9th June - Rosslare – Dublin
It rained all night, which meant I slept intermittently – yay.
Up early – alarm at 07:00 to make the most of the day as we have about 2 hours driving to Powerscourt House.
Reasonable drive to Powerscourt though the roads are atrocious. Wicklow Mountains are picturesque.
Slight confusion with the road signs leading to Powerscourt but we arrive mid morning and go for a coffee and a cake – wow what a feast of cakes they had: baked cheesecake, banoffee pie, passion fruit tart, chocolate brownie and pecan pie – but they weren’t cheap - €15 for a tea, a coffee and two cakes. Anyway we sit outside and eat them overlooking the Italian gardens.
We then walked round the gardens, through the woodland walk, down to the Japanese Garden, then up through the walled garden but we decline the walk up to the waterfall as it is something like 6 or 9 kilometres.
The house has very little to see so we don’t actually spend too long here and head off to Dublin. Finding Camac is not particularly easy as it is on several different roads and we don’t know exactly where. In the end we use the GPS co-ordinates and hey presto they lead us directly to it.
Find a pitch – plenty to choose from and then catch the bus into Dublin – an hour! It supposedly takes an hour to get from the campsite into Dublin, the bus turns up about five minutes late and whilst it does take a very circuitous route it only takes about 45 minutes. We alight at Aston Quay and go over the River Liffey and stroll down O’Donnell Street looking for either a place to eat or the Tourist Information – find the Tourist Information and get a local guide. Still cannot find anywhere suitable to eat so we head back to the interesting areas (Temple Bar) but first check to make sure we know where to catch the bus from. Find the bus stop and then sneak up a little side alley and find Quays – which was one of the ‘Irish’ restaurants that I had earmarked – we go in and have a Guinness and four starters – smoked salmon, Boxty (spring onion, bacon fried cake), deep fried brie and fried calamari – makes a nice selection and the all come with decent side salads and dips.
Afterwards we wander around in the sunshine and stroll over the Liffey and sit on a bench overlooking the river for about 30 minutes whilst we wait for the bus.
Walk back to the bus stop via the ice cream parlour and then wait in the hot sun for the bus, which is quite busy as it is 17:25 and full of people going home from work.
Back at the camp site we brave the cool breeze and sit outside with a Gin & Tonic and olives but soon go and sit indoors as it is a bit too chilly.
Later on I walk up to the reception with the laptop and get on the free internet to find out where the reptile shop is in Dublin and lo and behold it is near to Christchurch, which is where we are going tomorrow so we’ll have a fix of snakes.
Received a text from Alex to let us know that Nutmeg has shed.
It rained all night, which meant I slept intermittently – yay.
Up early – alarm at 07:00 to make the most of the day as we have about 2 hours driving to Powerscourt House.
Reasonable drive to Powerscourt though the roads are atrocious. Wicklow Mountains are picturesque.
Slight confusion with the road signs leading to Powerscourt but we arrive mid morning and go for a coffee and a cake – wow what a feast of cakes they had: baked cheesecake, banoffee pie, passion fruit tart, chocolate brownie and pecan pie – but they weren’t cheap - €15 for a tea, a coffee and two cakes. Anyway we sit outside and eat them overlooking the Italian gardens.
We then walked round the gardens, through the woodland walk, down to the Japanese Garden, then up through the walled garden but we decline the walk up to the waterfall as it is something like 6 or 9 kilometres.
The house has very little to see so we don’t actually spend too long here and head off to Dublin. Finding Camac is not particularly easy as it is on several different roads and we don’t know exactly where. In the end we use the GPS co-ordinates and hey presto they lead us directly to it.
Find a pitch – plenty to choose from and then catch the bus into Dublin – an hour! It supposedly takes an hour to get from the campsite into Dublin, the bus turns up about five minutes late and whilst it does take a very circuitous route it only takes about 45 minutes. We alight at Aston Quay and go over the River Liffey and stroll down O’Donnell Street looking for either a place to eat or the Tourist Information – find the Tourist Information and get a local guide. Still cannot find anywhere suitable to eat so we head back to the interesting areas (Temple Bar) but first check to make sure we know where to catch the bus from. Find the bus stop and then sneak up a little side alley and find Quays – which was one of the ‘Irish’ restaurants that I had earmarked – we go in and have a Guinness and four starters – smoked salmon, Boxty (spring onion, bacon fried cake), deep fried brie and fried calamari – makes a nice selection and the all come with decent side salads and dips.
Afterwards we wander around in the sunshine and stroll over the Liffey and sit on a bench overlooking the river for about 30 minutes whilst we wait for the bus.
Walk back to the bus stop via the ice cream parlour and then wait in the hot sun for the bus, which is quite busy as it is 17:25 and full of people going home from work.
Back at the camp site we brave the cool breeze and sit outside with a Gin & Tonic and olives but soon go and sit indoors as it is a bit too chilly.
Later on I walk up to the reception with the laptop and get on the free internet to find out where the reptile shop is in Dublin and lo and behold it is near to Christchurch, which is where we are going tomorrow so we’ll have a fix of snakes.
Received a text from Alex to let us know that Nutmeg has shed.
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