Glendalough and Dublin: Friday 22 July

After last night's late night, we had a 'luxurious' start to the morning, able to go to breakfast at 7:45am and then onto the bus for an optional 9am tour departure to Glendalough, in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains about a one hour drive south of Dublin.

We drove with our private guide for the morning, passing gradually up into the hills, passing the Sugar Loaf mountain, seeing areas of bog and peat (no longer allowed to be cut), small villages (including Roundwood with its old coach inn, Annamoe and Laragh), and areas where many movies and TV series have been filmed - eg History Channel's Vikings.

We arrived after 10am at the beautiful monastic site of Glendalough (Valley of the Two Lakes), established by St Kevin in 550 AD. He chose the site because of the placement near twin lakes and rivers, the shelter of the hills and the fertile soil. St Patrick visited here too.

We saw the original monastic gateway, the ruined churches and larger ruins of the cathedral. The big, separate tower had never been breeched, even through Viking raids, because the site was further inland. The monastery itself was eventually destroyed by the English in 1398 (though the tower remained). A few monks remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 by Henry VIII.

 

The weather in the morning was sunny and fine, with a very pleasant 22C. We got back to the hotel by 1pm and had a free afternoon and evening.

We headed back to our room to offload some gear, then went out for a very late lunch at the same place as yesterday (KC Peaches Cafe and Delicatessen), with another enormous GF sandwich that David had to help me eat.

We looked at our timing and decided to go to the National Museum of Archeology next, semi-following Rick Steve's recommended highlights. These included a fascinating look at the Hill of Tara and the stone tombs, a Vikings section, ancient gold and jewellery, and most interesting of all - the exhibits showing the bodies of people dug up from various bogs - some very well-preserved.

Next we headed over to visit The Book of Kells and the Old Library at Trinity College. Unfortunately we were confronted by an enormous queue (we should have pre-booked online), and as my feet and knee were all ready killing me, we decided to give it a miss. I decided that it would have been similar to the very old libraries we'd seen on our 2011 River cruise, and also the ancient hand-written and illustrated bibles and manuscripts Jan and I had seen in Prague. Disappointing, but we were beyond it. Instead we headed to a recommended pub, The Duke, and had some much-needed liquid refreshment. Then, we struggled through the incredible crowds of people and many road works to walk back to our hotel.

We booked an early-bird dinner deal in the hotel restaurant, very wise as later we saw people being turned away. We enjoyed a lovely meal on a special deal.