European Trip Day 4 Tipperary

It is indeed a long way to Tipperary

Our day began with a long wait for a taxi sitting on the street with our bags outside Five Lamps Suites. There was a special "Call Taxi" button inside the office. It produced not a single taxi.

We ended up calling one by phone.  A bit primitive, but it worked and after a 30 mere minutes further waiting (because of peak hour traffic) our carriage arrived. Thank goodness we were not catching a flight.  The tripod seat John bought me was a life-saver!

We finally got to the Europcar Hire place at the airport and picked up our Ford Focus. All good. Full speed ahead for the Wicklow Mountains.

We arrived at Glendalough and managed to find a park in their very large carpark. There were lots of other people with the same idea as us. It cost 4 Euro to park, but admittance was free.

We walked off to where the other tourists were heading, St Kevin's church, graveyard and the Round Tower. We thought Bronte would like the tower....it looked as though Rapunzel would let down her hair at any moment!

Rapunzel's Tower. No? Well it should be.

 

Rapunzel's Tower, the bottom.
It was actually a bell tower (we think).

Then we went for a 3 kilometre round trip walk through beautiful forest to the upper lake. It was beautiful and peaceful. Very serene with ducks swimming on the water.

Barb loved the green and open woodlands

A babbling brook

A duck

It's not too obvious, but this was
water cascading down a rock face

The information centre at the high lake, with Barb

The information centre at the high lake, without Barb

Barb and her lake

 

After our long walk we went in search of food and drink and found a very nice bistro (well, it called itself a bistro).  Barb tried her first real Irish Stew and wow!  The lamb was melt in your mouth delicious!  

Irish stew with John's tandoori
chook salad in the background

The venue was lovely too with beautiful views and a nice  waitress very kindly took our photo.

Then it was off to our next destination, the Rock of Cashel, driving through the remarkable and scenic Wicklow Mountains. (She means scary roads with scary edges).  We kept having to stop and take photos (and to avoid the sheep and cyclists). It was a Wow! moment at Wicklow Gap.

We arrived at the Rock of Cashel mid afternoon. It was dramatic and impressive viewed from afar as we drove towards it. It looked like a Disney Fairytale castle.  Up close it was still very impressive. Not wholly intact, but enough of the outside structure to get the general idea.

Isla exhausted after walking up and then
down to the Rock.  Well it was very steep.

Did we say walking up hills is tiring?

By this time after much walking, Barb (and John too) was getting tired and what she didn't need was a long drive to our hotel. Too bad!  She thought she'd booked accommodation very close by, but oh no!  It was in fact half an hour's drive away at Tipperary.

BUT, the Ballykisteen Hotel turned out to be a lovely  place to stay, with delightful staff at both the check-in desk and at the bar where we had a light bite to eat and an alcoholic beverage to calm Barb's nerves.  She seemed to settle somewhat when ice-cream was also offered.