A ferry tiring day
We try to leave Ireland, but its charm is too much...
Tuesday 12 Jul 11 - Tuesday 12 Jul 11
17 °C
It was our last day in Ireland, and we were determined to make the most of it.
We had booked the spa in the B&B for the morning, and while it was a nice way to start the day, it clearly relaxed us a little too much, because we were out of kilter for the rest of the day. Us kids managed to lock our parents out of the room, and then said parents misplaced a wallet and we spent half an hour cleaning out the bags and the car in a (successful) attempt to find it.
The slightly-mad Dee at brekky
Eventually, after a huge breakfast, we left, and drove to Powerscourt Gardens, a brilliant country mansion with even better surrounding gardens, including a large lake, a number of statues, a rose garden and even a pet cemetery for the companions of the family who once owned the property.
Us being hilarious
Another drive and we were having a drink at Foxie’s Pub in Glencullen, a place worth a visit for the pictures and newspaper articles plastered all along the walls. By this time my health had deteriorated significantly, and I had to forfeit my navigational duties (which consisted of typing addresses into the GPS) due to an inability to concentrate on anything. That was where the problems started.
We drove to Powerscourt Waterfall, the twin property of Powerscourt Gardens, and marvelled at the water cascading over the mountainside. It’d be a great place to camp for a couple of days if one was allowed to.
And then we drove on to Wimlow on the east coast, a spot with some apparently wonderful scenery. However, we didn’t get to see any of it, because when I was finding out how long we had to stop, based on how long it would take us to get to the ferry, I found that we were already running late. As in, even if we left immediately, we wouldn’t make it to the ferry on time.
That didn’t stop us from trying, and we drove, probably over the speed limit, until we finally, wisely, gave up the chase – you can’t beat the GPS. We called and changed our booking to the late ferry instead, for a small fee, and went to explore Waterford instead.
It’s the oldest city in Ireland, and of course, two of our party equated that with clothes shopping. Thankfully, we did get to see a couple of churches and then climbed up Reginald’s Tower, which played a pivotal role in one of the local peoples’ many battles against Cromwellian forces, and still has an original cannon ball stuck in the outside wall.
In an old church, Waterford
Finally, about three hours late, we drove into Rosslare. We had a lovely dinner at the pub, a bit of a play on the beach, and then made sure we got to the ferry on time! The night’s entertainment was the comedy film ‘The Green Hornet’, which I thought was quite amusing but left Rosie and Dad rather unimpressed.
Mum volunteered to drive us back to Cardiff, and she did so expertly as the rest of us slept. We eventually got home around 3am, slipping into our beds so as not to disturb Tracey, Richard and Molly.
Posted by sammyhez Wednesday 21 Sep 11 21:44 Archived in Ireland Tagged irelanddublin
Keep 'em coming, I'm going to read all of them or die trying.
Wednesday 21 Sep 11 by Simon