Kells and Bailieborough

Yesterday we drove from Kilkenny to Kells, where Dave and Myron had a game of golf (again) while Wendy and I looked at the sights and shopped. The sights at Kells include St Colomba's monastery, an old bell tower, an older round tower, and ancient Celtic crosses (one in photo). We also looked around at shops, took in the heritage center, and spent a couple of hours in a pub doing a celtic crossword puzzle and drinking Guiness. After the guys picked us up we carried on to Bailieborough, and spent the night at the Bailie Hotel.

Leslie and Olive McKeague came and spent an hour or so in the pub with us last night. This morning we went over to their place, checked out Leslie's cars (he's getting quite a collection of bubble cars) and then Leslie drove us around the countryside. We saw the old church, went by the old farm (a photo of it taken from across the valley - the house is the building on the left), and saw how the recession has hit Ireland. There are a lot of new housing developments around Bailieborough that are completely built, but only one or two houses occupied. Other developments have just stopped mid-stream. Then we took Leslie and Olive and their boys, as well as Tom and Lila and Florence all out for lunch in Cavan. Was nice to see the relatives.

We are now in the airport hotel in Dublin, have turned in the rental vehicle, and are set to fly out tomorrow morning.

It's been a great trip!