Glendalough Hotel

... audio visual presentation on the history of the site and had a tour of some of the old buildings/ruins amongst all the graves. did a spot of shopping at the craft store then went and had a big irish lunch at the pub. got back to uni slightly more frozen and waterloged than when we left but it was really pretty and i think it was worth the wind burn!

... for Irish histoyry quenched, I signed up for another walking tour the following day, this time focussed on the famous, fateful Easter Rising of 1916. Well, if I thought Lisa had the gift of the gab, Lorcan was an absolute genius. He runs the tour and has written a book on the Rising, so he knows every character and every angle. He's staunchly and proudly Irish, and this also plays a big part in his "story." It was a great tour as well, andI highly recommend both ...

... didnt help. on the bus ride back, i stretched across three seats and the aisle and went sound to sleep lol. we are sharing a hostel room with an australian couple, so we went back to the room and talked with them for a while. they had never heard of gumbo, okra, or even red beans! they eat this nasty nasty stuff called veggie mite. i couldnt even take the smell of it! its soo cool because we are all fascinated by each others cultures. i love talking to people about america. they ...

... infamous Temple Bar area which is the main tourist/party area. We walked into a Pub that was playing traditional Irish music and didn't leave for the rest of the night! We tried our first irish guiness and it was delicious! (Ok, I'm Dr. Suess). We met some locals who recommended many places to visit and we all had a great time. Then... after several Guiness and a shot of tequila, we missed the last bus going back to Shankill. Oops. First lesson ...

... not Mexico or Canada. I was gonna bus it out but this didnīt meet their requirements. They ended up accepting my story and sayinng that I wasnīt being refused entry they were just walking me away and if I didnīt like that they would refuse me which means iīd need a visa any time I intended to visit in the future. I had no choice but to accept this. I then asked if I coud get my photo taken with them because it was the ...

... St. Audeon`s Church (mass card submitted for Bob Sr), (ride from hail) Powerscourt Waterfall - highest in Ireland. Ate at Glenalough Tavern and slept at Bracken B&B. Bob discovers cold radiator and thick blankets.

... my way through the featherweight golden batter and flaky white cod somehow! Four full days in Dublin and we hadn't been inside a pub yet! We made up for it that night by heading to An Seuol (Irish for "Here") on Camden street to hear a country set accompanied on bass by Podge, the youngest of the Marcus brothers with whom Tim has been friends for years. It was our reunion with eldest brother Shimmy who'd just left our place a week earlier after a three-month visit. After the set ...

... fish n'chips for Gail. By the time we finish it is almost dark, so we find the car and travel the almost two hours back to Salthill to enjoy our last night there. Monday 13th November After having an early night, I am up and about at the crack of dawn, and rather than disturb Gail, I head out for a brisk walk along the seawall that runs across the road from our B&B. It is a wonderfully sharp morning, and the crisp wind bites into me as I stroll past many other early morning walkers ...

... NOT keep you dry...at all. So I'm pedaling very slowly up the first big hill. Okay, I pushed my bike up a little here and there. I get to the top of that one and see a nice little rest area. So I pull over and a tour van pulls in, and there's a group of guys from Germany who were supposed to be doing the same thing, but there bikes took a bruising on their flight. But they pumped me up just talking to them, so off I went to tackle the next ...

... the hike. I cycled up the Military Road, enjoying the solitary peace, past the village of Manor Kilbride and a truly magnificent waterfall and towards Hollywood. Rebels held out around here in the 1798 rebellion and as the rain set in I couldn't think of anywhere so miserable to engage a rebellion in. It was a very lonely ride to the Sally Gap, and I wasn't quite sure which way to turn at the crossroads there. I went the wrong way and ended up at a German War Cemetery in ...