Going With the Flow

Kilkenny: 2
Newbridge: 1
Me and Mom: 0

   Mom and I are spending some quality time together in Ireland this week!
Tuesday morning we made our way to Kilkenny, a cute little town close to Waterford with a local Irish feel.We had high hopes of seeing the Smithwicks Brewery and the Kilkenny Castle unfortunately the Winter Season tourism has kicked in. The brewery has changed their tours to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday only, which meant our visit on Tuesday and Wednesday were non-tour days. It would have been helpful for the website to provide this information. Even the concierge at our hotel was unaware of this change.

So close, but so far away.

   So with a few extra hours to spare before our train we made our way to the Kilkenny Castle thinking we can take our time checking it out. As we arrive to reception we hear the man informing the couple before us that due to the Winter season only guided tours were available and the next one wasn't until 2:15pm. We had to get back to the hotel and leave for the train by 3pm so an hour long tour wasn't going to fit into our schedule. Instead we spent some time roaming the outside of the castle, taking photos, and enjoying the beautiful weather, but even this didn't take up enough time.

Kilkenny Castle

At least it was a beautiful day.

   Now that we had even more spare time we decided to head to the train station early to catch an earlier train to have lunch in Newbridge (Our connecting stop to Galway). Sadly, Newbridge had nothing to offer. We walked out to the main street and there was no sign of food forcing us to hang out at the itty bitty super cold and lonely train station. We sure do know how to include some exciting mother daughter bonding time into our vacation.

   An hour or so later our train arrived! Lucky for us, the train has wifi which means I'm able to finish an assignment, update you all on our adventures, and Mom is able to send a few work emails.

   We will be spending the next few days in Galway which is a great city. Can't wait to explore and see all that it has to offer, especially the Christmas Market opening on Friday!