Day Five – Glendalough

Glendalough

Today ended our rainless streak in Ireland. Not easily daunted, went down and tucked the rear view mirrors in, maneuvered past the very narrow stone archway where are car was parked and headed south to Glendalough. Glendalough is an amazing 6th century monastic village in the beautiful Wicklowe valley about an hour south of Dublin. Someone said Glendalough looked good in the rain. 6th century ruins look perfectly natural on a dreary, rainy day. St. Keven was a very influential man of God that attracted many understudies to his community. This area is probably the coolest thing we have visited so far. We did the hike up to the upper lake. This area is a perfect combination of nature and archeology.
In a bit of an American touch, there is a hotel now in the valley. However, it turned out pretty well for us, they had a very nice lounge with good food. Seafood chowder and the ubiquitous Irish brown bread was delicious after a morning in the rain. Linda’s chicken salad sandwich and with ham was also excellent. The weather started to clear and the Energizer bunny disguised as Shannon talked us into stopping by the Powerscourt Gardens. We got there with just enough time to see the gardens before they closed. These are formal English gardens with a variety of areas including magnificent Japanese garden area. Linda kept walking around uncontrollably saying ”beautiful, beautiful” over and over again. To many I assume this stopover sounds dull. It definitely was not. We all enjoyed it immensely.

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Back to Dublin and beautiful Indian dinner at a place called Tulsi. Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Korma. Not as hot and spicy as it should be, but very good nonetheless. No pubs tonight.