Today, after umpteen billion years blogging, I have discovered the way to enlarge my photos.  Yippee!  If anyone has trouble loading the pages, I would like to hear about that--thanks!  The above (and below) photo(s) are of Dublin Castle.  It is now used for government offices and is open to the public, provided it isn't a Sunday (as it was when we were there).  As such, I only have photos of the outside.  It is an incredible building and it was an incredible, blue-sky day.













I would love to hear the conversation these two are having.





What it must be like to be inside this building when the sun is shining through these windows!





Mary found her Knight in Shining Armor.  He's a bit short but she adjusted.



Very cool store front window.




The detail on these buildings are amazing.


I am enamored of windows.  Clearly.




After an hour and a half to grab lunch in Dublin (we grabbed photos, instead--we ate a lot of chocolate bars for lunch whilst on this tour) we drove to Kilkenny.  It is a darling town with lots of shops that were closed (because it was Sunday) and which did not open before we left the next morning.  We were very sad about that.  We were also sad that we were not allowed to take photos of the interior of Kilkenny Castle--another marvelous building with unbelievable treasures.




Taken from the gardens behind the castle.









Note the lord and his lady carved in stone on the ground.




These stone walls were everywhere and often denoted the border of the original town.  In this case, the wall has been there since about 1300.











The walls of every building in town were thick like this one.  They look lovely with geraniums on the ledge but it looks good with marys on it, too.



Tomorrow, our trip to Waterford Crystal and the charming towns of Youghal and Middleton.