Ireland Day 4- Kilkenny

Today was such a wonderful, wonderful day!  We decided to take a scenic drive out to Kilkenny- a precious town about an hour and a half away that has many amazing medieval things to see as well as tons of awesome shopping and restaurants.  I highly, highly recommend visiting there if you ever find yourself in Ireland.  Just driving out there was such a feast for the eyes- the Irish countryside is gorgeous!

 

 Everytime I saw these yellow fields I heard that Sting song "Walked in Fields of Gold" in my head.  :)

 

Our first stop in Kilkenny was Kilkenny Castle- can I just say wow, wow, wow!  It was amazing.  I almost thought it was a Disney fake because it was just so perfectly castle-like.  But in truth it was built in 1195!!

 By the way, this is our car-

 

Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures inside (although I did one or two before I knew that).  It is amazing and the quintessential castle-

 The back lawn is a park-

Archer's windows-

 The front lawn-

 We ate at a cute Irish sports pub called "The Field'-

There is a man called St. Canice that has two cathedrals named after him in this town.  

 

I love seeing lovely flowers growing out of stone walls.  It has so much spiritual symoblism- nothing is impossible with God.  He can make beauty from ashes, flowers from stone.  

And here we come to one of my favorite things I've ever seen in my life- the gorgeous ancient, gothic St. Canice's Cathedral.  Oh my- I could have stayed here for days.  It was built in the 1200s!  You never see a church this old- and gothic!  I was beside myself!

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of ancient graves from as far back as the 1200s!

 

These ancient graves lined the floors-

Amazingly- there is a 9th century 100 foot tall tower still standing.  Marc, Amber, Marky, Landin and Tucker climbed to the top.  I was climbing with Julia when she had a quick change of heart and we had to go back down.  :)

 

 

After St. Canice's we went to visit St. Mary's Cathedral- another very gorgeous, but much younger, cathedral-

 

 

Lastly we went to the Black Abbey.  It's a Dominican Abbey founded in the 1200s.  I said to Marky "These Dominican monks were in THIS building praying and serving God for 270 years before Columbus sailed to the Americas."  This is just amazing to see such history!

A gorgeous window depicting the mysteries of the rosary-

 

 
When we got back we saw the live bunnies and guinea pigs that the hotel had set up for Easter!