The Last Day

On the last day of our trip, we visited Kilkenny, which Rick Steves says is "often called Ireland's finest medieval town."  While wandering into town we noticed this little eatery with a great name:

Crazy though it may seem, we did not avail ourselves of the sandwiches.

Kilkenny has a picturesque castle:

Front View

Back  View

Paul made friends with Indiana Jones:

We also saw quite a few bookmakers in Ireland.  At first I was all "that's so awesome, look at all these small independent book making shops!"  But then I realized I didn't quite understand the meaning of the term 'bookmaker':

We decided to enjoy one last kebab as dinner for the train ride back to Dublin:

where we were greeted by the friendly cat residing in the Airbnb place in which we were staying.  He made himself right at home in our room:

And the Floor Was Paved with Gravestones

We stayed in Haarlem for three nights, taking two day trips into Amsterdam (stay tuned for a future Amsterdam post!).

In Haarlem, we checked out a very interesting church, the Church of St. Bavo, which had an enormous organ that inspired both Handel and Mozart.  It has over 5,000 pipes.  I would have loved to hear it played, but sadly, the regular concerts were not on days we were in Haarlem:

The ceiling of the church is made of neat wooden arches:

And the floor is composed entirely of gravestones:

We stayed in a lovely little Airbnb apartment in Haarlem, located down this street:

It had a crazy lamp.  Yes, all those light bulbs work - on a dimmer switch, thankfully.  We never turned it up all the way:

Paul was amused and mildly surprised that this Haarlem store accepted bitcoins!

And finally, random legs: