today. Janet tried a peat whiskey and it was list tasting a camp fire. I tried Bushmill's 10 Yr and OH. My. God. was it good.
Tomorrow we leave Kilkenny behind and head to Cork. Stopping at Waterford and the Cahir Castle along the way.
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