First an update on the last couple of days with my parents, in Nebian. Dad was keen to see the Pont du Gard – the great aquaduct. I had no idea what it was but it sounded interesting. So all five of us squeezed into the Peugeot (pronounced ‘peu-jet’ if you’re Hyrum) and made our way there. Grabbed some great quiches from a local shop – the lady was so lovely; very tolerant of Juliette trying her French (actually she’s quite good & is understood) and she gave us some bonus cakes – and ate with a view of the Pont du Gard. 2000 years ago over 1000 people worked for 5 years on the construction of the Pont du Gard. The objective was to bring water to the city of Nîmes via a 50km long aqueduct. It stands almost 50 m high and is on three levels – the longest measuring 275 m – a technical as well as an artistic masterpiece.
The Pont (from: http://www.livius.org/a/france/pontdugard/pont_du_gard.jpg don't have my pics on me)
After the Pont we went past lots of other ponts (ie. Bridges) before going out to Port Camargue – apparently the biggest marina in the world. I didn't like the place much. Then went to this funny town built in the 1960s where the hotels have cutouts… anyway, it didn't inspire me much either but Anthony liked it (he’s an architect). THEN – we went to this little town and saw all these signs warning about bulls. We spotted a busy stadium, pulled over and discovered a bull-fighter type event going on. But there are about 20 blokes running in the ring with one angry bull and the aim is for them to make the bull chase them while they get ribbons off its horns. It was great to watch and they were really athletic, jumping over railings to get away.
I will upload pics for this at a later time…
So after that adventurous day, we decided to go to dinner in Clermont. That was a bit of a challenge as it was all quite expensive and the service was a bit lacking. But my pork chop and chips was quite good (even if it did cost my parents around 12€). So that was my last night with my parents, staying in their cute little 3-storey villa. To the airport the next day to fly back to London. Caught up with Kim and Amy who were staying with Tenille and Pete. Was great to see everyone. Got Chinese takeaway and a bottle of €2 red for dinner and we ate at Tenille’s.
Flew in yesterday morning after an 8am flight (and a sympathy airport-run at 5:30am from Tenille – thanks darling!!) and decided to go straight to somewhere other than Dublin. The somewhere was unable to be decided upon for a few decent minutes. We eventually found a GUINNESS glass and spun it a few times, kissed each other on the cheek 8 times (which apparently is the recorded maximum for French kisses) then chose to go to Kilkenny. All that is complete leprauchan talk – except for the going to Kilkenny bit. We caught a bus (€10.50 ret, student) from the Dublin bus station after a quick bite to eat and Amy’s realisation that her backpack is really uncomfortable.
Kilkenny is a lovely little town. The Kil bit of the name means church and the Kenny bit is after a guy called Cannes – the guy who built the cathedral in the town – so they gave him a Guernsey for the name. Most buildings are made of black marble (but don’t look it) so therefore are in really good condition and hardly changed. (Note to self when building town, use something really hard like marble.)
Main street of Kilkenny [left]
[below] The historical walking tour - out the front of an inn & that's marble!
We did a historical walking tour which was great fun. Found a great pub for dinner, called the Carpe Diem, so we seized the day and ordered a local brew – Smithwicks (pronounced without the ‘w’ Kim!) – along with some beef and stout pie. Fantastic tasting and only €11-ish.
The old courthouse and jail below and me behind the old jail door
[left] The lucky head of Cannes, apparently you rub it and you won't go bald (Kim left, Amy right).
[Right] Dinner in Kilkenny
Had a quick walk around the streets of Kilkenny this morning before making the bus ride back to Dublin. Dublin is a big city! According to the hop-on-hop-off bus driver, it was built by the Vikings… The hop-on-hop-off bus was great fun and provided a great view and some good intro info about the city of Dublin. Most importantly it delivered us to the Guinness brewery. Now I’ve never been a fan of Guinness, but the old storehouse is a great tourist attraction. And it was entertaining exploring the beer-making process, seeing the cask-making process, realising that the Guinness bloke was obviously making an obscene amount of money because he was buying/building Guinness ships to move his stock around the world. And we finished off with a Guinness, although Amy has to force it down, along with funny faces!
[left] out the fround of the Guinness Brewery. [bottom] View from the top of the tourist bus in Dublin city.
So we’re going out for dinner after this and we’ll prob check out the Temple Bar area which has quite a reputation as a party spot.
[left] Naughty crows!! (Grass of Kilkenny Castle). [right] People could put a message on the board in the Guinness brewery. I'm pointing to mine. Saying I'll have my Guinness in honour of Steve Irwin :)
No comments:
Post a Comment