Ireland: Day 3 (Sept. 13, 2011)

We got up around 8:00 a.m. Tracy slept 11 hours and said he could have slept even longer. We had a very nice breakfast in the hotel and got our first taste of a full Irish breakfast: eggs, bacon (like canadian), sausage, cooked tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, black and white pudding, toast and jam. Not real keen on some of that but mostly it was pretty good. After breakfast, we packed up, loaded up the car, and headed out of Dublin. We tried to find the Killruddery House but had no luck. So we went on to the Powerscourt Estate and Gardens near Enniskerry. It is from the middle 1700's. It was abandoned and gutted by a fire. It has taken them 30 years to restore it. The gardens are huge and we walked around for quite awhile dodging rain showers the entire time.

Then we drove to the Powerscourt waterfall - the highest waterfall in Ireland (397 ft).


Here is a sample of the roads in Ireland - this is a two way road!

Next, we went to the Wicklow Mountains National Park to see Glendalough. It is an abandoned 5th century monestary located near 2 lakes. We grabbed a quick lunch at a stand there (Tracy- burger, me- hot dog). We walked around the monestary and then to the 2 lakes. It was a 1.4 km walk to the lakes one way and 1.6 km walk back along a boardwalk. It was a great day for a walk. We also saw on the map that there was a waterfall here. We, of course, took the wrong path and it took us the long way to the waterfall! Near the farthest lake, there was a small store and we got chocolate/vanilla swirl ice cream cones for the walk back - they were so yummy!

Because it was almost 5 p.m. by the time we got done walking around Glendalough, we headed toward Kilkenney where we will spend the night. We got to drive a ways on a motorway - much nicer road to drive on. There was actually room between you and the other cars. It still seemed weird driving on the "wrong" side of the road...
We stopped in Carlow to see the Carlow Castle - it was right in the middle of town. It was built between 1207 and 1213! Not much left of it...
Our last stop before Kilkenney, was the Black Castle in Lehinbridge, which is one of Ireland's earliest Norman castles.
We stayed overnight in Kilkenney at the Pembrooke Hotel. Their car park was full so we had to park a block away and lug our suitcases all the way to the hotel. After checking in and putting our stuff in our room, we asked the front desk guy for a recommendation for dinner. He suggested Zuni which was across the street. We went there, sat down, looked at the menu, and walked out - it was just too "fancy" for us and pretty expensive. We tried to find someplace else to eat. We then discovered most places only serve food until 9 and it was 9:15. We actually had to settle on a Chinese restaurant - Swans. Hated to have traveled 4000 miles to Ireland and end up eating Chinese!! Tracy got BBQ ribs with chips (fries) and I got the Trio of Seafood Chow Mein. It was a good dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel to collapse for what little was left of the evening. Tracy promptly fell asleep! This is a picture of a street in Kilkenney.