Dublin & Powerscourt - May 21st, 2012

We woke up to a glorious day. Beautiful sunshine and warm weather. We enjoyed our first breakfast at B&B - I had a "traditional" Irish breakfast - sausage, eggs, ham, baked beans, sliced tomato. Plus cereal and yogurt and toast. A big huge breakfast meant there was no need to stop for lunch.

We walked up to the Garden of Remembrance on O'Connell Street. This memorial honors all the Irish patriots who fought to free Ireland from British rule over the centuries. In May of 2011, Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath there as a sign of peace between the two nations, a gesture that was well received by the Irish.

We walked down O'Connell street, looking at statues honoring heroes of Irish history. We saw the Spire closeup. The Spire stands on the site where previously there stood a Monument to Horatio Nelson, a British Hero. The IRA destroyed the Nelson monument in 1966.

We crossed the River Liffey and walked over to Christchurch and Saint Patrick's Cathedrals. We didn't have time to go inside. When the Dublin Castle opened, we one of the first visitors. Not much of the original castle is still standing - most of the walls and towers have crumbled away and have been replaced by more recent buildings. I liked the Chapel Royal with its Gothic architecture. The carved ceiling reminded me a lot of the chapel we saw at Windsor Castle a couple of years previously.

After Dublin Castle we returned to the Anchor House B&B and retrieved our car. This was our first real driving test on Irish roads - we navigated through the streets of Dublin then out onto a major motorway down to Enniskerry. Overall, the distance travelled was short, but it was interesting getting used to the roundabouts, driving on the left side of the road, and shifting the gears with my left hand. Fortunately we had good maps and Melanie is proficient at using them.

We found the Ferndale B&B in the tiny town of Enniskerry, and then visited the gardens at the Powerscourt Estate. We followed the suggested walking route through the gardens and spent the entire afternoon there. It was a wonderful day to be outside.

After dinner it was still light out, so we did more walking around Enniskerry and found the Knockskip Woods. We did a short hike through their forest and then returned to Ferndale B&B for sleep. Another great day completed.

Here is a map of the Powerscourt gardens. Although they say it takes only an hour to walk around it, we spent most of our afternoon there, taking pictures and leisurely seeing everything there.

All the graphic images are my own design, but the textured background is taken from a site, EOS development, that offers non-profit users free use of their graphics. Click below to visit their site.

Single click on any thumbnail to begin slideshow.

Morning Dublin Walk

Dublin Castle

Powerscourt Gardens