Today was one of the first days that actually felt a bit rushed. All of the other days we had decent schedules, but I think the pressure of having to get the car back by 4pm made things a little tight. But everything was pretty much enroute, so we headed out after breakfast!
Just a quick note on our B&B, the Tynte House, they have received several recommendations & awards like Landlady of the Year. We only got to really meet the Husband (John) and two older children, but it was definitely the most home-like of all the places. John was always making sure we had everything we wanted, and sharing plenty of stories or things he just heard on the news. The furnishings were a bit older than most places, but stuck with the rustic feel of the place. Overall we enjoyed the stay there.
So we were off to Glendalough. We tried as hard as we could to find an ATM along the way, but there were none that worked, so we continued on. It turned out the grounds were free, it was only the guided tour that costed $$ so we were fine. We first wondered through the monastatic ruins that were close to the visitor center.
We then headed to the lower lake, where we found a posing duck...
And a noted 1.4km later we found the Upper Lake, a breath-taking scene..
And some scenery on our walk back...
After we finished with Glendalough, we drove up to Bray where the amazing Powerscourt Estate sat on a huge amount of acreage. They had a waterfall and golf course on the property!!
They had many many beautiful fountains...
And we checked out the walled and Japanese Gardens
And we also found that they had a pet cemetary for all of their pets! Cows, Horses, Dogs, etc!!
And there was a little tower on the edge of the property with a great view!
We wrapped up our visit with some ice cream. Here they asked if we wanted regular or plain, regular comes with a chocolate stick!
We then began our adventure back to Dublin. As the car didnt have to be back until 4pm, and we left Powerscourt at 2pm (30 minute drive) we figured we had plenty of time to drop off the luggage and get the car returned. As we got into the center of Dublin, all of a sudden, traffic became a mess. We moved inches at a time!! Come to find out, we had caught the end of the gay pride parade/rally unknowingly, and moving through the city had slowed to a crawl. We made it to the Ashling hotel at 3:30pm, and when I ran in to check our reservations, they did not have us... but time was short, so Eric & Dennis took off to return the car. We called the other hotel I had remembered (Trinity Capital Hotel), and found out our reservations were there. I had gotten mixed up, as the reservation papers I had from AAA said Ashling, but they had filled up and had to move us to Trinity, but for some reason, I had thought it was the other way around and should have called to check that morning! Ugh... the first mixup of the trip! So my dad and I decided to catch a cab, but we called Hertz to hopefully leave a message for Eric & Dennis. We found a cab and packed in with all of our luggage and finally made it to Trinity with all of our stuff. They checked us in, and my dad and I used the wobbly luggage cart to get our stuff upstairs. When we finally finished all that, we came downstairs to wait for Eric & Dennis, and within 10 minutes they walked in the Door, having walked from the Rental Car place!
Relieved and exhausted, Dennis found a local place for us to go grab some food & drinks, and it turned out absolutely perfect!! The food was decent, but more importantly, they had microbrews AND a rather large cocktails menu!! Woohoo!!
Eric ordered the crazy huge burger, I got goat cheese wrapped in pizza dough on a salad, and my dad got bbq peperoni pizza!! The Porterhouse was definitely a great find (and later turned out to be in a lot of the guidebooks!). What a relief to end a crazy day with a great place :)
