Today we began to tour the southern part of Ireland. We enjoyed our breakfast at Jacob’s Well, the BnB in Rathdrum. Ben had homemade porridge, cooked overnight, that he thought was grand. John enjoyed an Irish breakfast of eggs, bacon, tomato and local sausage, more like a blood pudding. The place is very good and very comfy.
Our first stop was a statue of Charles Parnell, the uncrowned king of Ireland, they said, in the 19th century. Unfortunately he died before he could work out Irish independence, and the next few decades were rather nasty. He’s from Rathdrum. 
From there it was to the old monastic settlement at Glendalough, pronounced Glenda Loch, as if it were two words. This set of ruins dates from the days of St. Kevin, about 650-700 CE, when he was a bit mad and lived in a tree, as much as John can figure. Anyway, a number of other ascetics thought it would be fun, we guess, to live in trees and practice Christianity, so they joined him and the settlement grew to be quite large. Estimates are that there may have been 3000 people living the valley. The monastery continued for many hundreds of years but now is ruins.
The tall circular tower is supposed to have served as a watch tower, storage silo and place of refuge when invaders arrived. The monks climbed up the ladder to the high entrance, went inside and pulled up the ladder to save themselves and whoever joined them from rape, pillage and death. Of course what did they do for water and conveniences. We’ll never know.
The walk around the lakes is lovely, very reminiscent of the Lake District in England, though the countryside is softer, much more mossy and treed, and much less harsh.
Up above Glendalough the scenery changes quickly and the area becomes a district of bare stone, above the trees, and desolate. Quite a difference in a few hundred meters of height.
From there we moved onwards to Kilkenny where we have spent the afternoon, enjoying this small medieval town. We toured the castle that dates from the 10th century, though most of the remains you see are much younger. In the 19th century it was home to the Butler family, Royals were entertained and it was very posh. The Butlers gave it to Kilkenny for 50 pounds in 1967 and since then the town and Irish government have restored it to palace level. It’s very grand and the city if rightfully proud of it. A quick nip into the Irish Design Center across the street netted some goodies and tonight we dine at Zuni, a locavore kind of place and perhaps will do some Irish music at Matt the Millers pub afterwards. John has never been a fan of Irish music, but perhaps this will train him otherwise. Will Ben have a glass of ale?
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Dinner at Zuni was superb. The dining room was quiet, though we figured the assembled diners were from Ireland, of course, but also America (us and the guy at the adjacent table) and at least one Aussie. We had a gamay from Touraine, which we were told was a light wine--it wasn’t, but that was just fine, it had good essences of fruit, and a dash of chocolate. The starters were just grand. Ben had a beetroot and onion tart tatin, a layer of pastry surmounted by warm grated beets and then a fluff of goat cheese on the top. John began with a trout scotch egg--shredded trout, lightly molded with a binder, probably mayonnaise, around a quail egg, then breaded and quickly deep fried so the egg was just soft boiled inside. Small slivers of pickled cucumber and a dash of salmon caviar finished the dish off...as did John.
The mains were also complicated but not precious. Ben had sautéed scallops on a bed of breaded squid and below that a shredded greens and carrots. Very nicely done. John had a collection of pork pieces: a piece of beautifully done pork filet, a couple of slices of pancetta and a piece of melt-in-your-mouth pork belly basted with five spice powder. Broccolini, carrot purée and a roast potato made up this (sort of Irish) medley. We did not do dessert.
Then, as noted above, we went to one of the local pubs on the river, a huge building called Matt the Millers, where John enjoyed a Smithwicks, while Ben and he watched the Kilkenny Brothers, a very good Irish band, doing modern stuff, some old stuff, and a an Irish flute solo by the lead singer. Lots of fun too watching young Iberians from Spain and Portugal enjoy the Irish crowd dancing a bit to the music.
Today it is off to Killorglin.
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