Dublin and Kilkenny!

We made it safely to Dublin with only a few minor glitches.  Our flight out of Denver was an hour late departing.  We landed, got our Aer Lingus boarding passes, cleared TSA and immediately boarded our flight to Dublin.  Our seat mates were a couple of young Irish guys returning from a business trip in Boston.  They gave us lots of good tips about places to visit and things to do during our visit.  We also learned two new terms.  To replace "cool" use "brilliant" and in the place of "nice" try "class" and you'll be speaking like a native!

We took a taxi to the hotel and they had a room for us so we dumped our bags, freshened up and grabbed another taxi to the train station for our 7:25 train to Kilkenny to watch the CSU band.  The taxi dropped us off just in time to watch our train leave the station.  The next one was not until 10:15, scheduled to arrive in Kilkenny after the band was done performing.  We hiked around Dublin for a couple of hours, boarded the train and sleepily rode to Kilkenny.  To our surprise and delight we arrived at 11:30 and made a beeline for Kilkenny Castle, just in time to see Aaron before they lined up to perform.  The timing was perfect!  We got a chance to see Aaron and chat with him for a bit before he got changed into street clothes to wander about Kilkenny.

After that we listened for a bit to some live Irish folk music and then toured Kilkenny Castle which was open to the public at no charge in celebration of St. Patricks day.  Another sleepy train ride, back to Dublin,  was followed by a city bus ride to the neighborhood of our hotel.  We ate at a place called "Blarneys" - great food and Guinness, there was no way we could go wrong.  One more new word, we are both knackered, which means what it sounds like.  After posting a few pictures here we'll be hitting the hay to rest up for our big day tomorrow.

The airport in Dublin all decked out for St. Patrick's Day.

No explanation needed ;-)  Nope, we didn't get to take the tour.  Next time!

Early morning in Dublin.  This was taken on our walkabout after we missed our train to Kilkenny.  I believe that is St. Patrick's cathedral in the distance.

Part of the Guinness plant.

Christchurch Cathedral.

St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Interesting architecture.

This pigeon came right into one of the train station restaurants (all the GB train stations were open air) to look for food.

The Irish countryside from the train window on our way to Kilkenny.

The CSU marching band performing in Kilkenny.

Kilkenny Castle.

The name of this pizza place cracked me up.

Kilkenny was a lovely little town and I wish we could have spent more time there.