First impressions of Ireland, outside of the airport. Narrow roads. Pretty scenery. Substantial amounts of Guinness.
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| Powerscourt Gardens |
- Hotel was pretty nice. Touchpad controls for the lights and curtains. Spacious rooms. Shower that made you feel like you were standing in the rain. Expensive restaurants that we didn’t go near. Helipad. All the necessities…
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| Hotel (rear view) |
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| Hotel Helipad (we don't stay anywhere that doesn't have one) |
- Hit up Nancy Murphy’s pub for dinner on day 1. Pretty solid joint. The food was edible and the cider was cold and plentiful. Some of the locals were sitting in the front section playing cards and probably saying stuff like, “Blarney!” and “Ack.” Very authentic…except the waitress was from Toronto…so minus 2 points.
- Enniskerry is a lovely little town. I could live there, I think. In fact, I considered asking if the pub was hiring...seriously.
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| This and the next two are Enniskerry...pretty much all of it. |
- Had a late morning muffin (No…I’m not bluffin’) and coffee at a little bakery/coffee shop in Enniskerry. The lady running the store was very nice. Seemed sufficiently Irish. U2 came on the radio while we were there (appropriate)…she knew all the words (obviously).
- Visited the Powerscourt House and Gardens in the afternoon. The Script were playing on the radio while we were there (obviously). The gardens, house and grounds are beautiful. Probably would have been even more spectacular if all the plants weren’t dead (it being January and all…and this December being the coldest month in Ireland in recorded history, according to our bell hop Alex at least), but what can you do?
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| Me in front of the house. |
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| Me in the garden (note that I maintain my street cred...with my thug hat...even while on vacation). |
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| Michelle in front of the pond and house. |
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| Shout out to my Japanese followers. |
- One highlight from Powerscourt…according to the brochure, the Walled Garden had the “longest continuous herbaceous border in Ireland.” In your face all other Irish herbaceous borders!!
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| Walled Garden in full bloom...perhaps a glimpse of the famous herbaceous border as well. |
- When leaving Powerscourt, I spotted this guy outside...
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| Authentic Irish old person. |
- Not sure if this was officially part of Powerscourt or not (close by at least), but we stuck in TLC’s face by blatantly ignoring their admonishment and having a look at this place. Allegedly the highest in Ireland. Take that other Irish waterfalls!! The river beneath the waterfall also had a perfect bridge for a game of Poohsticks. My stick dominated Michelle’s!
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| Michelle in front of the waterfall. |
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| The losing stick...mine was too fast to photograph. |
- The waterfall park also had a climbing apparatus for climbing experts...I dominated it (obviously).
- Driving. On the left…awesome. Ridiculously narrow roads with ambiguous margins make it even better.
- Haven’t seen Colin Farrell or Bono yet…which is a bit disappointing. However, I don’t think I mentioned that we did spot Darren Clarke, Irish PGA golfer, in the Orlando airport when we were coming back in December. He was on our flight. Which leads me to another of my unique talents, spotting marginal celebrities in public places. Among those I’ve successfully identified are Clarke, Vince Cellini (national sportscaster of Golf Channel fame), and Marquis Daniels (Boston Celtics – spotted over the phone no less…he was on Michelle’s flight coming out of Atlanta and I heard his name called over the P.A.).
- Anyway, back on topic. You can find the complete picture album in the usual location. Tomorrow we head to the west coast of the island to stay at Ashford Castle. Will try to stop by the Cliffs at Moher on the way.
- P.S. While I was writing this...we were watching bowls (or lawn bowling) on TV. Even more exciting than it sounds.
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