Day One - Powerscourt and Glendalough

All our flights were uneventful which means good. In fact we got into Dublin at 4:45 am almost an hour early. Isn't that the way? When late would be good, you get in early. We managed to kill the time until things opened by having a "wake up breakfast", picking up our rental car, buying a pay-go cell phone, and getting supremely lost on the way to our first site.

Hours after we landed but still only 10:30 in the morning, we finally made it to Powerscourt Estate and Gardens which are some twenty odd miles south of the airport. The estate dates back to the 1300s but was added to and renovated over the years with much of the work done in the 17th century. But the real beauty is the gardens. These date from the 1700s with the major work being done in the 19th century.

There are formal gardens, Japanese gardens, walled gardens, and rhodadendron gardens - all with the backdrop of the Sugarloaf Mountains to the south east. To say the gardens are breathtaking is to do them an injustice.

From there we drove twelve miles to the town of Laragh where we enjoyed our first pub meal at Lynham's Hotel: a huge portion of beef and Guinness stew. I can see already that we will need to do copious amounts of walking to keep from blimping up.

We made a short stop before lunch to visit Saint Stephen's Church where we scored our first geocache in Ireland. (I can feel my kids judging us.)

After lunch we drove a short distance to Glendalough, a site of monastic ruins nestled amid mountains and lakes. In 498 AD a monk and hermit named Stephen came here to meditate and commune with God and nature. The hermit part didn't last too long as word got out. After a time it became one of the biggest monastic sites in Ireland finally dying out in the 17th century after enduring sacks by the Normans and English.

Even today you can understand why someone would come here to become one with nature. Despite the crowds, the area is still able to maintain its aura of peace and tranquility.

From there we drove a very short distance to our B&B, Riversdale House, for the evening.

A few final observations and comments.

• Neil did a fabulous job driving on the crazy, narrow Irish roads. 
• I'm amazed that there can be an entire country which a plane can cross in a half hour. 
• I can't believe I've been up for 33 hours straight (and toss in the nine miles we walked today.)

Riversdale House

It's almost 10 pm here. Wish me luck on getting a great night's sleep.