Skip to main content

Dublin and Glendalough

We started our day with a driving tour of Dublin with a hilarious local guide, Kay.  Dublin is a beautiful city.  They pride themselves by decorating their front doors in the gorgeous Georgian neighbourhoods.  As we drove through the old center we saw so many unique and interesting pubs, we wanted to stop at all of them! Our first stop was the amazing St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ireland’s largest Church.  The architecture and amazing stained windows are mind boggling. What was just as amazing was that we were the first bus to arrive so we got ahead of the crowds that were squeezing in as we left. We also drove through Phoenix Park, site of the Presidential residence and we made a stop at the large cross that was erected in honour of the Pope’s visit.  We drove past the Guinness Storehouse but we didn’t get to stop in.
At noon we stopped for lunch.  We were on our own so we split up into smaller groups to search out a pub or cafe to have our lunch.  Ten people from the group weren’t going on the afternoon excursion so they got dropped off at the Guinness Storehouse and went for a tour.  I am waiting to hear more about it.

After lunch, the rest of us rode off into the countryside on the coach.  It was lovely to get out of the city to see the lush green hills thatbwe have all seen in the pictures.  To this point, the weather had behaved, it was cloudy but not raining!  It took us about 1.5 hours to get to Glendalough, which translates to “the valley between two lakes”.  This is the site of an old monasterial village dating back to about 1000 A.D.  We started by watching a film that described life in the village in the early days and then we were guided through the site.  It was really fascinating.  After the guided tour we had an hour of free time so many of us went on a hike to see one of the lakes.  The hike was so beautiful a s we walked through the gorgeous lush forests.  One could almost imagine seeing leprechauns dancing through the trees!  We did get about 10 minutes of light rain on our walk, not even enough to get 









wet!!
The walk left us feeling really thirsty.  Upon our return to the bus, Michelle used her persuasive powers (both of them) to convince the bus driver to stop at a pub on the way home.  Our driver, John, is fantastic and he didn’t hesitate to agree.  We stopped in a lovely small town pub along the way to quench our thirst!!
It’s a good thing that we got to stop (or maybe bad that we stopped) because we ran into a traffic snag coming back into Dublin, so it took us longer than it should have to get back to the hotel.
That didn’t dampen our spirit.  We went up to our rooms to freshen up and then 14 of us walked to the Temple Bar area (THE party spot in Dublin).  Our guide, Kay, described it as the place for teenagers and recycled teenagers!!  It was definitely a happening place, loaded with pubs, all advertising live music.  It took us awhile to find a pub to accommodate all of us but we settled on “The Storehouse”.  We got a room to ourselves upstairs, where we could hear the music but also stil” hear each other talk.  The food, the beer and the service were all superb!!  Gunner danced his little Icelandic feet off!!!  The performer even sang “Country Roads”without my request!!!  Amazing!!  We enjoyed the walk back to the hotel, giving us a chance to settle our supper!!  
I hope to get a full report tomorrow from the group that has the afternoon free!!!  Time for bed!!!

So, now I am adding to this day as I found out what the “other 10” did while we went to Glendalough.  They went for a tour of the Guinness factory, went for a drink at the Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin and later went for supper at O’Neills.  I have added a few pictures of their adventures.  Sylvia claims that she DID NOT eat all of that food herself, but I haven’t found anyone to back her story! 😉






















































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

Monday  We were treated on our final day to a later departure.  We left the hotel at 10:00, which gave us a chance to go for one last walk in the area.  Fort Augustus is a beautiful little village at the south end of Lock Ness.  Our hotel was a unique and quaint place, my favourite of the whole tour. There is a series of locks in Fort Augustus joining the lakes.  We watched as they lowered a group of boats through the locks. When we left the hotel we drove north along the shore of Loch Ness.  The lake is 23 miles long and 745 feet deep. We watched for the Loch Ness monster but “apparently” she never surfaces on Mondays!! 😉 . Our first stop was at Urquhart Castle. We watched a movie that summarized the history of the castle.  It was built up and destroyed several times before it was finally blown up and left in ruins.  It sits in a lovely spot overlooking Loch Ness.  We had time to explore the ruins of the castle and then we all went...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Isle of Skye

If I had to describe today in one word, it would be “breathtaking “!   We left from our hotel in Fort Augustus, which is situated at the south end of Loch Ness.   We headed Northwest, towards the coast and crossed over to the Isle of Skye.   The sky was a mix of sun and clouds but, somehow, we managed to keep the sun over top of us almost all the way.  The scenery was amazing, I wish I could find an adequate way to describe it.  The mountains are covered with ferns and heather that have turned to a copper brown.  The trees are a mixture of green, orange and red and we often were driving beside one of the lochs (lakes).  I did my best to capture pictures of the scenery. The Isle of Skye is so amazing!!  We picked up a guide that lives on the island and she told us all about life on the island as we travelled along.  It is remote and sparsely populated. We were driving up the east coast of the peninsula, heading for the Kilt Rock and Mealt...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blarney

The wind was really howling this morning as a big storm was moving across Ireland.  The good news is that it blew the clouds away and we got to drive in sunshine.  It took us a little over two hours to reach Blarney Castle, just a short distance out of Cork.   As I am sure you all know, Blarney Castle is famous for the Blarney Stone.  The stone is located the top of the castle, which is 83’ off the ground.  It involves getting into a line-up (about 45 minutes at this time of the year)  and walking up the stairs to the top of the castle (open to the outside).  When it is your turn to kiss the stone you need to lay down, on your back and then reach up with your head to actually kiss the stone.  Just to make it a bit scarier, there is an opening that you can see all the way down to the ground.   Legend says that kissing the Blarney Stone gives one eloquence and/ or the gift of the gab!  Since I have already kissed the Blarney Stone t...
Post a Comment
Read more