Day 5: Howth & Bray

Wednesday started off the same as Tuesday -- with a stop at a local cafe for a quick breakfast (take-out, this time). We walked to the train station and purchased an all-day DART pass.

Waiting for the train:
Our first destination was Howth, a seaside town that has become a Dublin suburb. We walked around the dock, looking at the wildlife and the sea.
After a short promenade, we reboarded the train and this time, went to Bray. We walked around the town a bit, and then had lunch in a cafe.
After lunch, we headed out for a walk near the sea. That mountain in the background? We'd climb that later.
We saw a little path, but had no idea where we'd end up:
First, Brian did a bit of rock climbing:
He wanted me to go in a bit further and explore this cave, but I was as far back as I wanted to go!
So he went himself and declared that it was pretty creepy and I had made the right decision.
Walking along the rocks:
We discovered a little tide pool:
And then watched for a few minutes as a local played with his dogs on the beach:
We then decided to hike up the mountain. To kind of see the scale, you can see a cross at the top.Making progress:The trail wasn't what we expected! It was quite muddy, and the trail would disappear for a few yards, leaving us to walk through prickly bushes, and then it would reappear!

Views from the top; it was definitely worth the climb!When we got up there, we saw that a dog had also made the climb:
A picture of the cross, for scale:We made it!Then, we had to go back down.

Starting out:Making progress:Back to sea level:We took the train back into town and went to the TI in order to book a tour of the Wicklow Mountains for the next day, our last in Ireland.

That being done, we went across the street to a pub for a pint:More Guinness for him and Bulmers for me!
Shortly after, we went to Nude for dinner.
Brian had a bread bowl chili dish:
I forget what I ate, and it's not pictured here, but it was good!
After dinner, we headed home, and decided to stop at the Science Gallery affiliated with Trinity College. They had an interesting exhibition on light, and they happened to be open late on Wednesdays!

Day 6: Wicklow Mountains

We needed a wake-up call on Thursday morning to make sure we didn't miss our tour! En route to breakfast, we had to stop for a cash infusion:We decided to have breakfast at Nude, the restaurant where we'd had dinner the night before. It was close to the pick-up spot for our tour, and the food the night before had been wonderful; we were not disappointed:We waited at the TI for the bus for the Wild Wicklow tour we'd booked the day before. This, our last day in Ireland, was the only one in which there was rain. (Brian doesn't have something red on his chin; it's an optical illusion caused by something across the street).
The bus arrives:
The tour was very nice. We had wanted to see Glendalough, and this was a more economical way than renting a car for one day.

Our guide stopped along the way so we could get a better view and take pictures.

I am alongside the road:We could see lots of sheep:The roads were tiny, and there were a few close calls, with tree branches scraping the bus windows, as well as just missing cars going the other way.
More views along the way:We stopped for coffee shortly after leaving Dublin. Then, we stopped for lunch in Laragh, close to Glendalough.

The outside of the restaurant/pub where we ate:I had the vegetarian lasagna, which came with fries (!) and Brian had a cheese plate.
On the bus:Glendalough was incredibly beautiful! We had the choice of staying with the group or going off on our own; of course we chose to go off on our own so we could get more hiking in.Towards the end, we came across a bridge:The water was almost perfectly calm on one side......and raging on the other; it was very strange.
At the end, before boarding the bus, our tour guide gave us each a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey. As you can see from the look on his face, Brian didn't really liked it, so talked me into finishing his and mine.We were dropped off in the city center right around dinner time. We at a Lemon, a creperie.
There were only about 10 seats in the entire restaurant, but someone was leaving just as we were paying, so it worked out fine for us.

After dinner, we walked around and did a little bit of shopping at a record store. We also purchased a CD from a street musician. I didn't want to be too obvious, so the picture of him is a little blurry:As you might expect, we then returned to our hotel and packed up since we were leaving for home tomorrow.

Day 7: Departure

A day or two shorter than our more recent trips, our time in Dublin really flew by. Before we knew it, it was Friday and time to head home.

We stopped at a Starbucks for breakfast:And then caught a glimpse of the Famine Memorial:
As we had done to enter the city, we took the Airlink bus to exit.

Waiting for the bus:
Since we had to check our luggage, we decided to put our coats in there once we got to the airport since we wouldn't need them on the plane:
The flight back was relaxing (and thankfully direct) and my dad was right there waiting for us to exit -- we were home before we knew it!