2 days for 1 and borrowed pictures

IRELAND
October 18 – November 1, 2008


October 18 was not counted as this was a travel day. The flight left O’Hare at 7:15 PM and arrived at 8 AM local time on the 19th.

Day 1 (October 19th) We arrived! Unfortunately the charge in the batteries did not. Not a single battery had any power left in it when we arrived. To make matters worse the car we got from the rental place had a broken cigarette lighter so no car charging for us. We didn’t think to check the power in the car because there were already all sorts of delays getting into the rental car that we were anxious to get on the road. They warned us that there would be a toll on the way out of Dublin. The only good thing about that is that you can pay it ahead of time at the airport. You can also pay the tolls on the internet later!
Finally on our way, we headed to Enniskerry. We had lunch there at a place called Poppies. My first authentic Irish breakfast. Yum! We drove around the town a bit and then headed to Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains. Driving through the Wicklow mountains was an amazing experience. Truly beautiful scenery, if only we had the camera (of course that would have put us well over 700 pictures I’m sure.)
Glendalough is a 6th century settlement started by St. Kevin (no wonder Kevin wanted to stop here! :-) ) Very striking ruins including a large tower and many tombstones. We walked through the ruins of the church as well. There’s even a building known as St. Kevin’s kitchen – they say it’s because of a structure that looks like a chimney.
For two excellent pictures of the ruins follow this link http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/MonasticCity.html
We made it most of the way to Kilkenny before the GPS battery died. Fortunately we were close enough that we found our way. We stayed at a lovely little Bed and Breakfast called Knockavon (on Dublin Rd.) We settled in early since it had been a long day for us (close to two actually!)

Ireland preview

Cliffs of Moher video should have been first but it's a 10 minute video so it's WAY to big for posting right now. More Ireland stuff to come...