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Kilkenny is an amazing city in the southern half of Ireland. It has been officially classified as a city for more than 400 years, a town since 1609, and the first known settlement there was as far back as the 500'sAD. With the Norman invasions around 1169, Kilkenny became a Norman town, with its centrepiece being Kilkenny Castle. This history, and the city's ancientness, is evident everywhere in awe-inspiring buildings and relics.
Kilkenny's religious history is manifestly obvious in magnificent cathedrals such as the Roman Catholic St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Canice's Cathedral (apparently, it's very rare to be a two cathedral town) and the Dominican Black Abbey. Other stunning buildings include the Town Hall, the Tourist Office (an old Almshouse), some very old taverns, but there are many more in the so-called Medieval Mile of downtown streets, lanes and tiny cut-throughs which pass up and down the city hill.
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Accordlingly, Kilkenny is a tourist hotspot, and simply walking around town (with a map in your hand) is so popular that the narrow footpaths are often clogged with pedestrians. The River Nore flows through Kilknenny - its waters are dark but it's twisty and the banks are quite scenic. The city's pedestrian inventory is enhanced by some really nice river walks.
That Ireland thrives on tourism has now been evident to us in Dublin and Kilkenny. We remain quite surprised at the sheer numbers of foreign visitors here. All European languages can be heard, and also American accents. We suppose that many Americans come to Ireland to retrace their ancestors, and the USA is pretty close!
It's been easy for us (so far) to get good coffee here. Pub food, touted as traditional Irish is nice but wears thin after a while, and we find ourselves looking for other dining opportunities. The pubs do their best to attract customers by putting on live entertainment - in one place, The Field, it starts as early as 3:30pm, but we found that it was very hard to get in. We always looked for live traditional music when looking for a venue for an afternoon or pre-dinner drink.
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Our base in Kilkenny was on the edge of the Medieval Mile. The Ormonde Hotel was a good choice, with a large and comfortable room, but we found it was missing amenities that we regard as important, such as an in-room safe and refrigerator. It's summer, and we noted the lack of an air conditioner too - worse, we had to keep the excellent windows shut to try to exclude the noise from a wedding in the hotel one night which was still going when the sun came up at 5am.
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